Differences between Barry Allen and Wally West's superspeed powers.

[Buried Alien]

Wally West has, in many ways, surpassed Barry Allen as a practitioner of superspeed. Wally has become able to surpass Barry's greatest speed, and has developed a few speed skills that Barry did not have.

There do seem to be several things from Barry's old repertoire, however, that Wally can do, but somehow hasn't quite mastered. Take vibration to different dimensions/times, for example. Barry did it almost instinctively, without great effort. Wally can also do it, but he has remarked several times that it did not come as naturally to him as it did to Barry and he needs to concentrate on it much more than Barry did. Additionally, Wally still has not re-mastered the skill of vibrating harmlessly through objects, which is odd because he was able to do it as easily as Barry did when Wally was Kid Flash. Complete molecular control seems to be another Barry skill that Wally hasn't gotten a complete handle on...Barry used this skill often in the Pre-CRISIS days, but I haven't seen Wally exhibit this skill much.

Why is it that Wally, despite his greater experience now than Barry had at the time of his death, is still unable to easily duplicate many of Barry's skills (especially since Wally *was* able to duplicate them without difficulty when he was Kid Flash)? Is it because of Barry's training as a police scientist? Is it the difference in their personalities and temperaments?





Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Eyeswithoutaface]

I'm not sure I agree with the idea that Wally has had more experience than Barry per se. Yes, Wally has had all that experience while being Kid Flash, but Wally spent a long time afterwards in a de-powered state too. Enter Mark Waid, and *poof*, Wally gets amped up, but I still don't think Wally has spent as long as Barry at a consistent level of power.

To me, Barry may have less power and slightly less speed than Wally, but Barry has him in the control department. That's why Barry has no problem doing things like passing through stuff without blowing stuff up, or dimension hopping. Stuff like that requires more control rather than power.

[Gauss]

It might be something to do with Wally's power source. Back when he was Kid Flash, Wally got his speed from the same chemicals that Barry did, and that was an end to it, hence their similar powers.

Nowadays, Wally's tapping into a much greater reservoir of speed than he could even guess at when he was Kid Flash, so his problems with some of Barry's tricks may simply be the result of having to, essentially, limit himself a lot more than Barry ever did.

[Mainline]

The distinction needs to be made between post and pre crisis feats. If only pre-crisis feats are considered, then Wally should be far and away more capable by now, considering he could match Barry's adult feats as a child. But despite the greater experience, it's made clear that Wally limited himself psychologically.

Wally HAS remastered vibrating through objects. For example, recently, he passed through Superman's grip by vibrating free. Superman's hand did not blow up shortly after.

The reason you haven't seen complete molecular control brought up much anymore is because it's a semi-silly silver-age throwback power. It was basically Barry Allen's Speed Force. He was allowed to do anything as long as he mentioned "molecules" in the explanation. As the level of scientific familiarity rose amongst the readership (that is, your average reader had a greater grasp of molecules and related scientific knowledge), we had to leap to a quasi-mystical Force to explain the unexplainable.

Molecular control really isn't a "speed" power and, followed logically, lends itself to a bunch of other powers not really in the speedster theme. Marvel's Apocolypse is a character with molecular control. It suggests shape-shifting and auto-healing. Molecular movement suggests flight. And so on. So basically, to keep up with the times, Wally dropped that "set" of powers in exchange for ones more closely themed to speed (kinetic energy, etc).

[Jack]

Re: vibrational phasing.

Wally could do it as a kid, but then lost the ability when he was depowered. Then when he broke through the barrier and his speed was back, he no longer had the confidence in his speed he used to have. It took the appearance of Impulse to remind him that Flash powers are mostly instinctual (Impulse runs directly at a wall and phases for the first time without knowing that he could), and he learned to do it again.

Then he got powered up again, and became too fast to do it safely. Eventually he has gained the skill again, but it takes a hell of a lot more effort than it used to.

[Master Darque]

Also , from what I remember , Wally not having hit puberty yet when he gained his powers had alot to do with his powers wigging out on him during the Wolfman/Titans days .....then when he used his powers for personal gain at the beginning of his title , Wally experienced power fluctuations . It's also been hinted at that Wally's powers were so like Barry's then because of the close and constant proximity he spent with/near Barry ....who may have become something more than human and just didn't know it .

[Paradox]

**cringes** Speed Force.

Ugh! :(

[Tazer]

Yo.

also, lets not forget that Barry tended to use his skills in science to figure out a problem/render a spr-spd feat, whereas Wally seems to kinda "try stuff out & see if it works" a good part of the time after he had his speed restored to previous levels.




Tazer

[Puffy Treat]

The thing you mention about Wally's ability to roughly copy the feats of Barry in the Silver Age makes me wonder about Barry's grand daughter Jenni Ognats, A.K.A. XS of the Legion of Super-Heroes. While her skill and power level grew as the series progressed, most of the SA Flash feats were never achieved by her, even though she seemed to have the potential to go that far.

Lack of a super-speed mentor?

[barbgrayson]

myabe wally's style just isn't that much of reflective of barry's

[Eyeswithoutaface]

Wally HAS remastered vibrating through objects. For example, recently, he passed through Superman's grip by vibrating free. Superman's hand did not blow up shortly after.

When did this happen? What issue?

Not that I doubt your account of the incident. It's just that from what I've seen, vibrating through very dense stuff is an extremely difficult feat for Wally, and it doesn't seem to happen that often without an explosion occurring.

[Buried Alien]

myabe wally's style just isn't that much of reflective of barry's

It was when Wally was Kid Flash. I don't know why that would change just because Barry is dead now.


Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[pauwoo]

Since we are talking about Wally's powers, round about issue 20 or so, when he was in his depowered state, tina mcgee and couple got his powers back for him, there is a scene at the end of the issue when he starts to run he causes utter havoc demolishing buildings and digging a large trench through a large part of america.

This all lead into the porcupine man story, at the end of this Wally was back to normal and speeding around as usual, there has as far as i'm aware been no mention of the destruction and why it doesn't happen now.


I also believe Barry is faster, he could easily exceed the speed of light, without dissapearing into the speed force.

[sikkbones]

The thing you mention about Wally's ability to roughly copy the feats of Barry in the Silver Age makes me wonder about Barry's grand daughter Jenni Ognats, A.K.A. XS of the Legion of Super-Heroes. While her skill and power level grew as the series progressed, most of the SA Flash feats were never achieved by her, even though she seemed to have the potential to go that far.

Lack of a super-speed mentor?
i would think the power's got diluted after each succusive generation were born...