Issue Description

Following last issue's battle with Reverse-Flash, Barry is sent hurtling through time and space!

Trapped in a runaway time machine, with his arch-nemesis, Professor Zoom, the Flash desperately leaps into the time stream, leaving his enemy to be dragged back to the very beginning of time, and beyond. The Flash is violently buffeted about in the time stream, eventually being drawn into a powerful vortex. On the other side of the vortex, the Flash finds himself in a strange alien land. To make matters worse, he has completely lost his super-speed powers. The landscape shifts, and reconfigures itself before him.

A bridge rises up in front of the Flash. Impossibly, the Flash sees a portal, at the other end of the bridge, that leads to his childhood home, Fallville. The Flash makes a run for the portal, only to be stopped by the self-styled Lord Of Limbo. For failing to show the Lord Of Limbo the proper respect, the Flash is thrown from the bridge, falling a hundred feet, before hitting the ground. Surprisingly, not only does the Flash survive, he suffers no injuries. The Flash finds himself surrounded by a motley group of alien.

Time travelers imprisoned by the Lord Of Limbo. By pooling their collective will power, and concentrating on the Flash, the other prisoners are able to overcome the Lord Of Limbo's power dampener, restoring the Flash's super-human speed. The Flash races into Fallville, only to realize that he is out of sync with reality. Unseen, and unfelt by his surroundings, the Flash bears witness to his own birth. As time moves rapidly forward, the Flash relives the accident that granted him his super-human powers.

Suddenly, he is attacked by the Lord Of Limbo. The Flash battles the Lord Of Limbo for his freedom, as time, inexorably marches forward. During their combat, the Flash relives the moment he first encountered his hero, the Golden Age Flash, his wedding day, and the funeral of his wife, Picture News reporter, Iris West Allen. Once more the Flash sees himself leaping from Professor Zoom's time machine, into the time stream. The Flash infuses his essence with his past self, restoring himself to corporeality.

The Lord Of Limbo clutches at the Flash's ankle, and steers him back into the vortex. The Flash sloughs off molecules, accelerating faster and faster, until his velocity far exceeds the vortex. The Lord Of Limbo loses his grip, and is drawn back to his realm. The Flash is hurled back to his proper time and place. At his wife's gravesite, the Flash, as police forensics scientist, Barry Allen, makes peace with her passing , and vows to move on with his life.

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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