Issue Description

Looking into the eyes of a strange woman gives Flash visions; he assumes another identity, battles demonic creatures, and gets married. "The Man Who Televised Time"!

The Bride Cast Two Shadows

A mysterious woman exits her hotel, intent on finding the Flash. At that moment, the Flash is in the midst of apprehending the Owl Gang. As the Flash knocks out the last gang member, the woman is clipped by a stray bullet. As the police take the Owl Gang away, Picture News reporter, Iris West, suggests the Flash bring the injured woman back to her place. Her identification reveals her to be a Ms. Joan Boardman Upon recovering, Boardman continues to call the Flash "Daniel". The Flash finds her stare to be unnerving. Though unsettled by her presence, the Flash does not confide his reservations to West.

After testifying against the Owl Gang, the Flash, briefly returns home. He finds Boardman preparing breakfast for him, in West's kitchen. West is nowhere to be found. Again, Boardman fixes the Flash with her stare. Suddenly, the Flash finds himself relieving the life of Daniel Porter, a 19th century man, soon to be married. Though the Flash seems himself in his reverie, catching sight of himself in the mirror, he sees the face of Porter. Astonishingly, Porter is a dead ringer for the Flash's true identity, police forensic scientist, Barry Allen.

Shaking himself out of the dream-like images, the Flash flees from the Boardman. Some strange force prevents him from fully vibrating through the wall, and escape. Returning inside, the Flash catches Boardman, as she collapses from the effort of holding him in the room. West returns with news regarding Porter. Nearly one hundred years ago, Portman had been the mayor of Central City. Portman was engaged to be married to the beautiful, Elfriede Talaman. The night before her wedding, Talman mysteriously disappeared, during a freak storm, never to be seen again.

Noticing that Boardman casts two shadows, the Flash becomes convinced that the spirit of Talman is in possession of Boardman's body. Attempting to give Talman's spirit closure, the Flash agrees to marry her. At the end of the ceremony, Talman and the Flash are drawn into a nightmarish realm of darkness and death. Moving faster than the eye can see, the Flash separates from Talman, releasing her to her eternal rest. The Flash, though, finds himself trapped in this horrific realm of shades. After being berated by an enormous toad, the Flash is attacked by terrifying demonic creatures.

The nightmarish abominations melt under the Flash's blows, multiplying in number from every super-speed strike. Exercising the better part of valor, the Flash cuts and runs. Towering monstrosities rain fire upon him, while trying to crush him beneath their heels. The Flash focuses on a fixed point of abject darkness and races for it. En route, he is set upon by harpies. Diving into the cold darkness, the Flash finds himself standing in his living room with West. Boardman wakes up, as if from a trance. Hurriedly, the Flash disposes of his costume, before Boardman can fully see him. The Allens return Boardman to her hotel. Allen recognizes the hotel as the former residence of Talman.

The Man Who Televised Time!

This story was originally published in Strange Adventures #13 ( October, 1951). A plot summary for this story can be found on that issue page.

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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