Issue Description

"The Fastest Man Dead!"

Police forensics scientist, Barry Allen, witnesses the assassination of Charlie Conwell, at the hands of the Maxel Mob. Allen attempts to intervene, as the Flash, but trips, thus failing to stop the lethal bullet. The Flash runs down the sniper, first eliminating his cover, then bringing him down to Earth. The sniper is turned over to the authorities, while Conwell is rushed to the hospital. Though Conwell is elected the new District Attorney of Central City, he dies that night. The assassin, too, dies that same night, having been paid in money laced with a powerful contact poison. The assassin's "ghost" accosts one of the members of the Maxel Mob, outside a local pool hall.

The "ghost" reveals himself to be the Flash, who follows the thug back to Maxel. The Flash loses the upper hand when Maxel activates a hidden hyper-sonic siren. Maxel, and his men, wear special earplugs at all times, so as not to be affected whenever the siren is in use. While the Flash is incapacitated, Maxel's bodyguard, Barbie, beats him into unconsciousness. Maxel is about to murder the Flash, when a cloud of money begins floating around the room. Suddenly, the sprinkler systems activate, reviving the Flash. At the last second, the Flash vibrates his molecules into insubstantiality, allowing Maxel's bullet to pass harmlessly through him.

Maxel hits the hyper-sonic siren again, taking himself, and all his followers out. Moving faster than the eye could see, the Flash removed all of their earplugs, while putting on a pair himself. With the Maxel Mob arrested, Conwell's murder has been avenged. At Conwell's gravesite, the Flash, as Allen, confides in his wife, PIcture News reporter, Iris West, that he felt Conwell was with him, the entire time he was bringing down the Maxel Mob. Unseen by the Allens, Conwell's ghost walks behind them, as they exit the cemetery.

"Yellow Is A Dirty Little Color!"

The Green Lantern is on hand, in Indiana, to apprehend a bank robber. Upon his apprehension, though, the robber's bag of loot is empty. The banker accuses the Green Lantern of, accidentally, destroying the money, during the course of the apprehension. After recharging his ring, the Green Lantern realizes it would have been impossible for his power ring to have vaporized the money. The Green Lantern returns to police headquarters, to find the bank robber has been released on bail.

Tracking the bank robber down, the Green Lantern confirms that the robber is in league with the banker. The satchel never had any money in it. The banker intended to file an insurance claim for the stolen money, then pocket the actual "stolen" funds. After turning the two men over to the authorities, the Green Lantern explains that his power beam couldn't have destroyed the money, as the inner lining of the satchel was bright yellow, the one color his ring is powerless against.

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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