Top 20 Speedsters Faster Than the Flash (Marvel & DC)
The Flash has always been the poster boy of the entire comic book scene regarding speedsters because he is arguably the most popular speedster in the history of superheroes. As such, he is often the hero that people think about when it comes to some of the fastest characters in the pages of comic book lore. And there’s a good reason to believe that the Flash is actually as fast as the comics claim him to be.
But while the Flash may be incredibly fast and is right up at the top regarding his speed, Barry Allen was never the fastest character in comic books. He may be the most iconic Flash and Speedster, but Barry lags behind a few characters in the speed department because there are names that are actually faster than him. So, with that said, let’s look at the speedsters that are faster than Barry Allen’s Flash.
20. Bart Allen (DC)
One of the versions of the Flash that’s just as fast or even faster than Barry Allen’s version is Bart Allen, one of Barry’s future grandchildren. He became the fourth person to carry the Flash mantle and proved worthy of being called the Flash because he could fully absorb the power of the Speed Force. As such, Bart could run at speeds beyond what Barry was ever capable of.
Considering that Bart was born with the speed and potential of a speedster, he was immediately comfortable with his speed. As such, his incredible speed felt natural to him. And we saw in the events of Young Justice that Bart Allen could easily keep up with Barry in speed and easily outpaced the younger version of Wally West, who was yet to obtain powers that allowed him to run faster than Barry and Bart.
19. The Rival (DC)
The Rival is one of the enemies of the original Flash, Jay Garrick, and was actually a pretty powerful opponent during the reign of the first-ever character to carry the Flash name. Named Edward Clariss, the Rival used to be obsessed with the Flash. This caused him to create a formula that allowed him to obtain powers similar to Garrick’s. And when people mocked him for what he tried to do, he turned to a life of villainy and called himself the Rival.
But while the Rival wasn’t as fast as Garrick at first, repeated doses of his formula turned him into an incredibly fast villain faster than Jay and Barry. At one point, he ran so fast that he vanished into thin air, as he appeared as a being of pure speed energy because he got himself trapped in the Speed Force after he surpassed the speed of light. As such, he became a being of pure speed energy due to what he did.
18. Black Racer (DC)
The Black Racer is not the Black Flash, but he is actually similar to the Flash. He represents death’s inevitability, which means he may be a variant of the Grim Reaper. The Black Racer, however, is not a version of the Flash but is actually a New God that acted as a force of darkness that transferred the New Gods to the afterlife during death. As such, he rarely gets involved in affairs unrelated to his job as a New God, although he and Barry crossed paths quite a few times already because they both use the Speed Force.
As a New God, the Black Racer is understandably faster than the Flash and is capable of speeds that allow him to run straight through Darkseid. During the Final Crisis, the Black Racer even took Darkseid as a substitute for Barry, as this was one of the ways that the Justice League used to defeat the evil New God. So, the fact that the Black Racer is strong enough to take Darkseid to the afterlife is reason enough to believe that he is both faster and stronger than Barry Allen.
17. Hermes (DC)
Hermes isn’t a character created from the imaginations of DC writers because he was merely adapted from the already existing mythology of the Greek god of the same name. In Greek mythology, Hermes is the fastest among the Greek gods because he is the messenger god. As such, he possesses godlike speed that’s faster than what the Flash has.
The thing is that Hermes has to travel across galaxies to deliver messages, and that means that he has to be one of the fastest characters in all of DC. In the ‘Injustice’ comic book, he actually fought the Flash and easily overpowered him with his speed. That means that there’s no doubt that Hermes is a lot faster than the Flash and should easily defeat him in a race due to how immense their speed gap is.
16. Hunter Zolomon (DC)
Hunter Zolomon is one of the different versions of Reverse-Flash in the comics, and he is arguably the most memorable one out of all of them. He is the main rival of Wally West and was once an FBI agent who lost his job but still tried to bring down the criminal underworld with Wally on numerous cases. However, a terrible accident cost him the use of his legs.
But Hunter’s accident made him look like a speedster instead of a speedster. He also gained access to the Cosmic Treadmill, which allowed him to control time. As a result, he could slow time down to give the impression that he was faster than everyone else. And this allowed him to outrun the Flash numerous times as he could slow down time and simply move faster than all of the other speedsters.
15. Max Mercury (DC)
There are a lot of old speedsters in the world of DC, and Max Mercury is one of them. Although it took a while for him to appear in the scenes, he is actually older than Jay Garrick because he has been around since the 19thcentury. However, he learned how to travel through time to chase down villains and help other heroes using his incredible speed.
