Flash #120

The Flash was probably the most interesting DC hero of the Silver Age. Certainly his comic ran the longest of any of Julius Schwartz's reincarnations; Green Lantern was gone by 1972, the Atom and Hawkman ceased publication (after being merged) in 1969. The Flash made it all the way to 1985.

Given that history, it's worth speculating as to why Barry Allen lasted while the others did not. For starters, it pays to be first; Schwartz introduced the new Flash well before his other re-imagined heroes. The Barry Allen Flash first appeared in Sept-Oct 1956, while Green Lantern debuted a full three years later. Similarly, the first two superheroes from the Golden Age (Superman and Batman) outlasted almost all of their contemporaries.

Second, the Flash had an interesting and colorful rogues' gallery, as shown here (from 80-Page Giant #4):

Third, I would argue that the Flash's ability, running fast, is especially suited to exciting the imaginations of youngsters. Who wouldn't want to be able to tear up the miles rather than having to plod home from school? Who wouldn't want to be able to zip ahead to Grandma's house rather than suffer through the interminable car trips?

One element that was probably not a significant factor, was that the Flash had a juvenile counterpart. While I enjoyed Kid Flash, and especially the "moral" stories that he often appeared in, he didn't show up much in the later 1960s outside of Teen Titans

As you can see from the cover above, this is a Flash/Kid Flash teamup. As the story begins, Barry and Wally West are running late for a yachting trip with Iris and an explorer named Dr. Manners to South America. Dr. Manners is looking for evidence to confirm his belief that South America and Africa were once joined. It's worth noting that this theory was still controversial at the time, although it has now become widely accepted.

It looks impossible for Barry and Wally to make it to the yacht on time, but Barry reveals that he knows Wally is Kid Flash, as a prelude to disclosing his own secret:

They are delayed a bit when they have to prevent a plane from crashing into a crowded area of the city, but they still make it. On board, they learn that there's a young girl of Wally's age:

I like that Infantino has them rather pointedly sitting on separate couches in that last panel. Dr. Manners explains their mission here:

And in fact the Wikipedia article on continental drift notes that the existence of the same animals on both continents are part of the proof that Africa and South America were once joined (although it's mostly fossils and earthworms that are cited there, not lemurs and aardvarks).

They dock in South America and journey inland. A tribe of natives warn them about a mountain known as the Sleeping Giant, but Iris dismisses it as superstitious drivel. However, as they make their way into the valley nearby, the Sleeping Giant awakens; it was a volcano, which causes earth tremors and rockslides. When the party recovers, they seem to have been transported far away, as the Sleeping Giant is nowhere to be seen.

Barry and Wally discover something odd:

They volunteer to do a little scouting around, not telling Dr Manners that it will be in their crimson uniforms. They come upon a caveman being threatened by a giant bird, and save him. But what are cavemen doing in modern times? Later, they see paintings of prehistoric animals created by the cave people. Have they stumbled into a valley that time forgot? They also learn that the primitives fear a giant named Grodan. And sure enough:

Flash vibrates his way free of the giant. He and Kid Flash use some cables that had been brought on the expedition to truss up the behemoth (as shown on the cover). Then Barry realizes that they are not in some hidden valley that has been missed by civilization; rather they are literally in the past. Sure enough, as they do some more exploring:

Okay, so that's a bit of artistic license. The dinosaurs in fact became extinct about 65 million years ago, well before the time of cavemen. Flash and his younger counterpart race around the globe, establishing that the continents were indeed joined at this period in time. But at that moment the earthquakes begin that separates the continents. They dash off to help the cavemen, who are under attack by the giants. But:

The actual phrase is, "there were giants in the earth in those days..." and it comes from the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament.

Barry and Wally rush back to their expedition and try to set up duplicate vibrations to the original earthquake that transported them to the past. We get a rather psychedelic panel here:

And then they're back in the present day (well, 1961 anyway). Dr Manners has photographic proof that the continents were joined, and the juvenile romance subplot has been resolved:

Comments: A terrific and entertaining story by John Broome and Carmine Infantino, with only the occasional anachronisms as negatives.

More about →

Three Extremely Lame Bits About Kid Flash

I have mentioned in the past that I really like the Kid Flash stories from the Silver Age; they were mostly "moral" stories, where Wally West (and the reader) learn a life lesson.

