Speed isn’t just a superpower for the Flash—it’s a way of life. Across decades of DC Comics, multiple Flashes have raced faster than the speed of light, dodged death in milliseconds, and saved entire timelines in the blink of an eye. What sets them apart from other heroes isn’t just their velocity, but how creatively and heroically they use it. From vibrating through solid objects to rewriting the fabric of time, the Flash has done it all—fast. These are the Top 10 Fastest Feats the Flash Has Ever Accomplished, each a stunning reminder that when it comes to saving the day at super speed, no one does it better.
#10: Outrunning a Black Hole (The Flash Vol. 5 #3)
Black holes are inescapable by design, even light can’t outrun them—but Barry Allen isn’t just light. In The Flash Vol. 5 #3, Barry has to stop a literal black hole from swallowing Central City. And rather than using tech or outside help, he does what only the Flash can—he outruns it.
The speed required to outpace the gravitational pull of a black hole is mind-bending. Barry doesn’t just move fast—he strategically enters the event horizon, runs through the Singularity’s collapse, and redirects its pull by creating a counter-rotational force using his own velocity. If that sounds impossible, it’s because it is—unless you’re the Flash.
What makes this feat remarkable isn’t just the physics-defying nature of the escape, but the calm with which Barry does it. He doesn’t panic or doubt—he knows his body, he trusts the Speed Force, and he calculates every nanosecond. It’s the superhero equivalent of threading a needle while freefalling from space—and doing it blindfolded. This moment proved that Flash’s speed isn’t just a raw number—it’s finesse, science, and intuition in motion.
#9: Catching Every Missile Fired at Earth (JLA #3)
In JLA #3, the Hyperclan—a group of alien imposters posing as heroes—launches a global attack on Earth, sending dozens of nuclear missiles toward major cities simultaneously. With mere seconds to act, the Justice League turns to their fastest member: Wally West. And what does he do? He intercepts all of them.
Wally doesn’t just run from city to city—he races across the planet in under a second, snatching nukes mid-flight and disabling them without detonating a single one. Think about that: he’s running faster than missile-speed, over and over again, making split-second calculations to prevent catastrophe in multiple locations around the world. This wasn’t just about raw speed—it was about trust, decision-making, and coordination with global stakes.
What elevates this feat is that it’s one of Wally’s early acts as the League’s Flash—cementing him not just as Barry’s replacement, but as a hero in his own right. He didn’t hesitate. He didn’t crack under pressure. He did the impossible in the time it takes most people to blink. It was a defining moment for Wally, and a jaw-dropping demonstration of just how global and instantaneous his speed can be.
#8: Saving a City of Falling People (The Flash Vol. 2 #97–98)
When the villain Kobra drops an entire city’s population from midair during a terrorist attack, Wally West faces one of his most intense challenges ever: save everyone before they hit the ground. With thousands of lives hanging in the balance and gravity working against him, Wally does what no one else could even begin to do—he saves them all, one by one, in a split second.
This isn’t just about how fast he runs—it’s how many decisions he makes. Wally calculates individual trajectories, adjusts his positioning, and catches or cushions each person without causing whiplash or further injury. He runs up buildings, down streets, and across the sky, reacting faster than any machine could track. And he does it all in less than the time it would take an apple to fall from a table.
It’s a feat that shows how speed isn’t just linear movement—it’s perception, reaction, and compassion moving faster than the laws of physics. Wally doesn’t even flinch under the pressure. He makes the impossible feel routine. And when the dust settles, thousands of people are alive simply because he was fast enough to care.
#7: Running Through Time (Crisis on Infinite Earths #8)
In the landmark Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, Barry Allen performs what is arguably the most famous—and most sacrificial—speed feat in comic book history. To stop the Anti-Monitor from unleashing a universe-destroying anti-matter cannon, Barry runs into the weapon itself and pushes beyond the boundaries of time and space, running so fast he disintegrates into the Speed Force.
What makes this moment historic isn’t just the physical speed required—though he’s running faster than light, faster than tachyons, faster than time itself. It’s the emotional weight. Barry doesn’t hesitate. He knows the run will kill him. He sees glimpses of the past and future as he burns away, but he doesn’t slow down. He keeps going, using his very life as a brake pedal to stop cosmic annihilation.
This act became a cornerstone of DC mythology, and it forever associated Barry Allen with sacrifice, speed, and legacy. He literally ran himself out of existence to save the multiverse. And the visual of his fading form, locked in eternal motion, remains one of the most powerful and tragic images in comic book history.
#6: Racing Death (The Flash: Rebirth)
In The Flash: Rebirth by Geoff Johns, Barry Allen is brought back to life, only to discover that he’s becoming the very cause of the Speed Force’s destruction. Worse, the Black Flash—essentially death for speedsters—is after him, and the only way to escape is to run faster than death itself. No problem for the Flash, right?
Wrong. This isn’t a normal speed chase. Barry is essentially running through reality as it dissolves around him, racing from the Speed Force itself while tearing through time, memory, and alternate realities. As he sprints, he begins merging with the Speed Force entirely. He sees echoes of his past, confronts his own death, and even begins to unravel like a thread pulled from space-time.
The mind-bending nature of this feat isn’t just in the speed—though it’s insane even by Flash standards—but in the metaphysics. Barry outruns an abstract cosmic entity. He doesn’t just move faster than light—he moves faster than entropy, faster than inevitability, and ultimately faster than the force designed to claim him. And when he escapes, he brings something back: control, purpose, and a new connection to the Speed Force that reinvents his identity.
This feat reaffirms why Barry Allen is the heart of the Flash legacy. When the fastest man alive is challenged by the universe’s endgame, he doesn’t blink. He outruns fate itself.
