Golden Age Flash Archives Volume II


By Gardner F. Fox, E.E. Hibbard, Hal Sharp & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0784-7

The innovative array of companies that became DC published a number of iconic “Firsts” in the early years of the industry. Associated outfit All-American Publications (who were bought out and acquired by National in 1946) were responsible for the first comicbook super-speedster as well as the iconic Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and many others who became mainstays of DC’s pantheon of stars.

Devised, created and written by Gardner Fox and first drawn by Harry Lampert, Jay Garrick debuted as the very first Monarch of Motion in Flash Comics #1 and quickly – how else? – became a veritable sensation.

“The Fastest Man Alive” wowed readers in anthologies Flash Comics, Comics Cavalcade, All Star Comics and others – as well as his own solo vehicle All-Flash Quarterly – for just over a decade before changing tastes benched him and most other Mystery Man heroes in the early1950s.

His invention as a strictly single-power superhero created a new trend in the burgeoning action-adventure funnybook marketplace, and his particular riff was specifically replicated many times at various companies where myriad Fast Furies sprang up.

After over half a decade of mostly interchangeable cops, cowboys and cosmic invaders, the concept of human rockets and superheroes in general was spectacularly revived in 1956 by Julie Schwartz in Showcase #4 when police scientist Barry Allen became the second hero to run with the concept. It’s been non-stop ever since …

This charmingly seductive deluxe Archive edition collects the Fastest Yarns Alive from Flash Comics #18-24, covering June-December 1941, as well as the first two issues of the irrepressible Garrick’s whimsically eccentric full-length exploits from All-Flash Quarterly (Summer and Fall of that same fateful year), all written by the apparently inexhaustible Gardner Fox.

After another informative Introduction from comicbook everyman Jim Amash, the rollercoaster of fun and thrills gathers steam with ‘The Restaurant Protective Association’ (illustrated by Hal Sharp), with Jay and girlfriend/confidante Joan Williams stumbling upon a pack of extortionists and exposing a treacherous viper preying on Joan’s best gal-pal, after which ‘The Fall Guy’ in #19 revealed how a gang of agile fraudsters were faking motor accidents to fleece insurance companies.

Both cases gave Garrick ample opportunity to display the hilarious and humiliating bag of super-speed tricks and punishing pranks which astounded playful kids of the day and still delight decades later.

Flash Comics #20 led with ‘The Adventure of the Auctioned Utility Company’ wherein Joan accidentally bought a regional power outfit and Jay used all his energies to reconcile a feuding family whilst teaching a miserly embezzler an unforgettable lesson…

Sharp had been doing such splendid artistic service on the monthly tales because regular illustrator E. E. Hibbard had presumably been devoting all his creative energies to the contents of the forthcoming 64-page All-Flash Quarterly #1.

The epic premiere issue opened with a tantalising frontispiece ‘The JSA Bid Farewell to the Flash’, celebrating the fact that The Fastest Man Alive was the third character to win his own solo comic – after Superman and Batman – and would therefore be “too busy for Justice Society get-togethers”…

‘The Origin of the Flash’ was then retold by Fox & Hibbard revealing again how some years previously college student Garrick had passed out in the lab at Midwestern University, only to awaken hyper-charged and the fastest creature on Earth thanks to the “hard water fumes” he had inhaled whilst unconscious.

After weeks recovering in hospital, the formerly-frail apprentice chemist realised the exposure had given him super-speed and endurance, so he promptly sought to impress his sort-of girlfriend Joan Williams by becoming an unstoppable football player. Eventually the kids graduated and Garrick moved to New York where, appalled by rampant criminality, he decided to use his gifts to fight it.

The Flash operated mostly in secret, as much hindered as helped by wilful, headstrong Joan who began her own lifetime obsession of pesky do-gooding here…

‘The Men Who Turned to Stone’ plunged us back to the present as one of Garrick’s colleagues at Chemical Research Incorporated discovered an instant petrification process and was abducted by criminals who saw a chance to make lots of illegal money…

Hibbard also illustrated the uncredited fun-fact featurette ‘The Flash Presents his Hall of Speed Records’ before ‘Meet the Author and Artist of the Flash’ offered an intimate introduction to the creative team, after which ‘The Adventure of the Monocle and his Garden of Gems’ saw the debut of a rare returning villain with an unwise addiction to other people’s jewels, but enough brains to counter The Flash’s speed – if not Jay’s courage and ingenuity.

