Issue Description

"The Only Crook Flash Could Never Catch!"

Heat Wave, Mirror Master, Pied Piper, the Top, and the Weather Wizard gather for their annual Rogues' Gallery convention. For entertainment, each Rogue re-enacts his greatest battle with the Flash, altering the outcome so that the Rogue is triumphant. Meanwhile, police forensic scientist, Barry Allen, whips up a quick lunch for his wife, Picture News reporter, Iris West. While preparing the salad, Allen works out a stratagem for taking down the Rogues. The Rogues are about to show off their latest innovations in their weapons' technology, when they are interrupted by a dandy, calling himself "The Dude".

The foppish felon claims to be the Flash's greatest foe, having bested him during each of their conflicts. Despite providing photographic proof of his victories, the Mirror Master demands to see the Dude defeat the Flash with his own eyes. Standing invisibly to bear witness, the Mirror Master watches as the Dude summons the Flash. The two combatants square off in an epic duel. The Dude counters the Flash at every turn, ultimately defeating the Scarlet Speedster. The Mirror Master returns to the convention, and crowns the Dude "Rogue Of The Year". The Mirror Master reveals this year's award, an extremely valuable gemstone, heretofore hidden by one of the Mirror Master's illusions.

With the gemstone revealed, the Flash storms the convention hall. The Flash strips the Rogues, except for the Mirror Master, of their weapons and costumes, before they can react. The Mirror Master, though, has had time to get the drop on the Flash. The Flash blocks the Mirror Master's shot with Heat Wave's boot, causing his weapon to backfire on him. The Rogues defeated, the Flash, as the Dude, meets West at the theater. In order to take down the assembled Rogues, Allen infiltrated their ranks as "The Dude". Moving faster than the eye could see, Allen was able to stage the fight between the Dude and the Flash, for the Mirror Master's benefit. Allen enjoys the irony of being named "Rogue Of The Year", and looks forward to his foes' next convention.

"The Man Of Destiny!"

Astonishingly, the Green Lantern has met former Vice President, Aaron Burr, on a star ship. After sitting down to a dinner, served by Burr's android manservant, Ignatz, Burr tells his tale. He had been in the midst of his duel with Alexander Hamilton, when he was suddenly drawn to an alien world. The aliens replaced Burr, on Earth, with a clone of the former Vice President, freeing Burr up to take his place as their leader. After 170 years, despite Burr's best efforts, there are still pockets of dissent plaguing the alien world. As if to underscore that comment, Ignatz suddenly attacks Burr. The Green Lantern leaps to Burr's defense.

As he battles Ignatz, the giant android slowly turns color, until it's completely yellow. With his power ring useless against Ignatz's yellow coloring, the Green Lantern is forced to switch tactics. Cutting a hole in the starship's hull, the Green Lantern and Ignatz are sucked into space. Leaving Ignatz to drift helplessly in space forever, the Green Lantern rejoins Burr. Burr confesses to stealing the museum train, Spirit of 76, because he wanted to be near objects from his time again. The Green Lantern takes Burr back to Earth. After breathing in the air of his native world once more, Burr returns to his new world, unwilling to shirk his responsibilities. After returning the Spirit of 76 to Earth, the Green Lantern recharges his ring.

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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