Issue Description

The Pied Piper makes a play to rob an armored car. Shattering the vehicle with hyper-sonic waves, the Pied Piper then plays a tune that forces the guards to dance a jig. As luck would have it, the Flash happens to be passing by, before the Pied Piper can escape. Though the Pied Piper is quick to react, the Flash merely runs faster than the speed of sound, to avoid his attack. After subduing the Pied Piper with his own super-speed generated sonic boom, the Flash moves to secure the stolen money. Before he can, the money disappears into thin air. After turning the Pied Piper over to the authorities, the Flash heads home. En route, he encounters a traffic accident.

Though emergency vehicles are already on the scene, only the Flash notices a pool of gasoline expanding towards a lit cigarette. The gas ignites, but the Flash extinguishes it long before anyone can be injured. Stacy Conwell, the Flash's houseguest, in his guise as police forensics scientist, Barry Allen, sees an image of herself, at the crash site, in the following day's newspaper. Conwell has no recollection of ever being there. Conwell watches a live newsfeed of the Flash's take down of the Trio Gang. The Flash subdues the Trio Gang by redirecting the stream from a fire hydrant, with his slipstream, and hurling at them.

Watching the same news story is Paul Gambi, the criminal tailor who outfitted all of the Flash's Rogues' Gallery with their costumes. In prison, Gambi shared a cell with Samuel Scudder, the Mirror Master. Scudder prodded Gambi into seeking revenge on the Flash for sending him to prison. Gambi, though, intended to go straight upon his release. As a gift, Gambi sewed an exact replica of the Flash's costume, and presented it to him, upon his release. En route to pick up his wife for dinner and a show, the Flash, as Allen, sees the Trickster running across the sky. After dodging the Trickster's barrage of exploding jacks, the Flash spirals up a lamppost, and brings his old enemy down to earth.

The Flash turns the Trickster over to the authorities. The Trickster's stolen money, though, vanishes the moment the Flash starts to hand it over. The Flash's wife, Picture News reporter, Iris West, reads him the riot act for being so late that their evening plans are ruined. The Flash snaps and lashes out at West, shearing a lamp stand in half. The Flash storms out his house, just as West's nephew, Wally, arrives. In tears, West relays to Wally the situation with both her husband, and her increasingly moody houseguest. Wally opts to deal with the Flash first, in his guise as Kid Flash. Kid Flash catches up to the Flash, in time to see him taking down the Top.

The Top's stolen jewels, too, also seem to vanish into thin air. Kid Flash, though, sees the truth. Moving so fast as to seem invisible to the normal eye, it is the Flash, himself, who has been absconding with the loot. Kid Flash follows the Flash out into the woods, where the Flash buries the Top's loot, returning to the jewelry store before anyone has noticed he's left. Kid Flash moves to retrieve the loot, only to encounter the Mirror Master. Kid Flash uses the polished facets of the Top's stolen jewels to reflect the Mirror Master attack, before subduing the Mirror Master. The Top makes a last ditch attempt to escape, only to be beaten into unconsciousness by the Flash.

The Flash and Kid Flash meet up at police headquarters, where they turn the Top and the Mirror Master over to the authorities. Questioning Gambi, the Scarlet Speedsters discover that the Mirror Master sabotaged the costume Gambi made for the Flash, in prison. Gambi stitches his trademark into every one of his costumes. The MIrror Master placed a mirror transceiver under the Gambi trademark in the Flash's costume. Through this transceiver, the Mirror Master was able to temporarily seize control of the Flash's mind, whenever he came in close proximity to another of Gambi's costumes. With the case closed, the Scarlet Speedsters return home. As Allen, the Flash apologizes to his wife, while West offers to speak with Conwell, about whatever has been troubling her.

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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