As the current Flash in DC Comics, Wally West is one of the fastest men alive, easily able to outpace people like Superman and manage to keep up with people like Barry Allen, but a long time ago Wally admitted that the Reverse Flash is much faster than him.
The Flash family are some of the fastest superheroes in the DC Universe, but not all the Flashes are at the same speed. Throughout his career, Wally West hasn’t made it a secret that he idolizes the previous Flash before him, Barry Allen. Wally has stated numerous times that Barry is the faster Flash between the two of them, which makes sense considering that Barry beat himself in a race. So when Barry Allen helped Wally stop a runaway train, it wasn’t any surprise that Wally wasn’t able to keep up; what was a surprise was the reveal that it wasn’t actually Barry Allen at all.
Jay, Wally, And “Barry” Stop A Runaway Train
Readers get to see all of this during the 1993 storyline “The Return of Barry Allen” (The Flash #71-75) by Mark Waid and Greg LaRocque. After Barry was thought dead during the events of Infinite Crisis on Infinite Earths, he miraculously re-appears on Christmas Eve on Wally West’s doorstep. He has all of Barry’s memories and his speed. Wally is overjoyed to see his mentor again, and together they begin fighting crime again. Barry is every bit as fast as Wally remembers, even managing to stop a runaway train that both Jay and Wally fail to stop, which is why it’s all the more shocking when it’s revealed this isn’t Barry Allen at all, but Eobard Thawne, the Reverse Flash. Eobard is suffering from amnesia due to time travel and has Barry’s memories thanks to reading Barry’s entire biography in the future. While this allows him to pass off his personality and memory as Barry’s, what really sells it is his insane speed, which even Wally admits he can’t keep up with.
While Eobard is under the belief he is Barry, he really does do everything Barry would do, including saving civilians and stopping disasters that neither Jay nor Wally was fast enough to solve. It is only when Eobard’s memory begins coming back and his more psychotic tendencies start to surface that Wally realizes something is wrong. Wally was Barry’s sidekick for years, and still he struggles to see through Eobard’s disguise. This just goes to show how competent a hero Eobard could really be if he wanted to.
Wally Outright Admits That Reverse Flash Is Faster
Wally West is eventually able to defeat and send Eobard back to the future timeline. However, this still doesn’t change the fact that while Reverse Flash is acting as a hero, he is able to stop crimes and save people that Wally West as the Flash simply doesn’t have the speed to do.