- How are you doing, you wonderful nerds?
Scott here, thank you for joining us at the track today.
As you know, in just a few moments,
Flash and Superman will face each other
in another race to see just who is the fastest man alive.
It has been 50 years since the two heroes
first competed in a challenge of speed,
and there have been countless rematches since then.
You'd think the Scarlet Speedster would go unchallenged
as the king of quick-footed heroes,
but Superman stands as a confident competitor.
As we wait for this race to begin,
let's dive back into comic book history
to see just how these two titans of the DC Universe
have measured up against one another going
toe-to-toe for that checkered flag!
Who's fastest, let's find out.
Our tour through fast, furious,
and friendly rivalries begins in Superman
number 199 from 1967.
The first race between Flash and Superman
was framed as a UN charity fundraiser.
The two would be tasked with going on a nice jog
around the world with a few obstacles in their path.
Entire civilizations stopped
for a day to watch the excitement unfold.
Everyone was placing bets on who would win.
Everyone, including two crime syndicates
who bet against one another.
One of them said that Superman would win,
and the other one said that Flash would win.
Their sinister schemes where kind of
a little bit of convolutedly to get into.
Both attempted to interfere
with the race to stack the outcome in their favor.
The syndicate who bet on Superman to win captured
The Flash and replaced him with an actor
who would no doubt lose the race against the Man of Steel.
Unbeknownst to them, the other syndicate
enacted the exact same plot in reverse,
replacing Superman with an actor
who was meant to lose against The Flash.
This resulted, as you would imagine,
in a stalemate as the two actors,
each determined to come in last,
eventually stopped in their tracks.
This outcome gave the real Superman and Flash
enough time to escape capture,
incapacitate their doppelgangers, and finish the race.
So who won?
Well, the first matchup famously
ended in a tie so that both crime syndicates
would lose their bets.
No one would collect any earnings.
Flash and Supes end the contest in an intentional wash.
If that alone didn't compromise the validity of the outcome,
readers may recall that the race had the very specific
rule that prohibited the two costumed men
from utilizing the full potential of their quickness.
It was a contest of skill, not speed.
The two were destined for a rematch later
that same year in Flash number 175.
Two gambling aliens by the name of Rokk and Sorban
showed up to pit the heroes against each other once again,
but this time, the race would expand
further than just our planet.
Superman and Flash would have to race to the nearest
edge of the galaxy and back.
The stakes were high.
No longer competing for charity,
the aliens instead threatened to destroy
the losing hero's home city.
It appeared that Superman would win the race
after Flash ran out of energy and admitted defeat,
but with a second wind, the two crossed the finish line,
unclear about who came in first.
After the revelation that the evil aliens
were actually Reverse-Flash and the magician Abracadabra
in disguise, the story ends with a call
upon the readers telling them to make up their own minds
about who was fastest.
Without a clear victor, this race was another effective tie.
Three years later, fans would demand a champion.
No more outs.
No more ties.
There must be a winner!
In World's Finest number 198 and number 199,
the Guardians of Oa call upon Superman and inform
him that their universe has been invaded
by time-disrupting beings known as Anachronids.
If they aren't stopped, time will fall apart.
The past will melt into the present, destroying both.
The Guardians suggest that Superman and Flash
speed through the galaxy in the opposite direction
of the Anachronids in order to balance things out.
Yeah, it's a little weird, it a little convoluted,
but it gets more confusing.
The race quickly gets out of hand, and both heroes
are ultimately captured by Kryptonian outlaws
who were banished to the Phantom Zone,
a sort of interdimensional purgatory
of punishment and exile.
It was revealed that the villains created the Anachronids
as a way to disrupt the time barrier
of the Phantom Zone and roam free in our universe.
Again, very convoluted, but this was the 70s.
As our heroes escaped injured, they crawled towards
the control panel that would shut down the Anachronids
and save the universe.
