The Fastest Super Speedsters Of The Marvel Universe

There’s no shortage of individuals possessing super-speed in the world of comic books, and Marvel Comics in particular has a bevy of speedsters to choose from. But there’s fast, and then there’s “the fastest,” which leads inquiring minds to ponder: Who is the fastest of the Marvel speedsters? Is such a thing even quantifiable?

Fortunately, if there’s one thing that comic book writers like to do, it’s applying (imaginary) science to the superpowers of their characters, so readers have a rough idea of each super speedster’s maximum speed. How fast are the Runner, Quicksilver, Northstar, the Silver Surfer, and their other speedy compatriots? And, more importantly, how fast are the fastest Marvel characters in relation to one another? These speedsters may be too fast for the human eye to perceive, but they’re not too fast for math to comprehend, and so it is indeed possible to rank them from fastest to slowest (in relative terms, of course).

The Runner

Photo: Marvel Comics

Top Speed: “Absolute Speed,” potentially limitless

The Runner is an Elder of the Universe - like the Grandmaster and the Collector of MCU fame - and that means he is one of the oldest beings in the universe, the last surviving member of his people, and a co-owner of the Power Primordial. Originally known as Gilpetperdon, the Runner has eschewed the plotting and scheming of his Elder colleagues for a rather simple goal: Becoming the fastest being in the Marvel Universe. And over the last few billion years, he has done exactly that.
Eventually, the Runner achieved something known as “Absolute Speed,” giving him a maximum velocity that is essentially limitless, and yet he still desires to be faster. To this end, he regularly hosts something known as the “Galactic Marathon,” in which he puts his speed against the speediest individuals in existence - and while the Runner doesn’t always win, one gets the feeling that that’s only because he occasionally holds back. In a more practical sense, he’s also used his super-speed to defeat Prime Thanos. At peak speed, and with the Space Gem in hand, the Runner is said to be so fast that he travels to a place before he even knows he wants to go there, meaning he’s faster than his own thoughts, as well as anything else in the Marvel Universe.

Makkari

Photo: Marvel Comics

Top Speed: “Absolute Speed,” potentially limitless

Makkari is a member of the Eternals whose name is meant to evoke the myth of Mercury, and he certainly lives up to that reputation of godly speed. Initially, Makkari channeled his Eternal physiology - which can present itself in any number of superpowered ways - exclusively into super-speed, which led to him being recognized as the fastest being on Earth - save for a universally displaced Barry Allen.
But Makkari did not stop there, traveling the Marvel Universe to seek out methods for moving even faster. After failing to qualify for the Runner’s Galactic Marathon, Makkari searched far and wide to unlock the secrets of “Absolute Speed” and was successful, eventually returning to the race and defeating all other contenders, including the Runner himself. With Absolute Speed, Makkari’s top velocity is essentially limitless - though he’ll need a few billion years' more practice before he can truly knock the Runner off his perch as the fastest super speedster in the Marvel Universe. 

Silver Surfer

Photo: Marvel Comics

Top Speed: 5,878,492,132,464 miles per second

Unlike the true upper crust of Marvel’s super speedsters, the Silver Surfer does have limits - but they are so preposterously high that they might as well not exist. Granted a portion of the Power Cosmic by former master Galactus and entrusted with searching out the universe for planets worth eating, Norrin Radd quickly became an expert at surfing the spaceways at the sort of speed that truly challenges the laws of physics.
The Silver Surfer has been shown capable of traveling a lightyear in a single second, a feat that requires one to move at a velocity nearing 6 trillion miles per second. While few beings have ever encountered the edge of the universe, the Surfer can enter hyperspace and travel from one end of it to the other in the span of an episode of WandaVision.
Somehow, these unbelievable totals still leave the Silver Surfer a step short of “Absolute Speed,” and so the Runner and Makkari will always be able to outpace him if they put their minds to it. Everyone else in the Marvel Universe, however, can eat Norrin Radd’s space dust.

