Flash – Page 8 – Now Read This!

May 12, 2013

Final Crisis: Rogues Revenge

By Geoff Johns, Scott Kolins, Dan Panosian & Doug Hazlewood (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2334-2

During the first decade of the 21^st century DC and Marvel were obsessed with vast company-wide crossover events presumably to boost – or maybe simply sustain – dwindling sales.

The company that had invented Big Bombastic Crisis stories seemingly went bonkers mid-decade and propagated one Extreme Extinction Event after another, all with attendant crossovers, specials and miniseries until they could only promise to end it all with one Final Crisis.

We didn’t believe them of course, but there were some great stories amidst the constant proliferating armada of monthly Armageddonsâ€¦

The concept of speedsters has been intrinsic to all of DC’s superhero comics since the revival of the Flash jumpstarted the Silver Age and created a whole new style of storytelling.

There had been earlier cyclonic champions such as Jay Garrick, who debuted as the very first Scarlet Speedster in Flash Comics #1 (January 1940) and as â€œThe Fastest Man Aliveâ€ wowed readers for over a decade before changing tastes benched him and most of his ilk in 1951.

The entire mystery man genre was subsequently revived (and exponentially expanded to overarching prominence) in 1956 when Julie Schwartz oversaw the creation of police scientist Barry Allen who became the second hero to run with the concept in Showcase #4.

The Silver Age Flash, whose example ushered in a new and seemingly unstoppable era of costumed crusaders, died heroically during Crisis on Infinite Earths (which rationalised and standardised the entire continuity in 1985-1986) and was promptly succeeded by his sidekick Kid Flash.

Of course Allen later returned from the dead – but doesn’t everyone?

Kid Flash Wally West struggled at first to fill the boots of his predecessor, but persevered and eventually overcame, becoming the greatest to own the name. After many amazing adventures he married his beloved Linda Park, but just as happiness seemed certain they both disappeared in the reality-bending chaos of the Infinite Crisisâ€¦

In the slow build up to Final Crisis and by way of all those other â€œend-of-everythingâ€ multi-part mega-sagas, Bart Allen had finally acceded to the crimson mantle. Introduced as the impetuous unruly Impulse, Barry Allen’s grandson had come hot-footed from the 30th century to join the pantheon, and had matured through a career as the second Kid Flash to finally become the third hero to wear the family costume.

Keep up: he’s technically the fourth Flash since Garrick was the first speedster to use the name, albeit in a different outfit and originally on a completely different Earth.

However, as Bart was quickly adapting to his new role in Los Angeles, studying to be a cop and forensic scientist like his grandpa with a procession of old Rogues and new villains complicating matters, he was utterly unaware that his evil clone Inertia (no, seriously) was assembling an army of his predecessors’ enemies for an all-out attack.

They succeeded too well. Although the Rogues were looking for glory and payback, they had no idea they were being manipulated by the pre-meditating Inertia into actually murdering the kid.

After the brief death of Bart Allen (he too was soon resurrected) Wally and Linda returned in a spectacular blaze of glory accompanied by their two children, somehow grown into teens over the course of a few months and already heroes in waitingâ€¦

And that’s just that’s background to this collection featuring the staggering finale to a years-long saga as much about the unique band of villains associated with the Twin Cities as the ever-imperilled Fastest Men Aliveâ€¦

Published as a supplemental sidebar to the Big Show of 2008, Final Crisis: Rogues Revenge was a 3-part miniseries by old allies Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins which followed the paths of Rogues Gallery veterans Captain Cold, Heat Wave and Weather Wizard plus relative newcomer the second Mirror Master as they came to terms with the repercussions of their infamous, if involuntary, act of murder.

To fill out the admittedly brief page count this collection also includes the contents of The Flash volume 2, issues #182 and #197 from 2002 and 2003: two key, Rogue-heavy episodes which provided chilling insight into the minds of the utterly compelling bad guysâ€¦

It all begins with the fugitive villains returning to their Central City hideout only to find the place infested with petty thugs led by Axel Walker, the new upstart Trickster. It’s a whole new world now. Many of their former comrades – as well as much of the Underworld’s super-powered elite – have signed up to the cause of overarching new villain Libra: a man you just don’t say no to.

A relative newcomer, Libra has compelled such heavies as Lex Luthor and Gorilla Grodd to join his monumental league of villains and espouses the adoption of a religion of Evil. He has already killed the Martian Manhunter and expects the Rogues to sign up to his cause.

Never one to be pushed, Captain Cold did say no and now he and his trusted comrades are hunted by heroes and villains alike.

Routing Walker’s thugs, the fugitives grudgingly accept the new Trickster into their ranks, but can’t stomach the kid’s crowing over Flash’s murder.

Cold has no scruples over killing but he has never committed homicide for fun. If it isn’t for profit or vengeance or to make a point, it isn’t worth the trouble and for people like the Rogues there’s always an alternative.

Moreover, Cold really resents the attention and grief Inertia has brought down on them all by slaying a speedster but most of all, he really, really, really hates being a vicious little thug’s patsyâ€¦

With everybody hunting them Cold and his companions are looking for a way to bring things back to â€œnormalâ€, but are unaware that they are also being targeted by reformed Rogue Pied Piper who has his own warped reasons to confront themâ€¦

When Cold again refuses Libra’s demand to join or die, it is the final straw for the Prophet of Evil, who is the covert herald of an invasion by forces far beyond human ken.Â Libra decides to remove the obstinate obstacles and make a very public pointâ€¦

Meanwhile, Wally West has beaten and horrifically incarcerated Bart’s killer, but Inertia has been subsequently released by the ultimate enemy of all Speedsters. Hunter Zolomon was an FBI profiler who went mad and, patterning himself on old Rogue Professor Zoom, the Reverse Flash, determined to make heroes â€œbetterâ€ by torturing them with savage personal tragedy and heartbreak.

