Issue Description

"Shift The Earth Goodbye"

Police forensics scientist, Barry Allen, and his wife, Picture News reporter, Iris West, are on their second honeymoon. Though Allen has agreed to leave his Flash identity behind, while they're away, a sudden blowout forces him into super-speed action. Allen manages to exit the car, remove the blown tire, replace it with the spare tire, and return to the car, all without West ever noticing that he moved at all. Allen veers off the main highway onto a dirt road. West is puzzled until Allen arrives at the Hideaway Hotel. Though the Allens made no reservations, the front clerk seems to have been expecting them. The Allens are told to wear their pendents at all times, the same as the other guests.

In their hotel room, Allen confesses that he knew nothing at all about the hotel, but suddenly felt compelled to drive there. Realizing they've inadvertently taken the place of another couple, Allen, as the Flash, heads out to look for them. The Flash finds the other couple's car, at the bottom of a rockslide. Digging them out, the Flash confirms that the other couple has, in fact, died. The Flash removes their pendents, then sequesters their bodies in a nearby cave. Back at the hotel, the Flash, as Allen, realizes that he must have picked up the same homing signal the pendents receive, when he was moving at super-human speed to change the tire.

Their pendents suddenly begin glowing brighter than normal, prompting the Allens to join the other guests in an underground chamber, beneath the hotel. There, they are addressed by a strangely garbed man, who outlines a horrific plan to shift the Earth in dimensional space, with another planet, so that the Earth is enveloped in a comet's tail. Allen realizes that the other guests at the hotel are all aliens. These aliens have occupied the Earth for over a year, monitoring Cosmictron Power Rods, which will shift the Earth in dimensional space with their own planet, when the comet passes through their space again.

The briefing is interrupted when the couple the Allens replaced enter the room, clearly still alive. The aliens de-activate the illuso-aura, provided by the pendents, revealing themselves as aliens, and exposing the Allens as terrestrials. Allen races West out of the chamber, donning his Flash costume as he goes. Four blaster pistols pursue them. The Flash draws the guns off, engaging in evasive maneuvers. Ultimately, the Flash aligns the guns into a crossfire, that he evades, causing the guns to fire on one another. The Flash's super-speed vibrations upset the delicate balance of the aliens' Power Flux Wheel generators, leaving them without enough power to activate the dimensional shift.

The Flash learns the aliens purpose is actually beneficial to the Earth. When their planet was exposed to the comet's tail, it completely immunized their populace against all lethal microbes. The aliens merely wished to share their good fortune with another world. The Flash races along, inside the Power Flux Wheel, generating more than enough power to shift Earth into the alien dimension. The Earth is caught in the comet's trail, then shifts back to it's rightful location. The aliens return to their world, while the Allens resume their second honeymoon.

Secret Of The Shooting Star!

Camp counseler, Wally West, is out in the woods, with a group of young boys, to watch the meteor shower. One of the shooting stars fails to burn up in the atmosphere, revealing itself to be an alien craft, that lands in the camp. West, and the children are hit with a blinding flash, as the alien exits it's craft. The light momentarily paralyzes the boys, allowing West to go into action, as Kid Flash. Kid Flash charges the alien, only to be hurled back into the lake, by a protective force field. Kid Flash switches tactics, running around the alien, surrounding it in a field of densely, compressed air.

The alien is, again, unfazed. One of the children suddenly mutates into a horrific brute. Kid Flash is violently seized by the monstrous youth and thrown into the alien's view screen. Kid Flash manages to generate an air cushion, at super-speed, to soften his impact with the screen. A chipmunk also mutates into a gigantic horror, and chases after two of the children. Kid Flash attacks the woodland monstrosity, then cages it in a pen made of trees. Two more boys transform into gruesome monsters. Moving at super-speed, Kid Flash sees the radiation wave responsible for the terrifying transformations.

To avoid the wave, Kid Flash dives into the lake. The radiation purifies the previously polluted lake. Kid Flash sees an image of himself, as West, and the children, appear on the screen. Kid Flash realizes that the alien is merely a harmless tourist, who came to Earth to take pictures. The radiation given off during the developing process temporarily mutated the children, and the woodchuck. As the alien departs, Kid Flash invites the children to go swimming in the newly cleansed lake.

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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