Issue Description

The 1,000-Year Separation!

To prevent the Flash from reaching his wife, Picture News reporter, Iris West, in the 30th Century, Doctor Fate disables the Cosmic Treadmill. Having already gotten up to speed on the Cosmic Treadmill, the Flash moves off it, laterally, and travels to the year 2975 A.D. Knowing the Flash will eventually be coming for her, West leaves Central City, with her parents, Eric and Fran Russell. The Flash meets them on the road out of the city. Doctor Fate broadcasts a telepathic warning to the Flash, informing him that if he comes in contact with his wife, the results will be catastrophic. At the last second, the Flash veers off. Unfortunately, the Flash still came close enough to jeopardize Central City.

At super-human speed, the Flash shores up the tower that houses Central City. The cosmic storm ends as abruptly as it began, seemingly at the hands of Professor Zoom, the Reverse Flash. Professor Zoom reveals that it was he, in their last encounter, who instilled the lethal energies in West's body, using super-speed vibrations. That energy, over the intervening months, has built up to critical mass, and will be triggered by the Flash's own super-speed aura. It was for this reason that the Golden Age Flash abducted West, and brought her to Earth-2, in the hopes that Doctor Fate could reverse her condition. Doctor Fate could not.

In exchange for West's hand in marriage, Professor Zoom will. With West's agreement, Professor Zoom races her off to get married. The Flash pursues, taking his wife back, thus triggering the deadly chain reaction. An epic battle ensues between the rival super-speedsters, over West. Ultimately, the Flash defeats Professor Zoom, who flees back to his own time. Matching the exact same vibratory frequency Professor Zoom used to counter the first storm, the Flash calms the second. Further vibratory treatments eventually restore West to normal. After weeks of being apart, the Flash and West enjoy a happy reunion.

"Let There Be Darkness!"

The Green Lantern visits Earth's moon, to inspect the equipment left behind by the historic Apollo space mission. After protecting said equipment from a sudden avalanche, the Green Lantern is contacted by a Guardian of the Universe. After recharging his power ring, the Green Lantern journeys to the planet, Zerbon, to investigate a strange alien craft. The Green Lantern encounters the craft, emerging from Zerbon's ocean. After attempting to establish contact with the alien craft, the ship fires on the Green Lantern.

By the time the Green Lantern has recovered, the alien starship has constructed a barrier of meteor rock, in orbit, blocking Zerbon from the sun's rays. The sentient flora populace of Zerbon, cut off from the sun's rays, begin to starve. When the Green Lantern finds he cannot remove the barrier from orbit, he dives beneath Zerbon's ocean, discovering a strange alien device. Destroying the device allows him to move the barrier. With the crisis averted, the Green Lantern takes off in pursuit of the so-called "Ravagers of Olys."

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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