By Jim Shooter, Curt Swan & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0456-3
The comic-book experience is littered with eternal questions that can never really be satisfactorily answered. The most common and most passionately asked always begin “who would win if…†or “who’s strongest/smartest/fastest…â€
Teenaged scripting wunderkind Jim Shooter knew that very well when he pitched and subsequently scripted a Superman story in 1967 that created a sub-genre of comic-plot and led inevitably and delightfully to the graphic novel under review here.
DC Editors in the 1960s generally avoided such questions as who’s best for fear of upsetting some portion of their tenuous and perhaps temporary fan-base, but as the superhero boom slowed and the upstart Marvel Comics began to make genuine inroads into their market, the notion of a definitive race between the almighty Man of Steel and the “Fastest Man Alive†became an increasingly enticing and sales-worthy proposition.
This sporty chronicle gathers together the initial contest and numerous rematches between the heroic speed-demons, but if you’re seeking a definitive answer you won’t find it here. These are splendid costumed entertainments; adventures designed to catch your breath and quicken your pulse. It not about the winning: it’s all to do with the taking part…
‘Superman’s Race With the Flash’ (Superman #199, August 1967) gets the ball rolling in a stirring saga by Shooter, Curt Swan & George Klein, wherein the two speedy champions were asked to compete in an exhibition contest by the United Nations, thereby raising money to fight World Hunger. Naturally they agreed, but the clever global handicap, circling the planet three times, was secretly subverted by rival criminal combines attempting to stage the greatest gambling coup in history…
Of course justice and charity triumphed in the end, but the stakes were catastrophically raised in the inevitable rematch from Flash #175 (December 1967). ‘Race to the End of the Universe!’ found the old rivals speeding across the cosmos when ruthless alien gamblers threatened to eradicate Central City and Metropolis unless the pair settled who was fastest. Scripter E. Nelson Bridwell added an ingenious sting in the tale, whilst Ross Andru & Mike Esposito delivered a sterling illustration job in this yarn, but once more the actual winning was deliberately fudged.
When World’s Finest Comics became a team-up vehicle for Superman the first guest star was the Flash who again found himself in speedy if contrived competition. ‘Race to Save the Universe!’ and its conclusion ‘Race to Save Time’ (WFC #198-199 November and December 1970, by Denny O’Neil, Dick Dillin & Joe Giella) once more upped the stakes as the high-speed heroes were conscripted by the Guardians of the Universe to circumnavigate the entire cosmos at their greatest velocities to undo the rampage of the mysterious anachronids, faster-than-light creatures whose pell-mell course throughout the galaxies was actually unwinding time itself. Little did anybody suspect that Superman’s oldest enemies were behind the scheme…
‘Chase to the End of Time!’ and ‘Race to the End of Time!’ opened the new team-up series DC Comics Presents (#1-2, July-August and September-October 1978) as Marty Pasko and the utterly superb Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez & Dan Adkins rather reprised the World’s Finest tale with warring alien races tricking Superman and Flash into speeding through the time-stream to prevent Earth’s history from being corrupted and destroyed. As if that wasn’t dangerous enough, nobody could predict the deadly intervention of the Scarlet Speedster’s most dangerous foe, Professor Zoom, the Reverse-Flash…
After the Crisis on Infinite Earths DC heroes got a sound refitting, and the frankly colossal power levels of the heroic community were downscaled to more believable levels. Some stalwarts even died, and when ‘Speed Kills!’ debuted in Adventures of Superman #463 (February 1990 by writer/artist Dan Jurgens and inker Art Thibert), touted as the first race between the fastest men on Earth, there was a new kid in the Flash’s uniform: ex-sidekick Wally West had graduated to the role.
The story itself is a delightfully whacky romp wherein 5th dimensional pest Mr. Mxyzptlk coerced the pair into running a race everybody knew was fixed from the get-go…
This collection concludes with a spectacular saga unerringly aimed at older fans. ‘Speeding Bullets’ (from one-shot DC First: Flash/Superman July 2002) is by Geoff Johns, Rich Burchett & Prentis Rollins, and features villain Abra Kadabra who challenges the Man of Steel and the 1940s Flash Jay Garrick to catch the current Vizier of Velocity who is running amok at hyper-speed and rapid-aging with every step…
If they can’t catch him then the Fastest Man Alive won’t be…
With the addition of some of the very best covers the company has ever produced to this book, readers casual or deeply devoted are guaranteed a joyous thrill-ride from some of the most entertaining stand-alone stories in DC history. On your marks… get set… Buy!
© 1970, 1972, 1973, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.