Issue Description

The Flash In CartoonLand!

Police forensic scientist, Barry Allen, is trapped into babysitting Dustin Barton, a brat. Barton punches Allen in the nose, rides him like a horse, ropes a newspaper to his face, and shoots him, repeatedly, with a pellet gun. Finally, Allen gets Barton to settle down and watch cartoons. Allen is stunned to hear the voice of his nemesis, Abra Kadabra, coming from his television set. Impossibly, Abra Kadabra has taken over the cartoon world. With a wave of his wand, Abra Kadabra compels Allen, as the Flash, to join him. Not wanting to leave Barton alone, the Flash drags the boy into the television with him.

Barton has fun playing with the "Purple Pixies". The Flash is attacked by two of the pixies, wearing capes like Abra Kadabra, and wielding shock wands. The pixies are able to match the Flash's super-speed, all the while delivering shocks to his system, as he tries to flee. Vibrating at super speed, the Flash becomes immaterial, allowing the shocks to pass harmlessly through him. Suddenly, Abra Kadabra appears, and begins hurling control rods into the Flash. Made up of a rare 64th Century element, the control rods take away the Flash's ability to vibrate his molecules, rendering him solid once more.

To buy some time, the Flash plays to Abra Kadabra's monstrous ego by applauding his latest scheme. Abra Kadabra reveals how he used 64th Century technology to create the cartoonworld, which is set to self-destruct, in less than half an hour. Vibrating air molecules in front of him, the Flash drives off the Purple Pixies, to get Barton's attention. The Flash dupes Barton into firing at him with his pellet gun. The laws of physics, however, don't apply in Abra Kadabra's cartoonworld. All of Barton's shots miss the Flash in exceedingly comical fashion.

Luckily, Barton's first pellet, which has been bouncing around on the ground by the Flash's feet, strikes the Scarlet Speedster. The impact jumpstarts his molecular control, allowing him to vibrate loose from Abra Kadabra's control rods. With Barton carried along in his slipstream, the Flash races for Abra Kadabra's escape vehicle. Upon returning to Central City, the Flash reflects Abra Kadabra's weapon back on him, transforming the 64th Century "magician" into a cardboard cutout. Barton is returned to the Allen residence, where he is picked up by his mother.

"When Money Grows On Trees!

Sue Dibny gives a young boy, Timmy Dennison, a dollar for change. Dennison buries the dollar in the ground, takes a pull from a canteen, and chants an incantation. Miraculously, a money tree grows from where Dennison planted the dollar bill. Dibny's husband, Ralph, decides to investigate this impossible act, as the Elongated Man. The Stretchable Sleuth drives Dennison home to his father, billionaire Victor Dennison. After passing through an extensive security check, the Elongated Man is ushered in to meet Dennison's father. The elder Dennison offers to place the money from the tree in the bank. The young Dennison breaks down crying.

The Elongated Man points out to the elder Dennison that his son wants attention, not a back account. Dennison has the Elongated Man escorted off the premises. Analyzing some of the bills from the money tree, the Elongated Man learns that the elder Dennison's life is in jeopardy. With security ordered to keep him out, the Elongated Man must surreptitiously enter Dennison's estate. After gaining entry and weaving his way through a laser grid, the Elongated Man finds himself in combat with Dennison's security forces. Dennison fires on the Elongated Man twice, then collapses. Dennison's corpse is wheeled out of his estate.

To the astonishment of the gathered crowd, Dennison miraculously recovers. One of the onlookers rails at Dennison, giving himself away as Dennison's would-be murderer, just as the Elongated Man planned. After subduing the man, the Elongated Man reveals that the money tree is an old magician's trick. The money on it's branches was coated with a contact poison. Timmy Dennison was given the antidote to the poison, in the canteen from which he drank from, so that he would not be poisoned. After the elder Dennison collapsed, the Elongated Man administered the antidote, and set up the ruse to flush out the killer. The elder Dennsion, at last, realizes the value of his son.

Snare Of The Headline Huntress!

This story was originally published in The Flash #126 (February, 1962). A plot synopsis for this story can be found at the link.

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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