Issue Description

Thanks to Flash, a couple is given a second chance at life.

"24 Hours Of Immortality!"

An airplane being flown by aviatrix, Susan Logan, crashes into a car, being driven by Doctor William Kandel. Logan and Kandel survive, but Logan's son, Timmy, and Kandel's wife, Sylvia, are killed on impact. Logan and Kandel barter their own lives to bring their loved ones back from the dead. As fate would have it, their pleas are heard by a pair of aliens, Duus and Unuus. The aliens restore Timmy and Sylvia to life, while also granting Logan and Kandel immortality for the next 24 hours. At the end of which time, Kandel and Logan are to sacrifice their lives to the aliens. The aliens also restore Kandel's car, and Logan's plane, so that each may complete one final task.

Kandel races off to perform an urgent surgery, on a fellow doctor who may have discovered a cure for cancer. En route, Kandel comes up behind a running gun battle between police and a group of escaped convicts. Kandel takes two bullets in the chest, before the Flash can subdue the prisoners. True to the aliens' word, however, Kandel is unharmed. Explaining the situation to the Flash, Kandel is raced to the operating room by the Flash, who volunteers to scrub in on the surgery. With the Flash operating at super-human speed, Kandel is able to finish the surgery in record time, allowing him to spend that much more time with his wife, as the hours of the day wind down.

The Flash races off to assist with putting out a forest fire. As fate would have it, the Flash encounters Logan, who happens to be flying over the fire, on her way to compete at Alpine Meadows. After helping to propel Logan's plane away from powerful down-drafts, created by the fire, the Flash escorts Logan to Alpine Meadows. Logan is competing for a prize of $50,000.00 dollars, to put towards her son's college education. Her primary competitor in the aerial stunt competition is the greater experienced Mal Maynton. Logan finds Maynton matching her move for move. When Maynton dives from the plane into a dead drop to the ground, Logan knows she's all but beaten.

Counting on the alien's gift of immortality, Logan leaps from the plane's wing, too. Unlike, Maynton, Logan never pulls the rip cord on her parachute, landing on her own two feet on the ground, completely unharmed. Logan wins the competition. Refusing to allow two such gifted individuals to sacrifice their lives to the whims of aliens, the Flash puts himself between the aliens and their intended victims. After surviving three attempts, by the aliens, to murder the Flash, the aliens relent, allowing Logan and Kandel to live out their normal lifespan.

"Showdown In Elongated Town!"

The Elongated Man awakens, as if from a trance, to find himself hauling a buckboard through an Old West ghost town. Taking in his surroundings, the Elongated Man finds that all the structures are weirdly distorted, as if being seen through a funhouse mirror. The Elongated Man is called out by an equally distorted gunslinger, one whose weapon fires beams of reflected sunlight. In dodging the laser, the Elongated Man slams his head into a building outcropping.

By the time he recovers, and captures the gunfighter, the man has been replaced by a dummy. Strangely, the dummy does not appear distorted, as the gunfighter had. Suddenly, the Elongated Man is beset by a herd of stampeding animals. As he turns to run from them, the Elongated Man finds himself facing an enormous rattlesnake. Stretching himself upwards, the Elongated Man winds himself around a flagpole. Hearing the sounds of the stampede, and the rattlesnake, coming from speakers, the Elongated Man realizes they are naught but illusions.

Stretching out his eyeballs, the Elongated Man removes a pair of contact lens from them, restoring his sight to normal. Taking up a rifle, the Elongated Man steps back out into the street, knowing full well who his true foe is... the Mirror Master. As the Mirror Master closes and draws on the Elongated Man, the Stretchable Sleuth squeezes himself down the barrel of the rifle. Once the Mirror Master has come in close enough, the Elongated Man springs out of the barrel of the gun, slamming into the Mirror Master, rendering him unconscious.

The Flash (1959)

Publisher

DC Comics

Volume Description

The Flash Volume 1, (continued from Flash Comics).

House Ad

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)

Please first Sign In before leaving a review.

Status: Not in Collection