That's the problem with DC. Too many reboots and retcons.
Superman wasn't actually serious there. He was just surprised by it. It's nothing new. He does it when the less powerful whip up something nice. He even paused to marvel at Deathstroke's speed before.
Superman has chased down and caught and outran every single Flash on several occasions.
Barry himself said he believes Superman holds back the upper end of his speed, keeping himself just around his level on purpose.
Wally has said pretty much the same.
Barring speedforce related effects [time travel, dimension hop, etc], Superman is faster.
Originally posted by StiltmanFTWOn the other hand...
That's the problem with DC. Too many reboots and retcons., Clark. [/B]
There are also showings like this, though:
Obviously I don't believe that Superman is 'only' on par with Jay, I'm just pointing out that there are contradictions/inconsistencies all over the place when it comes to Clark vs. the Flash Family. /shrug
As for Clark's *best* speed feat, I'd think something like this would be up there:
Originally posted by Galan007👆
There are also showings like this, though:*pics*
Obviously I don't believe that Superman is 'only' on par with Jay, I'm just pointing out that there are contradictions/inconsistencies all over the place when it comes to Clark vs. the Flash Family. /shrug
He's somewhere between Barry/Wally [whomever is Flash at the time] and Jay.
He'll always be regarded as the main Flash rival among the heroes, though the times where he can be debated to be faster are long gone, eventough a bone is thrown from time to time, like this:
[/URL][/img]
[post Flash Rebirth, too]
Which is...certainly not something to hold against him, since Wally/Barry are insane.
Tbf, it did look like Clark was expending a lot more effort than Flash(who was being mind-controlled at the time)... And Flash's comment at the end of the issue kind of substantiates that:
"I LET you catch me today."
Again, contradictions/inconsistencies run rampant on this topic. 😛
Honestly, I believe in an all-out race, Flash would beat Clark every time. Speed is just what he does. That definitely doesn't diminish Clark, however--like you said: where heroes are concerned it has been made pretty clear that he is Flash's closest rival in terms of raw speed... Which says a lot about Clark's speed as well. 👆
That can also be chalked up to Barry covering his ego.
How much control could he possibly have with his speed, since he couldn't control the fact that he was running? Even after Superman bear hugged him and lifted him off his feet, his feet were still moving, he was frantic and looked maniacal in Superman's arms.
"I let you catch me" he says, and yet he specifically came to Superman, despite there being other speedsters he could have gone to get them to take the kryptonian band off of his head, if he had a major enough control of his speed to slow down to their level.
He didn't even go to Wally, he looked all over the *world* for Clark specifically.
Then there is also that time Supes said something akin to "Wally is fast enough to see me coming, but not fast enough to do anything about it".
Then there was the time he also casually matched Professor Zoom in sheer speed, by Zoom's own admission, and then even undoing Professor's Zoom's time storms/wind funnels with his own sheer speed.
I remember him being caught in some Time stop crystal, might have been some New God tech (iirc), and he succeeded to break out of it. Despite the fact that...time was stopped.
That being said, Barry is probably a faster runner than Supes, but I feel like their reaction time/perception speed might be the same. Akin to the difference between the top olympic sprinter and the runner up. Wally is probably below Barry by a comparable amount.
Originally posted by Galan007Eh, that's just Barry poking around. 😛 The rest I agree with 👆
Tbf, it did look like Clark was expending a lot more effort than Flash(who was being mind-controlled at the time)... And Flash's comment at the end of the issue kind of substantiates that:"I LET you catch me today."
Again, contradictions/inconsistencies run rampant on this topic. 😛
Honestly, I believe in an all-out race, Flash would beat Clark every time. Speed is just what he does. That definitely doesn't diminish Clark, however--like you said: where heroes are concerned it has been made pretty clear that he is Flash's closest rival in terms of raw speed... Which says a lot about Clark's speed as well. 👆
Being the second fastest hero in his Universe is no joke. Either way, even Flash Rebirth emphasized the speed difference between Barry/Supes and the rest:
Also, what's important to remember is that after Infinite Crisis, Superman became faster, to the point that he made Jay Garrick look like he was standing still:
And Jay also admitted that he wasn't the fastest in the group containing Superman:
http://s1093.photobucket.com/user/KMCPhilosophia/media/clarkfasterjay4.jpg.html
http://s1093.photobucket.com/user/KMCPhilosophia/media/clarkfasterjay3.jpg.html
In the same instance Superman boasts femto-second reaction time:
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i436/KMCPhilosophia/femtoreactiontime.jpg
So yeah.
---
Also, post Infinite Crisis we have Reverse Flash saying Superman rivals him in speed:
Zoom directly says that Superman’s speed rivals his own – as Superman stops his speedblitz and counter his speed-cyclone with his own.
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i436/KMCPhilosophia/supeszoom1.jpg
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i436/KMCPhilosophia/supeszoom2.jpg
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i436/KMCPhilosophia/supeszoom3.jpghttp://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i436/KMCPhilosophia/supeszoom5.jpg
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i436/KMCPhilosophia/supeszoom6.jpg
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i436/KMCPhilosophia/supeszoom7.jpg
I'd put it like:
Barry/Wally>Superman(post Infinite Crisis)>>>Supes>=Jay>>any hero that is a non-speedster.
^ I agree.
Wally, Barry, and maybe even adult Bart are faster than Superman, but the difference between them is relatively marginal. That is to say: the Flashes would win a race every time, but Supes is at least fast enough to keep pace. The rest of the heroes are not. Imo.
Though where perception/reaction are concerned, I'd put Supes on equal footing with any Flash.
