10 Best Flash Comics in History, Ranked

The Flash is not only the fastest man alive – he’s a pillar of DC Comics. He’s been racing through the panels and pages since 1940, and his stories are some of the most fast-paced, most nail-biting, and most heartwarming that the comics industry has to offer, all told by the best and the brightest creators of our time.

Over his comic book history, The Flash has changed many times. He’s a beacon of hope, he’s somehow always late for social engagements, but most of all, he will never stop running the race. From Jay Garrick to Barry Allen to Wally West and more, it’s incredibly difficult to pin down a character that can’t exactly be caught, considering there is an 80-year-wealth of stories to choose from.

Yet, here they are: the best Flash stories that will make any beginner fall in love with comics, and any veteran fan remember why he fell in love in the first place.

10 Flash & Green Lantern: The Brave and the Bold (1999-2000)

Created by Mark Waid, Tom Peyer, Barry Kitson

It’s not often a superhero comic centers around a buddy-cop friendship as its main story, but that’s just where the Brave and the Bold shines. The six-issue miniseries outlines the various intricacies of pals-for-life Green Lantern and the Flash as they deal with shadow versions of themselves, the original Star Sapphire, switching sidekicks, and the grief of lost loved ones. Each issue is a different moment in DC’s history for two heroes that, at the time of publication, were both dead in the main timeline – and sorely missed.

The Brave and the Bold is a fantastic walk down memory lane for fans of the Silver Age in a time of modern, flashy comics. As DC’s current continuity is a continuous wake of world-shattering crisis events, it’s nice to read a down-to-earth story defining a key friendship of the Justice League, especially if it’s about camping on an alien planet. After all, the Flashes are well-known for their loyal friendships.

9 The Flash: Running Scared (2017)

Created by Joshua Williamson, Paul Pelletier, Carmine Di Giandomencio, Neil Googe, Howard Porter, and Hi-fi Design

Just when Barry Allen thought he was finally and truly dead, his age-old nemesis, Reverse-Flash, returns apparently unkillable. In Running Scared, Eobard Thawne finally brings Barry Allen to the brink as he threatens the love of his life, Iris West, and alters Flash’s powers, connecting him to the Negative Speed Force which starts to change his personality. This volume is about the psychology of villains and how they bring out the dark side in heroes when you push them a step too far.

Reverse-Flash has been trying to ruin Barry Allen’s life for a long time now. Interestingly enough, Eobard Thawne is first and foremost a Flash fan, as he grew up in the 25th century with Barry Allen as a historical hero. Finally, this story arc answers the question that Barry Allen begs to know: just why is Reverse-Flash so intent on ruining his life? Running Scared ends with a twist that hearkens back to the Flash’s first fight with Reverse-Flash but in an unexpected way that changes both the hero and villain forever.

8 Flashpoint (2011)

Created by Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert

When Barry Allen decides to go back in time and rescue his mother from murder, he effects a change to the DC universe so massive its reverberations are still being felt to this day. After changing the timeline, Barry Allen finds that he’s lost his powers and the whole world is falling apart, giving him a choice to make: become the Flash again and save the world or keep his mother alive – but not if the Reverse-Flash, his mother’s murderer, has anything to say about it.

This comic introduced fans to the successful world of Flashpoint, where Thomas Wayne is Batman and Martha Wayne is the Joker. Flashpoint has been revisited many times, and this elseworlds Batman has even entered into the mainstream continuity of DC, as both a hero and a villain in Batman’s own Gotham. More than that, this timeline reset was one of the biggest changes in comics history, erasing many characters out of existence, like Wally West.

7 Blackest Night (2009-2010)

Created by Geoff Johns, Ethan Van Scriver, Peter Tomasi, Dave Gibbons, and Ivan Reis

As the undead being Nekron assembles a Black Lantern Corps made from the zombiefied bodies of every superhero and villain that has died in DC history, it’s up to those best friends, Green Lantern and Flash, to assemble a new team of Lanterns to fight for the life of the universe. Barry Allen, having to outrun death one more time, never loses hope, and it’s this very reason that he’s chosen to become the first human avatar for the Blue Lanterns – the incarnate symbol of Hope.

Nothing less should be expected for the DC hero who has his very own museum. Unlike Batman, the Flash’s Central City knows he is their savior, protector, and most of all, their friend. While Superman is a likewise symbol of hope, it’s the Flash who is human to the core and has always been a relatable hero for the people. For lifelong Flash fans, this comic is a megaphone to amplify just how much Barry Allen means to the comics world.

6 Infinite Crisis #4 (2006)

Created by Geoff Johns, Phil Jimenez, George Pérez, Ivan Reis, and Jerry Ordway

As endless worlds are clashing together and universes are collapsing, a parallel version of Superboy-Prime goes on a rampage to kill all the heroes of the DC universe. To stop him, the full force of the Flash Family runs him into the Speed Force, and it’s here that Flash fans got a first glimpse of the soon-to-be resurrected Barry Allen coming forward to help Bart Allen restrain Superboy-Prime in the nick of time.

