The Flash versus Green Arrow!
The scarlet speedster versus the emerald archer!
DC’s fastest taking on the master marksman.
Who will win?
Let us know your picks with either hashtag flash or hashtag green arrow in those comments
below.
Hey everyone!
Welcome back to versus – our series on Top 10 Nerd that breakdowns what would happen
in a hypothetical battle between your favorite superheroes – and sometimes villains!
Today we’re looking at two DC icons – The Flash and Green Arrow.
For the purpose of this list, we’ll be looking at Barry Allen’s Flash vs Oliver Queen,
with no outside help from any other heroes, and we’re focusing on the characters in
the comics, rather than the characters from CW’s Arrowverse.
This is a chance battle, meaning neither have any prep time to face one another.
ORIGINS
Let’s begin with Oliver Queen.
Green Arrow and Speedy first appeared in More Fun Comics #73, and most of his criticisms
were that he was basically a whole lot like Batman, but an archer.
The character was an orphan and a millionaire who eventually fell off a boat and was stranded
on Starfish Island with a bow.
The first 25 years he was around, he wasn’t all that popular, but then in the late 60’s
he was reimagined by Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams, and the character had his fortune revoked
and became a streetwise crusaders for the working class and vulnerable, which led to
his 70s crossover with Green Lantern in a socially conscious series that tackled the
likes of substance abuse.
Onto Barry Allen!
Barry first appeared in the Silver Age in Showcase #4 in 1956.
Prior to this, another Flash was popular during the Golden Age – Jay Garrick – who had
been discontinued after WW2 when superhero comics as a whole had a significant drop in
sales.
Barry brought the Flashback to life though and was reimagined as more of a sci-fi inspired
hero.
His abilities had also received an upgrade, and the character was introduced with a connection
to the Speed Force – an extra-dimensional energy that grants speedsters their powers,
and according to the new 52, it’s a force that allows one to access and control the
motion and progression of the universe, moving time and space itself forward.
This is a big part of why Barry’s Flash – and his predecessors – are quite a handful
in the DC universe – the speed force offers a whole lot of power to those who know how
to access it correctly.
ABILITIES Let’s start off by looking at Barry’s
powers first.
As we mentioned, he was given them by the speed force – this happened after an accident
in a laboratory – and gave him immense superhuman speed, agility, and stamina, electrokinesis,
the ability to vibrate his body to phase through objects, the ability to time travel and travel
to other dimensions, time and speed force manipulation, and moves like his infinite
mass punch.
Moving on to Green Arrow.
Olivier Queen’s talents and abilities are sometimes considered superhuman, despite them
deriving from years of experience and natural talent.
It’s just because he’s that good.
He can shoot 29 arrows in under a minute, at the speed of 117mph, and has demonstrated
that his precision is excellent – he’s shot an arrow down the barrel of a gun and
has even split a drop of water.
Aside from his master archery abilities, he’s an excellent acrobat, he’s an expert brawler,
martial artist, hunter, tactician, pilot, and swordsman.
In addition to all of this, he’s got an arsenal of trick arrows that level out the
playing field when taking on foes with superhuman abilities.
These include the likes of acid arrows, bazooka arrows, boomerang arrows, depth-charge arrows,
dry-ice arrows, kryptonite arrows, parachute arrows, magnetic rope arrows, sleep gas arrows,
supersonic arrows, smoke arrows and vacuum arrows.
Yeah, he’s had a lot of arrows over the years.
NOW ONTO THE FIGHT!
Green Arrow does have sharp reflexes, but is he fast enough to keep up with the Flash?
Even with an arsenal of trick arrows that could harm even the sharpest superheroes,
is Green Arrow enough of a good shot to hit someone who can move faster than the speed
of light?
Even if he was able to rig a trap for Barry with his arrows – like we see in the CW
incarnation of the characters – it’s likely that either Barry wouldn’t fall for it,
or, if he did, it wouldn’t be overly difficult for Barry to get out of, considering what
he’s capable of doing power-wise.
And when Barry chooses to attack, aside from speeding around Green Arrow faster than Oliver
can defend himself, he’s got the likes of his infinite mass punch that could arguably
be fatal for Queen.
SO THE WINNER?
The Flash.
While we do give Oliver an A for effort in trying, Barry’s abilities just overpower
him too much.
Even if Green Arrow had a significant amount of prep and developed trick arrows that could
diminish or interrupt Barry’s powers or connection to the speed force, he’d likely
only have one or two solid shots at taking the Flash down with an arrow that could immobilize
him before Barry regained control.
Perhaps if this was a battle with the first Flash, Jay Garrick, Ollie would have stood
more of a chance against the Speedster.
But alas, that’s for a different video.
So, what do you all think?
Do you agree with our choice?
Or do you think Oliver could have defeated Barry?
Let us know your thoughts below with either hashtag flash or hashtag Green Arrow.
If you dug this video, please show us some love and hit those like and subscribe buttons
if you haven’t already, and if you want more versus videos, we’ve got a ton on our
channel in the playlist that’s currently flashing on your screen!
In the meantime, thanks for watching everybody!
Catch you all in the next video.