Issue Description

Flash must stop Captain Vulcan and his plan to take out all the American nuclear missiles after capturing the sub Trident; Flash battles sea creatures and is too late to rescue a sunken ship.

Flash and Iris ate at a lighthouse at Land's End and they are listening to the lighthouse keeper, Phil Anderson. He says he is maintaining the lighthouse so that his missing wife Phyllis can return to him "walking on the waters." The story then flashes back to several hours earlier when Barry Allen gets up to go to an urgent appointment. Iris wakes up and urges him to "pay a little attention...to your wife..." He runs through Gotham City on his way out to meet up with the destroyer USS Centaur. The Fastest Man Alive is late: the nuclear sub Trident left on its deepest test dive without him. Flash watches on the ship's scanners as the Trident makes its dive and things are going well until they lose contact with the sub.

Flash dives into the sea in pursuit of the sub, but along the way he encounters exploding sharks, an electrocuting octopus, and he is delayed and unable to find the missing sub. He returns to the ship with the bad news, and the Commanding Officer, and the news media on board, blame him for the submarine's loss, and the loss of the "irreplaceable crew and scientists." Flash is confronted upon his return by a large crowd, and he is slapped by a woman holding an infant because her husband was one of the ninety-nine people lost on board the Trident. Barry Allen and Iris are devastated by the loss, and his failure to rescue the sub. Unable to stand it any longer, Flash offers his help to the Navy to try and locate the missing sub, but his "request to help--DENIED!"

Barry and Iris decide to go and visit her friend Phil Anderson, the keeper of the lighthouse. Phil has heart problems and he recounts how he and his wife Phyllis met in the Army. Phil went to Viet Nam and he threw himself on a grenade. He survived his injuries and married Phyllis, with Iris acting as maid of honor. At some point after their marriage, the government asked them to go on a secret mission crossing the Atlantic in a sailboat under the guise of a "second honeymoon." The true purpose of their voyage is to "sail over the Greenland Shelf where enemy nuclear subs are believed lurking." They were captured by an enemy sub and attempted to escape. Slowly lethal gas is released into the compartment where they are hiding.

Only one of them could escape, so Phyllis insisted that Phil leave her behind. She promised she would return to him somehow. Flash decides to go looking for Phyllis. He goes to the Greenland Shelf and finds a metal door with interlocking steel teeth. He is captured by frogmen and blacks out, having failed again. Flash comes to and realizes that there is a secret sub base inside the shelf and sees the Trident. He is taken to see the skipper of the sub that captured Phil and Phyllis: Captain Vulcan. Imprisoned with Phyllis and the missing men of the Trident in a booby-trapped cell, Flash asks them if they are willing to risk their lives to try and escape. Phyllis, and the husband of the woman who slapped him, are quick to speak up and vote to try and break out.

Flash manages to break out of the holding cell and protect the crew from the explosion. He defeats the soldiers and disables their subs, and the Trident is able to leave. Phyllis waits for him because she is slowly dying from the gas she was exposed to on Captain Vulcan's sub. As Flash is desperately running as fast as he can back to the lighthouse carrying Phyllis, he sees Phyllis's spirit walking on the water toward the lighthouse and then he sees Phil's spirit walking out to join her. They meet, embrace, and wave goodbye to Flash. When Flash arrives, Iris is next to Phil's dead body. Flash puts Phyllis's body down next to him. Iris concludes by saying, "My heart tells me they're together again...for always!"

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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