Issue Description

The Last Stand Of The Three-Time Losers!

Police forensics scientist, Barry Allen, is working late in his laboratory. Walking home, Allen feels a slight vibration in his hand, and accidentally releases his Flash costume, from it's housing, within in his ring. Allen determines that the vibratory effect is coming from a nearby building, and investigates, as the Flash. There, a five man crew of thieves is working their way inside a vault. Each of these men are looking at a lifetime in prison, should they ever be arrested again. The arrival of the Flash fills them with dread and desperation. The Flash is seconds away from taking down the whole gang, when he suddenly bolts from the room. The Flash races to the offices of Picture News where, as Allen, he approaches his wife, reporter Iris West, intent on revealing his secret identity to her.

West puts Allen off, lest she blow her deadline. The overwhelming compulsion to expose his identity to West passes. Allen, as the Flash, resumes his pursuit of the criminal gang. Running down their getaway car, the Flash is, once again seconds aways from defeating them, when he, again, bolts away. The Flash, as Allen, returns to the offices of Picture News, intent on revealing his secret identity to West. Again, West rebuffs him to finish writing her article. When the compulsion fades again, Allen realizes that he is suffering from the delayed reaction, of an experimental truth serum, he had been working on in his laboratory. Each time the cigar-smoking criminal, "Chompers", blew smoke in the Flash's face, it triggered a chemical reaction activating the dormant truth serum in Allen's system.

Downing an antidote, the Flash tracks the criminals down, by following the trail of exhaust molecules left by their getaway car. The five criminals have also guessed that Chompers' cigar smoke was somehow causing the Flash to flee from them. When the Flash arrives to arrest them, Chompers, "Profile", and "The Mole", are all smoking cigars. Despite their breathing smoke on him, the Flash mops up the floor with the five criminals. Only their strongman, the former wrestler "Ek Ek", gives the Flash even a moment's trouble. At home, the Flash, as Allen doses West with the truth serum, and confirms that the serum is a failure. It only affected Allen due to his unique body chemistry, brought about by his super-human speed powers.

Tempting Target For The Temperature Twins!

Police Forensics scientist, Barry Allen, discovers the Real Cool Refrigeration Company is on fire. Allen, as the Flash, races inside to rescue any trapped workers. Grabbing up two people, the Flash is racing out of the building, when the floor collapse. The added weight of the two workers throws the Flash off-balance, causing him to sprain his ankle upon landing. After receiving medical attention, the Flash is photographed leaving the scene, clearly injured, potentially jeopardizing his secret identity.

Across town, Captain Cold and Heat Wave have teamed up on a crime spree. Looting a jewelry store, the hot and cold felons encounter Miss Fashion Gem Of Central City. Both men declare their love for her. Out of jealously, the two super-criminals are about to come to blows, when they decide on a contest to decide who gets the girl. Their contest, of course, is to see which of them can put the Flash permanently out of action. Encountering their foe on the street, as he hobbles by on crutches, Captian Cold and Heat Wave open up on the Flash, with their signature weapons.

Unable to dodge, the Flash quickly discovers that the two temperature extremes, combined, are rapidly speeding up the healing process on his ankle. With his ankle fully restored, the Flash maneuvers around his opponents, at super-human speed, causing them to blast each other into unconsciousness. After dropping the two crooks off at the nearest police station, the Flash, as Allen, meets up with his wife, Picture News reporter, Iris West, to celebrate their one month anniversary.

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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