That's right, the last leg of the race, so to speak,
didn't finish with a sprint,
but with, as Superman recalled, slither.
In the end, we finally got to crown
the first official winner, The Flash!
But because these two heroes weren't in fighting
condition during that final stretch,
many fans were still itching for a proper showdown.
We then saw Clark and Barry take to the races
in DC Presents number one and two from 1978.
For the 4th matchup, it wouldn't be a race through space,
but one to the end of time.
Superman and Flash were kidnapped by two warring
alien species who had been battling
since the beginning of time.
Earth was looking to be another casualty of their war
as the aliens threatened to disintegrate our planet.
Instead, Flash agreed to travel back in time
and stop the war from starting up in the first place.
Stop aliens from fighting, they don't hold their hostage.
Sounds like a good plan.
However, this is when things got complicated.
Superman discovered that one of those alien
factions was responsible for colonizing Krypton
all those years ago.
If Flash successfully stopped the aliens from doing battle,
then they wouldn't have fled to Krypton
to settle the planet, and Clark would never have been born.
So in other words to kind of put it a little
bit more simply, Superman had to beat Flash
in a race to the end of the time barrier
if the Man of Tomorrow lost, he would cease to exist.
If the Sultan of Speed lost, Earth would be destroyed.
Kind of a loose, loose in that scenario.
But hey, this was a time travel story after all,
so the solution to both their problems
was staring them in the face the whole time.
They simply went back and stopped the aliens
before they attacked Earth, nip it in the bud.
As for the race, there was no clear winner
as to who broke through the time barrier first.
Flash was vibrating as he crossed it
so that Superman could fly through
the Scarlet Speedster's body.
For that plan to work, they'd almost have
to reach the barrier at the exact same time.
So, another tie.
The match-up of Superman and Flash would extend
beyond Barry Allen when the Kryptonian icon
raced Wally West in Adventures of Superman number 463.
The reality-bending trickster, Mr. Mxyzptlk,
arrived to wreak havoc, but he made
the Man of Tomorrow a deal.
If Superman beats Wally West in a race,
Mxyzptlk will leave and head back to his home
in the 5th dimension.
Simple as that.
Of course, I'm sure we all remember
how cocky Superman got that day.
Despite the fact that he had yet to officially win a race,
Superman replied, what makes you think
it will be much of a contest?
Adding, when you get down to it,
what we really have here is a race
between Superman and kid Flash, ouch.
Even though it was beneficial for Flash to lose the race
and send Mxyzptlk back to his home,
Wally wouldn't stand for the insults
Superman was throwing down.
The two heroes were off to the races once more.
As they sped around the world yet again,
the superpowered beings hit a wall and started to slow down.
It was close, it was neck and neck,
but Flash pulled ahead and crossed
the finish line mere inches before Superman.
But what did this mean for Mr. Mxyzptlk's then, right.
He would only leave if Superman won.
That was the deal he made.
Well, in a twist, it was revealed
Mxyzptlk had lied, shocker.
He said he would only go back to his own dimension
if Superman won, but in reality,
the imp was only planning on leaving
if Flash was victorious.
He believed Superman was a shoe-in to win the race,
even though he'd never won a race up to this point,
and he wanted to stack the deck in his favor!
Probably should have paid attention,
Superman never wins these races, or does he.
For shadow A.
Anyway, years later, we saw Wally and Clark
face off again Flash number 209.
Prior to the race, Wally had The Spectre, Hal Jordan,
erase everyone's memory that he was The Flash,
including the minds of the Justice League.
When the heroes confront him about this,
Wally refuses to explain and instead runs off
to find his wife, Linda Park.
Superman, spoiler alert, gives chase.
As the two heroes speed off, Flash eventually stops
the race when he gets to his apartment.
Supesmanfollows a few seconds after as Wally
whispers to himself, "I won."
the story ends with Wally finally coming clean and revealing
his secret identity to the League once again.
