Overview: There is little doubt today that Wally West is considered to be one of the fastest living things on the face of the Earth. There are a few superhumans who can sustain levels of superhuman speed on par with the Flash. Superman, Captain Marvel, and Impulse can reach speeds that can compare with the Flash, but few other than Impulse have the wide range of powers available to the Flash.

The source of the Flash’s powers, were believed to be derived from the bolt of lightning that struck a rack of chemicals in the lab of his uncle, the previous Flash, Barry Allen. Such an accident had also occurred to Barry Allen and gave him his powers as well. After the death of Barry Allen during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Wally’s speed-derived powers had begun to wane and at one point were completely unreliable. Their loss, believed to be psychological, was due in part to the death of Barry Allen.

After Wally’s adjustment, Wally’s powers began to increase and eventually approach their previous levels. Recently, Wally West has reached new speed plateaus and is actually believed to have passed beyond into the Speed Dimension, the now-believed source of many speedsters powers. After his cross-over into this dimension, Wally seemed to possess all of the powers of his predecessors and a range of abilities never before exhibited by any Flash.

Powers:

• Speed Force Aura: The Flash’s body is surrounded by what he calls his “speed force aura”. This aura protects him and anyone who is running with him or carried by him, from the effects of using his speed. This includes friction and airborne particulate matter. It may also protect him from injury from high speed impacts such as punches he delivers and receives from his opponents. He does seem to possess some level of superhuman resistance to injury but this does not extend far past normal physical interactions, as received from normal combat.
• Molecular Control: The Flash’s powers allow him to perform a number of speed-related feats. The Flash has always possessed the ability to control his speed and angular momentum at the MOLECULAR level, and control his molecular interactions to allow his body to pass through any substance. There have been only a few superdense materials that the Flash has not been able to penetrate with this power. Certain forcefields also seem to negate this power. His power allow him to run along the surface of bodies of water and up the sides of buildings.
• Increased Perceptions: The Flash possesses the ability to alter his perceptions so that falling objects can appear to be standing still and can be caught and moved back to their normal position. He can do this so quickly as to have it happen invisibly to the normal human eye. The Flash’s reaction time is so increased as to perform feats of speed such as removing the momentum from bullets and fast moving objects thrown at him or at others.
• Supercharged Brain Activity: The Flash’s mental abilities are also increased in speed, simple computations can be done at lightning speeds, and his ability to perform normal feats at increased speeds has allow him to build hundreds of force field generators in a matter of hours, move sandbags to cover a beach or search an entire area for something as small as a paper clip. Wally can also read as superspeed, but rarely takes advantage of his ability to learn at increased speeds, although, Jay Garrick has done so and has become a jack of all trades in several disciplines and languages.
• Super Speed Running: It appears that the Flash may run at any speed that he thinks is possible, but there may be physical limits to his speed. Theorectically, speeds greater than Mach 10, are dangerous to the people and to the environment. This speed would still be the equivalent to approximately 128 miles per second; allowing him to cross the United States in about 23 seconds, or circle the world in about 3 minutes. The Flash rarely achieves such speed in populated areas due to the effects of sonic disruptions and air displacements. His cruising speeds are probably around 90-150 miles per hour (1.5 – 2.5 miles per second). This is fast enough to move through most cities and around people without causing too much disruption to the population and slow enough for him to register everything he sees clearly. If he choses, Wally can approach the speed of light, and doing so, enters the Speed Force dimension. If he chooses to continue to run at light speed, he can use the Speed Force dimension for a form of haphazard Time Travel.
• Sharing the Force: Since his interaction with the Speed Force, he may also lend his speed and angular momentum to another object or person. This may allow others to run alongside with the Flash. He may still allow his molecular structure to pass through object but now after he passes through an object, the object is now supercharged with a chaotic energy, and explodes seconds after his passing through it. His range of powers seems to have been increased significantly and he is now the fastest Flash to have ever lived. If he shares the Speed Force with another meta with superspeed capabilities such as Superman, that metahuman can now exceed the speed of light but does not become aware of the Speed Dimension.
• Speed Feats: The Flash can also perform a variety of superspeed feats such as:
  • He can strike a single opponent hundreds of times in a second or multiple opponents two or three times in a second.
  • He can disarm, or jam any number of opponents weapons before they are even aware of his movement.
  • Hurl small projectiles at hypersonic velocities.
  • Pluck speeding projectiles from the air.
  • The creation of wind based vortecies that can act as barriers to movement, funnels for toxic gasses, or vacuum chambers.
  • He can spin his arms to create directed funnels of hurricane speed air that can knock down barriers or reduce the speed of a falling object. Now with his control of inertia, he can probably reduce the speed of a falling object directly by applying the speed force in reverse, to leech momemtum from the object.
  • He can run across bodies of water, up the sides of buildings, and by spinning like a helicopter, he can even perform a limited kind of flight. Since his power is a quantum/molecular phenomenon, it is theoretically possible for the Flash to be able to fly just as other metas do, (and there have been other flying speedsters in the past, such as the deceased Johnny Quick,) because he can control his absolute molecular energy and direction and force it in the direction he wished to move without running.
  • He can also impart molecular energy to a target to increase molecular movement, as he did against the water being called Flow, boiling him into steam for a short time.

Allies: Jay Garrick/Flash I, Bart Allen/Impulse, Max Mercury, Jesse Quick, John Fox/Future Flash, Iris Allen, Linda Park, Pied Piper, Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Zauriel, Big Barda, Orion Green Lantern.

Enemies: Abra Kadabra, Captain Boomerang, Cobalt Blue, Gorilla Grodd, Mirror Master, Reverse Flash, Savitar, Trickster, Vandal Savage