Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic A Question So Ridiculous I Didn't Want to Ask, But It's Driving Me Crazy, So...

If there was any lingering doubt as to whether or not I tend to think too hard over things that don't really require deep thought, this will lay that to rest.

That is, if there was any doubt. And maybe there wasn't, in which case... alrighty, then.

I've put this in Off-Topic, but I really wish there was an Off-off-topic folder. A Stupidly-Off-Topic-What-Are-You-Crazy folder, but now I'm just stalling.

So.

How can the Flash help?

That's the question in its purest form. I've been reading Justice League stuff, and I love when global disaster strikes and they all split up and run off to save the world. "Wonder Woman, you get South America. Green Lantern, you cover Australia." You get the idea. But I can't help but worry that the country who gets the Flash gets the short end of the superhero stick.

Because I can understand dangling over a ravine, clinging to a rock by your fingernails, dirt falling and grip weakening, and looking up to find Wonder Woman or Green Lantern or Manhunter or, of course, the big daddy of them all, Superman, and feeling enormous relief. Hurray!! Saved!!

But... what could the Flash *do*? Besides get there first? I mean, he's fast. Very fast. But is that it? He would be the first one to peek over the ravine and say that help has arrived, but what is he going to do right then? And what if it wasn't just a dangling person, but a teetering house?

I can see how he's excellent when rescues require speed. Like knocking someone out from under a falling anvil. But he's no stronger than the next guy, is he? He can't fly or... use a lasso. He doesn't have a magic ring.

And before you say anything, I do realize not all superheroes are created equally. Each has his/her own abilities. I just can't stop imagining myself, on hearing that JL was sending help, muttering, "As long as it's not Flash..."

Ok. I've asked it. I won't tell you how long I've turned this over in my mind before I got brave enough to post it. That might make me look... silly. (like this doesn't)

Thank you to anyone who read all the way through this! If you any ideas, any scenarios in which the Flash comes in darn handy, I'd love to hear them.

And, of course, my apologies to any Friends of the Flash I may have, in my total ignorance, gravely offended. I assure you that was never my intent.

CC

ROTFL! Nice phrasing, CC. I think you're not alone in asking these kinds of questions. What I call 'three am in the morning questions'. <G>

I don't know much about the JL, but isn't it the case that all superheroes have super strength as standard, above and beyond their own special superpower?

Probably not. <g> But that's just what I'd always assumed from my perspective of someone who's only read four comic books in her entire life...

And I've probably always been completely wrong in that assumption.

Looking forward to the answers from the experts. Don't read comics, but always enjoy comics debates.

LabRat (looking forward to seeing the FF movie at some point and who loved the X Men and League of Extraordinary Gentleman movies all the same.)

Does Flash's speed include assessing the situation? Say, as in the case of a person dangling from a cliff, he'd know to get a rope QUICKLY, and then do that at breakneck speed, right? Big equipment, like a crane or bulldozer for the precariously tipping house would take superstrength though. Hmmm. This is a puzzle.

TEEEEEEEJ

Showing my age here...

I grew up with the Silver Age Flash (70s-80s)

The Flash has no super-strengh, per say, but he is invulnerabe to the effects of his super-speed (no friction burns, super-fast reflexes, super-fast thinking)

Person holding on by fingertips. 1. Like TEEEEEEEJ said, he could size up the situation, find all the materials he needed and save the person. 2. He could get under them and run up the side of the cliff and pick them up on the way(He is so fast that he can easily overcome his own body's falling momentum as well as several other people's, as well). 3. He could generate a strong enough upward draft to push the person back up over the cliff.

Teetering house..1. He would be fast enough to clear the house before the his added weight could actually make the house fall. 2. (see #3 above)

Tank could probably give you even more examples.

James

Ditto to Lab's ROTFL!!!!!

Don't you hate it when someone asks a question that's bugging the heck out them and then it just bugs the heck out of you? ;P

I found this site
... lots of stuff there, but I did find this:

You could always post your question here as well... People would be sure to jump on it there.

Sara (who really is getting to writing now... )

Actually, in the Silver Age, Flash became so powerful that the writers didn't know what to do with him. They eventually killed him off with Crisis on Infinite Earths, and replaced him with a weaker version (Wally West, who had been Barry's sidekick, Kid Flash).