In that regard, Max Mercury worked with many different speedsters during his time as he helped them take down Savitar at one point. He even acted as a mentor to Bart Allen. But there was a point wherein the Rival targeted him and possessed his body because the Rival was already a being of pure speed energy.
14. Ultimate Quicksilver (Marvel)
Normally, Quicksilver wouldn’t be anywhere near Barry Allen’s speed because the speedsters of Marvel aren’t scaled to the level of the ones in DC. But the thing about Ultimate Quicksilver is that he is so much faster than his original version and is so fast that cameras need to be slowed down for people to see that he is actually doing something whenever it seems like he isn’t doing anything. And this means that his normal speed is so fast that he can move faster than the naked eye.
In one of the comic incidents, Quicksilver rag-dolled one of the fastest Marvel characters. Hurricane was using her speed to beat Hawkeye. But Ultimate Quicksilver shook Hurricane to death quite easily using his incredible speed. And he did so before Hawkeye could even land on the ground just after Hurricane beat him up.
13. Johnny Quick (DC)
Johnny Quick is one of the fastest speedsters in the entire DC multiverse, and the scary part is that he isn’t the nicest out of all of them. He is actually a speedster with bad intentions in his mind as he eventually became a founding member of an evil group called the Crime Syndicate. This was the same group that gave trouble to the Justice League of Earth-3, and Johnny Quick was one of the villains that gave the heroes a tough time.
The thing about Johnny is that he understood that he wasn’t fast enough to keep up with the other speedsters. That was when he created a helmet that allowed him to amplify his connection to the Speed Force, as he cheated to become faster than most of the other speedsters. Nevertheless, he was defeated during the ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths.’
12. Red Death (DC)
Red Death isn’t a real character in DC but a combination of Batman and the Flash from the ‘Dark Multiverse.’ An evil Bruce Wayne became mentally unstable after failing to save those he loved because he was too slow. That was when he kidnapped Barry and stole his powers to become the Red Death.
Of course, the process went awry as the two characters merged into one being, wherein Bruce remained in control over the body. Bruce controlled Barry’s body to near perfection because he could reach speeds faster than the Flash. However, Barry’s consciousness was always bothering him inside his head, preventing him from reaching his full potential as a speedster.
11. Savitar (DC)
Savitar has always been one of the strongest villains that Barry Allen faced in the comics, as he can outrun almost any speedster in the world of DC. That means that he is one of the worst villains Barry has ever faced, as his incredible speed makes other speedsters look like turtles. That’s because Savitar’s knowledge of the Speed Force is unprecedented.
He used to be a pilot that fought during the Cold War, and he gained his speed when a lightning bolt struck his jet. Savitar became obsessed with his speed as he thought that the gods blessed him, and that’s why he gave himself the name Savitar, which was from Savitr, the Hindu God of Motion. After that, he started studying the Speed Force to gain access to different powers that the other speedsters didn’t even know about. And he can even bless his speed to other people in exchange for them worshipping him as a god.
10. Iris West II (DC)
While we know that Wally West eventually became one of the fastest speedsters in DC, his daughter Iris West II inherited some qualities that made Wally an incredibly fast version of the Flash. That is why she deserves to be on this list, as she is so fast for someone still quite young in the comics.
Iris West II initially thought that she didn’t have powers but eventually realized that her connection to the Speed Force was incredibly powerful. She mastered her connection to the Speed Force and eventually became faster than Barry Allen. There were instances wherein she could outrun her father, although we know that Wally is still ranked higher in terms of how fast he is at his top speed.
9. Makkari (Marvel)
Makkari is an Eternal and one of the characters capable of running around the world in a matter of a few seconds. He is ranked near the top of the list of Marvel speedsters, as that is the gift he was given when he was created. His speed often borders on the speed of light due to how fast he is.
In the history of Marvel, several civilizations worldwide thought he could actually be Hermes due to his incredible speed. That’s because his speed can bend the laws of time and space. In that regard, there’s a good reason to believe he could be faster than Barry Allen.
8. Black Flash (DC)
Not to be confused with the Black Racer, the Black Flash is one of the avatars of death and is responsible for taking speedsters to the afterlife, similar to how the Black Racer is responsible for taking the New Gods to the afterlife. The Black Flash exclusively works to ferry those who draw power from the Speed Force to the afterlife, as he is the only entity fast enough to keep up with beings that can outrun death.
In that regard, the Black Flash is canonically fast enough to outpace the fastest speedsters of the DC world because no one should be able to outrun death. So, when a Speed Force conduit sees the Black Flash, that means that death is coming for them, and there is no way for them to outrun death itself. But while Black Flash should be faster than Barry Allen, we’ve seen Wally West outrunning him before when he ran the Black Flash to the end of the universe to “kill” this entity. In that regard, there are some instances wherein the Flash is faster than this avatar of the Grim Reaper.