#5: Thinking at Light Speed (The Flash Vol. 2 #150)
Speed isn’t just about legs—it’s about thought. In The Flash Vol. 2 #150, Wally West faces a villain who tries to kill everyone in a fraction of a second using a citywide attack. To stop it, Wally must react, think, and act in less than a blink—and he does.
In one of the most overlooked but mind-blowing feats, Wally accelerates his mind to light speed. He calculates hundreds of variables, finds each person in danger, and plans the exact route needed to stop the disaster before anyone notices. He moves so fast that everything around him is nearly frozen. He doesn’t just save people—he operates like a quantum supercomputer, processing data at a rate that surpasses modern science.
This feat is a testament to how versatile the Speed Force is. It allows Flash not only to move fast but to think fast—something that elevates him far beyond just a runner. While Superman might move at super speed in bursts, Flash lives in that realm. He treats nanoseconds like minutes, solving impossibly complex problems in a single thought.
In this issue, Wally becomes not just the fastest runner in the world—but the fastest thinker. That kind of speed breaks more than sound—it shatters comprehension.
#4: Racing Himself Across the Multiverse (The Flash #123, “The Flash of Two Worlds”)
This legendary Silver Age story from The Flash #123 introduced the concept of the DC multiverse and features one of the most reality-defying runs in Barry Allen’s career. While performing for children at a charity event, Barry vibrates so fast that he phases into another dimension—landing in Earth-Two, the home of Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick.
It might seem tame by modern Flash standards, but this was revolutionary. Barry doesn’t use tech, Boom Tubes, or a portal—he vibrates his molecules at such an exact frequency that he slides between universes. Think of it like finding a secret channel between dimensions, only you have to run to get there.
Later Flash stories expanded this ability, with Barry and Wally using similar tricks to bounce across the multiverse at will. But it all began here—with a single, brilliant moment of controlled, ultra-precise speed. Barry uses his run not just to move, but to tune himself to the vibrational signature of another universe. It’s science-fiction at its finest, and it changed DC Comics forever.
More than just fast, this feat is visionary. It showed that the Flash isn’t limited by Earth, time, or even his own reality. If he can think it—and calculate it—he can run to it.
#3: Outrunning the Big Bang (JLA #50)
In JLA #50, Wally West performs what might be the most cosmically absurd feat in his entire run as the Flash: he outruns the Big Bang. Yes—the actual birth of the universe.
While facing the cosmic villain Mageddon, who is warping reality and flooding Earth’s mind with chaos, Wally taps deeper into the Speed Force than ever before. As the timeline destabilizes and reality begins to collapse, Wally runs beyond time, entering a speed so vast it carries him to the very edge of existence—before creation.
What follows is Wally’s consciousness racing backward through time faster than time itself flows. He witnesses the Big Bang—and accelerates past it. This makes him not just fast on Earth, but outside the normal flow of time and space. He’s beyond the point where time exists.
He uses this power to return, course correct events, and help the League overcome a god-level threat. But more than that, he redefines the limits of speed in the DC Universe. No other hero—not even Superman—has performed a feat that matches this scope of power and abstraction.
Outrunning the beginning of time itself? That’s not just fast. That’s godlike.
#2: Evacuating a City in 0.00000001 Seconds (The Human Race arc)
In The Flash Vol. 2 #136–138, Wally West is forced into a deadly “cosmic foot race” across dimensions against an interdimensional being named Krakkl. If he loses, Earth is destroyed. The twist? The race is broadcast to higher-dimensional entities who feed on speed. If Wally slows down—even slightly—Earth dies.
At one point, Wally realizes the only way to win is to force the race off-rails. So, in a fraction of a second—0.00000001 seconds, to be exact—he evacuates an entire city, moving millions of people to safety before they can be vaporized. That’s beyond fast—it’s practically incomprehensible.
Let’s put that in perspective: in a single attosecond, Wally is saving lives, re-routing gravitational momentum, manipulating physics, and still maintaining enough mental control to keep running the interdimensional race. Every molecule in his body would need to operate faster than light speed just to not explode under the strain.
This feat ranks among the most insane displays of power ever shown by a Flash. It’s precise, impossible, and effortless—all in a timeframe so small, normal human consciousness wouldn’t even register it. It’s not just a sprint—it’s a full-scale rescue operation conducted outside of time.
#1: Becoming the Speed Force (The Flash: The Human Race / Terminal Velocity / Flash: Rebirth)
More than once, both Barry Allen and Wally West have performed the ultimate speed feat—not just using the Speed Force but becoming it. These moments aren’t just about running fast—they’re about transcending reality, time, and even existence.
In Flash: Rebirth, Barry becomes one with the Speed Force after running faster than the universe can sustain. He essentially dissolves into pure kinetic energy, joining the source of all speed in the DC multiverse. Wally does something similar during Terminal Velocity, breaking every known limit to stop the end of time—and again in The Human Race, where he outruns the end of all reality.
These aren’t just feats—they’re transformations. They show that the Flash’s power isn’t limited to running across ground or punching at light speed. It’s metaphysical. Flash becomes speed itself—an omnipresent force that guides other speedsters, powers the multiverse, and even revives heroes (as seen when Wally returns lost souls from the Speed Force).
Becoming the Speed Force is the final, ultimate expression of what it means to be the Flash. There is no greater speed—because there’s no longer a separation between the runner and the run.
The Flash’s greatest feats don’t just break the sound barrier—they shatter the rules of physics, time, and even reality itself. Whether it’s Barry Allen rewriting the cosmos or Wally West saving a city in less than an instant, these moments prove that speed—when paired with heart, courage, and purpose—is the most powerful force in the DC Universe. The Flash isn’t just the fastest man alive. He’s the limit that every other hero is still trying to catch.
