Issue Description

Vandal Savage tries to exact vengeance on the retired Justice Society, leading Barry to Earth-2 to help Jay free the other JSA members.

Mysterious lights begin appearing in the skies over Washington D.C, Gotham City and Calvin City. All forms of power, from electric lights to motor cars to flashlights, cease to operate in those cities. The city names trigger a childhood memory in police forensics scientist, Barry Allen. Each of the cities in question happen to correspond to the same cities, on Earth 2, that various members of the legendary Justice Society of America call home. Allen decides to call on his Earth 2 counterpart, as the Flash. Vibrating at super-human speed, the Flash attunes his vibratory frequency to that of Earth 2, and arrives in Keystone City, the home of the Golden Age Flash.

The Flash heads over to his counterpart's home, and is greeted by Joan Garrick, the wife of the Golden Age Flash. Soon enough, the Golden Age Flash returns home, having just visited the same cities on his world. The Golden Age Flash reveals that in each of the cities, a member of the Justice Society of America has gone missing. Suddenly, the strange lights appear over Keystone City. The two Flashes scour the city for the source of the mysterious lights. The Golden Age Flash finds it first. The moment he attempts to tamper with the device generating the lights, a glass case materializes around him. Paralyzed within the case, the Golden Age Flash is helpless as the case rises into the air, and slowly makes it's way across the city.

The Flash arrives too late to get ahold of the case before it has risen too high in the air. Generating powerful suction, by racing around in a tight circle, also fails to ground the case. Chasing the case across Keystone City, the Flash finally leaps from a rooftop onto the case, and shatters it with several super-speed blows. Grabbing ahold of his counterpart, the Flash generates a cushion of air beneath them, to slow their descent to the ground. Miles away, beneath the Mammoth Caves, in Kentucky, Vandal Savage ponders why the case carrying the Golden Age Flash never arrived. Lining Savage's headquarters are a half dozen glass cases, each holding a different member of the Justice Society of America.

Utilizing technology provided by Brain Wave, Savage had lured, and snared, each of the six heroes in their individual cities. As he ponders what could possibly have gone wrong in Keystone City, Savage reflects on his past. Once he had been Vandar Adg, a cro-magnon man. A meteor explosion had bestowed upon him immortality. As history unfolded, Adg walked the Earth under many names, playing many roles. King of Sumer. The Egyptian pharaoh, Cheops. Genghis Khan. Napoleon's military advisor. With only the Golden Age Flash a threat to his dreams of conquest, Savage sets off to deal with him, personally. Savage catches up with the Golden Age Flash, on his second attempt to destroy the device powering the mysterious lights.

Using a weapon designed by the Thinker, Savage causes the Golden Age Flash's mass to increase, causing him to sink beneath the ground. The Flash races to his counterpart's rescue. Savage reverses the beams effects on the Flash, decreasing his mass until he begins to float in the air. Attaching a tether line to both Flashes, Savage begins dragging them back to his secret lair. Vibrating at super-speed, both Flashes are able to cause Savage to lose control of his flying craft. Savage survives the crash, and flees back to his hidden lair. After reversing the effects of the Thinker's weapon, the Flashes head off in pursuit of Savage.

The Flashes storm Savage's hideout, only to be caught in the beam of another weapon, this one designed by Per Degaton. Instantly, the Flashes begin trying to kill one another. Ultimately, the Flash defeats his older counterpart. Savage is quick to imprison the Golden Age Flash in a new glass case. Moving faster than the eye can see, the Flash charges Savage. At the last moment, he veers off, instead hurling a stone at the immortal villain. The stone disrupts the illusion of Savage, revealing another of his inescapable glass cases. With the trap sprung, Savage erroneously believes that the Flash is locked inside the case, still invisible due to his great speed.

Savage only realizes the truth when he finds himself surrounded by both Flashes, as well as the formerly imprisoned members of the Justice Society of America. Doctor Midnight disables Brain Wave's devices, restoring power to the afflicted cities. The Golden Age Wonder Woman suggests the team consider coming out of retirement, to prevent future villainous actions against them. The team agrees, and schedules a meeting for a future date. First order of business is to learn more about the parallel Flash and the world he comes from. Meanwhile, having returned to his world, the Flash, as Allen, makes his own plans, to dine with his girlfriend, reporter Iris West.

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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