Now his latest scheme involves converting the psychotic Inertia into his own protÃ©gÃ©, Kid Zoomâ€¦

The hard-pressed Rogues also have Inertia in mind, and Captain Cold decides the best way to make things right again is to execute the kid who is the root cause of all their current problemsâ€¦

Libra quickly moves to the head of his â€œto-doâ€ list, though, when the Herald of Apokolips makes an example of Paul Gambi, the tailor and armourer who has armed and equipped the Rogues throughout their criminal careers. Libra has the old man tortured by cheap imitations of the Rogues, intending them to become their replacements in his League of Evil, but the upstarts are no match for the real thing who also know a thing or two about sending a murderous messageâ€¦

As Zoom continues his awful education of Kid Zoom, Libra makes more mistakes by targeting Cold’s despised father and abducting the Weather Wizard’s son, precipitating a crisis of faith with devastating repercussions for the planet and all realityâ€¦

All paths coincide when another dead Flash returns, and the Rogues score their greatest triumph whilst making one more hugely selfish misjudgement which will only become apparent in the traumatic days to comeâ€¦

This turbulent tome then concludes with a brace of insightful character histories. ‘Absolute Zero’ (inked by Dan Panosian) revealed the traumatic story of career criminal Len Snart and the outcome when, as Captain Cold, he avenged the murder of his sister Lisa, affording us all a look at the early life which made him such a cold-hearted killer (first seen in Flash #182), whilst Kolins & Hazlewood collaborated on #197’s ‘Rogue Profile: Zoom’ wherein Hunter Zolomon’s cruel fate was fully revealed.

Once the FBI’s hotshot star profiler, an innocent mistake unleashed horrific consequences for Hunter’s loved ones. Years later whilst seeking redemption, he compounded his personal tragedy and became the time-bending sociopath Zoom whose mission was to make his best friend Wally West a better hero through the white-hot crucible of personal tragedyâ€¦

Dark, gritty and spectacularly potent, this tale can simply be read as a satisfactory conclusion to the hyper-extended Rogue War saga in the Flash, rather than as an adjunct to the Final Crisis, but whatever your reasons for enjoying this powerful Fights ‘n’ Tights drama, this is a book no dyed-in-the-crimson-wool Flash-fan should miss.
Â© 2002, 2003, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

April 20, 2013April 18, 2013

Golden Age Flash Archives Volume I

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

The innovative fledgling company that became DC published the first comicbook super-speedster and over the decades has constantly added more to its pantheon of stars. Devised, created and written by Gardner Fox and first realised by Harry Lampert, Jay Garrick debuted as the very first Monarch of Motion in Flash Comics #1 and quickly – of course – became a veritable sensation.

â€œThe Fastest Man Aliveâ€ wowed readers of anthologies like Flash Comics, Comics Cavalcade, All Star Comics and other titles – as well as solo vehicle All-Flash Quarterly – for just over a decade before changing tastes benched him and most other first-generation costumed 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 such as Johnny Quick , Hurricane, Silver Streak, the Whizzer, Quicksilver and Snurtle McTurtle, the Terrific Whatzit amongst so many othersâ€¦

After half a decade of mostly interchangeable cops, cowboys and cosmic invaders, the concept of human speedsters and the superhero genre 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. We’ve not looked back since – and if we did it would all be a great big blurâ€¦

This oddly beguiling deluxe Archive edition collects the first year and a half – January 1940 to May 1941 – of the irrepressible Garrick’s whimsically eccentric exploits in seventeen (regrettably untitled) adventures from the anthology Flash Comics, revealing

an appealing rawness, light-hearted whimsy and scads of narrative experimentation in the tales of brilliant nerd but physical sad-sack who became a social crusader and justice-dispensing human meteor.

Following a fulsome Foreword from contemporary Flash scribe Mark Waid, the fast fictions begin with his very first appearance as ‘The Fastest Man Alive’ which speedily delivered in a mere 15 pages an origin, introduced a returning cast and a carried out a classic confrontation with a sinister gang of gangsters.

It all started some years previously when college student Garrick passed out in the lab at MidwesternUniversity, only to awaken hyper-charged and the fastest creature on Earth thanks to the â€œhard water fumesâ€ 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 playerâ€¦

Time passed, the kids graduated and Garrick moved to New York where, appalled by the rampant crime, he decided to do something about it. The Flash operated mostly in secret until one day, whilst idly playing tennis with himself, Jay met Joan again, just as mobsters tried to kill her in a drive-by shooting.