The Sentry

Photo: Marvel Comics

Top Speed: At least 3,000,000 miles per second

Retroactively entered into the Marvel Universe as if he’d always been there in 2000, the Sentry was essentially Marvel’s answer to Superman, and he arrived with an appropriately oversized powerset. Though his amazing abilities are derived from the Golden Sentry Serum, a chemical collaboration of Weapon X and former Third Reich scientists - and not some cosmic source - Bob Reynolds possesses a whole host of powers that put him on par with almost any being in existence - and super speed is definitely one of them.
The Sentry has been depicted flying from Earth to the Sun in a matter of seconds, which means he’s several hundred times faster than the speed of light. One doesn’t get the notion that such a trip is even difficult for him, either, and so it’s a safe assumption that his top speed is something far greater. The Sentry’s total control over his molecular structure allows him to fly at greater-than-lightspeed without accumulating additional mass, something that prevents others capable of such speeds from achieving them on a regular basis.
Unfortunately, the Sentry has a dark “other half,” the Void, who possesses all of the same powers, which would make it the fastest evil beings in the Marvel Universe had it not already been absorbed into Knull, the God of Symbiotes. 

Northstar

Photo: Marvel Comics

Top Speed: 189,299 miles per second 

Jean-Paul Beaubier is a character who just seems to get faster as the years go by. Granted a whole host of mutant abilities by his X-Gene, including gestalt photokinesis and flight, Northstar has also dubbed himself the “fastest mutant alive” - and that doesn’t seem to be an idle boast. Back in his days with Alpha Flight, Northstar could fly at supersonic speeds, but since joining the X-Men and then X-Factor, he’s greatly expanded on that skillset. He’s reportedly estimated his own maximum velocity to exceed the speed of light in a vacuum but has also noted that actually traveling at such velocities would destroy both himself and the planet beneath him.
This is, of course, fine, because Northstar can already outpace the vast majority of the Marvel Universe, including all of his fellow Krakoans, even at half-speed. In fact, he’s not just the fastest mutant on Earth, he might just be the fastest mortal being of all. 

Nova (Richard Rider)

Photo: Marvel Comics

Top Speed: Greater than 186,282 miles per second

As a member of the Nova Corps, Richard Rider was granted a portion of the Nova Force, which allowed him to travel at superhuman speeds both within an atmosphere and in the vacuum of space. But then the entirety of the Corps was wiped out, and Rider became the conduit of the whole Nova Force - and that propelled him into the upper echelons of Marvel's super speedsters.
Though he has to play it safe whenever he’s planetside - to prevent tearing said planet apart - Nova can now exceed the speed of light as he’s blasting through space, rendering his old nickname of “The Human Rocket” a significant understatement.
The Nova Corps has since been somewhat reestablished, and Rider has yet to test the true limits of his speed, but it is still safe to dub him as the single fastest Homo sapiens to exist in the Marvel Universe - a noble distinction that still leaves him a few steps short of the cosmic speedsters. 

Spectrum

Photo: Marvel Comics

Top Speed: 186,282 miles per second

Whether she’s going by the name Captain Marvel, Photon, or Spectrum, Monica Rambeau remains one of the most powerful - and fastest - superheroes in the Marvel Universe. Bombarded with mysterious extra-dimensional energies, Rambeau gained the ability to turn her body into any form of energy that falls within the electromagnetic spectrum, and thus, the ability to travel as fast as those energies.
By transforming herself into pure light, Spectrum can move at exactly the speed of light, and there’s no time or distance-related limits on her power. And while she’s been handily beaten in events like the Galactic Marathon by those few beings capable of exceeding the cosmic speed limit, Rambeau can take solace in the fact that she moves just as fast as anyone can without straight-up breaking the laws of physics - or without becoming a danger to those around her. Unlike the true cosmic super speedsters, Spectrum can hit her max speed while on Earth without having to worry about destroying the planet. 

