Despite being one of the absolute fastest men alive, there have been times when the Flash has needed even more speed, including one instance when he borrowed a page out of Darkseid's book. After failing to save some people and feeling he needed to be faster, Wally West decided to draw power from a similar place as the rule of Apokolips.

Readers got to see exactly how Flash gained this new speed in 1994's The Flash #91 by Mark Waid, Mike Wieringo, and Jose Marzan Jr. After Flash fails to save a woman during a fire in a mall, he is forced to deal with the realization he may not be able to save everyone, even with his incredible speed. Unable to accept this, Flash goes to the the formidable Anti-Life Equation.

Johnny Quick's Speed Formula Boosts Flash's Power

The Fourth Dimension is the dimension of time, and Johnny Quick uses a special mathematical formula to focus his concentration, allowing him to pull the energy he needs in order to reach superhuman speeds. This speed-energy doesn't make Johnny as fast as other speedsters, but the speed power can be stacked on top of the power of other speedsters, which is exactly what Wally West does. Using Johnny's formula, Wally is able to stack Johnny's speed on top of his own and moves so quickly that he literally freezes time in place. Flash becomes so fast that it's stated he could make a single second last forever.

Flash & Darkseid Have More In Common Than They'd Think

Darkseid's quest to control all living beings using the Anti-Life Equation matches the Flash's and other heroes' similar desires to change things they can't control. Sometimes tragedy happens to heroes and instead of accepting it they search for a way to prevent it from happening again. This is literally Batman's entire backstory, and sometimes heroes seek more power than they have to fix tragedy, which is what happened to Hal Jordan. When Wally West is forced to confront the fact he can't possibly be everywhere and save everyone, he tries to gain more speed to make it so that he can be. He takes a page out of Darkseid's book and uses an equation to draw power from the Fourth Dimension, whereas Darkseid famously seeks an equation from the Fifth Dimension.

Eventually, Wally has to accept that he can't save everyone all the time, but he can try. He might not always make the right choice that saves everyone, but all he can do is keep going forward and making the best choices he can. Despite making mistakes, Wally leans from his failures and tries to do better, unlike Darkseid constantly attempting to acquire the Anti-Life Equation over and over again. This ability to move forward is what makes Wally one of the greatest to ever wear the mantle of the Flash.