Catching the bullets, Jay gets reacquainted with his former paramour and discovers that she is a target of criminal combine the Faultless Four, master criminals set on obtaining her father’s invention the Atomic Bombarder. In the blink of an eye Flash has crushed the sinister schemes of the gang and their diabolical leader Sieur Satan, saving Joan’s life whilst revelling in the sheer liberating fun and freedom of being gloriously unstoppableâ€¦

In his second appearance The Flash stumbled upon a showgirl’s murder and discovered that yankee mobster Boss Goll and British aristocrat Lord Donelin planned to take over the entire entertainment industry with their ruthless strong-arm tactics. The speedster was as much hindered as helped by wilful, headstrong Joan who began her own lifetime-obsession of pesky do-gooding hereâ€¦

Everett E. Hibbard began his decade long association with the Flash in issue #3 when, in a rare display of continuity, Major Williams’ Atomic Bombarder became the target of foreign spies and the elderly boffin was framed for treason, once more prompting Garrick to come to his future father-in-law’s aid, after which Jay and Joan combined to smash an off-shore gambling ring which had graduated to kidnapping and blackmail in #4.

During these early adventures, the Flash seldom donned his red, blue and yellow outfit, usually operating invisibly or undercover and playing super-speed pranks with merciless, puckish glee, but that began to change in #5, when the speedster saved an elderly artist from hit-men to foil mad collector Vandal who used murder to increase the market value of his purchases.

Flash Comics #6 found Jay and Joan foiling a scheme to dope athletes trying to qualify for the Olympics at old Alma Mater Midwestern, before #7 revealed how a stopover in Duluth led to the foiling of gambler Black Mike who was fixing motorcar races with a metal melting ray. For #8, the Vizier of Velocity tracked down seemingly corrupt contractors building shoddy, dangerous buildings only to find the graft and skulduggery went much further up the financial food chainâ€¦

In issue #9, gangsters got hold of a scientist’s invention and the Flash found himself battling a brigade of giant Gila Monsters, after which #10 depicted the speedy downfall of a cabal of politicians in the pocket of gangster Killer Kelly and stealing from the schools they administered, whilst in #11, Garrick met his first serious opponent in kidnap racketeer The Chief, whose brilliance enabled him to devise stroboscopic glasses which could track and target the invisibly fast crime-crusherâ€¦

With the threat of involvement in the â€œEuropean Warâ€ a constant subject of American headlines, Flash Comics #12 (December 1940) had the heroic human hurricane intervene to save tiny Ruritanian nation Kurtavia from ruthless invasion. His spectacular lightning war saw Garrick sinking submarines, repelling land armies and crushing airborne blitzkriegs for a fairytale happy ending here, but within a year the process would become a patriotic morale booster repeated ad infinitum in every American comicbook as the real world brutally intruded on the industry and nationâ€¦

Back in the USA for #13, Garrick went to aid old friend Jim Carter in cowboy country where the young inheritor of a silver mine was gunned down by murdering owlhoots, before Jay heading back east to crush a criminal combine sabotaging city subway construction in #14 and saving a circus from robbery, sabotage and poor attendances in #15.

Throughout all these yarns Jay had paid scant attention to preserving any kind of secret identity – a fact that would soon change – but as Hal Sharp took over the illustration with #16 (Hibbard presumably devoting his energies to the contents of the forthcoming 64-page All-Flash Quarterly #1 – to be seen in the succeeding Archive collection), Joan was kidnapped by Mexican mobsters aware of her connection to The Flash.

Rushing to her rescue Garrick was forced to battle a small army, but not only saved his girlfriend but even managed to reform bandit chief JosÃ© Salvez.

This first high-energy compilation ends with another light-hearted sporting escapade as the speedster intervenes in a gambling plot, saving a moribund baseball team from sabotage even as Jay Garrick – officially â€œalmost as fast as the Flashâ€ – becomes the Redskins’ star player to save them from lousy performancesâ€¦

With covers by Sheldon Moldoff, Dennis Neville, George Storm, Jon L. Blummer, Hibbard and Sharp, this book is a sheer delight for lovers of the early Fights ‘n’ Tights genre: amazing, exciting and funny, although certainly not to every modern fan’s taste. Of course, with such straightforward thrills on show any reader with an open mind could find his opinion changed in a flash.
Â© 1940, 1941, 1999 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

February 2, 2013February 1, 2013

The Flash: Rogue War

By Geoff Johns, Steve Cummings, Peter Snejbjerg, Justiniano, Howard Porter & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0924-7

The innovative fledgling company that became DC published the first comicbook super-speedster and over the decades has constantly added more to its pantheon of stars. Created by Gardner Fox and Harry Lampert, Jay Garrick debuted as the very first Scarlet Speedster in Flash Comics #1 (January 1940). â€œThe Fastest Man Aliveâ€ wowed readers for over a decade before changing tastes benched him in 1951. Other early Fast Furies there included Johnny Quick and Snurtle McTurtle, the Terrific Whatzitâ€¦

The concept of speedsters and the superhero genre in general was revived in 1956 by Julie Schwartz in Showcase #4 when police scientist Barry Allen became the second hero to run with the concept.

The Silver Age Flash, whose creation ushered in a new and seemingly unstoppable era of costumed crusaders, died heroically during Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985-1986) and was promptly succeeded by his sidekick Kid Flash. Of course Allen later returned from the dead – but doesn’t everyone?

Initially Wally West struggled to fill the boots of his predecessor, both in sheer ability and, more tellingly, in confidence. Feeling a fraud, he nonetheless persevered and eventually overcame, becoming the greatest to carry the name. In recent history he and other hurtling hyper-heroes have congregated in and around the conjoined metropolis of Keystone and Central Cities.

