Issue Description

The Deadly Secret Of The Flash

Picture News reporter, Iris West, gives her husband, police forensics scientist, Barry Allen, a new watch, in the hopes that he will better be able to keep a timely schedule. En route into town, with their houseguest, Stacy Conwell, the Allens overhear a radio broadcast, concerning three tornadoes closing on Central City. Moving faster than the eye can see, Allen exits the car, races to Central City, grabs a mannequin, then he places it in the middle of the road. Allen returns to the driver's seat without West, or Conwell, ever knowing that Allen left.

Spying a "body" laying in the road, Allen stops the car, and gets out to investigate. West and Conwell drive on into town. Now free to act, Allen, as the Flash, races off to deal with the tornadoes. The Flash dissipates the first two tornadoes, by generating a counter force at super-speed. The third tornado, however, turns out to be a trap, which sucks the Flash inside. The Flash is bombarded with Cosma-Spurs, a lethal form of energy recently discovered in the 25th Century.

Outside the tornado trap, the Flash's arch-nemesis, Professor Zoom announces himself as the villain. The third tornado dissipates, leaving behind only the empty, smoking uniform of the Flash. West hears the news of the Flash's demise, on the radio, just after dropping Conwell at the dentist. Suddenly, Allen appears at the window. Allen explains how he escaped from Professor Zoom's death trap. To flush out Professor Zoom, Allen decides to let the world continue to believe he is dead.

Allen drives West to several appointments, showing up later and later to pick her up, after each one. Back at home, West reads Allen the riot act over his chronic tardiness. West seizes Allen's wrist, noting that his watch is showing the correct time. West had set it several minutes ahead, in an attempt to get Allen to actually be on time for a change. West suddenly realizes that Allen didn't set the correct time, but that the watch, itself, is not the same.

Having seen through his ruse, Professor Zoom reveals himself, dropping the illusion of Allen he had cast about himself. Spinning a yard stick at super-human speed, Professor Zoom threatens to murder West. Suddenly, Professor Zoom is knocked into unconsciousness. At super-human speed, Allen had vibrated his way out of Professor Zoom's trap, only to find he was unable to slow down enough to become visible, or tangible again. It was only when he saw his wife about to be murdered, that he was able to return to normal, and take Professor Zoom down.

"World That Bet On War"

The Green Lantern encounters a spatial anomaly. Protected by his power ring, the Green Lantern is pulled into the vortex, ending up on a battlefield, during World War II. His attempts to communicate with the tank crew firing on him are met with more ammunition. On the planet Que, a pair of alien gamblers, Brrmm and Thrrl, argue over which race possess superior military armaments. After agreeing to a wager, the aliens create a no man's land to pit an alien tank against a terrestrial tank. After teleporting the alien tank to the battlefield, the aliens open a hole in time to procure the terrestrial tank.

While dodging the tank fire, the Green Lantern gets caught up in, and trips over, a barb wire barrier. To save himself from certain death, the Green Lantern surrounds the tank with a force field. Suddenly, the tank begins to vanish. Acting quickly, the Green Lantern uses his power ring to latch onto the tank, fading away with it. Transported to the alien battlefield, the Green Lantern succumbs to the tranquilizers in the atmosphere. With the Green Lantern unable to interfere, the aliens begin their contest.

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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