Issue Description

Police forensics scientist, Barry Allen, races home to enjoy a candlelight dinner with his wife, Picture News reporter, Iris West. His wife's absence fills Allen with a sense of unease. Suddenly, the kitchen door explodes outward, heralding the arrival of Vandal Savage. With a wave of his finger, Vandal Savage triggers Allen's costume ring, releasing his Flash costume. Allen, as the Flash races around Vandal Savage, who, incredibly, is still able to grab the Flash. Still vibrating at super-speed, the Flash is hurled backward, where he careens about the house, eventually doing so much destruction that the house collapses. Allen is shaken out of his reverie by his houseguest, Stacy Conwell. Allen finds himself still sitting at the dinner table.

The fight with Vandal Savage occurred entirely in his own mind. Communicating with Allen telepathically, Vandal Savage informs him that though their fight was merely an illusion, the danger to West is all too real. Allen arranges to have West's father, Professor Ira West, look after Conwell, to free him up to pursue Vandal Savage. Meanwhile, In Coast City, Hal Jordan says goodnight to his date, Carol Ferris. Remembering that he has theater tickets, Jordan returns to Ferris' apartment, only to find Vandal Savage waiting for him. Vandal Savage slams Jordan to the floor. As Jordan rises, he finds himself clad in his Green Lantern costume. The Green Lantern shoves Vandal Savage into a power ring constructed restraining chair, connected to a lie detector.

Vandal Savage, incredibly, stands up. The Green Lantern attacks with a power ring constructed hammer, only to find himself in his own chair, being struck by said hammer. Meanwhile, on Earth-2, the Golden Age Flash runs down some dope smugglers. He's somewhat surprised to receive an assist from the Flash and the Green Lantern. The two heroes have come to Earth-2 to inquire about Vandal Savage. The Golden Age Flash reveals that Vandal Savage was not, in fact, killed in their last encounter. Vandal Savage was thrown out of sync with Earth-2's vibratory rate, rendering him a phantom. Only on Earth-1 could Vandal Savage regain his corporeality. Though Vandal Savage is his nemesis, the Golden Age Flash opts not to join the Flash and the Green Lantern in taking him down.

Back on Earth-1, the Flash sees an image of West calling to him. This is followed by an image of Ferris calling to the Green Lantern. The two heroes follow these images into the deserted countryside. There, they find an enormous fireball, much like the one that had supposedly slain Vandal Savage. Ferris and West are trapped within the fireball, rapidly running out of oxygen. The best efforts of the Flash and the Green Lantern, to release West and Ferris, meet with failure. At one point, the Green Lantern is even knocked unconscious by his own attempt to extinguish the blazing ball of fire. After another failed attempt from the Flash, the Green Lantern reveals that he feigned unconsciousness, in order to focus all his efforts on finding Vandal Savage.

His hiding place revealed, Vandal Savage is compelled, by the Green Lantern's power ring, to explain his scheme. Vandal Savage could recharge his immortality from exposure to the fireball, but only after it had been exposed to both the Green Lantern's power ring energy, and the Flash's super-speed aura. Without Vandal Savage's psychic powers shielding the fireball, the Flash is, finally, able to extinguish it. Ferris, though, is the only one inside. Vandal Savage reveals that West was already missing when he came to abduct her. He merely took credit for her disappearance to manipulate the Flash. Crestfallen, the Flash worries if West is even alive. West, though, is very much alive, under the watchful eye of her abductor...the Golden Age Flash.

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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