Issue Description

The Fury Of The Fire-Demon!

Al and Rita Demond are being interviewed, by Roddy Mitchell, for "Meet The Public". Picture News reporter, Iris West, is at home, watching the live broadcast. To her horror, West sees an enormous stone gargoyle plummeting towards the Desmonds. West sends her husband, police forensics scientist, Barry Allen, in his guise as the Flash, to the Desmonds' rescue. The Flash scours the streets of Central City, not realizing the live broadcast is actually coming from Culverton.

Despite his wife's best efforts, Desmond stands stock still, as the gargoyle nears. Before it hits, the gargoyle suddenly crumbles into dust. The Flash, as Allen, confides in his wife that he fears this may mean that Desmond has become the notorious Doctor Alchemy again. As if on cue, Desmond's personality is overwhelmed by his evil Doctor Alchemy persona, on the ride home. En route to Culverton, the Flash encounters a burning convertable.

After bringing the car to a stop, the Flash discovers Rita Desmond, nearly unconscious within the vehicle. Desmond confirms the Flash's worst fears...Doctor Alchemy has returned. Under the influence of Vadtara, a fire-demon, Doctor Alchemy sets a skyscraper ablaze with eldritch flames. The Flash confronts Doctor Alchemy within the burning edifice. Moving faster than the eye can see, the Flash reveals his secret identity to Doctor Alchemy. The shock of discovering that his best friend is the Flash, allows Desmond to regain control of his mind. Desmond returns to normal, with no memory of the Flash's secret identity.

"The Man From Yesterday!"

Hal Jordan boards the Spirit of 76, a train carrying a Bicentennial exhibit across the country. Before he's really had a chance to take in the historic treasures, on board the train, the exhibit closes. Jordan notices something strange about the Colonial museum guards, right before they suddenly take flight, with the train. Jordan gives chase, as the Green Lantern. Two of the guards break off to engage the Green Lantern. In the course of dispatching them, the Green Lantern discovers they are robots. The Green Lantern follows the train into space, where it is brought aboard a mile-long space craft.

Using his power ring to gain entry, the Green Lantern disables the rest of the Colonial robots. Boarding the Spirit of 76, the Green Lantern encounters another robot, one designed to look like Aaron Burr. In order to get to the bottom of the mystery, the Green Lantern humors "Burr" by agreeing to a duel. Using his Power Ring, the Green Lanterrn redirects "Burr's" shot, while simultaneously disarming him. The Green Lantern places "Burr" in the same stasis field he placed the other Colonial robots in, only to see "Burr" walk out of it. It seems that Burr is not a robot, but is, incredibly, the real Aaron Burr.

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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