Issue Description

"The Curse Of The Dragon's Eye!"

The Flash is accosted by Al Desmond on the street. Desmond pulls a gun on himself, and transmutes his clothing into the costume of his villainous alter-ego, Mr. Element. After setting the Flash afire, Mr. Element flees. After two attempts to smother the fire fail, the Flash races out to, then dives into, a lake. Still the fire rages around him. Realizing that it is his costume that is burning, and not himself, the Flash doffs his uniform, then runs home, naked, faster than the eye can see. Reporting for work, the Flash, as police forensics scientist, Barry Allen, is accosted by Rita Desmond.

Rita reveals the true nature of her husband's dual personality. Desmond's father, astronomer Peter Desmond, had discovered a pulsating star in the "eye" of the Dragon Constellation. The pulsating solar rays of the star were focused through Desmond's telescope, into his ring. While holding his infant son, the pulsating energy erupted from Desmond's ring, bathing his newborn son in it's unstable radiation. With each pulsation of the "Dragon's Eye", Desmond's evil persona of Mister Element was brought to the surface. Allen takes possession of the ring for further study.

In a jealous rage, Mr. Element accosts Allen on the street. Allen flees, escaping Mr. Element just long enough to switch into his Flash costume. The Flash tackles Mr. Element from behind, then takes possession of Mr. Element's gun. The Element-Gun, though, will not work for the Flash. Mr. Element reveals that the power is actually his, the gun merely focuses his elemental energies. To prove it, Mr. Element transmutes the Flash into neon gas, then traps him inside a neon sign. Exercising his complete control of the atoms of his own body, the Flash is able to resume a human shape, albeit one composed of neon gas.

Suddenly, the Flash is returned to normal. In a moment of clarity, Desmond's psyche has become momentarily dominant. Desmond begs the Flash to kill him, before he destroys the world. Desmond reveals that the "Dragon's Eye" has gone super-nova. When the power of it's dying rays reach him, it will cause his elemental energies to explode, taking the planet with him. The Flash races around the planet, faster and faster, until he reaches escape velocity, and slingshots off the Earth. With a cone of air clinging to him, the Flash ejects thousands of atoms per second, from his own body, giving him enough propulsion to continue accelerating.

After the Flash has broken through the negative light barrier, he collects the negative starlight in Desmond's ring. Returning to Earth, the Flash confronts Mr. Element. Bombarding Mr. Element in negative starlight, the Flash is able to cancel out the effects of the positive starlight of the exploding "Dragon's Eye". With Desmond finally free of the "curse" of the "Dragon's Eye", the Flash returns Desmond's father's ring to him.

"2D?"

Wally West picks up a hitchhiker, Hildy, en route to his college interview at Valley State College. Upon arrival, West finds the campus deserted. Responding to Hildy's screams, West investigates, as Kid Flash. The Fastest Boy On Earth discovers monstrous alien creatures carrying Hildy to the college's art center. Kid Flash attacks the creatures, and rescues Hildy. After searching the art center, Kid Flash can find no trace of the creatures.

Upon discovery of a large canvas depicting an alien vista, Kid Flash plays a hunch, and "falls asleep" before the canvas. Astonishingly, one of the alien horrors emerges from the canvas to collect Kid Flash's "unconscious" form. Kid Flash discovers the faculty of Valley State College working in an alien mine. Kid Flash takes out the alien monstrosities by generating miniature tornadoes at super-human speed.

When one of the instructors reveals that they were unable to return from the alien side of the painting, Kid Flash realizes that the headbands the aliens wear allow them to traverse the dimensional interface, through the painting, to Earth. After leading the faculty home, Kid Flash sees to it that the painting is destroyed.

"Anything Can Happen!"

This story was originally published in All-Flash Quarterly #30 (August-September, 1947). 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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