Issue Description

Flash and Green Lantern go after an alien ship that has been spotted over the city.

Police forensics scientist, Barry Allen, and test pilot, Hal Jordan, are hanging out, together, in Coast City. The two men eventually make it back to the estate of Jordan's boss, Carol Ferris. Having tied each other in a sporting contest, the two men compete in an archery competition, to determine the winner. Suddenly, an unidentified flying object buzzes the grounds of the Ferris Estate. In the confusion, Allen and Jordan slip away, only to reappear in their costumed identities, the Flash and the Green Lantern. The two heroes are in pursuit of the strange craft when it captures the Flash in a tractor beam. Green Lantern pursues the craft to a distant alien world.

Though the craft releases the Flash, Green Lantern continues his pursuit. Green Lantern grounds the craft with the power of his ring, only to discover it is unmanned. Suspecting he may have been lured into a trap, Green Lantern sets off to rendezvous with the Flash. The Scarlet Speedster finds himself slowly trudging through a snowstorm, one that seemingly formed out of nothingness. A massive creature coalesces out of the snow before him. Vibrating at super-speed, the Flash dissipates the creature before it can attack. All at once, the snow storm ends.

The Flash is confronted by a transparent alien, armed with a strange gun. The alien fires on the Flash causing the Flash to be upended. No matter how hard he tries, the Flash can't right himself. Learning to run on his hands at super-speed, the Flash kicks his attacker into unconsciousness. Meanwhile, Green Lantern is drawn down to the planet's surface by a rapid increase in the planet's gravity. Breaking his fall with a power ring constructed mattress, Green Lantern finds himself held fast by the planetary gravity. A river of molten metal erupts out of a nearby hill. Mustering the full force of his willpower, Green Lantern manages to raise just high enough to avoid being consumed.

All at once, gravity returns to normal. The Green Lantern meets back up with the Flash. While comparing notes, the two men are suddenly grabbed by a living mountain range. The Flash vibrates his way to freedom. The Green Lantern constructs a ring powered pile driver to break himself free. With the entire planet seemingly trying to kill them, the two heroes depart, and return to Earth. Upon arriving in Coast City, the two heroes are stunned to see an enormous robot looming on the outskirts of town. Racing to confront it, the pair of heroes are stopped short by a holographic alien head, barring their path. The alien, a Myrmiton, telepathically informs the two heroes that Earth has been conquered.

The Flash and the Green Lantern were lured away, off world, to give the Myrmitons the time they needed to take the Earth. Holding the entire Earth hostage, under the threat of destruction by cosmic radiation, the Myrmitons force the Flash and the Green Lantern to surrender. The Green Lantern allows the Myrmitons to draw away his power ring. The Flash allows the Myrmitons to bathe him in cosmic radiation, neutralizing his super-speed powers. No longer in possession of their great powers, the Flash and the Green Lantern dejectedly wander the streets of Coast City. Speaking to the Green Lantern telepathically, the Flash reveals that all is not how it seems.

Moving so fast that he left an after image of himself behind, the Flash raced into a department store and grabbed the fake power ring off a Green Lantern mannequin, while also carrying the Flash mannequin back with him. Moving faster than the eye could see, The Flash removed the real power ring from the Green Lantern's finger, replacing it with the replica. The Flash then placed the Flash mannequin in his place, so that it was bombarded with the power destroying cosmic radiation. The Myrmitons discover the Flash's ruse, just as the two heroes are racing up towards their base. The Myrmitons' headquarters, however, is protected by a powerful force field.

Stopped by the field, the Flash and the Green Lantern are easy targets for the Myrmitons, who disintegrate the two heroes with cosmic rays. Once again, though, the two heroes have perpetrated a ruse. Aware of the Myrmitons' force field, the Green Lantern animated the two mannequins, sending them on a frontal assault. The real Green Lantern used his power ring to tunnel under the base's defenses. Taking the Myrmitons by surprise, the Flash and the Green Lantern are quick to defeat the alien conquerors. The Flash and the Green Lantern take a few of the Myrmitons prisoner, holding them hostage indefinitely, as insurance against future attacks. Before they can be swarmed by reporters, the Flash and the Green Lantern return to the Ferris Estate, as Allen and Jordan. Resuming their archery contest, both men throw the game, to end their competition in a tie.

The Flash (1959)

Publisher

DC Comics

Volume Description

The Flash Volume 1, (continued from Flash Comics).

