Issue Description

"In Grodd We Trust!"

Operation Worldwash has erased all knowledge, from the minds of the human race, regarding the existence of Gorilla City. Thus, a crowd of puzzled New Yorkers gaze upon the one time Gorilla City embassy, pondering the purpose of the facility. The only clue to it's former occupants, a trash bin full of banana peels. Police forensic scientist, Barry Allen, escorts his date, Fiona Webb, to the Central City Zoo. Allen is the only human being who has been allowed to keep his memories of Gorilla City, and it's advanced ape society. With the culture of the Western world no longer an influence on his people, King Solovar can finally sleep.

In his dream, King Solovar wanders the Sahara Desert. Unexpectedly, he is attacked by the Flash. When the Flash pulls back his cowl, however, it is not the face King Solovar is accustomed to seeing. The Flash stamps the ground, at super-human speed, opening up a fissure beneath King Solovar. King Solovar uses his mental powers to break his fall, only to see the fissure collapse around him, burying him alive. King Solovar awakens, deeply troubled by the dream. While Allen sleeps, a sinister figure enters his bedroom, and tampers with his Flash Costume Ring. In Allen's dream, he is being pursued, in his guise as the Flash, by King Solovar.

Using his mental powers, King Solovar impedes the Flash from using his full super-speed. King Solovar herds the Flash towards the Grand Canyon, then over a cliffside. King Solovar suspends the Flash in a tractor beam, then obliterates the Scarlet Speedster, with the power of his mind. Allen awakens, deeply troubled by his dream. King Solovar and Allen, as the Flash, meet in the Arctic, each believing the other summoned them there. In truth, their meeting has been engineered by the evil Super-Gorilla, Grodd. Due to Grodd's psychic conditioning, during their dreams, the Flash and King Solovar, upon seeing one another, are driven into a murderous fury.

King Solovar throws up a psychic shield to brunt the Flash's charge, but the impact is so great that the Flash barrels right through it. King Solovar crushes the Flash in a death grip, while the Flash speeds up his molecules to generate tremendous friction heat, burning his opponent. Grodd maneuvers his craft in for a closer look, immediately getting caught in a super-speed whirlwind, generated by the Flash. Centrifugal forces tear Grodd's ships to pieces. As Grodd falls to the ground, King Solovar uses his psychic powers to freeze Grodd in a block of ice. In Gorilla City, King Solovar conducts a psychic examination of the Super-Gorilla.

He learns that Grodd sabotaged Operation Worldwash so that it would also erase all knowledge of Grodd, not just from the human race, but from the intelligent apes of Gorilla City, as well. The "dreams" King Solovar and the Flash endured were actually real encounters with Grodd, masquerading as the two heroes in each encounter. Grodd's scheme was undone when the Flash realized that his "dream' had occurred far too slowly. Unbeknownst to Grodd, the Flash dreams in super-speed. Tipped off that something was afoot, the Flash contacted King Solovar. King Solovar mentally fortified them against Grodd's psychic manipulations, allowing them to win the day.

"By The Sea, By The Sea, By The Dangerous Sea!"

When Captain Hammer cuts the line to David Drake's bathysphere, Professor Martin Stein triggers the transformation into Firestorm, the Nuclear Man. Firestorm dives beneath the storm tossed waves, to retrieve the bathysphere. Firestorm guides the bathysphere back to the surface. Hammer, fearing for his position, shoots Drake, the moment the young scientist opens the hatch on the bathysphere. Enraged, Firestorm attacks Hammer, and all hands on Hammer's ship.

Seawater, pouring in from the open hatch, flood the bathysphere. The electrical systems short out, electrocuting Drake. After shackling Hammer and his crew, Firestorm races back to the bathysphere, to check on Drake's condition. The bathysphere explodes, just as Firestorm reaches it. Rising up from the wreckage, on a column of wind and water, is Drake, now transformed into something more than a mere man. Aggressively, the creature that once was Drake, lashes out at Firestorm.

Note: This issue contains already prepared material that was a result of the DC Implosion from the series Firestorm .

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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