But I must note that there were three extremely lame points about Kid Flash that have to be covered in any detailed examination of Wally, who went on to become a long-term, significant character in the DC universe.

First, the origin. Now given that DC had decided to go with the youthful sidekick to the adult hero, the origin posed a bit of a problem. Remember, that Barry Allen had gained his super-speed via a freak accident. A bolt of lightning had hit some chemicals in his laboratory, and the combination had given him the "Fastest man alive" abilities. It's a million-to-one shot, but you know how it is, every bolt of lightning has to hit somewhere, right?

But hitting twice in the same spot? Lame:



Okay, so now they've accomplished what they wanted, which was to generate a sidekick for the Flash. But after awhile they realize that Kid Flash would be more effective (and distinctive) as a character if he had his own uniform. But do they just have him put something together himself? Not on your life:



In the story, Barry had been thinking about designing a new uniform for Wally, but before he could actually get out a needle and some thread, an alien weapon had automatically turned his thoughts into reality. No, I'm not kidding:



I seem to recall that Kid Flash later came up with some method of making his hair look brown instead of that rather distinctive carrot-top, as a secret identity bit of protection.

Now the last lame bit affects the Flash as well. Yep, I'm going there, to the story that undeniably ranks as the worst Flash story of the Silver Age. Now, when contemplating the awesome awfulness, remember that comics of the 1960s were still thought of as throwaway entertainment. The idea that adults 40+ years later would be be analyzing these stories would have seemed laughable to the people producing these comic books.

In Flash #167, we learned that the odds against the lightning bolt that gave the Flash his super-speed were even higher than we had thought:



And in fact, Barry apparently gained his superpowers from Mopee:



Leaving one obvious question for the readers:


But anybody logically looking at it would say that not only were the odds high against the lightning bolt that hit Kid Flash being random, but that the odds of it happening in front of the only other person in the world with super-speed were, well, about 3 billion to one. Which means that we have to assume that Mopee, or another one of the, gag, "Heavenly Helpmates", gave Wally West his Kid Flash powers.

More about →

Single Issue Review: Flash #144

I was looking through some of Mark Engblom's older posts and discovered that he had dubbed this one of the best covers ever. I like the concept, while recognizing (as Mark does) that it's a swipe of an earlier (Flash #122) cover, but I do have to wonder at the "puzzle" being posed by the cover. If the Flash can run fast enough to generate sufficient updraft to prevent the bomb from falling, can't he run a little faster and push it back up into the air?

Now as it happens, I had never read this issue; it's one of the few that I was missing from around then, so I thought it would be a perfect candidate for a review, since I'd be coming to the story fresh.

The story begins with a convict on the run. Luke Elrod's car has run out of gas and he escapes into a desert cave. Unknown to him, he's near an underground nuclear test, and:



Wait a minute! Chemicals drip down on him in a cave? I know who wrote this story, because he recycled that some origin a year later in Detective #337: Gardner Fox. GCD confirms that this is indeed Fox's work.

Luke discovers he has superpowers when roots grow out of his feet to seek water. No, I am not kidding:



Realizing that he can do virtually anything he wants, he changes himself into a human drill and escapes the cave. And then he turns himself into an airplane... uh, no. He waits for a train to come along and take him to Central City. See the problem with Luke? He's got no imagination! He gets to the city, but worries that his prison outfit will give him away. So he decides to steal some clothes from the next person who comes along close to his size.

Can you guess who that might be?



Not only that, but with his powers, he changes his face to look like Barry as well. Well, you can probably guess what has to happen next, as I did before even turning the page:



But this seems to be mostly setting up a humorous sideplot to the story as Elrod begs off Barry's date with Iris, claiming a cold. Meanwhile, Barry has recovered and discovered himself next to the convict's uniform, which he dons and races off too fast to be seen. He gets a new change of clothes from his apartment and a tracking device to locate his signal ring. For once we see the value of him being a police scientist, as he simply calls his precinct and asks them about an escaped convict's prison number, getting the information about Elrod's name.

