They've done this story a couple of times, over the years (the first was in the 60's, the last in the 90's); it was even an episode of Superman:The Animated Series. Usually they cop out and make it a tie or ambiguous in some other way. The last time they did this story, with Superman and Wally West in the 90's, Wally won (both were somewhat depowered in that era, whereas in previous iterations both could move fast enough to travel through time). When Wally was powered by the Speed Force, I don't think there was any question as to who was faster. I'm not sure just how fast they're saying either is since the "New 52" reboot, but my guess would be that the Flash is supposed to be faster.
One of the things I liked about Frank Miller's portrayal of Superman in the Dark Knight Returns (and I had problems with lots of it) was the "unrelenting speed plus overwhelming force" that constituted most of his presence in the early part of the series. The only way you knew he was there was by the mighty wind that announced his presence and the destruction left in his wake. It really gave you an impression of just how dangerous he was, that he was THAT strong and could move THAT fast.
Well, see, that's the problem when you have an assembly of characters like Superman and Flash. You run the risk at making a character redundant because of another character's abilities. If there is one thing that a Comic Book company hates more than anything else, it's redundancy. Just ask Dan Didio about why he took out Captain Marvel.
See the thing about Superman is he shouldn't be the strongest or the fastest man on Earth. It makes the existence of the other heroes meaningless and redundant if Superman could do their jobs. No, Superman should essentially be The Mario of the DC universe. He may not be the strongest, the fastest or the even the most pragmatic of superheroes, but thats not the point of the character. Superman's greatest power is his sense of Empathy. Thats what should inspire and lead the others to follow his example.
Theres sex and death and human grime in monochrome for one thin dime and at least the trains all run on time but they dont go anywhere.Never quite understood that whole "redundancy" issue. Realistically speaking, it's not really a disadvantage to have more than one fast character, or more than one strong character, etc. You might as well ask what's the point of having a whole Green Lantern Corps, all with the same ring that can do the same thing. The same reason a whole corps of ring-slingers works is the reason that it works just fine to have more than one person on a team with the same power. If you're a writer and you can't figure out how to make it work, then, quite frankly, you're not a very creative writer.
edited 20th Mar '12 9:21:38 PM by FallenLegend
Make your hearth shine through the darkest night; let it transform hate into kindness, evil into justice, and loneliness into love.I'm fairly sure the storyline in question was called "The Human Race"- was yet another of those 'the Flash is forced into a race by super-aliens' stories. It was when Wally had his whole 'absorb momentum' schtick- nearly the entire population of Earth were doing wind sprints simultaneously for him to leech off them, given that the world was going to blow up if he lost.
Don't remember much beyond that, but yup, it stated pretty clearly that he outran instantaneous teleportation. Then again, time travel really isn't much of anything new for any of the Flashes...
The Human Race feat was impressive but that was a massive powerup for wally beforehand/during. The scene in Rebirth was in a lot more ways definitive, Barry implies he wasn't giving his all during their previous races and then accelerates to a speed Supes can't math. Right there that's DC making it pretty clear that in terms of ground speed it's Barry all day.
Why not? Action Comics is awesome now.
Honestly, I think there's enough evidence that The Flash is faster. Superman, to the best of my knowledge, has never vibrated through walls or arrived somewhere before he left or traveled through time on a treadmill.
Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.

I think this is a good question to ask. I mean, think about it.
If I went by Infinite Crisis, I would say that Flash is faster, because Superman was told by Superboy Prime that he can't enter the Speed Force, due to not being fast enough!
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