Wally lived there with his true love Linda Park, his Aunt Iris West-Allen and semi-retired pioneering human rocket Jay Garrick, whilst his juvenile nephew from the Future Bart â€œImpulseâ€ Allen and tutor/keeper Max Mercury, the Zen Master of hyper-velocity, resided only an eye-blink away. Bart eventually succeeded to the vacant role of Kid Flashâ€¦

This volume, entirely scripted by the departing Geoff Johns, collects issues #212, 218, 220-225 and the Wizard Comics premium special #Â½ of Wally’s long-gone-and-much-missed monthly comicbook; featuring the staggering finale of a years-long saga as much about the unique band of villains associated with the Twin Cities as the ever-imperilled Fastest Men Aliveâ€¦

This closing compendium opens in the aftermath of many blockbusting battles which tore the Keystone/Central City and the extended Flash Family apart. During that period the hero and his nearest and dearest were targeted by time-bending sociopath Hunter Zoloman who patterned himself on the greatest Flash-villain of all. â€œZoomâ€ wanted to make Wally a better hero through the white-hot crucible of personal tragedyâ€¦

To that end he targeted Linda and killed the unborn twins she was carrying. Within days the Scarlet Speedster had disappeared and – thanks to the intervention of nigh-omnipotent spirit The Spectre – everyone who knew Wally was the Flash forgot the secret.

The supernatural intervention was meant as a stopgap measure and means to restore the shield of anonymity to the Scarlet Speedster’s loved ones and prepare the harried couple for what was to comeâ€¦

This end begins with ‘Mirror, Mirror on the Wall’ illustrated by Steve Cummings & Wayne Faucher, offering insights into the troubled history of the second Mirror Master and revealing how a troubled Scottish orphan found his true calling in life. Evan McCulloch notched up his first kill at age eight, efficiently removing an abusive older boy from the orphanage he brutally dominated.

A generally trouble-free period, where he fruitlessly searched for the parents who abandoned him, nevertheless drew him into petty crime, drugs and eventually the life of a hitman – and a superlative one at that.

When his gifts inevitably led him to the greatest mistake of his life, he was preparing to end it all when he was arrested and â€œrenditionedâ€ by a maverick wing of the FBI, who needed an anonymous, untraceable assassin they could use to kill high-profile annoyances – like whistleblowers and uncontrollable superheroesâ€¦

They equipped Evan with technology taken from the original Mirror Master’s corpse, but completely underestimated McCulloch’s dislike of authority figures and abiding, self-destructive love of crime and mischief…

By comparison, #218’s ‘Rogue Profile: Heat Wave’ (with art from Peter Snejbjerg) detailed how obsessive pyromaniac Mick Rory had battled every day to quell the need to see things blaze â€“ a struggle that had begun after he burned his family to death.

His troubled path had taken him from circus performer to super-villain and founding member ofÂ Flash’s Rogues Gallery, but now he was reformed and working with the FBI to bring in his former associates.

He still fought every moment against the urge to light things up, thoughâ€¦

‘Rogue Wars Prologue: Tricksters’ by Justiniano, Walden Wong & John Livesay, from Wizard Comics Flash Special #Â½, then finished the graphic history lessons and build-up to the final conflagration as the fully restored Vizier of Velocity discovered that Mirror Master McCulloch was liberating Rogues as fast as the Flash could catch themâ€¦

FBI Special Agent James Jesse – the original Trickster – was a poacher-turned-gamekeeper who had gathered a taskforce of similarly reformed Rogues to capture his former criminal comrades. However with the bad-guys making his operatives Heat Wave, Pied Piper and magnetic mutant Magenta look like idiots, Jesse decided to at last get back into the field and take personal chargeâ€¦

The villains, already reeling from revelations that their heroic enemies had been systematically indulging in illegal brain-wiping and behaviour modification of criminals in their custody (see Flash: the Secret of Barry Allen and Identity Crisis), had united in a furious, vengeful alliance and were determined to exact retribution. Their prolonged assaults had devastated the Cities but the dire situation was further worsened after the psionic ghost of Roscoe Dillon came back from the grave.

The Top had been â€œadjustedâ€ by Barry Allen and Zatanna, becoming a driven man compelled to Do Good. He had used his abilities to forcibly save a number of Rogues but now, possessing a stolen body and his old inclinations, Dillon was resolved to punish the dynasty of Flashes by undoing all his previous good deedsâ€¦

And now, immune to the Spectre’s spell, Zoom reappeared to stalk Linda once moreâ€¦

The cataclysmic, epic 6-chapter Rogue War – illustrated by Howard Porter & John Livesay – then begins in earnest when Captain Cold leads the senior Rogues in a spree of theft and destruction, culminating in a futile attempt to recover the body of deceased colleague Captain Boomerang from FBI custody.

Later whilst Jay Garrick is ambushed by Zoom, the exultant criminal cohort are attacked by Jesse’s squad even as, in a secret location, the maniac’s wife Ashley Zolomon is reluctantly participating in an FBI experiment to temporarily resurrect Boomerang and probe his mind for the secrets of the Roguesâ€¦

The blockbusting battle between the Rogue factions is interrupted by the sudden appearance of the utterly out-of-control Top. By the time Flash arrives, his beloved Twin Cities are a shattered war-zoneâ€¦

With events already spinning into total chaos, the Top deploys the kill-crazy upstart new Rogues Plunder, Double-Down, Tarpit, Girder and Murmur to increase the anarchic carnage and the tumult is only thwarted by the most unlikely of saviours who ends Dillon’s rampages foreverâ€¦

When a splinter faction of the crime combine track down Ashley, however, they incur the wrath of Zoom and open the floodgates for an incredible last actâ€¦

