Issue Description

"Dead Heat For A Scarlet Speedster!"

Police forensics scientist, Barry Allen, visits his parents, in Fallville. Mick Rory, the notorious Heat Wave, clears a new job with his parole officer, Edward Hobart. En route to Central City, Allen, as the Flash, encounters an armored car robbery. The vehicle is under assault by a flying blowtorch. The Flash is seemingly incinerated by the robot weapon, after charging it. In reality, the Flash has vibrated his molecules to a state of intangibility, slipping beneath the ground, to follow the weapon back to it's controller. The Flash is forced to reveal himself, when the weapon jeopardizes a bus.

Rather than risk further incidents in the city, the Flash vibrates the weapon into fragments. The Flash immediately suspects his old enemy Heat Wave to be the culprit behind the robbery, but Rory has an airtight alibi. Deeply suspicious, the Flash keeps a watchful eye on Rory. The Flash, as Allen, spies his beautiful neighbor, Fiona Webb, on the arm of another man. Webb has ended her romance with Allen, over her jealousy of Allen's friendship with movie star, Daphne Dean. Rory confronts his old cellmate, Wiley, revealing that Wiley is the man behind "Heat Wave's" latest crime spree.

Wiley denies his role in the robbery, but the evidence against him is damning. Rory turns the stolen loot over to the police. At police headquarters, Allen conceals himself from Rory. In a previous encounter, Rory unmasked the Flash, but had no name to go with the face. Allen fears his secret identity will be revealed if Rory sees him. Hobart places Rory in a trance, and reveals that he, Hobart, is the true mastermind behind "Heat Wave's" crimes. Hobart framed Wiley for the robberies, but was unable to recover the loot before Rory had Wiley arrested.

Hobart places a post-hypnotic command in Rory, in order to uses him as the scapegoat for Hobart's next "Heat Wave" crime. Allen receives a radio bulletin, regarding Heat Wave's robbery of the Centrix Diamond Exchange. Allen races to thwart the robbery, as the Flash. Upon arrival, the Flash finds the exchange filled with super-heated steam. The Flash apprehends "Heat Wave", only to suddenly collapse. A delayed reaction from exposure to the steam has started a chain reaction. igniting the molecules of the Flash's body.

To save himself, the Flash uses his total molecular control, over the atoms of his own body, to begin shedding the igniting molecules. Rory, as Heat Wave, confronts Hobart, as "Heat Wave". Unbeknownst to Hobart, Rory taped their last hypnosis session, and discovered Hobart's scheme. Both men fire their weapons on one another, a tactic that threatens to kill them both. The Flash uses the last of his igniting molecules to diffurse the incendiary threat, and end the fight between the two Heat Waves. Rory reveals Hobarts' scheme to the Flash, and assures his old foe that the real Heat Wave has reformed.

Blood On The Sun

Doctor Fate is locked in combat with the Lord Of Chaos, Vandaemeon. Inza Nelson is locked in a passionate kiss with Vern Copeland, the curator of the Boston Museum of Natural History. Doctor Fate creates a mystic tether to Nelson. Momentarily freeing himself from Vandaemeon's grasp, Doctor Fate uses the tether to Nelson, to escape Vandaemeon's realm. Nelson immediately regrets her infidelity with Copeland. Nelson suddenly enters a trance-like state. As Doctor Fate re-enters the mortal realm, Copeland is hurled against the wall, by a powerful mystic force. Nelson angrily removes the Helmet of Fate, releasing her husband, Kent, from Nabu's control.

Though Kent has only vague memories of his activities as Doctor Fate, he recalls enough to know that Nelson has been unfaithful. Kent confronts his wife, over her infidelity. Nelson lashes out at Kent, striking him, before collapsing in tears. Kent's dreams detail his latest adventure as Doctor Fate. When Kent awakes, he finds that Nelson has left him. Kent resumes his role as Doctor Fate. Exiting the Tower of Fate, Doctor Fate finds the sky replaced by an enormous blood-red jewel. From within the gemstone, Vandaemeon resumes his battle against Doctor Fate. Vandaemeon easily repels Doctor Fate's mystic attack. As Doctor Fate recovers, Vandaemeon's ally reveals himself. It is Ynar, the renegade Lord Of Order.

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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