Even though Iron Man is usually able to use his superior intellect and impressive gadgets to defeat nearly every threat he encounters, the Avenger would regrettably be utterly destroyed by the Flash, and it would be hilarious. The Flash can tap into an otherworldly power source known as the Speed Force and can channel that power through his body, making him faster than time itself. While the Flash’s powers alone would be enough to convince anyone that he would beat Iron Man in a fight, there is actual proof that the Flash can not only defeat Iron Man but also do it with style.
In Flash Forward #2 by Scott Lobdell and Brett Booth, Wally West is in the middle of a multiversal adventure as he is teaming up with a number of alternate versions of classic DC characters to stop a threat. In this issue, the Flash finds himself face-to-face with the Retaliators, a team of superpowered people from Earth-8 who see the Flash as a threat that needs neutralizing. While fighting the Retaliators, the Flash dismantles the entire team without hardly breaking a sweat, including one character who is eerily similar to Iron Man.
The entire Retaliators team is a spoof on the Avengers from Marvel Comics. Not only is the name of the team the ‘Retaliators’, an obvious parody of the ‘Avengers’ but the members of the superhero squad are nearly identical to Marvel’s Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. One of the most recognizable is a member of the Retaliators named Machinehead who is incredibly similar to Iron Man in both name and abilities. Machinehead also wears a suit of armor of his own design which looks and operates much like Iron Man’s suit. When Machinehead challenges the Flash, DC’s speedster dismantles his entire suit in an instant with a speed blast, neutralizing the threat he posed if he even posed one to begin with.
DC Comics creating parodies of Marvel characters only to have them defeated by its own classic characters isn’t a new phenomenon for the publisher. In Justice League Incarnate #1, DC created its own version of Thanos only to have him be killed with little effort by Darkseid in that very same issue. Either DC feels it has something to prove or the comic writers just like poking fun at their competition, either way, it is entertaining for fans to see these matchups that would otherwise not exist and it is assuredly cathartic for DC to see its heroes on top even if those victories are through its own making.
Even though DC Comics had the Flash defeat a knock-off Iron Man, obviously being biased as to who would win that fight, the outcome is not unfounded. The Flash dismantled Machinehead’s suit instantaneously, leaving him basically standing in his underwear before he even had a chance to blink. The Flash would absolutely destroy Iron Man in a fight, and like Machinehead, the Flash would do so in the funniest way.