Speed is no laughing matter in the DC universe.
In fact, it’s one of the strongest abilities out there in the scope of the universes’
canon, and it’s speedsters are capable of feats that are beyond impressive.
So today, we’re taking a look at those speedsters with our top 10 fastest speedsters from the
Flash family.
And for the purpose of this list, we’re solely looking at the good guys, the members
of Flash’s speedster family.
Let’s jump in.
10 Liberty Belle Starting off this list with a character who
has a really cool history, Liberty Belle aka Elizabeth Lawrence was an olympic athlete
prior to her career as a superhero, winning the 1936 Berlin gold medal in competitive
swimming.
During WW2, after her father dies from an Nazi air raid in Poland, she travels from
Amsterdam to France and then heads to England during the Battle of Dunkirk, with her boat
being shot out of the water, causing her to swim the entirety of the English Channel to
England.
In 1941, she’s back in Philadelphia, when she discovers that when the Liberty Belle
in philly is rung, or if she rings her replica bell given to her by one of the guards at
Independence Hall, she gets super speed, strength and stamina.
And, most importantly, her powerful genes are responsible for another famous speedster
coming up on this list.
9 Wally West 2 Wally West the second is the fourth Kid Flash
in the DC Rebirth era, introduced during the New 52, and is the original Wally West’s
cousin.
He was struck by lightening, which unlocks his powers, and because his future self was
killed when repairing the speed force, all of his future powers travelled back in time
and entered Wally during the lightning accident.
The character has been victim to a bunch of retconning, primarily because fans missed
the original Wally West, which has resulted in him being quite under developed, and giving
us a lack of actually seeing his powers in use.
But there has been no evidence that this Wally has powers that exceed any of the others in
the Flash family.
8 Max Mercury When Max Mercury was created by Quality Comics,
he had a different name: Quicksilver, with his secret identity’s first name being Max.
The character was then reinvented by Mark Waid in the Flash’s universe in the 90s,
except his name was changed to Max Mercury to avoid confusion with Marvel’s Quicksilver.
Aside from super speed, Max has molecular control abilities, and can travel through
time and dimensions.
His powers came from an anxiety Native American ritual, and can run beyond Mach 1, can access
the speed force, but not to the extent of other speedsters; he can harness it’s power
to travel through time.
In the past, he’s given up on using his speed abilities, but was a crucial part of
Bart Allen’s and Wally West’s training.
7 Johnny Quick While there’s a villainous version of Johnny
Quick that was a part of Earth 3’s crime syndicate, let’s focus on the version that
made an appearance in the Golden Age as a hero, the follow up to the Flash after Jay
Garrick’s success prompted the creation of more speedsters in the DC universe.
Also known as Johnny Chambers, Quick fought alongside Garrick, and was a formidable rival
for his speeds.
His powers derive from a mathematical formula he created - 3X2(9YZ)4A that gave him access
to the speed force, but also limiting him to an extent.
6 Jesse Quick Jesse Quick is the daughter of Johnny Quick
and Liberty Belle, two Golden Age heroes.
While she inherited her powers from her mother, her father was quick to show her how to use
a mathematical formula to tap into the speed force the same way he did.
Although that may be impressive, Jesse’s access to her speed force is slightly limited,
making her not as fast as some of the other speedsters who naturally have a connection
to the speed force.
5 Iris West 2
Iris West the second, named after her great aunt and wife of Barry Allen, Iris West, is
a living conduit for the speed force.
Meaning she’s directly tethered to it.
This gives her a mastery over it, despite her young age.
She’s also exhibited the ability of forming ‘cocoons’ of Speed Forces, which are like
bubbles that allow her to control speed AND time, which can freeze her foes in their tracks,
or speed up their metabolism, even to the point of death.
She’s been through a lot of trauma though during the Flash: Rebirth event, which makes
her less inclined to use her powers after Zoom disrupted the speed force and she took
on the bulk of the pain, freeing her younger brother Jai from having to endure it.
She then took up the mantle of Impulse.
4 Jay Garrick
The original speedster, Jay Garrick first appeared in the Golden Age, and while he’s
aged quite a bit, he’s been known to give the likes of the man of steel a run for his
money.
And while he’s incredibly fast, Jay lacks something that makes the others on this list
who rank above him exponentially fast - access to the speed force.
Jay’s powers came from a science experiment gone wrong, and that gives his speed a limit.
That isn’t to say that he isn’t capable of incredibly fast speeds - he’s kept up
with the likes of Barry Allen on occasion, and can still outrun most of the heroes in
the DC universe.
3 Bart Allen For his age, Bart Allen is incredibly fast.
So much so that many have argued that he has the potential to out-run his predecessors.
Bart was born with super speed, and had to deal with the unfortunate issue of a high
metabolism that threatened to kill him in his early days.
He has a unique connection to the speed force, and while he’s yet to prove that his speeds
are inconsistent, with his link to the Speed Force being slightly unstable.
But, as we mentioned before, many feel that after more training and experience, Bart’s
connection to the speed force will stabilize, and he’ll be able to control speeds faster
than the other men who have held the mantle of the Flash.
Even though he’s already faster than Jay Garrick.
2 Barry Allen
We were introduced to the Speed Force and it’s powers via Barry Allen in
Barry produces the Speed Force while everyone else just borrows from it, which is why he
can manipulate it to a level of expertise and out-run most.
He’s defeated the likes of Superman, Quicksilver and many other speedsters in the past, and
can perceive events that last less than an attosecond.
which, for reference - an attosecond is to a second what a second is to about 31.71 billion
years.
Good luck wrapping your brain around that one.
1 Wally West Wally, the third man to take up the mantle
of the The Flash, initially couldn’t reach the kinds of speeds his mentor, Barry could.
This was because of a mental barrier, only allowing him to reach the speed of light,
around 700mph.
And that worsened after the trauma of losing Barry when the character died.
So how exactly is he faster?
Well, Wally essentially mainlines from the speed force.
which makes him faster.
He can run through black holes, from planet to planet, and can absorb and redirect kinetic
energy.
Alright, there we have it friends!
Was your favourite speedster mentioned on our list?
Perhaps we’ll do a part two featuring some other memorable versions of the Flash, along
side some of the more sinister speedsters in the DC universe, so give us a shout in
those comments below if you’d like to see another video!
And hey, feel free to toss out suggestions for other videos you’d like to see on our
channel.
In the meantime, thanks for watching!
I’ve been Kelly Paoli and this has been top 10 nerd.
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