Superman v The Flash - Who is the fastest man alive? - there is a winner (of sorts)

One of my favourite comic book storylines as a kid were always those that featured two (or more) heroes being pitted against each other. And in the 1960's /1970's one of the most popular and exciting comic book tropes was the race to find the “fastest man alive”.

The above cover (Superman #199 by Infantino and Anderson from 1967) featured the first race between these two comic book titans.The result was of course a tie.

The first race must have been a commercial success as fans wouldn't have to wait too long for the return race which appeared later that year in the pages of The Flash #175 (December 1967 - cover by Infantino and Esposito), written by E. Nelson Bridwell with art by Ross Andru. The rematch was set up by Rokk and Sorban, two intergalactic gamblers and as with Superman #199, the race once again ended in a tie.

Both these comics were reprinted in the large format and excellent DC Limited Collectors Edition series “ The Greatest Race of all time" from 1976. Covers to Superman #199 and Flash 175 from the DC database.

In 1970 the third race, billed as the race "where there must be a winner," took place over two issues of World Finest - #198 (at header, cover by Curt Swan) and #199 (above cover by Neal Adams). In the story written by Denny O’Neil with art by Dick Dillin, the faster-than-light robot Anachronids appear on Earth-One and the Guardians of the Universe enlist Superman and The Flash to race in the opposite direction to counteract the time-warping effects their arrival has caused. As can be seen by the page below the Flash wins this “race“ by crawling to the finish line to turn off the machine, allowing Superman to destroy it and in turn the Anachronids.

It wouldn’t be until 1978 in the then new title “DC Comics Presents” that Superman and the Flash would meet again in a race (of sorts) in the two-part story (#1 and #2 - covers and art by the wonderful J. Garcia Lopez). This time The Flash and Superman race through time to save Earth from a rogue alien-scientist hoping to change his world's past, altering Earth's in the process. As with previous "races" there was no winner.

The last comic I bought that featured the Flash v Superman "race" storyline ( and one of my last Superman comics) was "Adventures of Superman" #463 (below) from 1990 by Dan Jurgens. This was the first race between Superman and Wally West as the Flash. In this tale Mr Mxyzptlk tricks the 2 heroes to race saying that it is the only way he will return to the 5th Dimension. In this tale Wally West wins the race making it 2 wins for the men wearing the Flash uniform.

I'm pretty sure that there have been more Flash v Superman races since 1990, but over the period that I was buying and reading comics the Flash was proven to be the fastest man alive, and for myself, thats the way it should have been.

Above: Panel from "Adventures of Superman " #463.