Issue Description

Flash discovers that Iris is really a native of the 30th Century (she was born in 2945); he follows her there and learns that her parents and the citizens of that time are under attack by an Asian invader named Sirik.

Feeling lonely, the Flash joins Superman on monitor duty, inside the Justice League of America satellite. When the Flash marvels at the beauty of the Earth, as seen from orbit, Superman ruins the moment by stressing his alienness. To the Man Of Steel's surprise, the Flash empathizes. The Flash then recites a recent adventure. As police forensic scientist, Barry Allen, the Flash had received a frantic call from his wife, Picture News reporter, Iris West, urging him to come home. Upon arrival, Allen could find no signs of West, but evidence pointed towards a hurried departure. A note, left by West, informed Allen that she had been taken 1000 years into the future.

Allen, as the Flash, used his Cosmic Treadmill to journey to the year 2970. The Flash found the Central City of the future to be a sprawling desert, traversed by a polymer tube encased river. Vibrating his finger at super-human speed, the Flash penetrated the tube, to slake his thirst. Almost immediately after, he is fired upon, with exploding shells, for stealing water. Vibrating so fast as to become intangible, the Flash allowed the shells to harmlessly pass through his body, then ran the length of the river, straight through a mountain. On the other side of the mountain, the Flash found what was left of civilization, a self-contained city, but one that bore the tell tale signs of atomic bombardment.

Moving faster than the eye could see, the Flash entered the city, accidentally jostling one of the citizens into spilling his water rations. Mistakenly, the man lashed out at another citizen, blaming him for the mishap. The two men were about to come to blows, when an air-raid siren blared out. The streets quickly emptied, as everyone ran for shelter. It was at this moment that the Flash encountered West. Their reunion was not a happy one, as West demanded the Flash return to his proper era... without her. After the Flash, as Allen, had left for work, West went to her father's house, to clean up his basement laboratory. There, West discovered a, heretofore, unseen baby picture of herself, wearing a locket.

West then found the locket, which was engraved "Iris Russell". The moment West touched the locket, a pre-recorded message was triggered. A scientist, Eric Russel, from the year 2945, spoke of an imminent nuclear attack, coming from a province called "Earth-East". Russel, his wife, Fran, and their daughter, Iris, were inhabitants of the city structure, "Earth-West". To save their daughter, the Russells sent their daughter back 1000 years, into the past. West's father, Professor Ira West, confirmed the story. The Wests raised Iris as their own daughter. The truth of her origins revealed to her, the time vibrations that stabilized West's presence in the past began to break down.

Ultimately, West was drawn back to her proper era, in the future. There, West was reunited with her true parents, who both survived the nuclear attack. Their reunion, though, was short lived, as West is soon coveted, as a mate, by the supreme leader of Earth-East, Sirik. With the destruction of Earth-West threatened, West gave herself up to Sirik. The Flash, though, refused to capitulate to Sirik. The supreme leader sent his guards after the Flash, who ran from them at normal human speed. Once the Flash had lured them in, he fought back with the full gamut of his super-speed abilities. After defeating the guards, the Flash then returned to confront Sirik.

The Flash mercilessly beat Sirik until he conceded defeat. Sirik informed the Flash that, having failed to report in to Earth-East at a prearranged time, Earth-East had fired it's missiles on Earth-West. Generating powerful whirlwinds, at super-human speed, the Flash prematurely detonated the missiles, then destroyed the launch sites. The Flash convinced the contentious sides to live in harmony, for the sake of the continuation of the human race. The Russells give their blessing for West to continue living her life in the 20th Century, with her husband. At which point, the Flash and West returned home.

His tale finished, the Flash points out that he shares Superman's feelings of alienation, whenever he visits his wife's family in the 30th Century. Superman counters by noting that the Flash has West to share his life with, while Superman has no one, and thus will feel forever alone.

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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