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Eternals’ Makkari is the MCU’s fastest figure yet — but their race with a Flash pastiche from Quasar proved which one was faster.
Both the DC and Marvel Universe have their share of super-fast figures, with the gold standard of the power type being the Flash family of heroes. This includes Barry Allen, who has gone on to become one of the most iconic heroes in the DC Universe.
With a new incarnation of Makkari making their cinematic debut in Eternals, it’s worth looking back to a time when the two characters came up against each other. The Earth-616 incarnation of the Eternals speedster Makkari once had a footrace against someone clearly meant to be DC’s Flash — and the Marvel hero never stood a chance of keeping up.
Quasar #17 (by Mark Gruenwald and Mike Manley) introduced a suspiciously familiar speedster to the Marvel Universe. While observing the Earth from space, the cosmically empowered Quasar was surprised when a figure bathed in light rush past him. Quasar and one of his allies — Makkari of the Eternals — raced after him, discovering the Runner. One of the Elders of the Universe (the informal family who count the Grandmaster and the Collector among their number), the Runner challenged Makkari to a race around the world. Soon, the rest of Earth’s fastest heroes and villains — including Quicksilver, Spectrum (then known as Captain Marvel), Speed Demon, Whizzer, Super Sabre, and Black Racer — met for the contest, which was to take them through warp space to determine who was the world’s fastest.
The race turns out to be surprisingly tight, with Makkari struggling — but succeeding — in taking the lead. But things change with the sudden arrival of a mysterious man with a blonde beard. Struck with amnesia and wearing the tatters of a crimson costume, the figure is compelled to run by an energy source within him, quickly joining the race and outpacing many of the competitors. The figure eventually reaches Makkari and passes him without even realizing the weight of the competition. Reaching the finish line, the Elder is impressed by the man, who merely refers to himself as “Buried Alien.” Declaring him the victor, the Runner took the man with him to compete in a galactic marathon, despite the man’s desire to just return to his world.
The mysterious man — who only made one other appearance in Quasar #58 (by Mark Gruenwald, Peter Sanderson, and John Heebink) — later took part in another race with Makkari. By this point, he’d accepted that he couldn’t return to his original world or regain his original memories and instead made peace with running for the sake of running. Taking on the name FastForward, the figure was as fast as Makkari, but voluntarily removed himself from the race to keep another competitor from interfering and disqualifying the Eternal. The story ends on the pair having a friendly race after a technicality frees Makkari from his potential fate.
Buried Alien — arriving in the Marvel Universe just years after the conclusion of DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths — is a clear pastiche of Barry Allen, aka the Flash. The iconic hero was one of the most important casualties of that event, killed preventing the Anti-Monitor’s plans to wipe out all of existence and running himself to death to save his loved ones. “Buried Alien” could be seen as a version of Flash who survived the Crisis, and landed in the Marvel Universe.
His Marvel appearance allowed him to carry on in some form, however, and even prove to be above the fastest figures in this universe. Even against someone as quick as Makkari, FastForward proved to be even faster and proved that the Flash is the fastest man alive in any universe.
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