Issue Description

"I'm Going To Kill You, Flash--But Not Till I'm Good And Ready!"

Dexter Myles, the curator of the Flash Museum, leads a police officer to a grim tableau. Within the museum, the lifelike wax figure of the Flash has been laid prone, at the feet of wax figure replicas of Captain Cold, Captain Boomerang, Heat Wave, and the Pied Piper. A flash bulb alerts Myles, and the officer, to the presence of a reporter, who flees without identifying himself. Myles calls the home of police forensics scientist, Barry Allen. Allen's houseguest, Stacy Conwell, takes the call, while Allen listens in on another line. Conwell is surprised that Myles doesn't remember her. Allen, as the Flash, races over to the Flash Museum, arriving in time to thwart a robbery.

The Flash confesses to Myles that he set up the tableau. Furthermore, it was the Flash who posed as the reporter, then sent the photograph to the newspapers. This elaborate ruse has been set up to flush out an assassin called "Saber-Tooth". Through his underworld contacts, the Flash has become aware of Saber-Tooth's presence in Central City. Knowing that Saber-Tooth is gunning for him, the Flash made it seem as if one of his Rogues' Gallery also had a scheme in place to take down the Flash, in the hopes that it would force Saber-Tooth's hand. Myles reveals himself to be Saber-Tooth, at which point, the Flash really is struck down by the weapons of the wax replica Rogues.

After photographing the Flash's body, Saber-Tooth heads out to the woods, to dispose of the real Myles. Before he can murder Myles, a tree suddenly falls down upon him. Before it can hit, the tree is shredded into wooden strips, at super-human speed, which are then used to cage Saber-Tooth. The Flash reveals that he avoided Saber-Tooth's trap by vibrating his molecules into intangibility. The Flash knew all along that "Myles" was Saber-Tooth, because the real Myles never would have forgotten meeting the beautiful Conwell.

"And The Winner Is Death!"

On the planet, Que, an alien Sposm tank, and a terrestrial World War II era Sherman tank have been forced into combat with one another. Alien gamblers have laid out a wager on the outcome. Between the two tanks lies the unconscious body of the Green Lantern. Revived by his Power Ring, the Green Lantern deflects an attack from the human tank crew. Encasing the Sherman tank in a force field, the Green Lantern turns, just in time, to deflect an attack from the Sposm tank. The Sposm shell, however, was no ordinary explosive, but, in fact a blob of plasm.

Enough of the plasm strikes the Green Lantern to stagger him. Using their Omnitron, the aliens dissipate the Green Lantern's force field, surrounding the Sherman tank. The two tanks begin firing upon one another. Stray fire strikes the Omnitron, bathing the two aliens in it's aggression enhancing radiation. The aliens begin fighting, one viciously beating down the other. The alien victor, exhilarated by his triumph, charges the dueling tanks. Before the Green Lantern can end the combat, the alien is torn to pieces by the tanks' crossfire. The Green Lantern returns the two tanks to their proper places and times, leaving the surviving alien to grieve for his friend.

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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