Issue Description

"The Million Dollar Deathtrap!"

In prison, Samuel Scudder bets Roscoe Dillon a million dollars that, not only will Scudder escape their cell within 12 seconds, but that the Flash will take his place, within 12 hours. Dillon scoffs, but accepts the wager. True to his word, Scudder teleports out of their cell, via the mirror-like polish he's put on his shoes. Scudder, as the Mirror Master, sets about retrieving Dillon's million dollars, from a top-shaped satellite, in low Earth orbit. As the satellite is drawn to Earth, onlookers see the image of the Flash, tied to the satellite, burning up on re-entry. Among the crowd of bystanders is police forensic scientist, Barry Allen, who takes action, as the Flash.

Cracking open a fire hydrant, the Flash slows the satellite's descent with a high-speed, pressurized jet of water. As soon as the satellite touches down, it spins away, at high velocity, just like a top. The Flash runs it down, just as the Mirror Master arrives to collect it. The Flash dodges the Mirror Master's laser fire, then attacks, only to discover that the Mirror Master is merely a reflected illusion. With the Flash in pursuit, the Mirror Master "flees", leading the Flash back to the prison.

With a bit of trick flying,the Mirror Master maneuvers the Flash into his old cell, still occupied by Dillon. Having rigged the cell with mirror sensors, the Mirror Master informs the Flash that if he tries to vibrate back out, an atomic bomb will detonate, killing thousands of prison inmates. To add insult to injury, the Mirror Master offers Dillon his Top costume, so that he may die as his masked identity. Having no choice but to work together, the Flash, reluctantly, teams up with his arch-nemesis, the Top, to thwart the Mirror Master.

With the Top acting as a stabilizer, the Flash is able to vibrate out of the cell, without triggering the mirror sensors. The Flash catches up with the Mirror Master just as he is finishing looting the Top's satellite. Before he can react, the Mirror Master is quickly defeated, and returned to prison. A sullen Dillon vows revenge on both his nemesis, the Flash, and the man who betrayed him, the Mirror Master.

The Fate Of An Archer

While calling the Green Lantern from a pay phone, the Black Canary is run down by a drugged driver. The Green Lantern arrives in seconds, to find the Black Canary grievously injured. To make matters worse, the Black Canary's blood type is exceptionally rare, and hospitals are, currently, in short supply of it. Recharging his power ring, the Green Lantern sets off in search of the one man who can help the Black Canary... Oliver Queen. The Green Lantern discovers the wreckage of the Arrowplane, spread across a California mountain range. After dealing with a scavenger, Rink Willard, rummaging about in the wreckage, the Green Lantern tracks Queen to a secluded monastery.

Having accidentally slain a man, in his guise as the Green Arrow, Queen has come to the monastery is search of forgiveness, and to find a new way of life. The head of the monastery, though, impresses on Queen that his life as the Green Arrow has not yet come to an end. The Green Lantern arrives to collect Queen, informing him of the Black Canary's dire situation. Queen responds angrily to his forced return to "civilization", but, nonetheless, accompanies the Green Lantern. The head of the monastery passes on his own bow to Queen. As the Green Lantern and Queen exit the monastery, they are ambushed by Rink Willard.

Willard beats the Green Lantern unconscious with the butt of his rifle. Terrified of killing another man by accident, Queen freezes, allowing Willard to beat him down, without resistance. When Queen revives, he finds his hands tied. The Green Lantern, too, is bound, and slowly sinking into a quagmire.Though his ring has been neutralized, the Green Lantern is ever defiant in the face of death. Finding an arrowhead, Queen cuts his bonds, and makes a run for his bow. In one fluid motion, Queen grabs the bow and fires an arrow, through the sight on Willard's rifle, causing the gun to slam into Willard's face, rendering him unconscious. Back in Star City, the Black Canary is recovering thanks to Queen's transfusion of his blood.

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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