With Wally in overdrive to defeat the army of old foes, Kid Flash rockets to his rescue in time to counter the attacks of elemental mage Dr. Alchemy and super-gorilla Grodd, only to fall in his turn to the raging, unchecked power of Zoom who has finally decided to clear the field of all Rogues and heroic distractions in order to enact his own ultimate master-planâ€¦

This involves snatching the original Professor Zoom, the Reverse-Flash, out of the time stream moments before he was killed by Barry Allen and letting him loose on the despised friends and heirs of the Flashâ€¦

In a climax that involves the entire dynasty of Scarlet Speedsters, the most reprehensible villains in all creation and the rewriting of time itself, Johns signed off on his magnificent opus by pulling out all the stops, burning all his bridges and spectacularly pulling off the happiest ending of the series’ decades-long historyâ€¦

Fast, furious and fabulous, the numerous Scarlet Speedsters have always epitomised the very best in costumed comic thrills and the astounding tenure of Johns resulted in some of the best Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction of modern times.

For more than seven decades, the adventures of the Flash have been the very acme of superhero storytelling, with successive generations of inventive creators producing the very best of high-speed action and superlative drama. This is one of the greatest of those supremely readable classics and a show that you’d be crazy to ignore
Â© 2004, 2005, 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

November 17, 2012

Showcase Presents the Flash volume 4

By John Broome, Gardner Fox, Frank Robbins, Carmine Infantino, Ross Andru & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2297-0

Barry Allen was the second speedster to carry the name of Flash, and his debut was the Big Bang which finally triggered the Silver Age of comics after a series of abortive original attempts such as Captain Flash, The Avenger, Strongman (in 1954-1955) and remnant revivals (Stuntman in 1954 and Marvel’s â€œBig Threeâ€, Human Torch, Sub-Mariner & Captain America from 1953 to 1955).

Although none of those – or other less high-profile efforts – had restored the failed fortunes of masked mystery-men, they had presumably piqued readers’ consciousness, even at conservative National/DC. Thus the revived human rocket wasn’t quite the innovation he seemed: alien crusader Martian Manhunter had already cracked open the company floodgates with his low-key launch in Detective Comics #225, November 1955.

However in terms of creative quality, originality and sheer story style The Flash was an irresistible spark and after his landmark first appearance in Showcase #4 (October 1956) the series – eventually – became a benchmark by which every successive launch or reboot across the industry was measured.

Police Scientist – we’d call him a CSI today – Barry Allen was transformed by an accidental lightning strike and chemical bath into a human thunderbolt of unparalleled velocity and ingenuity. Yet with characteristic indolence the new Fastest Man Alive took three more try-out issues and almost as many years to win his own title. However when he finally stood on his own wing-tipped feet in The Flash #105 (February-March 1959), he never looked backâ€¦

The comics business back then was a faddy, slavishly trend-beset affair, however, and following a manic boom for superhero tales prompted by the Batman TV show the fickle global consciousness moved on to a fixation with of supernatural themes and merely mortal tales, triggering a huge revival of spooky films, shows, books and periodicals. With horror on the rise again, many superhero titles faced cancellation and even the most revered and popular were threatened. It was time to adapt or dieâ€¦

At the time this fourth collection of his own hard-won title begins, the Vizier of Velocity was still an undisputed icon of the apparently unstoppable Superhero meme and mighty pillar of the costumed establishment, but dark days and changing fashions were about to threaten his long run at the topâ€¦

Reprinting the transitional issues #162-184 (from June 1966 to December 1968), this compilation shows how Flash had set into a comfortable pattern of two short tales per issue leavened with semi-regular book-length thrillers; always written by regular scripters John Broome or Gardner F. Fox and illustrated by Carmine Infantino (and Joe Giella) but that safe format was about to radically change.

Flash #162 featured the Fox-penned sci-fi chiller ‘Who Haunts the Corridor of Chills?’ in which an apparently haunted fairground attraction opened the doors into an invasion-mystery millions of years old and stretched the Scarlet Speedster’s powers and imagination to the limit, whilst the next issue offered two tales by globe-trotting author Broome.

‘The Flash Stakes his Life – On – You!’ took an old philosophical adage to its illogical but highly entertaining extreme when criminal scientist Ben Haddon used his gadgets to make the residents of Central City forget their champion ever existed. That then had the incredible effect of making the Flash fade away and, were it not for the utter devotion of one hero-worshipping little girlâ€¦

By contrast ‘The Day Magic Exposed Flash’s Secret Identity!’ is a sharp duel with a dastardly villain as approbation-hungry evil illusionist Abra Kadabra escaped prison and traded bodies with the 64^th century cop sent to bring back to face future justice, leaving the Speedster with an impossible choice to make.

Issue #164 held another pair of fast fables. ‘Flash – Vandal of Central City!’ by Broome, found the hero losing control of his speed and destroying property every time he ran. Little did he know old enemy Pied Piper was back in townâ€¦ Kid Flash then solo-starred in the Fox tale ‘The Boy Who Lost Touch with the World!’ as Wally West’s nerdy new friend suddenly became periodically, uncontrollably intangibleâ€¦

With Flash #165 and ‘One Bridegroom too Many!’ Broome, Infantino & Giella took a huge step in the character’s development as Barry finally married his long-time fiancÃ©e Iris West. This shocking saga saw the hero’s sinister antithesis Professor Zoom, the Reverse-Flash attempt to replace him at the altar in a fast-paced, utterly beguiling yarn which also posed a Gordian puzzle for Barry.