It was a quick race, or sure, but it's clear
that Wally certainly thought it counted.
Since readers have now seen the Man of Steel
lose to Barry Allen and Wally West, many wondered
if Superman could beat the original Flash, Jay Garrick.
In 2002's DC Presents: Flash/Superman,
we found out the answer to this question.
The villainous magician Abracadabra was once again
at the heart of the story when he casted
a spell on Wally causing him to age rapidly
until he would eventually die.
Abracadabra also cursed Wally with a mental compulsion
to run at top speed.
The only way to break the curse would be if either
Clark or Jay could catch up to Wally.
But whichever hero does would become afflicted
with the aging curse themselves,
effectively transferring it from Wally to them..
Neither Superman nor Jay were able to catch up
to Wally on their own, but at the last second,
Jay used his powers to steal a bit of Superman's speed,
grab ahold of Wally, and break the curse.
This caused Jay to start rapidly
aging instead, almost killing him.
Of course, Abracadabra's magic is really
just highly advanced technology, and the heroes
found a way to reverse it and defeat the so-called magician.
But the important takeaway is the race here guys,
because, in a way, the victor is ol' Helmet Hat himself.
Helmet head, helmet has.
What's the word, nah.
Of course, that's only if you don't consider
it cheating that he stole a bit of speed from Superman.
Which, I don't so, Jay wins.
(triumph music) (cheering)
Or at the very least, it's a tie, whatever.
The point is, it seems that the mighty Kryptonian superhero
simply cant beat any Flash in a footrace.
At least he couldn't until,
Superman number 709 which featured
Kal-El chasing a mind-controlled Flash.
A little back story, the Monarch of Motion
had found a Kryptonian headband
that he placed on his own head out of curiosity.
You know, he's a scientist and all that.
The headband drove Flash crazy, crowding his mind
with Kryptonian imagery and history.
Not knowing what to do, he located Superman
and egged him on to give chase.
For the very first time out of all of their contests,
Superman caught up with Flash and removed
the mind-controlling Kryptonian headband.
It took 40 years people, but Superman finally
won a race against the Flash!
However, really big however right here,
Flash explained twice after their encounter
that he purposefully let Superman catch him
so that he could save him from the mind-device.
Obviously Barry could simply be talking tough,
but there's one last story from the comics
that we have yet to cover.
And, it's gonna be the one that breaks this whole case open.
2009's Flash: Rebirth number three.
Like a few other entries on the list,
this isn't really isn't an official race of any kind,
but it contains some very important commentary
about each time the two heroes
have competed against one another.
In the story, Barry Allen attempts to enter the Speed Force,
the source of his powers, while Superman gives chase.
The interaction culminates in an important revelation,
Flash tells the Man of Steel that he's been holding
back his true top speed and can go much faster than Clark.
The Crimson Comet then rockets away from Superman with ease.
Many have cited this development as the main takeaway
of all these races.
Shut up, you stop with your car noises.
Now, many have sided this development
has been made taken away of all of these races,
if you look at all these competitions,
Superman has won exactly one time with the rest
either being ruled in the Flash's favor
or as a tie between the two.
But this evidence seems to dispute that,
instead arguing that every race would have been won
by The Flash if the hero actually gave it his all.
Of course, that is exactly what everyone expects to see
here today on this track as the two heroes
are just about ready to settle the score once
and for what was that?
They ran just as I was talking.
Okay, that was, wow, that was fast.
I seemed to have missed it.
What do you guys think.
Who would win in a race?
(dramatic music)
that seem like a dumb question to ask.
Obviously we only ran through the comic book instances
of the Superman/Flash showdown.
The match-up has been adapted into cartoons, TV shows,
and most recently, we saw the two race each other in,
oh, what was that,
you mentioned in my earpiece, it's a spoiler, okay.
I've been told, I can't say that then.
Who won.
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Thank you for watching.
My name is Scott reminding you to read between the panels
and grow smarter through comics, see ya!