Hermes

Photo: Marvel Comics

Top Speed: 185,620 miles per second

The Asgardians aren’t the only pantheon of gods alive and well in the Marvel Universe, and Hermes Diaktoros is thus the actual Greek god of travel, among other things. With a well-earned reputation as a messenger for deities, Hermes is recognized as not just the fastest being on Mount Olympus, but also the speediest among all the many pantheons.
On foot and aided by his trademark winged boots, Hermes is capable of running at about one mile per second. But once he starts flying, Hermes can hit speeds approaching, but not quite hitting, the speed of light. And if that’s still not fast enough for the task at hand, Hermes can approximate a “warp speed” that essentially teleports him from one end of the universe to the other in moments - though whether such a tactic would hold up under the rules of the Galactic Marathon remains up in the air. 

Hyperion

Photo: Marvel Comics

Top Speed: More than 370 miles per second

Before the Sentry, Hyperion was Marvel Comics’ answer to Superman, hailing from an alternate reality and belonging to a Squadron Supreme that was just different enough from the Justice League to not necessitate a lawsuit. But while he began his fictional existence as a borderline parody, Marcus Milton would eventually carve out a distinct role for himself as one of the Marvel Universe’s most powerful - and fastest - superheroes.
In his home dimension, Hyperion gained powers similar to those of the Eternals, and even on Earth-616, his skillset stands out. He is capable of running at speeds greater than Mach 4 and can fly at more than 370 miles per second. Hyperion has been portrayed as easily outpacing lightning and can quite literally manipulate gravity itself to propel himself without exertion - meaning there’s no limit (save for the threat of planetary destruction) to when, where, and for how long he can travel at maximum speed. 

Quicksilver

Photo: Marvel Comics

Top Speed: 270 miles per second

Pietro Maximoff was once widely regarded as the fastest mutant alive, but when others like Aurora and Northstar started arriving on the scene, his paltry top running speed of 175 miles per hour began to look downright pedestrian.
As the years have unfolded, Quicksilver has learned that he’s not actually a mutant, but instead, a creation of the High Evolutionary, just like his sister Wanda. He’s also got his hands on and ingested the mysterious Isotope E, also created by the High Evolutionary, which drastically increased his super-speed to the point that he’s now back in the running as one of Marvel’s fastest.
Since then, Maximoff has been shown outrunning Thor’s lightning bolts, circling the Earth in under two minutes, and even breaking Mach 5. His estimated top velocity of 270 miles per second also makes him the single fastest earthling not capable of flight - through all that jogging wreaks havoc on Quicksilver’s metabolism, forcing him to stop after a few hours and replenish himself. 

Living Lightning

Photo: Marvel Comics

Top Speed: 270,000 miles per hour

Though these days he goes by just “Lightning,” infrequent Avenger Miguel Santos is exactly what it says on the tin. After discovering his deceased father’s supervillainous activities as a member of the Legion of Living Lightning, Santos was transformed by one of the Legion’s machines into a quite literal being of Living Lightning - and that distinction came with a serious top velocity.
Despite being mistaken as a legacy supervillain at first, Santos eventually proved himself as one of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and remains an auxiliary member despite having faded into the background as of late. Whenever he’s called upon, however, he can arrive in a literal flash because his body is made of, and can travel as fast as, electricity - and he doesn’t even need power lines to get to where he’s going. Which is bad news for any actual supervillains because Lightning also carries with him the full force of a lightning bolt, and they won’t see him coming until it’s too late. 

Thor

Photo: Marvel Comics

Top Speed: 24,553 miles per hour

The son of Odin and the God of Thunder possesses a great many impressive godly traits, and of course, super-speed is one of them. But Thor’s habit of teleporting wherever he needs to go via the Bifrost has led to Thor’s top velocity being underrated, despite it outpacing all but a select handful of his fellow Avengers.
Just by hurling Mjolnir and dangling from the handle, Thor can reach speeds of up to Mach 32 - though his own lightning is faster. That might look minuscule next to those who can break the lightspeed barrier, but Thor holds an advantage in that speed is only one of many weapons in his arsenal. Other heroes might beat Thor to the punch, but he’s still going to pack a wallop when he gets there. 

Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers)

Photo: Marvel Comics

Top Speed: At least 2,301 miles per hour

Blasted by the explosion of a Kree Psyche-Magnetron - thought to imbue her with alien superpowers, but then later revealed to have only awoken her own half-Kree physiology - Carol Danvers became Ms. Marvel before eventually taking on the mantle of Captain Marvel. Since then, her ever-expanding powers have eclipsed those of the original article, and it should come as no surprise that immense flight-speed is one of them, given Danvers’s chosen profession pre-superheroism.
As Captain Marvel, and especially in her unbridled persona of Binary, Danvers can reach a top velocity that is confirmed to be several times greater than the speed of sound - and is presumably much higher than that. Unfortunately, she can’t keep up such a pace forever, which is why she normally travels around via spaceship, unlike her cinematic counterpart.
It’s unknown just how fast Captain Marvel could move if she were to truly push herself to her limits, but there’s good reason to believe that the answer would place her far higher among the ranks of Marvel’s super speedsters than she is currently positioned. All she needs is a good reason to get somewhere in a hurry. 

Speed Demon

Photo: Marvel Comics

Top Speed: At least 1,534 miles per hour

James Sanders may not be a household name, but he does hold the dubious honor of being the fastest human supervillain in the Marvel Universe. Granted access to something called the Wellspring of Power by the Grandmaster, Speed Demon gained the sort of super-speed that made him a true threat to be reckoned with - a power that was quickly used to bring the Hulk to the brink by slicing him up faster than his healing factor could cope with.
Speed Demon, however, soon settled down into less-serious endeavors, even joining up with the semi-altruistic Thunderbolts at one point to try his hand at heroism. Most infamously, Sanders signed up with the silliest iteration of the Sinister Six - a squad that only had five members - and ended up laying quite a beating on the Superior Spider-Man via thousands of punches per second.
Despite his cosmic origins, Speed Demon is limited to travel by foot, but even then, he’s capable of reaching speeds faster than the human eye can perceive. 

Aurora

Photo: Marvel Comics

Top Speed: 767 miles per hour

As a mutant and the twin sister of Northstar, Jeanne-Marie Beaubier was once capable of reaching the same night-lightspeed velocities as her brother could. But this uncontrollable power proved dangerous to Aurora’s health and mind, which led her Alpha Flight teammate Sasquatch to alter her at the molecular level, greatly reducing her maximum velocity.
In her current iteration, Aurora falls just short of cracking the sound barrier, but there’s a good chance that she’ll one day be able to tap into her old power reserves - especially after being resurrected on the mutant island of Krakoa with an unknown level of genetic enhancement. 

Speed

Photo: Marvel Comics

Top Speed: 761 miles per hour

Most superheroes have complicated origin stories, but few more so than Tommy Shepherd, who gained his mutant super-speed when the technically nonexistent son of the Scarlet Witch was reincarnated and bonded with his soul.
Given that his powers are inherited from his spiritual uncle, Pietro Maximoff, Speed should be capable of velocities in excess of 200 miles per second. But the long-time member of the Young Avengers has thus far been unable to break the sound barrier, despite his obsession with understanding both his own power and that of every other super speedster on the planet. Speed might not be all that fast as of yet, but he’s still got plenty of upward potentials and the drive to get himself there.

The Whizzer

Photo: Marvel Comics

Top Speed: 100 miles per hour

Back before there even was a Marvel Universe, Robert Frank was believed to be the fastest individual in it - even if his top speed of 100 miles per hour would later be eclipsed by Invaders teammates like Namor.
Bitten by a deadly cobra, young Frank was inexplicably injected with mongoose blood, which both healed him and granted him super-speed. As the Whizzer, Frank joined Captain America in battling the Third Reich forces in WWII and then settled into retirement as the modern Marvel Universe bloomed around him.
The Whizzer might be slower than the average automobile now, and he may possess an objectively hilarious codename, but he deserves points for originality, and for setting the standard for generations of Marvel speedsters to come.