Should the nervous newlywed reveal his secret identity to Iris – who had no idea she was marrying a superhero – or say nothing, maintaining the biggest lie between them and pray she never, ever found out? Every married man already knows the answer* but for us secretive little kids reading this the first time around, that question was an impossible, imponderable quandary…

Building soap opera tension by fudging the issue, #166 carried on as usual with Broome’s delicious comedy ‘The Last Stand of the Three-Time Losers!’ which saw a cheesy bunch of no-hoper thieves accidentally discover an improbable, exploitable weakness in Flash’s powers and psyche, after which the Monarch of Motion became a ‘Tempting Target of the Temperature Twins!’ when Flash sprained his ankle just as Heat Wave and Captain Cold chose to renew their almost-friendly rivalry in Central Cityâ€¦

With #167 Sid Greene became the series’ inker and kicked off his run with a light-hearted but accidentally controversial Fox/Infantino tale that utterly incensed the devoted readership. ‘The Real Origin of The Flash!’ introduced Heavenly Helpmate – and Woody Allen look-alike – Mopee who had long ago been ordered to create the accident which transformed a deserving human into the Fastest Man Alive.

Tragically, Mopee had cocked-up and was now back on Earth to rectify his mistake and it took all of Flash’s skill, ingenuity – and patience – to regain his powers. The story is a delightfully offbeat hoot but continuity-conscious fans have dubbed it apocryphal and heretical ever sinceâ€¦

Less contentious was Fox’s back-up yarn ‘The Hypnotic Super-Speedster!’ which allowed Kid Flash an opportunity to bust up a gang of thieves, prank a theatrical mesmerist and give a chubby school chum the athletic thrill of a lifetime.

Broome then produced for #168 a puzzling full-length thriller in which the Guardians of the Universe sought out the Flash and declared ‘One of our Green Lanterns is Missing!’Â Even as the Scarlet Speedster hunted for his missing best buddy, he was being constantly distracted by a gang of third-rate petty thugs who had somehow acquired incredible futuristic super weaponsâ€¦

Flash #169 was an all-reprint 80-Page Giant represented here by its stunning cover and an illuminating ‘How I Draw the Flash’ feature by Carmine Infantino, followed by a full-length Fox thriller in #170. ‘The See-Nothing Spells of Abra Kadabra!’ found the Vizier of Velocity hexed by the cunning conjuror and unable to detect the villain’s actions or presence. Sadly for the sinister spellbinder, Flash had help from his visiting Earth-2 predecessor Jay Garrick and JSA pals Doctors Fate and Mid-Niteâ€¦

‘Here Lies The Flash – Dead and Unburied’ (Fox, Infantino & Greene) pitted the restored speedster against Justice League foe Doctor Light, who was attempting to pick off his assembled enemies one at a time whilst #172 offered a brace of Broome blockbusters beginning with ‘Grodd Puts the Squeeze on Flash!’ which saw the super-simian blackmail his nippy nemesis into (briefly) busting him out of a Gorilla City cell, whilst ‘The Machine-Made Robbery!’ featured the return of that most absent-minded Professor Ira West. Luckily son-in-law Barry was around to foil a perfidious plot by cunning criminals. The genius’ new super-computer was public knowledge, and by clever crooks wanted to hire the device, secretly intent on designing a perfect crime.

Issue #173 featured a titanic team-up as Barry, Wally West and Jay Garrick were separately shanghaied to another galaxy as putative prey of alien hunter Golden Man in ‘Doomward Flight of the Flashes!’ However Broome’s stunning script slowly revealed layers of intrigue and the Andromedan super-safari concealed a far more arcane purpose for the three speedy pawns, before the wayward wanderers finally fought free and found their way home again.

In 1967 Infantino was made Art Director and Publisher of National DC and, although he still designed the covers, Flash #174 was his final full-pencilling job. He departed in stunning style with Broome’s ‘Stupendous Triumph of the Six Super-Villains!’ in which Mirror Master Sam Scudder discovered a fantastic looking-glass world where the Scarlet Speedster was a hardened criminal constantly defeated by a disgusting do-gooder reflecting champion.

Stealing the heroic Mirror Master’s secret super-weapon Scudder called in fellow Rogues Pied Piper, Heat Wave, Captain Cold, Captain Boomerang and The Top to enjoy their foe’s final downfall but they were not ready for the last-minute interference of the other, evil, Barry Allenâ€¦

When Infantino left, most fans were convinced the Flash was ruined. His replacements were highly controversial and suffered most unfairly in unjust comparisons – and I count myself among their biggest detractors at the time – but in the intervening years I’ve leaned to appreciate the superb quality of their work.

However, back in a comics era with no invasive, pervasive support media, Flash #175 (December 1967) was huge shock for the fans. With absolutely no warning, ‘The Race to the End of the Universe!’ proclaimed E. Nelson Bridwell as author and introduced Wonder Woman art-team Ross Andru & Mike Esposito as illustrators.

Moreover the story was another big departure. DC Editors in the 1960s had generally avoided such questions as which hero is the strongest/fastest/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 â€œFastest Man Aliveâ€ had become an inevitable, increasingly enticing and sales-worthy proposition.

After a deliberately inconclusive first race around the world – for charity – (‘Superman’s Race with the Flash’, Superman #199, August 1967, reprinted in the themed volume Superman Vs Flash) the stakes were catastrophically raised in the inevitable rematch from Flash #175.

