While Marvel’s Quicksilver may be known for his speed, a surprising challenger just left him in the dust by showcasing their top speed. A longtime Avengers member, Quicksilver has long been Marvel’s answer to DC’s Flash. However, despite his famous arrogance, it turns out that Pietro Maximoff is no match for one powerhouse’s maximum speed.

In a preview of Giant-Size Silver Surfer #1, the comic begins with narration that most readers will assume comes from the titular hero himself, boasting, “Though I travel beyond the speed of light, my reputation inevitably precedes me.”

However, the comic then reveals that the boast actually comes from Terrax the Tamer – a different former herald of Galactus who Silver Surfer will battle this issue. While Quicksilver is fast, any character traveling beyond the speed of light isn’t just faster – they have a totally different, cosmic level of speed. That’s clearly the case for both Terrax and the Silver Surfer.

Galactus’ Former Herald Terrax Is Faster Than Lightspeed

The Power Cosmic Outstrips Quicksilver’s Powers

Terrax is a former dictator who briefly served as Galactus’ herald, seeking out and subjugating planets for the World Devourer to consume. Terrax was a deviation from Galactus’ usual heralds, as the World Devourer generally chooses wise, accomplished people who have something to gain from working with him, offering a deal they can’t refuse. However, with Terrax, Galactus wanted to test if ruthlessness would lead to a better, more consistent servant, and he simply threatened the villain into compliance.

Naturally able to control earth and stone, Terrax’s powers were enhanced by the Power Cosmic, turning him into a godlike being – he eventually betrayed Galactus and has been a galactic threat ever since. Indeed, Giant-Size Silver Surfer will see Terrax attack the Silver Surfer, enraged at being seen as second-best.

Before now, fans knew that heralds were fast. The Power Cosmic is one of the greatest forces in Marvel lore, and has allowed the Silver Surfer to achieve mind-blowing feats in the past. However, previous versions of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe put Terrax at sub-lightspeed levels. This issue’s new measure puts him in the same league – or perhaps even faster – than the Silver Surfer, who is able to travel at lightspeed, most often by bending physics and distorting spacetime to travel vast distances in the blink of an eye. By confirming that Heralds travel at beyond lightspeed, Marvel has elevated both Terrax and Silver surfer to its highest speed class.

Marvel Has Multiple Heroes Faster Than Quicksilver

Captain Marvel, Sentry and More Also Make the Grade

Of course, even before Terrax and Silver Surfer, Quicksilver wasn’t the definitive speedster in Marvel lore. Jeff Parker and Aaron Lopresti’s What If…? Avengers Disassembled surprisingly revealed that Captain Marvel can exceed Quicksilver’s speed enough to tackle him, albeit only for very short bursts.

Rick Remender and Daniel Acuña’s Uncanny Avengers #10 confirmed that the Sentry is even faster, or at least he was when in his ‘Horseman of Death’ form, reaching speeds that “bend space and time” and allowed him to fly Thor across the universe so fast, even the god was disoriented. More recently, Jason Loo and David Cutler’s Sentry revealed that Ryan Sentry (who had inherited a portion of the original Sentry’s power) was faster than Captain Marvel, as she failed to catch him when he flew off-world.

Sentry would be the biggest competitor to Terrax’s newly established maximum speed, however the hero is dead in current Marvel canon and likely to stay that way. The Sentry’s powers were recently shared between various random civilians, with their totality eventually ending up in the hands of Solarus, aka Mallory Gibbs. While Solarus is definitely the hero to watch, she’s very new to her powers, and hasn’t yet established faster-than-lightspeed, meaning that at least for now, Terrax and Silver Surfer sit at the top of the tree… at least in the Marvel Universe.

Why Marvel Heroes Can’t Match the Flash

No Matter How Fast They Go, Marvel’s Heroes Are Missing 1 Key Ingredient

No matter how fast Marvel’s heroes and villains travel, it’s highly unlikely they’ll ever match DC’s Flash. The Scarlet Speedster is impossibly fast, with the recent ‘One-Minute War’ arc seeing an intergalactic invasion play out so quickly, it lasted sixty seconds to anyone without speed powers. While once Flash’s speed was comparable to Superman, various retcons have made that no longer the case, and during the One-Minute War, Superman couldn’t even move fast enough to fight alongside the speedsters. Flash can move so fast he can pass between the atoms of normal objects and people, and can run forwards and backwards in time.

Flash’s incredible speed is due to the Speed Force – a unique energy field which connects various worlds in the DC multiverse. Speedsters unlock near-infinite energy by tapping into the Speed Force, although if they move too fast, they also risk being swallowed into it. Flash’s various feats have made it clear he travels way faster than the speed of light. The Flash is capable of operating in terms of attoseconds – a unit of time that’s as close to a second as a second is to tens of billions of years.

This level of speed isn’t possible in Marvel’s reality for one simple reason – the Marvel Universe isn’t connected to the Speed Force. Kurt Busiek and George Pérez’s JLA/Avengers crossover made this explicit, explaining that Flash’s max speed is far in excess of Quicksilver’s, but that when he’s in the Marvel Universe, Flash loses his speed altogether. The crossover explained that there are many physical differences between the two universes – Kryptonite radiation also isn’t possible in Marvel’s reality, while in the DC Universe, Earth is significantly larger, explaining why it has so many extra cities like Gotham and Metropolis.

Quicksilver Is Still Marvel’s Fastest Man Alive… from a Certain Point of View

Fans of the Avengers’ Speedster Can Rest Assured That He’s Still Special

Saladin Ahmed and Eric Nguyen’s Quicksilver: No Surrender established that while other characters are literally faster, Pietro has an unparalleled mastery of physical speed. In practical terms, his reactions and instinctual understanding of movement are still the most advanced in Marvel lore, suggesting that if he too was given the Power Cosmic, he’d then be even faster than Terrax and Silver Surfer. This is partly because Quicksilver’s speed comes from his biological powers, which his body and mind have altered to wield. That’s in contrast to Terrax and the Surfer, who can command reality solely because of Galactus’ gifts.

However, when it comes to raw speed, Marvel has made it clear that wielders of the Power Cosmic can simply go faster than Quicksilver’s existing speed powers. While Quicksilver will always be Marvel’s most iconic speedster, the Power Cosmic means that Silver Surfer and Terrax can leave him in the dust.

Giant-Size Silver Surfer #1 is coming July 10, 2024 from Marvel Comics.