R4 animal man punches

"It sounds to me," Animal Man said, "Like it'd be safer for everyone if you were locked up for good."

"They don't make chains strong enough for me."

The two of them stepped forward at the same time, and vanished. And then, with a crack of thunder, they collided.

[...]

What?

Hale thought. For a brief moment. In a white flash lasting a single instant.

Where am I?

His eyes refocused and the world seemed to come in around him. In that fraction of a moment, he saw what had happened. His fist, held out, missing Animal Man by a mile. The hero's own fist, crumpling into his face.

   * SUPERHUMAN REACTION TIME (housefly)
   * SUPERSONIC PUNCH (mantis shrimp)

He'd underestimated him. No hippie had ever punched Saxton Hale before, hadn't even dared--but this was clearly a super-hippie, forged in the fires of okra and socialism as the perfect anti-Hale weapon. Or something. He was trying a lot of mental tactics to come to terms with the fact that a man that wasn't even Australian had just cold-clocked him with a phantom punch.

That punch flowed into a series of relentless jabs, fourteen or fifteen rolling out near-simultaneously. Hale had to give it to him, the guy knew how to follow up. The most important part of a fight was always following up on your hits, after all, and he wasn't giving Hale the slightest opportunity to counter with his famous fists. All he could do was parry with his forearm. It wasn't like he couldn't take the hits or anything, but it wasn't the kind of punch Hale wanted to take a hundred of directly to the face. Fortunately, he still had his legs.