By Jim Shooter, E. Nelson Bridwell, Dennis O’Neil, Marty Pasko, Dan Jurgens, Geoff Johns, Curt Swan, Ross Andru, Dick Dillin, José Luis García-López, Rick Burchett, Carmine Infantino, Neal Adams, George Klein, Mike Esposito, Joe Giella, Dan Adkins, Art Thibert, Prentiss Rollins & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0456-3 (TPB)
This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.
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…?” Teenaged scripting wunderkind Jim Shooter knew that very well when he pitched and subsequently scripted a Superman story in 1967 that created a subgenre of comic-plots and led inevitably and delightfully to the graphic compilation 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 supposed-transitory 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 curated chronicle catalogues material from Superman #199, Flash #175, World’s Finest Comics #198-199, DC Comics Presents #1-2, Adventures of Superman #463 & DC First: Flash/Superman: collectively spanning cover-dates August 1967 through July 2002.
Long overdue for re-release – fully updated and translated to digital formats – this compendium and sporting almanac gathers together that 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 about the taking part…
‘Superman’s Race with The Flash’ (Superman #199, August 1967) gets the ball rolling in a stirring saga by Shooter, limned by Curt Swan & George Klein, wherein the two speedy champions are asked to compete in an exhibition contest by the United Nations, to raise money to fight World Hunger. Naturally they agree, but the clever global handicap, circling the planet three times, is secretly and insidiously subverted by rival criminal combines attempting to stage the greatest gambling coup in history…
Of course, the vile gamblers are foiled and justice and wholesome charity triumph in the end, but the stakes are catastrophically raised in the inevitable rematch from The Flash #175 (December 1967). ‘Race to the End of the Universe!’ finds the friendly rivals rocketing across the cosmos after ruthless alien gamblers threaten to eradicate Central City and Metropolis unless the pair settle 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. Presumably to prevent hurt feelings on the part of partisan young readers…
When World’s Finest Comics became briefly 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’ (by Denny O’Neil, Dick Dillin & Joe Giella in WFC #198-199, November & December 1970) once again upped the stakes as the Guardians of the Universe conscripted our high speed heroes to circumnavigate the entire cosmos at their greatest velocities to undo the rampage of the enigmatic 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!’ & ‘Race to the End of Time!’ opened new team-up series DC Comics Presents (#1-2, July/August & September/October 1978) as Marty Pasko, José Luis García-López & Dan Adkins rather reprised that World’s Finest tale with two eternally-warring alien races tricking Superman & 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 continuity-shattering Crisis on Infinite Earths mega-event, DC heroes got a sound refitting, and the frankly colossal power levels of the costumed community were suitably downscaled to more believable limits. Some stalwarts even died, and so when ‘Speed Kills!’ appeared in Adventures of Superman #463 (February 1990 by writer/artist Dan Jurgens and inker Art Thibert), the issue was touted as the first race between the fastest men on Earth. Of course, there was a new kid in the Flash’s uniform: former sidekick Wally West had graduated to the role after his mentor Barry Allen perished saving the universes in that aforementioned epic.
The story itself is a delightfully whacky romp wherein 5th dimensional gadfly Mr. Mxyzptlk coerces the pair into running a race everybody knows is fixed from the get-go…
This selection 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, Rick Burchett & Prentis Rollins, and features futuristic villain Abra Kadabra who challenges the Man of Steel and 1940s Flash Jay Garrick to catch the current Vizier of Velocity – currently running amok at hyperspeed and rapid-aging with every step he takes. If they can’t catch him then the Fastest Man Alive won’t be for long…
With the inclusion to this book of some of the very best covers the company has ever produced – courtesy of Carmine Infantino, Murphy Anderson, Mike Esposito, Curt Swan, Neal Adams, García-López, Jurgens & Brett Breeding and Kevin Nowlan – readers casual and deeply devoted alike are guaranteed a joyous thrill-ride from some of the most entertaining stand-alone stories in DC history.
On your marks, get set, Go for it!
© 1970, 1972, 1973, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.
Today in 1951 comic book all-rounder Ed Hannigan (Black Panther, The Defenders, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Green Arrow, Spectacular Spider-Man) was born, sharing the birthday with US artist Don Kramer (Detective Comics, JSA, Nightwing, Doctor Fate, Wonder Woman) and Swedish cartoonist Tony Cronstam (Provet, Bamse, Elvis) in 1969 and comic book writer/colourist Jordi Bellaire (Absolute Wonder Woman, The Nice House, G.I. Joe, Catwoman, Detective Comics, Hawkeye, Batman, The Vision, Black Widow) in 1988.
Today in 1989 Berke Breathed took a decades-long sabbatical from Bloom County as the strip “ended” to be replaced by whole bunches of other fabulous comics stuff. The day also marks the death of Dick Tracy artist Richard Earl “Dick” Locher in 2017.