DC Comics had to shut down its comments section after a flame war broke out flooding the site with abuse.

In what has to be seen as one of the silliest flame wars we have seen, DC Comics could not cope after two armies of trolls slugged it out over the issue of who runs the fastest, Superman or Flash? According to Comics Alliance the intense flamewar that out on a recent post and spiralled into personal attacks against readers, creators, and members of the DC comics staff.

It all started when the Source, which is DC Comics's web II site, offered a preview of Superman #709, in which writer Chris Roberson and artist Eddy Barrows offered their take on the classic idea of a race between Superman and the Flash. But the comments went beyond the usual “the reporter sucks” and “ was this written by a work experience person?” to abuse at everything that moved.

As reactors melt down in Japan, and bombs drop in Libya, it is strange to see such a sense of perspective being displayed with such passion. But DC thought that such displays of free speech were overloading its servers and, in a nation were people carry guns, likely to end up with someone getting hurt.

The site admin “Molly” pulled the plug on the debate. Offending comments have been deleted and the boards have been shut down (at least temporarily) in order to restore order. However as Comic's Alliance points out, most of the comments were benign and it looks like DC Comics over reacted.

After all it is bloody obvious that Flash is faster than Superman otherwise there is no point in having his character. It is one of the reasons that Apple banned Flash from its app store.