Issue Description

Ralph Dibny, along with his wife, Sue, has come to Central City, to bring the Chane Gang to justice. Sue is surprised in her hotel room by a menacing stranger. Sue forcibly throws the man to the floor, only to discover that it is Dibny, in disguise. Dibny remolds his facial features back to his normal visage. Dibny has decided that his best chance of apprehending the Chane Gang is by going undercover. The Dibnys are just finished drinking a toast, when Ralph disappears. Sue immediately contacts police forensics scientist, Barry Allen, and his wife, Picture News reporter, Iris West, for aid in locating her husband.

The Allens reassure Sue that her husband will be found. As soon as Sue departs, Allen reveals that, as the Flash, he spirited Dibny out of the hotel room, moving so fast as to be naked to the human eye. The Flash had spotted the Chane Gang in the midst of a robbery, and figured that Dibny would want in on the takedown, in his guise as the Elongated Man. The Flash singled out one of the four Chane Gang members and surrounded him in a super-speed generated updraft. Astonishingly, the crook ran right through the Flash. The Elongated Man, too, found that he couldn't lay a glove on a single member of the Chane Gang.

Realizing they were actually fighting holograms, and that the Chane "Gang" is just one man, the Elongated Man stretched his neck high enough to get a bird's eye view of the surrounding streets. Spying the real culprit, the Elongated Man directed the Flash to the fleeing crook. After apprehending the man, the Flash revealed the holographic hardware laced into his jacket. Upon returning to the First Central Bank, the two heroes discovered they'd only recovered half of the stolen money. The Elongated Man headed off to solve the case, and that was the last the Flash saw of him. The Flash scours the streets of Central City looking for the Elongated Man.

Unbeknownst to the Flash, the Elongated Man has altered his features, and is thus unrecognizable. Going undercover, the Elongated Man makes contact with the twin brother of the man they arrested earlier. It turns out the Chane Gang is really a two man operation. Having determined that the brother has the missing half of the money, the Elongated Man strong-arms the crook into partnering with him. The Flash reports in to Sue before returning home. On the television, Sue sees Dibny, in his disguise, at the airport. A multi-million dollar SST is being unveiled to the public. To the amazement of the crowd of onlookers, the plane suddenly melts into a massive puddle of goo.

Having also seen the spectacle on television, Allen investigates, as the Flash. Impressed by what he's seen, the Chane brother agrees to a criminal partnership with Dibny. When the Flash arrives to investigate the jet, the Chane brother asks for another demonstration of Dibny's incredible power. Dibny walks up to the Flash and boldly takes credit for destroying the jet. Dibny, now calling himself "The Molder", openly challenges the Flash. The Flash charges "The Molder". With a single touch, "The Molder" transforms the entire runway into liquified tar.

The Flash spins his way free, and momentarily lays "The Molder" out with a single blow. While "The Molder" is stunned, the Flash watches as his facial features briefly become Dibny's again. Startled to discover that his newest foe is really his best friend, the Flash is caught flatfooted by "The Molder". With the television camera crews still filming, "The Molder" distorts the Flash's body like taffy, before pounding the Scarlet Speedster into a horrific blob of fleshy putty.

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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