The tale itself found the old friendly rivals compelled to speed across the cosmos when ruthless alien gamblers Rokk and Sorban threatened to eradicate Central City and Metropolis unless the pair categorically settled who was fastest. Bridwell added an ingenious sting in the tale and logically highlighted two classic Flash Rogues, whilst Andru & Esposito delivered a sterling illustration job in this yarn – but once more the actual winning was deliberately fudged.

Broome produced a few more stories before moving on and #176 offered two of his best. ‘Death Stalks the Flash!’ tapped into the upsurge in spooky shenanigans when Iris contracted a deadly fever and her hyper-fast hubby ran right into her dreams to destroy the nightmarish Grim Reaper after which ‘Professor West – Lost Strayed or Stolen?’ delightfully inverts all the old absent-minded gags. Barry’s Father-in-Law successfully underwent a memory-enhancing process but still managed to get inadvertently involved with murderous felonsâ€¦

Fox then produced one of the daftest yet most memorable of Flash thrillers in #177 as The Trickster invented a brain-enlarging ray and turned his arch-foe into ‘The Swell-Headed Super-Hero!’ after which #178’s cover follows – being merely another all-reprint 80-Page Giantâ€¦

Written by newcomer Cary Bates and Gardner Fox, Flash #179 (May 1968) was another landmark. The prologue ‘Test your Flash I.Q.’ and main event ‘The Flash – Fact of Fiction?’ took the multiple Earths concept to its logical conclusion by trapping the Monarch of Motion in â€œourâ€ Reality, where the Sultan of Speed was just a comic-book character! Offering a simultaneous alien monster mystery this rollercoaster riot was a superb introduction for Bates who eventually became the regular writer of the series and the longest serving creator of the legend of Barry Allen.

First though, jobbing cartoonist Frank Robbins added Flash to his credits by scripting an almost painfully tongue-in-cheek oriental spoof accessing everything from Kurosawa to You Only Live Twice to his own Johnny Hazard strip (see Johnny Hazard: Mammoth Marches On).

In #180 Barry and Iris visited friends in Japan and became embroiled in a deadly scheme by fugitive war criminal Baron Katana to turn the clock back and restore feudal control over Nippon using ‘The Flying Samurai’ – a sinister plot unravelled after only the most strenuous efforts of the newlyweds in an all-action conclusion ‘The Attack of the Samuroids!’

Broome’s last hurrahs came in #182 with the clever return of Abra Kadabra whose futuristic legerdemain and envy of real stage magicians compelled him to turn the speedster into ‘The Thief Who Stole all the Money in Central City!’ whilst ‘The Flash’s Super-Speed Phobia!’ saw an unlikely accident inflict a devastating if temporary psychological disability on the fleet thief-taker.

The tone of the stories was changing. Aliens and super science took a back-seat to less fantastic human-scaled dramas, and Robbins scripted the last two tales in this tome beginning with a devilishly deceptive case of bluff and double-bluff as Barry Allen became ‘The Flash’s Dead Ringer!’ in a convoluted attempt to convince crime-boss the Frog that the police scientist wasn’t also the Fastest Man Alive, before proving that he too was adept at high concept fabulism in #184 when a freak time-travel accident trapped Flash millennia in the future after accidentally becoming the apparent ‘Executioner of Central City!’

These tales first appeared at a time when superhero comics almost disappeared for the second time in a generation, and perfectly show the Scarlet Speedster’s ability to adapt to changing fashions in ways many of his four-colour contemporaries simply could not. Crucial as they are to the development of modern comics, however, it is the fact that they are brilliant, awe-inspiring, beautifully realised thrillers which can still amuse, amaze and enthral both new readers and old lags. This lovely compendium is another must-read item for anybody in love with the world of graphic narrative.
Â© 1966, 1967, 1968, 2012 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.
* In case you’re not married, or not a man, the answer is: Fake your own death and move to Bolivia. And if you find a woman there, always tell her everything before she asks or finds out.

October 7, 2012October 6, 2012

The Brave and the Bold volume 2: The Book of Destiny

By Mark Waid, George PÃ©rez, Jerry Ordway, Bob Wiacek & Scott Koblish (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1838-6 (hc)Â Â 978-1-4012-1861-4 (tpb)

The Book of Destiny is a mystical ledger which charts the history, progress and fate of all Reality and everything in it – except for the four mortals entrusted with its care at the end of The Brave and the Bold: The Lords of Luckâ€¦

The death-defying Challengers of the Unknown – cool pilot Ace Morgan, indomitable strongman Rocky Davis, intellectual aquanaut Prof. Haley and daredevil acrobat Red Ryan – live on borrowed time and were bequeathed the terrifying tome by Destiny of the Endless since their lives are not included within its horrifying pagesâ€¦

After the staggering spectacle of the previous Brave and the Bold story-arc, here Mark Waid, George PÃ©rez and inkers Bob Wiacek & Scott Koblish are joined by co-penciller Jerry Ordway for a stunning sequel featuring most of the DC universeâ€¦

This compilation collects issues #7-12 of the high-energy, all-star revival of the venerable DC title and plays novel games with the traditional team-up format when a mysterious mage begins manipulating heroes and villains in a diabolical alchemical scheme to transform the cosmos foreverâ€¦