Barry was able to do just about anythying. He could vibrate his molecules to phase through just about any solid object (including walls). He could run faster than the speed of light, allowing him to travel through time and from universe to universe. He could superheat something with friction, which also gave him some power over force fields (if he couldn't vibrate through it, he could disrupt it by overloading its capacity or superheating the air). Basically, nothing could hold him, nothing could stop him, he had no weakness, and even if something went wrong, he could go back in time and fix it.

Wally doesn't have nearly Barry's powers, but he can do quite a bit. He can pummel someone into submission with punches too fast to block (and backed by super inertia). He can create minor whirlwinds (not like Barry's full-blown tornados, but still impressive). He can vibrate through solid objects (but not as well as Barry -- it tires him out). He can move faster than you can think. He can run across water and up walls.

If you want to talk about heroes with little power, go look at Marvel. Their heroes are much more down-to-earth. Flash could take down Spider-man in a heartbeat.

That's the thing... DC is about larger-than-life heroes (and Flash is far from the least of them). Marvel is about people with super powers and real problems.

Paul

Sorry, was kind of half asleep when I wrote the previous response. Came back to admit that the response itself had been ripped from a friend. See... I was talking to a comic book geek friend of mine and I asked almost the same question you did. The response was pretty much what you see above.

Thing is, I was thinking in terms of raw power.

(If you'll pardon a tangent... There's this wonderful SNL skit about the death of Superman. The scene takes place at his funeral, and features cameoes by all the heroes you'd expect, plus a few others. There are some really fun moments. Aquaman, awkwardly coming in kind of late: "Here. I, uh, brought a shrimp platter." Lois: "I don't get it. Where is Clark Kent? This is Superman's funeral. What could he possibly be doing that's more important than being here?" And, of course, what made me think of the thing in the first place... Flash: "He was such a great guy. He could do anything. All I can do is run fast. He could run as fast as me, but he never said a word... <sob>")

You were asking about what he could do at the scene of a disaster.

Someone's hanging off a cliff. What can Flash do? He can dash down to the bottom, then run straight up the cliff, catch the person, and let inertia carry them over.

A house is in danger. Flash can get inside, search the premisis, and ferry everyone out before anything happens.

Something large is falling, about to crush a tanker full of gas. Flash can zip underneath, then move at super-speed to generate a controlled tornado (he can do that by circling his arms or by running in circles, depending on what he needs), which will effectively "catch" the falling object. He can then move the tornado (with the object inside) to a safer location, then counter-spin to dissipate the winds.

Flash can also vibrate his hand, seeking the resonance frequency of a given object, causing it to shatter. He can (like Clark in Man of Steel Bars) vibrate his body into intangibility.

BTW, did you see this week's ep of Justice League? (I just saw it last night.) "Devided We Fall." I won't spoil it, but it does include Wally pulling a few tricks and doing some fairly heavy hitting.

Oh, and he does have super strength of a sort. As speed increases, so does mass. It's a trick of relativity. Flash, by going at near-light-speed, gains not only super inertia but super density. Suddenly, there's a heck of a lot more mass backing up his punches.

So... He's a lot more powerful and versitile than he first appears. It's also, IMO, not at all a silly question or something silly to wonder about. Even if it was... I like silly.

Paul

TEEEEEEJ

First of all, my apologies for leaving this alone for so long! You have all set my mind at ease, and I've been remiss in showing my appreciation. And especially for the above quote, Paul. LOL! You see, that was how I was picturing him, and I admit I suspected there was a complicated physics component to Flash that would render his obvious effectiveness out of reach of my Liberal Arts major way of thinking.

Sara, thank you for the link! I've spent more time there than I want to let on. Also, I got a personal kick out of you doing my research for me, in light of our conversations on elephants in the rainforest. (I hope that isn't a spoiler for your current story.) Anyway, *one* of us looks everything up. And one of us... posts questions, instead.

Thank you to everyone who played along and contributed. I just finished 'The Never-Ending Battle' and you guys weren't kidding. Flash proved himself to be... darned useful.

So nice to lay that worry to rest, then.

CC