Issue Description

An innocent man suddenly appears in Samuel Scudder's prison cell, demanding to be released. Scudder mysteriously appears in Central City Park, having seemingly traded places with the hapless civilian. Scudder immediately heads to a criminal tailor, to garner a new Mirror Master costume. At the tailor's, Scudder encounters five of his fellow rogues, Captain Cold, Captain Boomerang, Heatwave, the Pied Piper, and the Top. All five criminals share similar stories. They were all in prison, and then, suddenly, they weren't. The Mirror Master proposes that instead of going their separate ways, they pull off their next caper, as a team. All agree, then head off to collect their specialized weapons. Police Forensics Scientist, Barry Allen, hears a police bulletin regarding the robbery of the Gemfull Department Store, by Captain Cold.

Allen investigates, as the Flash. Arriving at the scene, the Flash finds the department store completely encased in ice. Vibrating his way inside, the Flash, unsurprisingly, encounters Captain Cold. Quickly, Captain Cold freezes the floor underneath the Flash's feet. His foreword motion stopped, the Flash is helpless as Captain Cold lowers his weapon, and fires upon the Flash. Whirling his hands at incredible velocity, the Flash generates a buffer of super-heated air that melts Captain Cold's icy attack. The water is hurled back at Captain Cold, flooring him. Responding to sounds on the floor above him, the Flash discovers that the Mirror Master, and the Top, are in on the robbery. The Top hurls a top that generates blinding light, as it spins, at the Flash, By waving his hands in front of his face, at super-speed, the Flash is able to cut through the glare.

Suddenly, the Flash appears on an oversized bowling lane, with a mammoth bowling ball coming right at him. No matter which way he zigs or zags, the bowling ball continues to bear down on him. Realizing the whole scenario must be one of the Mirror Master's illusions, the Flash runs right through the ball. The Flash is seconds away from taking down the Mirror Master and the Top, when the Pied Piper makes his presence known. Suddenly, the Flash finds himself forced to dance a jig, to the music of the Pied Piper's pipe. With herculean effort, the Flash manages to do a high dance kick, that knocks the pipe from the Pied Piper's hands. In rush Captain Boomerang and Heatwave, to take their shot at the Flash. The two felons begin arguing over who should attack first, giving the Flash the time to incapacitate them both.

In doing so, though, the Flash accidentally trips, leaving himself prone, and vulnerable to his rogues' gallery. The Rogues gather around the Flash and, in unison, blast him with their trademark weapons. When the smoke clears, the Flash appears to have been disintegrated. In reality, the Flash vibrated his molecules into intangibility, and passed, unseen, through the floor. With the Rogues gone, the Flash examines more closely a strange field of radiation he noticed, while battling against Captain Cold and the Pied Piper. The Flash tracks the radiation signature to a gorilla cage, at the Central City zoo. The zookeeper informs the Flash that the two gorillas, Freddy and Pola, were once deeply in love but, of late, Freddy has been spurning Pola's advances. Immediately suspecting the super-gorilla, Grodd, the Flash heads to Gorilla City.

There, the Flash finds all of the inhabitants frozen, as if in a trance. Checking his prison, the Flash finds Grodd to be in the same trance. The Flash receives a weak telepathic message from Solovar, the King of Gorilla City. Solovar informs the Flash that Grodd has transferred his mind to a gorilla in Central City, and plans to use the soldiers of Gorilla City to mount an offensive against the world. The Flash returns to the Central City zoo, to find Freddy gone. Enlisting Pola's aid to track her mate down, the Flash quickly finds Grodd, at the Central City rail yards. Grodd teleports the Rogues to the rail yards, to run interference for him. The Flash charges the Rogues. The Flash moves past them so fast that, as they discharge their signature weapons, they end up taking each other out. Having run the gauntlet to reach Grodd, the Flash finds that he has lost his super-speed.

Using the Rogues, Grodd has been suppressing the Flash's super-speed, little by little, at each encounter, with a power dampening radiation. Now, Grodd can keep the Flash's speed subdued with the power of his mind. Grodd lunges at the Flash, intent on murdering him. Pola, though, intervenes, believing that her mate Freddy, has spurned her for another ape. The distraction is enough to break Grodd's concentration over the Flash, restoring his super-speed. The Flash beats Grodd senseless, then races back to Gorilla City. With Grodd unconscious, the inhabitants of Gorilla City have regained their mobility. Solovar returns Grodd's consciousness to his own body, then increases the security of Grodd's prison. With Grodd's mind back in his own body, Freddy again returns Pola's affections.

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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