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While trying to find out who was faster, Superman or the Flash (the answer is the Flash), I found out that the Flash can travel back and forth through time on occasion.

Does that mean that the Flash can travel faster than light?

What is the limit to the Flash's speed?

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    <comments deleted> Take the physics talk to chat.
    – user1027
    Commented Jul 7, 2014 at 16:45
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    I wonder what he does about this
    – user2813274
    Commented Oct 4, 2014 at 21:31
  • @user2813274 - The speed force is with them :P
    – Stark07
    Commented May 27, 2015 at 11:06
  • @Stark07 I dunno, I see the "speed force" against them in the other answers
    – user2813274
    Commented May 27, 2015 at 13:28
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    Superman can also travel back in time...
    – Doctor Doom
    Commented Nov 15, 2015 at 12:59

5 Answers 5

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Depends on which Flash we're talking about here, but the short answer is yes he can. The 2 main modern Flashes, Barry Allen and Wally West are both capable of running faster than light. They run into issues running so fast though, as they start to brush up against the Speed Force.

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    I wonder which fundamental forces the Speed Force is made of, lol.
    – OghmaOsiris
    Commented Mar 11, 2013 at 14:46
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    So. You're telling me the Force is against them? My next question just might be "Are the modern Flashes Sith?"
    – Major Stackings
    Commented Jul 6, 2014 at 23:51
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    Pretty sure that the Speed Force is made up of donuts, because the more donuts I eat the slower I get =(
    – Patrick Hughes
    Commented Jul 7, 2014 at 1:14
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    @PatrickHughes Given the speed of the flash's metabolism, I don't think it would slow them down as much as it would you.
    – Andreas
    Commented Jul 7, 2014 at 8:44
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The Flash did run as fast as light before but nearly got sucked into the speed force. It was Shayera Hol (Hawkgirl) who first found the wormhole and asked 6 other members to help pull the Flash OUT of the speed force!

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  • Which comic was that in?
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Commented Dec 15, 2013 at 3:37
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    @DVK I believe he's referring to the Justice League Unlimited cartoon, specifically the episode "Divided We Fall", however it's not stated that he's actually traveling faster than light, merely that he's "never gone that fast before, and can never do that again unless he wants to be pulled into the Speed Force forever"
    – Monty129
    Commented Dec 15, 2013 at 15:54
  • I think it's the one where he runs around the world to punch Braniac/Luthor. It was great to see him use his real super move finally !
    – King of NES
    Commented Aug 14, 2019 at 13:42
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In one of the Flash, he was saving people in Japan or something... and to save them all he ran 13 trillion times the speed of light (apparently).

Also, Barry Allen as the Flash died saving the world, he ran so fast that he actually died. Furthermore, Barry Allen achieved coming back to Earth, and when he did, he was so fast that when ever he ran, he killed other speedsters.

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    A citeable issue number or two would really help out here.
    – phantom42
    Commented Nov 21, 2015 at 17:38
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    Running at 13 trillion times the speed of light would get him to Japan some time last year, surely…
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Feb 3, 2016 at 19:26
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It's easy, the clear winner here is The Flash. I mean when you talk about something called the speed force, no other DC superhero has this kind of power to posses and it sounds pretty darn amazing. If you compare to superman, I mean he needs to go through just basic flight - flies in the air breaking the laws of physics. Yeah, yeah we get the point. So thanks to Albert Einstein's theory about relativity, it is said that the faster you move, it is slower for time to pass for you - or something. General relativity is just basic relativity; different kinds of angles you see from a perspective of different observers. But with special relativity, it's more focused on the speed of light where things get more complicated. So, Barry Allen just broke the law of Relativity and he going faster than the speed of light can make time slow down for him way faster.

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    This seems to focus on The Flash v Superman, which A- was already solved and B- is not the question.
    – Meat Trademark
    Commented Nov 18, 2015 at 4:24
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Superman can go 15.75 times the speed of light, which is over 10 billion (the speed of light is 670 million mph) mph and Flash beat him pretty bad in a race so way over 10 billion mph.

Answer: Way faster than the speed of light!

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    Welcome to SF&F:SE! Do you have any references that can support this answer?
    – kjw
    Commented Aug 31, 2015 at 21:34

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