Issue Description

Barry Allen takes acting lessons and uses his speed to play several roles almost simultaneously.

"Four Star Super-Hero"

Detective Charlie Conwell solves a case. Police forensic scientist, Barry Allen, gives Conwell a silent signal of support. Conwell receives word that the Ice King has just hit Jewelry Row. Conwell departs to arrest the Ice King. Allen follows, as the Flash. Central City has been blanketed by snowfall. The Flash encounters the Ice King skiing through the streets. After a bit of back-and-forth in the pursuit, the Ice King turns the tables on the Flash. The Flash shatters the Ice King's skis, at which point, the Ice King suffers a heart attack.

Paramedics arrive to take the Ice King away. In reality, the paramedics are the Ice King's gang, responding to his turning his own pacemaker off. Arriving on the scene, Conwell immediately dopes out what happened. By reflex, the Flash gives Conwell the silent signal of support. Realizing he's just jeopardized his secret identity, the Flash tries to cover the gesture by sneezing. At home, the Flash, as Allen is having a conversation with his wife, Picture News reporter, Iris West. Currently writing theater reviews for Picture News, West suggests Allen take some theater courses.

Allen lands the part of Horatio in the next production of "Hamlet". Though he is able to memorize every line of the play at super-human speed, it falls to his drama teacher, Flash Museum curator, Dexter Myles, to pull a performance out of him. When the entire cast comes down with the flu, Allen, as the Flash, offers to perform the entire play himself. Switching from character to character faster than the eye can follow, the Flash performs "Hamlet" to a sold out audience. Afterwards, the Flash is exhausted and nearly collapses backstage.

Posing as the theater's security force, the Ice King, and his gang, take advantage of the Flash's weakened condition. As if his exhaustion weren't bad enough, the Flash realizes that he, too, has the flu. Attempting to speed up the cure, the Flash downs water and aspirin at an accelerated pace, making his condition worse. The Ice King, and his men, mercilessly beat the Flash, who offers no resistance to their attack.

Finally, the Flash recovers enough to take the Ice King, and his gang, down. At home, the Flash, as Allen, allows his wife to tend to his sickness. Conwell pays a visit to Allen. Moving faster than the eye can follow, Allen is able to stand by his own bedside, as the Flash, while still lying in bed, as Allen. Seeing the Flash and Allen together erases any thoughts Conwell may have, that the Flash is really Allen.

"To The Nth Degree"

Absentminded professor, Ira West, invents a telescope that can view star systems thousands of light years away, in real time. West sends the telescope to the Astronomical Society, while sending a regular telescope to his son-in-law, police forensic scientist, Barry Allen. By mistake, Allen receives the super-telescope. Allen's wife, Picture News reporter, Iris West, trains the telescope on a planet orbiting the star, Betelgeuse. The planet is suffering catastrophic upheaval.

Allen, as the Flash, synchronizes his inner vibrations to that of the ultra-light hitting the telescope's lens, and rides it back to the planet. The gaseous inhabitants beg the Flash for assistance. His blood literally boiling from the planet's surface temperature, the Flash realizes that he will only be able to spend one single minute on this strange, hostile world. Racing down into the very planet itself, the Flash is able to cool the planet's core, restoring the world to normal.

The Flash races for the ultra-light beam, but West accidentally moves the telescope a few degrees, causing the light beam to shift position. It's now miles away. Pouring on the speed, the Flash chases the light beam across the planet's surface. Throwing a handful of sand in his path, the Flash skips across the grains of sand, and dives into the beam. Professor West arrives to retrieve his telescope, managing to break it, as he lifts it from the tripod.

Luckily, West wrote all of his equations on the wall at home, so recreating the lens will be no problem. Upon returning home, however, West finds that the painter he forgot he hired, to paint his house, has already covered his equations. West desperately attempts to remember how he created the telescopic lens, to no avail.

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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