Issue Description

The Flash walks in on young collegian, Stacy Conwell, in the midst of conjuring demons in her bedroom. The Flash rushes Conwell to safety, then tackles the demons. After the threat is vanquished, the Flash resumes his civilian identity, that of Barry Allen, a police forensics scientist. Allen tends to Conwell, who finds Allen's behavior towards her puzzling. Conwell was not, in fact, practicing black magic in her bedroom. In actuality, she was practicing a baton routine. Conwell proves it to Allen by showing him photographs of her routine. The photographic evidence shakes Allen from his delusion.

Mazdan appears before Allen. Once again, the felon from the future is merely an illusion in Allen's mind. Mazdan gloats over his triumph of Allen, having completely broken down Allen's ability to tell truth from fiction. Allen decides to turn to the one person in all the world he implicitly trusts, his wife, Picture News reporter, Iris West. Allen catches up with West at the Picture News building. West is going over the footage from the previous nights gala film opening. An event crashed by the notorious Mirror Master.

After divesting all the patrons of their jewelry, the Mirror Master's special weapons liquified the gemstones, then absorbed them. The Mirror Master fled by riding the spotlight into the sky. The Flash, however, rapidly caught up with the Mirror Master, and knocked him out of the beam. After dropping the Mirror Master into a lake, the Flash violently whipped up the waters. By the time the Mirror Master reached the shore, all of his hidden mirror weapons have been removed from his person. The Flash, however, hasn't counted on the Mirror Master's secret weapon.

A blazing insignia appeared on the Mirror Master's chest, one that resembled the Roscoe Award, bestowed upon the Flash by his Rogues' Gallery. Upon seeing the insignia, the Flash was compelled to backtrack his actions, in reverse, all the way back to his car. The Flash resumed his civilian identity, just as an officer was preparing to tow his car away. Allen confides all these details to West, then rushes her home. Allen shows West the Roscoe Award. West had been unable to perceive the Roscoe Award prior, leading Allen to believe it to be another of Mazdan's illusions.

After discovering the Mirror Master's cloaking technology on the award, Allen was able to disable it, and prove it's existence to West. Allen now knows that the Roscoe Award serves as a post hypnotic trigger, forcing him to reverse all actions whenever one of the Rogues flashes the insignia at him. Allen has already come up with a counter against the Rogue's new failsafe against him. Aware of the Mirror Master's modus operandi, Allen, as the Flash, catches up with him, as he tries to fence the stolen jewels. The Flash hurls the Mirror Master to the ground.

As soon as the Mirror Master flashes the insignia, the Flash finds himself racing, backwards, back out of the room. Out on the street, the Flash once again attacks the Mirror Master, elevating him in a super-speed generated whirlwind. The MIrror Master, once again, flashes the insignia, this time to no effect. Wearing special mirrored contact lenses, the Flash perceives the world backwards. Seeing the reverse image of the insignia did not trigger the Rogues' post-hypnotic spell. After beating the living daylights out of the Mirror Master, the Flash dons the MIrror Master's costume. The Flash intends to infiltrate the Rogues' Gallery's secret headquarters and settle the score with his old enemies.

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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