Issue Description

Captain Cold breaks some men out of jail and restores their youth; Flash gets trapped in a painting; Heat Wave guest-stars.

Five aged criminals escape from Central City Penitentiary. A patrol from the prison encounters a group of young men, dressed as land surveyors. Unbeknownst to the prison guards, these men are the escaped convicts. Each man has been regressed in age, by the notorious Captain Cold. The Frosty Felon takes the crooks back to his secret lair. The walls of Captain Cold's abode are decorated with pictures of one-time screen queen, Laura Lamont. Captain Cold intends to restore Lamont's youth, then marry her. In the meantime, the now youthful criminals are to loot Central City, to supply Captain Cold with wedding presents for his soon-to be bride.

The only catch is that Lamont is a recluse, whose whereabouts are known only to Picture News reporter, Iris West. Captain Cold approaches West in the guise of J.J.Pendergast, a lawyer. "Representing" an unnamed client, "Pendergast" informs West that a small fortune has been willed to Lamont. West still refuses to divulge Lamont's location. West heads out to inform Lamont of Pendergast's offer. Pendergast, surreptitiously, pursues West. Suspicious of Pendergast, West's husband, police forensic scientist, Barry Allen, pursues them both, as the Flash. Having waited too long to head after them, the Flash loses their trail. Suddenly, the Flash is floored by a sonic blast.

Entering the building the blast emanated from, the Flash encounters two of Captain Cold's men, stealing a painting. Still somewhat unsteady on his feet, the Flash is hit at point blank range by the sonic weapon. The sonics speed up the Flash's vibratory rate, causing him to fade away, into another dimension. Concentrating, the Flash manages to slow his vibratory rate down, becoming solid enough to beat the crooks into unconsciousness. Turning the crooks over to the police, the Flash learns that they have the same fingerprints as two of the elderly escaped convicts. The Flash investigates the scene of the escape, and discovers tell-tale evidence of Captain Cold's involvement.

At first the Flash is able to follow the unique radiation signature of Captain Cold's cold gun, but the trail quickly goes cold. Suspecting that one of the prior night's robberies may have been committed by Captain Cold, the Flash ferrets out a fresher trail. The Flash follows the trail back to Captain Cold's secret lair. With his super-frigid aura slowing the Flash down, Captain Cold has time to attach a special device to his gun, lowering it's emissions to well below absolute zero. Captain Cold blasts the Flash, dismembering his body, as it freezes solid . Captain Cold frames the Flash's body parts, and hangs them on his wall. Captain Cold presents himself to Lamont, and restores her youth.

Showering her with his wedding gifts, Captain Cold declares his intention to marry Lamont. Captain Cold leaves Lamont to prepare herself for the wedding, while he phones the Justice of the Peace. Absentmindedly, Captain Cold calls Heatwave, instead. Deciding to share his triumph, Captain Cold invites Heatwave over to view the Flash's frozen, dismembered body. Enraged that he never got one last shot at the Flash, Heatwave violently shoves Captain Cold aside, and fires his weapon on the Flash's broken body. The intense heat of Heatwave's gun, thaws and restores the Flash to normal.

Heatwave and Captain Cold begin struggling against one another, giving the Flash time to fully recover. Back on his feet, the Flash pummels his foes, mercilessly, into unconsciousness. Preferring her anonymity, Lamont uses her theater skills to disguise herself as an old woman, taking a job as a cashier at the local cinema. The Flash, as Allen, reveals to West that he was able to telepathically influence Captain Cold into contacting Heatwave. Allen knew that Heatwave's weapon was the one thing that could possibly reverse the effects of Captain Cold's gun.

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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