The Flash Family is a key component of the heroes of Central City, but they differentiate from other hero groups like the Bat-family, in that they don’t have separate titles and there is no hierarchy. Infinite Crisis sees four different Flashes coming together as equals, wearing the uniform of the Scarlet Speedster. To see the generation of legacies rippling through time, especially through a dead Barry Allen running back to help his grandson, was a groundbreaking moment that influenced Barry Allen’s later and permanent return.

5 The Flash: Blitz (2004)

Created by Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins

Barry Allen has Reverse-Flash, and Wally West has Zoom, a former friend of West turned into a speedster by a freak accident in a mirror of Flash’s origin story. Like any Reverse-Flash, Zoom is the dark side of the speed force, and as such, he brings terror to Wally West’s life, threatening the life of his wife and their unborn twins. Ending in a haunting tragedy for the Flash and a sobering defeat for Zoom, Blitz is a demonstration of how even the fastest man alive might have to stop and catch his breath.

This arc not only completes Geoff John’s run of The Flash detailing Wally West as the mantle-bearer, but it showcases a new speedster superpower that doesn’t have to do with the Speed Force at all. Zoom’s ability to manipulate time breathed a new life into the Flash franchise. Geoff Johns would also go on to write most of the other landmark Flash stories, and Blitz is where he first proved that he could make the Flash Family the most beloved heroes of DC.

4 The Flash: Rebirth (2009-2010)

Created by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Scriver

Legacies collide in The Flash: Rebirth as Barry Allen races back onto the scene after his universal sacrifice in Crisis on Infinite Earths. Escaping from the Speed Force, with death still hot on his heels, he has no choice but to keep running just to stay alive. No Flash is ever alone though, and with his family of the fastest speedsters by his side, he’s able to outwit death and finally rest his feet.

3 DC Universe Rebirth #1 (2016)

Created by Geoff Johns, Gary Frank, Ivan Reis, Ethan Van Scriver, Phil Jimenez

As with Flashpoint, when the timeline needs to be reset to usher in a new era of DC, just call on a Flash. The acclaimed Rebirth era saw a return to DC’s most popular heroes with Wally West at the helm. This Rebirth, mirroring Barry Allen’s own, reveals Wally West trapped in the speed force, forgotten to the entire universe and trying to communicate with his loved ones to bring him back. In a pivotal moment when Wally West calls out to his uncle and mentor, Barry Allen, the Flash pulls him back into the timeline, returning the legacy of the Flashes that had been fractured for far too long.

2 The Flash: The Human Race (1998)

Created by Mark Millar, Grant Morrison, Paul Ryan, Ron Wagner, Pop Mhan, and Josh Hood

Fighting weird villains is nothing new to the Flash, but when aliens threaten the demise of the earth unless an earthling beats them in an intergalactic race, then it’s a little outside the Scarlet Speedster’s wheelhouse. Yet, even though these aliens can teleport in less than an attosecond, the fastest man alive goes on a space odyssey to win the race and save the human race too. Pushing himself to his very limit, Wally West doesn’t just win the race – he ends up taking his time too.

Mark Millar and Grant Morrison’s work on the Flash in the zany story arcs of the 90’s features the Flash at the height of his powers. Not only introducing key concepts such as the Speed Force, it’s in this comic that the Flash first moves out of the fast-footed criminal world of his own home city, fighting human criminals like Captain Cold and Mirror Master, and becomes a hero that can stop cosmic catastrophes. Wally West, arguably the fastest of the Flashes, shows feat after feat in The Human Race, and he’s not slowing down yet.

1 The Flash: The Black Flash (1998)

Created by Mark Millar, Grant Morrison, Paul Ryan, Ron Wagner, Pop Mhan, and Josh Hood

Death is once again hot on the Flash’s heels, except this is the very first instance of the Flash outrunning death in Flash history. Death takes the form of a Black Flash, a reaper figure that comes to take away the souls of all the speedsters connected to the Speed Force. In an era-defining moment for the Flash, Wally West does the unthinkable and races forward into the future, beyond time, beyond life, thereby rendering death and the Black Flash meaningless.

Always pushing the boundary, running faster and faster, the Flash finally gets to his absolute peak of his speed in The Black Flash in a way no other hero has been able to match since, not even the Flash himself. Pitted against a new godlike villain only increased the stakes high enough for the Flash to conquer death – and if he can do that, then that means the Flash is practically immortal. For The Flash, there will always be more stories, and there will always be another race to run.

The Flash

The Flash is the superhero name given to the DC Comics character who utilizes unparalleled speed tied to a dimensional power known as the “speed force” to overwhelm their opposition. Premiering in 1939, the original Flash arrived as Jay Garrick. Still, it would be superseded by Barry Allen in popularity and featured status, but the Flash is one character that has met many of their alternate selves. The character is typically seen as a part of the Justice League in nearly all incarnations.

Created By

Gardner Fox , Harry Lampert , Carmine Infantino

First Appearance

Flash Comics

Alias

Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, Wally West, Bart Allen, Avery Ho

Alliance

Justice Society of America, Justice League, Teen Titans

Race

Human

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