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Starring Barry Allen as the Flash and Wally West as Kid Flash. After 4 try-out issues of "Show case" - the first being #4, which is widely accepted as being the comic that launched the Silver Age - the Flash returned to star in his own title with #105 in 1959. The numbering of the title continued from the Golden Age "Flash Comics," which had come to an end as Super Heroes went out of fashion in the early 1950's. When Police scientist Barry Allen was doused with a variety of chemicals along with a bolt of lightning, the accident endowed him with Super Speed, and he donned the famous red Flash uniform we are all familiar with. Barry was seeing reporter Iris Allen, and to ensure he kept his identity as the Flash a secret from his girlfriend, he always turned up late for their dates. During his Showcase appearances, the Flash had battled the first of what was to become his rogues gallery when he clashed with Captain Cold, and his range of costumed opponents was about expand almost as rapidly as his uniform expanded from his ring when it came into contact with air. In his opening issue, the Flash battled the Mirror Master, and in the following issue, readers were introduced to Gorilla Grodd, Solovar, and the inhabitants of Gorilla City in a trilogy of tales that ran through issues #106 - 108. Also starring in #106 was another costumed villain, the Pied Piper. The Mirror Master obviously proved a hit with fans as he was back in #109 for a re-match and in #110 the Flash encountered the Weather Wizard for the first time. The Trickster brought his tricks to Central City in Flash #113, while Captain Cold returned in #114 and another Captain - this time Captain Boomerang debuted in #117.

However, it wasn't just super villains the Flash was encountering in the early issues of his own series. In #110, Kid Flash made his debut, when Wally West was caught in a freak duplicate of the accident that had given Barry his super speed. Wally's original costume was a duplicate of Barry's (only smaller of course) but sidekicks were "in" at the time and Wally would often feature in back up stories in the Flash as well as sometimes teaming up with his mentor - such as in #120. Later (#135) Wally would receive his more familiar yellow and red costume, which would serve him for the best part of two decades. Shortly after the introduction of Kid Flash, the Flash encountered Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man in #112. At first, Barry thought the Elongated Man was a criminal, but by the end of the lead story in this issue, Ralph was exonerated, and the two men became firm friends. Editor Julius Schwartz was developing a number of friendships across the books he edited and chief among them was a friendship between Green Lantern and the Flash. The two first teamed up in Green Lantern #13 and the friendship was cemented during several shared adventures including the ones in Flash #131 and #143.

The most far reaching team -up of Barry's career was to come about in the classic Flash #123, "Flash of Two Worlds" in which the Scarlet Speedster met his "hero" Jay Garrick, the original Flash from the Golden Age of comics, and the concept of Earth Two was launched. Subsequent team ups between the two Flashes included the reintroduction of the Justice Society of America in #137's "Vengeance of the Immortal Villain," as the heroes pitted their wits against Vandal Savage. In the meantime, the villains just kept coming, as Abra Kadabra - a magician from the future made his debut in #128, Heat Wave made things hot for the Flash in #140, and the Top put him in a spin in # 141. However, it was the introduction of Eobard Thawne - the Reverse Flash (or Professor Zoom) in #140 that would have the most far reaching and long lasting effect upon Barry Allen's future.

When Barry and Iris finally got around to tying the knot, (#165), the Reverse Flash tried to take his place at the altar. Although Barry foiled his arch -foe on this occasion, history would repeat itself later in the series. After the death of Iris (accidentally shot at a costume ball), Barry was about to get re-married. Thawne was about to kill his fiance, but in order to prevent that happening, Barry snapped the neck of his enemy - an event which led to the two-year plus "Trial of the Flash," which concluded the series and led to the seeming demise of Barry Allen in Crisis on Infinite Earths.

With science-based stories by the likes of Gardner Fox, John Broome, and Robert Kanigher, and the sleek angular artistic lines provided by Carmine Infantino, the Flash became one of the most popular and attractive books in the DC line throughout the Silver Age and indeed its impressive 246 issue run. The series ended with issue 350 and was continued a little more over a year into The Flash Volume 2.

Collected EditionsFlash Archives Vol. 1 (#105-108)Flash Omnibus (#105-132)Showcase Presents: The Flash vol. 1 (#105-111)Flash Archives Vol. 2 (#109-116)Flash Archives Vol. 3 (#117-124)Showcase Presents: The Flash vol. 2 (#120-140)Flash Archives Vol. 4 (#125-132)Flash Archives Vol. 5 (#133-141)Showcase Presents: The Flash vol. 3 (#141-161)Flash Archives Vol. 6 (#142-150)Showcase Presents: The Flash vol. 4 (#162-184)Absolute Green Lantern/Green Arrow (#217-219 & 226)Showcase Presents: The Trial of the Flash (#323-7, 329-336, 340-350)

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