When Flash prevented the murder of a cowboy performer in New York ‘The Rodeo Mystery’ soon took Jay and Joan to Oklahoma and a crooked ploy to steal a newly discovered oil well before the issue closed with Flash smashing a gambler trying to take over the sport of Ice Hockey in ‘Menace of the Racket King’.

In Flash Comics #21 gambling was still a problem as ‘The Lottery’ (illustrated by Sharp) saw the Speedster expose a cunning criminal scheme to bilk theatre patrons and carnival-goers whilst in #22 ‘The Hatchet Cult’ took an uncustomarily dark walk on the wild side as the Flash became involved in a Chinatown Tong war and exposed the incredible secret of modern Mongol mastermind Mighty Kong…

Hibbard & Sharp collaborated on issue #23’s ‘A Millionaire’s Revenge’ wherein wealthy plutocrat Leffingwell Funk decided to avenge an imagined slight by a poor but happy man. His method was unique: it began with engineering unsuspecting shoe store owner Jim Sewell‘s inheritance of half a million dollars and would have ended with leg-breaking thugs, disgrace and prison had not Jim counted Jay Garrick amongst his circle of friends…

The Fall 1941 All-Flash Quarterly (#2 and again an all Fox/Hibbard production) kicked off with a spectacular all-action ‘Title Page’ and informative recap in ‘A Short History of the Flash’ before the creators ambitiously undertook a massive four-chapter saga of vengeance and justice.

In an era where story was paramount this oddly time-skewed tale might jar slightly with modern continuity-freaks, spanning as it does nearly a lifetime in the telling, but trust me just go with it…

‘The Threat: Part One – The Adventure of Roy Revenge!’ opens as brilliant young criminal Joe Connor is sentenced to ten years in jail and swears vengeance on DA Jim Kelley. The convict means it too, spending every waking moment inside improving himself educationally, becoming a trustee to foster the illusion of rehabilitation.

On his release Connor befriends Kelley, who is pursuing a political career, and orchestrates the abduction of the lawyer’s newborn son…

Years later a bold young thug dubbed Roy Revenge begins a campaign of terror against Mayor Jim Kelley which even the Flash is hard-pressed to stop. When the bandit is at last apprehended Kelley pushes hard to have the boy jailed, unaware of his biological connection to the savage youth.

In the intervening years Connor had truly reformed – until his angelic wife died leaving him to care for their little girl Ann and “adopted” son Roy. Without his wife’s influence Connor again turned to crime and raised the stolen boy to hate his real father…

‘The Flash Presents his Hall of Speed Records’ and ‘How to Develop Your Speed by the Flash’ break up the melodrama before the saga continues in ‘The Threat: Part Two – Adventure of the Blood-Red Ray’ as Connor rises in the Underworld and plans to take over the country. Ann has grown up a decent and upstanding – if oblivious – citizen whose only weakness is her constant concealment of her brother Roy, who has been hiding from the law for years…

Even when the elder master criminal’s plan to destroy the Kelleys with a heat-ray is scotched by the Flash the canny crook convinces the Speedster that he is merely a henchman and escapes the full force of justice…

‘The Threat: Part Three – The Wrecker Racket’ sees a new gang plaguing the city, led by a monstrous disfigured albino. Nobody realises this is Connor who escaped custody by a method which physically ruined his body and only increased his hatred of Kelley.

Locating Roy, who has since found peace in rural isolation, the malign menace again draws the young man into his maniacal schemes. When the boy nearly kills his “sister” Ann in pursuance of Connor’s ambitions only the Flash can save the day, leading to a swathe of revelation and a shocking conclusion in ‘The Threat: Part Four – The End of the Threat’…

After that monumental generational saga this splendid selection closes with a full-on alien extravaganza from Flash Comics #24 as Garrick investigates a series of abductions and foils a madman’s plot to forcibly colonise the Red Planet. Unfortunately when inventor Jennings and his gangster backer reached their destination with Jay a helpless prisoner, nobody expected the arid world to be already occupied by belligerent insectoids. ‘The Flash and the Spider-Man of Mars’ by Hibbard & Sharp ends the book on a gloriously madcap, spectacular fantasy high note…

Amazing, exciting and quirkily captivating – even if not to every modern fan’s taste – the sheer exuberance, light-hearted tone and constant narrative invention in the tales of a brilliant nerd who became a social crusader and justice-dispensing human meteor are addictively appealing, and with covers by Sharp, Sheldon Moldoff & Hibbard, this book is another utter delight for lovers of early Fights ‘n’ Tights fantasy.

Of course, with such straightforward thrills on show any reader with an open mind could find his opinion changed in a flash.
© 1941, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.