He dashes over to Iris' place, but she gives him a frosty reception, still thinking that Elrod was Barry. So now Barry has extra incentive to locate the escaped convict. Elrod has turned himself into water and seeped into a jewelry store, then changed back into Barry. When the Flash comes along, Elrod changes into a jewel and hides in the loot he was in the process of stealing, with a mental command not to change back until the Flash has left the store. Amusingly, the Flash grabs up the loot to take it to police headquarters as evidence, but the minute he exits the store Elrod turns back into human form again. The Flash kayoes him, but he recovers before they reach the station and turns himself into a piece of paper that flutters away from the Flash.

Realizing that his powers are waning, Elrod resolves to do one big job and retire. He hits Central City Savings, and gets away from the Flash by changing into a high-speed plane. But as he changes into a parachute to land safely, the Flash appears below him.



This is taking place near the desert cave where Elrod got his powers in the first place. Faced with an atomic missile on his tail, what does Barry do? He runs back to Central City with the missile in hot pursuit. Then we get the cover scene and Barry realizes the mistake of coming into the city, so he goes back out of the city again.

Having overheard Elrod's instructions to himself, the Flash realizes that his only chance is to change back into Barry Allen. Since the missile has no intelligence, it does not recognize that they are the same man. And it explodes harmlessly in the desert. Elrod changes back to his normal appearance (including, inexplicably, his convict uniform) with no memory of what happened after being in the cave, and the Flash takes him in.

Comments: Ghastly. As I mentioned earlier, Fox dusted off the plot a year later to use in an even worse Batman story. A villain who can will anything to happen is not that interesting actually. The story has the definite aroma of being written after the cover, which in a swipe situation like this seems especially likely. About the only redeeming feature is the sideplot involving Iris. Fox later reused the concept of the superhero switching to his secret identity to confuse a menace in the Blockbuster stories in Detective and Batman.

The second story is a Kid Flash story, which definitely perked me up. The early Kid Flash stories tended to be "moral" stories, like the one where the three handicapped kids figured out Wally West was secretly the Boy Speedster.

In Lesson for a Star Athlete, Wally teaches the local football hero that knowledge can be as important as sports. His buddy Pete is convinced that he'll go to college on an athletic scholarship, and so he doesn't need to study hard.

When a flash flood threatens some people having a picnic, Kid Flash manages to divert the water away from them, but he twists his ankle and seems about to get pounded by the water himself when Pete rescues him. They seek shelter in a nearby abandoned lumber mill, but crooks are using it as a hideout and lock them in a room with a strong door. How will they escape? Kid Flash shows off his book learning:



As far as I can determine by Googling, cellophane is not explosive; that seems a bit of literary license. They escape and capture the crooks, Kid Flash's ankle having healed enough to start running again, and in the end Pete resolves to start cracking the books.

Comments: A good story with a good message, but it does lack the punch of some of the other Kid Flash stories of the era.

More about →

Differently Abled

It is no secret that the comics of the Silver Age ignored lots of human beings in the real world. The characters were almost always Caucasians and invariably perfect specimens of humanity. It was a Lake Woebegone world, where all the children were above average. Oh, there were a few times that "different" people slipped in, but it was mostly in the public service announcements.

In Flash #133, we got a hint that was about to change:



(Note: Yes, there is a huge, glaring error in there, which I'll note at the end of the post.)

Kid Flash is supposed to appear at a camp for handicapped kids, who have dreamed up various tests of his abilities. Some of them seem a little odd, such as this one:



Maybe the kids were inspired by the race because they sensed that Kid Flash could have beaten them even if they were world-class athletes? And it turns out that the inspiration is going both ways:



Excuse me for a sec, I seem to have gotten something in my eye. But it gets even better, as it turns out that three of the boys have independently figured out that Kid Flash is actually Wally West (whom they all know from living in Blue Valley, his home town).



What will happen now? It was an almost ironclad law at DC that nobody could know any superhero's secret identity. In fact, if somebody discovered it, there were three different possible endings to the story:

1. They die
2. They get amnesia
3. They become convinced that they were wrong

Well, this time there was a fourth option:



Wow. Terrific story by John Broome and kudos to Julius Schwartz for allowing an unconventional ending to a secret identity tale. And this response a few issues later must have been very gratifying:



Error: See the splash page for the story, with the third kid saying "I can't speak..."? Obviously that was supposed to be a thought balloon.

More about →