7. Wally West (DC)
Wally West is often known as the fastest version of the Flash, although he was initially slower than his mentor, Barry Allen. During the earlier part of his life, he often lagged behind Barry regarding his speed. But Wally worked his tail off to become faster than ever, especially after he built a strong connection to the Speed Force.
In that regard, he became a lot faster than Barry Allen and was able to showcase his incredible speed when, at one point, he appeared out of nowhere to give his former mentor a boost. That is how fast Wally is, as he can easily outpace the most popular version of the Flash.
6. Walter West (DC)
Often called the Dark Flash, Walter West is an alternate version of Wally West and is actually just as fast or even faster than the original version. However, this version of the Flash sought guidance from Savitar to become faster. And he became faster than Savitar and used his speed to murder him and become the Dark Flash.
What makes Walter West so fast is that he has Wally West’s potential as a speedster and Savitar’s incredible knowledge of the Speed Force. This allows him to perform feats of speed that not even Wally West is capable of. And that is why he is so much faster than Barry Allen and most of the other speedsters of the DC universe.
5. FastForward (Marvel)
In the pages of Marvel’s ‘Quasar’ comics, FastForward is a unique and mysterious character that appeared when a cosmic race of speedsters tried to determine who was the fastest among them. This man was called FastForward and wore a torn red and yellow costume when he appeared from a dimensional rift. As such, it is believed that he is Barry Allen and was able to make his way to the Marvel Universe.
Called Buried Alien, FastForward demonstrated just how fast he was when he participated in the race mentioned above and sacrificed his chance to win the race to save some of his fellow runners. He is said to be just as fast or even faster than Barry Allen, as he was able to reach speeds that not many Marvel characters are capable of. However, he suddenly disappeared as no one could ever determine who he was.
4. Hermes (Marvel)
Not to be confused with the DC version of Hermes, Marvel’s Hermes is also this universe’s Greek messenger god and is tasked with performing tasks that catch the attention of Zeus. And that’s because Hermes is so fast that he can outrun anyone in the world of Marvel.
As a god, Hermes’ speed allows him to defy the laws of physics as he can run from Olympus to Earth in just a few seconds because of how fast he is. It is possible that he had some kind of power that allowed him to shorten the distance between the two locations. But it is also possible that he is simply just too darn fast.
3. Godspeed (DC)
Godspeed is one of the newest speedsters in the world of The Flash and is actually one of the fastest characters in recent memory. He used to be August Heart, who joined the police to pursue his brother’s murderer, only for him to find himself in the middle of a Speed Force storm that imbued several citizens of Central City with superhuman speed. In that regard, he became Godspeed and was able to move fast enough that he was able to help Barry Allen round up people affected by the storm.
The thing about Godspeed is that his connection to the Speed Force is at the purest possible level he is capable of sensing the speeds of other people and extracting their powers to make his own powers limitless. As such, he can become faster than others by stealing their Speed Force energy. Godspeed stole the speed of the other speedsters he met along the way, as he eventually became too fast for Barry that Wally and other speedsters needed to intervene to finally defeat him.
2. The Runner (Marvel)
The universe of Marvel has beings called the Elders of the Universe, entities specializing in certain aspects. In that case, the Runner specializes in traveling the universe as he can perform many different things that allow him to move from one place to another. Of course, that includes running, as he can move so fast that he can get from one place in the universe to another. He even staged competitions proving he was the fastest in the universe.
However, the Runner started relying on the power of the Space Gem to improve his already impressive speed. Thanos eventually took the gem from him and left him with nothing but his speed. Still, the Runner is the fastest Marvel character ever and much faster than DC’s Flash.
1. Eobard Thawne (DC)
When it comes to a list of incredible speedsters that are faster than Barry Allen’s the Flash, no other person has ever proven himself faster than Eobard Thawne, one of the characters that carried the Reverse-Flash nickname. Eobard is a speedster from the future and is the greatest rival in the history of Barry Allen’s run as the Flash. And he was also the one responsible for the death of Barry’s mother.
Eobard is a manipulative psycho with no limits on what he can do to make Barry suffer. At one point, he manipulated Barry into changing the course of history by saving his mother during the ‘Flashpoint’ event in DC. And Eobard showcased his speed in the animated ‘Suicide Squad’ movie when he cheated death by vibrating his molecules so fast all the time that the bullet that the Flashpoint version of Batman shot through his head didn’t make contact with his brain as long as his molecules were vibrating fast enough.
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