It's hard to name a character more powerful than Flash is actually the DC hero with the mightiest right hook. Clark Kent has lifted infinity and regularly knocks out godlike beings, but when it truly mattered, the Fastest Man Alive pulled out a blow that even DC called "the mightiest punch in the multiverse."

When DC needs someone to punch out a god, it's almost always Superman who's up for the job. Superman's physical strength is absolutely bonkers, it's hard to quantify just how strong the Man of Steel is. Superman once held up reality without much issue for a full day, taking it from Atlas' shoulders to help the Titan out. It's hard to imagine anyone can match that kind of strength.

But that's where the Flash comes in. The Flash is a character well-known for his incredible speed. While he's certainly physically fit, he isn't really renowned for his strength. However, while he may not be the one who the Justice League call to help take down Darkseid, he has one technique that hits way harder than Superman.

Superman's Strongest Punch Establishes His Maximum Impact

Justice League #25 by Scott Snyder, Jorge Jimenez, Alejandro Sanchez and Tom Napolitano

The hardest punch that Superman ever threw was during Justice League #25. Superman and the rest of the league came up against the World Forger, a sixth-dimensional being who literally creates the worlds that populate the multiverse. As one might imagine, this being is incredibly powerful. It would take a lot to knock someone like the World Forger down. With his base strength, Superman isn't able to do much against the World Forger, but thanks to the manipulations of Batman, Clark gets the power boost he needs for one incredible punch - a rare example of Superman utilizing his Sun-Dipping technique.

Batman uses the World Forger's tools to create a line of yellow suns for Superman to fly through. Superman flies through dozens of these yellow suns, growing more and more powerful each time he does. It's only after he's flown through all of them, and is significantly stronger than usual, that he lands this world-shattering punch on the World Forger. It knocks the World Forger out for a few seconds while creating a gigantic crater. However, even charged up, Superman was no match for an even greater threat...

The Anti-Monitor Was Far Too Strong For Superman

Dark Crisis: Big Bang by Mark Waid, Dan Jurgens, Norm Rapmund, Federico Blee and Troy Peteri

One of the most dangerous villains the DC Multiverse has ever faced was the Anti-Monitor, a being of supreme power who was capable of destroying the multiverse. Defeating the Anti-Monitor was a team effort that required multiple versions of Superman, as well as the aid of Darkseid. While it's true that the Superman of Earth-Two eventually defeated the Anti-Monitor with a punch, that's not the whole story. This was only after Anti-Monitor had been attacked by Alex Luthor, Lady Quark, Superboy-Prime, Earth-Two Wonder Woman, Earth-One Superman, and Darkseid, as well as having been poisoned.

With all that in mind, Superman taking down the Anti-Monitor with a hefty punch is a bit misleading, especially as that didn't even kill the Anti-Monitor; it simply destroyed his physical form. The Anti-Monitor was capable of shrugging off pretty much everything multiple Supermen threw at him. It was only after being poisoned and attacked by Darkseid that he finally started to lose the battle and show signs of damage. In contrast, Flash nearly destroyed the Anti-Monitor at full power with a single punch.

Flash Truly Has The Mightiest Punch In The Multiverse

Flash's Near-Infinite-Mass Punch Threw the Anti-Monitor Through Multiple Realities

During the events of Dark Crisis: Big Bang by Mark Waid and Dan Jurgens, Wallace West and Barry Allen are exploring the multiverse, which is when they come in with the Anti-Monitor once again. While Barry tries to avoid the Anti-Monitor, Wallace is captured, and Barry has no choice but to bring down the Anti-Monitor with the "mightiest punch in the multiverse." After running around the planet several times and building up speed, Flash charges up his near-infinite-mass punch, which hits the Anti-Monitor so hard that it knocks him through the multiverse. This is a level of strength that Superman has never been able to replicate. For as hard as Superman has punched people, he's never knocked them between dimensions.

Superman's greatest punch so far has been knocking out the sixth-dimensional being, the World Forger, but he only managed to do that after being powered up in a once-in-a-lifetime level way, with Batman moving literal celestial bodies to give him the ultimate upgrade. This isn't the case for Flash, though. He didn't need to be powered up to use his near-infinite-mass punch, he was capable of just doing that with his base level of speed. This means that Barry is capable of tossing out a punch that is far stronger than anything Superman can do, even when he's powered up. Indeed, some of Superman's greatest feats aren't quite what they appear...

Superman's Greatest Feats Are a (Cool) Lie

The Man of Steel Does Have Limits

A major feat used by fans to evidence Superman's strength is him lifting a book with an infinite amount of pages in Final Crisis: Superman Beyond #1 by Grant Morrison and Doug Mahnke. However, like taking all of existence from Atlas, this feat was performed on a mythic, metaphysical plane of existence - Superman's ability to lift the book is the cosmic expression of his role as the defining superhero of the DC multiverse, not a literal feat of strength.

DC has explicitly stated on many occasions that Superman has a unique purpose within its multiverse as the blueprint for superheroism, acting as the multiverse's natural protection from attack. When he's working in this role, Superman is capable of metaphysical feats that express his higher purpose as the living concept of superheroism. However, there are plenty of occasions outside metaphysical realms and situations where Superman has run up against the limits of his strength. Ultimately, taking down the World Forger is the most impressive canon feat in his arsenal, and it just can't match punching the Anti-Monitor across dimensions.

Flash punching harder than Superman is a simple matter of science, since the speedster simply throws his punches so much faster than Superman. Flash is capable of breaking the laws of physics with his speed, moving at speeds beyond light itself. However strong Superman is, his punches may as well be in slow motion compared to Flash. That doesn't mean Flash is necessarily stronger than Superman, but as he proved against the Anti-Monitor, his maximum punch definitely hits harder.

The Flash Throws The Harder Punch... But It Doesn't Mean He's Stronger

Don't Worry Superman Fans - He's Still the Stronger Hero

Even comparing Flash to some of the stronger Supermen in the multiverse, Flash still comes out pretty favorably. Superboy-Prime had an incredible display of power when he punched the walls of reality, shattering it and changing the continuity of the DC Universe. That's an amazing feat, but it's one Barry could apparently match if he wanted. It's stated that Barry rarely uses the near-infinite mass punch because it can deform space-time. This means that if Barry really wanted to, he could likely alter reality in the same way.

Comic book fans have been comparing the speed feats of Superman and the Flash for decades. There have been comic books and even cartoon storylines entirely focused on Superman and the Flash racing against one another. Time and again, it's been proven that Flash is the fastest character, as he always wins the races when he takes them seriously. Unfortunately for Superman, if the duo ever have a contest to see who can throw the strongest punch, it seems that Flash will be taking the medal for that as well.