How does Flash get hit?

I see so much on battle forums and stuff about Flash beating virtually anyone because "they could never land a hit on him." This makes sense given his powers. However, in comics Flash does get hit often times. Is that just dumb writing or am I missing something?

Flash only moves as fast as he has too. He isn't always as quick as light, he varies the speed he feels is needed.

That and

If he was he wasn't able to be hit, that wouldn't make for an interesting comic.

Well he can go much faster than light actually. But I guess its just because it would be a bad comic, but why give him powers that make him impossible to hit if you know you are going to want to get him hit anyway? I just don't get it.

Its basically PIS, "Plot Induced Stupidity". Essentially, a writer writes the best story first, the actual continuity generally takes a back seat. Any Flash comic without some amount of PIS would only be one panel long, and who would read that?

AoE attacks can hit him, as can attacks from unexpected directions. Knock his feet out from under him, and he'll go down just like anyone else. He's fast, but he doesn't have spider senses. Hence why he's got Captain Cold (who can take out his footing), Mirror Master and Captain Boomerang (both of whom specialize in surprise attacks from unexpected directions) and Weather Wizard (who attacks from everywhere, what with controlling the weather and all) in his Rogues Gallery.

Aside from that, in the New 52 he can get hit by overthinking things: He can process information at super speed, slow the world down to a crawl and think through all the possibilities of how to best deal with a situation. Unfortunately, it's easy to get lost in thought at that speed and lose track of what's going on in a high stakes battle like that. Just because the world's at a crawl doesn't mean it's not moving, after all.

All of Flash's villains are specifically designed to deal with his speed.

Zoom is faster, Captain Cold slows him down, Mirror Master can attacks from lots of directions, etc

also plot >>>>>>>>>>>>> powers

flash gets hit by something he can never outrun: PIS

Because it's a comic book

The unfortunate thing about Flash comics is that 99/100 there's going to be PIS.

Flash limits his reflexes so that he doesn't have to live through millions of years every second.

Love seeing all the fanboys crying PIS.

Forums is one thing, comics is another.

In the forums, people tend to go by stats and feats, what the person is capable of and what he or she has shown to be able to do. In comics, in order to make some kind of conflict, disbeliefs have to be suspended and the characters who in theory should be unstoppable, aren't.

Unfortunate, but true.

With a fist, I'd guess.

Plot.

Cuz he iz a big noob lel.

@jwalser3: PIS is probably the most valid reason. Its the same with superman, if he has reaction speeds fast enough to aviod people when moving at super speeds, then no one would even get close to him while holding a lead box with kryptonite in it because he would see it, move away and eye beam it before a human could even get it out of their pocket/belt.

OP is right. It's bad writing to have these characters be all powerful at times and total morons at others. Flash getting hit by any other being is like getting caught by one slow zombie on a wide open prarie. He'd have to just sit and wait for you to reach him. Captain Cold can slow him down? He could run to Australia before his beam could touch. Even if it was a laser, Flash is faster than light. The solution is simple: bring the power level down to a reasonable level.

Trickster?

In the battle forums we assume Flash is fighting to the best of his ability, meaning written to the best. In comics, its all plot.

Carefully.

Because Flash is overrated. I love the character, but overrated nonetheless. Fans like to look at him as one of the most powerful members of the Justice League. He's not.

Because deathstroke is quicker than him where it counts. Trolol.

Ah ah ah!

@bflynn316: He gets hit thanks to the speed mind ability, he can pretty much see every single outcome about to happen however this has led to him being shot point blank. Thats what I chalk it upto in the new52 ,barry just thought of all possible outcomes and if taking a punch means someone not dying or a worse outcome hes going to take that shot

haha yes

Stealth, AoE attacks, Omnidirectional attacks

Oh yes he is. If he is written well and uses his powers to the maximum and doesn't P*** about he is one of the most powerful there is, he can do almost anything...

It's not PIS, Flash has explained why he doesn't run at his top speeds constantly.

1.) It would require a lot of energy and is a burden on him to constantly be going his "best".

2.) He'd shatter a lot of windows with the Sonic Boom from reaching speeds that are too fast, he only goes as fast as he needs to in order to accomplish the task at hand.

3.) It'd be a boring book if you just read about a man going light speed and throwing out IMP's like people throw beads during Mardi Gras wouldn't it?

EDIT: Also because his villains are designed to directly combat his speed abilities.

Not really. Are you saying Flash has never left his guard down, or has faced someone with super speed before? Wally is on his "A" game all the time? I don't think so.

TTBA explained it pretty well. And @thetruebarryallen how often has Flash thrown IMP I only recall once and people talk big about it all the time.

I've only seen it once and it was during the JLA book against Zum. He might've used it some other times as well, I'm not that knowledgeable on Wally's exploits.

Oh boy...

That's the only time I've seen it as well and people act like he does it regularly.

Does doing it once somehow mean it doesn't count?
It's not the safest way of dealing with an enemy, it could cause a ton of collateral damage, and I'm pretty sure the punch itself would kill pretty much any of his rouges.

@thetruebarryallen said:

It would be hilarious if he just stopped and told the reader this.

Does doing it once implicate that they use it very often?

Take Bloodshot for example, he used a sonic scream early on in his series. He hasn't used it since, does that mean he has the ability? Of course, does that mean that is his go-to attack? No. IMP is just a pathetic attempt for Flash to win in the battle forums.

He doesnt use his speed very well which also means he wouldnt win anywhere near the amount of battles people claim, the flash is extremely overrated.

Just because something isn't a go-to attack doesn't mean it can't be used, and I just told you why he doesn't use it, and will probably never use it again.

Yeah, that's the reason Grant Morrison made it, so people could argue about it on the battle forums -__-

Most forum battles take morals off, or use bloodlust, where hes going to use everything at his disposal to kill you. In that case, almost anyone he fights is quite honestly f*cked. However, he is an actual character, and is written as such.

..is this a Flash trolling board or something? How is Flash over-rated?! Anyway to answer the question, basically its like any character with super-speed, they get distracted, surprised, they are off their game for a second and they get hit. If the comic book writers didn't allow Flash to get tagged it would be a bit boring...

if someone like boomer or mirror master lands a punch on him, then it's pis. not when they are in motion using their powers, but just sucker punching him would even be pis. even when he lets his guard down he would still be able to notice and react a fist coming at his face considering when a bullet came at his head he was able to instinctively vibrate it through him, super girl kneed him in the face and he did the same thing....and i am sure she moves a lot faster than the trickster or boomer or anyone who landed a punch on him.

The bullet thing happened in the New 52 IIRC, same with the Supergirl fight.

Owen Mercer ( Captain Boomerang II ) hit Flash with a boomerang due to his own super speed.

Mirror Master is capable of making infinite duplicates and BFR'ing to the mirror world.

It's not PIS if Flash get's hit, he's not CONSTANTLY in the zone, I love the guy, but he's a tad overrated here on the Battle Forums.

This is an example of how he could get hit. I think someone else mentioned this too above me: when he's thinking too much, he isn't alert to the outside world and can get hit like this. Now, the reason the speed kicked in was most likely because it was lethal. If it was some random guy trying to punch him, instinct might not have kicked in, allowing him to be hit.

Scan already posted. He even says he was lost in thought and got hit. Sorry to tell you this news.

QFT.

He's inconsistent

I don’t get why getting distracted would allow people to beat him or how if he’s not on his A game would either because he’s shown that he can casually move at very high speeds like when flash was talking to Superman and eating a pie or when he was talking to captain atom in the middle of a war.

He's been hit multiple times.