Beginning with ‘Scalpels and Chainsaws’ wherein Wonder Woman and the ever-abrasive Power Girl rub each other the wrong way (oh please, what are you, ten!?) whilst tackling an undead invasion, the case takes a strange turn and the Princess of Power accidentally discovers the Caped Kryptonian has been brainwashed into trying to murder her cousin Supermanâ€¦

Their ill-tempered investigations lead to the fabled Lost Library of Alexandria and a disastrous confrontation with the deranged Dr. Alchemy, but he too is only a pre-programmed pawn – of a sinister presence called Megistus – who needs Power Girl to use the mystical artefact known as the Philosopher’s Stone to turn the Fortress of Solitude into pure Red Kryptoniteâ€¦

Thanks to Wonder Woman’s battle savvy, the plot is frustrated and the stone thrown into the sunâ€¦ just as Megistus intendedâ€¦

All this has been read in the mystic chronicle by the Challengers and their fifth member Dr. June Robbins – whose merely mortal existence and eventual doom are tragically recorded in the Book. They rush off to investigate the universe-rending menace even as ‘Wally’s Choice’ brings the Flash and his rapidly aging children Jai and Iris West into unwelcome contact with manipulative genius Niles Caulder and his valiant Doom Patrol. â€œThe Chiefâ€ claims he can cure the twins’ hyper-velocity malady, but Caulder never does anything for selfless reasonsâ€¦

With no other hope, Wally and wife Linda acquiescence to the mad doctor’s scheme which relies on using elemental hero Rex Mason to stabilise their kids’ critical conditions. It might even have worked, had not Metamorpho been mystically abducted mid-process â€“ consequently transforming the children into bizarre amalgams of Negative Man and Robot Manâ€¦

Worst of all, Flash was almost forced to choose which child to save and which should dieâ€¦

Thinking faster than ever, the Scarlet Speedster beat the odds and pulled off a miracle, but in a distant place the pages of the Book were suddenly possessed and attacked the Challengersâ€¦

‘Changing Times’ featured a triptych of short team-up tales which played out as the Men that History Forgot battled a monster made of Destiny’s pages, beginning as the robotic Metal Men joined forces with young Robby Reed who could become a legion of champions whenever he needed to Dial H for Hero.

Sadly not even genius Will Magnus could have predicted the unfortunate result when crushingly shy robot Tin stuck his shiny digit in the arcane Dialâ€¦

Next, during WWII the combative Boy Commandos were joined by the Blackhawks in battling animated mummies intent on purloining the immensely powerful Orb of Ra from a lost pyramid, after which perpetually reincarnating warrior Hawkman joined substitute Atom Ryan Choi in defending Palaeolithic star-charts from the marauding Warlock of Ys, none of them aware that they were all doing the work of the malignly omnipresent Megistusâ€¦

The fourth chapter paralleled the Challengers’ incredible victory over the parchment peril with a brace of tales which saw the Man of Steel travel to ancient Britain to join heroic squire Brian of Kent (secretly the oppression-crushing Silent Knight) in bombastic battle against a deadly dragon, whilst the Teen Titans‘ second ever case found Robin, Wonder Girl and Kid Flash in Atlantis for the marriage of Aquaman and Mera.

Unfortunately Megistus’ drone Oceanus crashed the party, intent on turning Aqualad into an enslaved route map to the future…

And inCalifornia, the Challengers attempted to save Green Lantern’s Power Battery from being stolen only to find it in the possession of an ensorcelled Metamorphoâ€¦

As the Element Man easily overwhelmed Destiny’s Deputies, Jerry Ordway assumed the penciller’s role for issues #5-6.

‘Superman and Ultraman’ saw the natural enemies initially clash and then collaborate at the behest of an alternate universe’s Mr. Mixyezpitelik, who revealed the appalling scope and nature of Megistus’ supernal transformational ambitions, leading to a gathering of the heroic clans and a blistering Battle Royale in the roaring heart of the Sunâ€¦

With the fate of reality at stake and featuring a veritable army of guest stars ‘The Brave and the Bold’ wrapped up the saga with a terrible, tragic sacrifice from the noblest hero of all, whilst subtly setting the scene for the upcoming Final Crisisâ€¦

With fascinating designs and pencil art from Ordway to tantalise the art lovers, this second captivating collection superbly embodies all the bravura flash and dazzle thrills superhero comics so perfectly excel at. This is a gripping fanciful epic with many engaging strands that perfectly coalesce into a frantic and fabulous free-for-all overflowing with all the style, enthusiasm and sheer exuberant joy you’d expect from the industry’s top costumed drama talents.

The Brave and the Bold: The Book of Destiny is another great story with great art, ideal for kids of all ages to read and re-read over and over again.
Â© 2007, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

August 22, 2012August 26, 2012

Showcase Presents Showcase volume 1

By various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-78116-364-1

This review is incredibly long. If you want to skip it and just buy the book – because it’s truly brilliant – then please do. I won’t mind and you won’t regret it at allâ€¦

In almost every conceivable way the â€œtry-out titleâ€ Showcase created the Silver Age of American comicbooks and is responsible for the multi-million dollar industry and nascent art form we all enjoy today.

For many of us, the Silver Age is the ideal era and a still-calling Promised Land of fun and thrills. Varnished by nostalgia (because it’s the era when most of us caught this crazy childhood bug), the clean-cut, uncomplicated optimism of the late 1950s and early 1960s produced captivating heroes and compelling villains who were still far less terrifying than the Cold War baddies then troubling the grown-ups. The sheer talent and professionalism of the creators working in that too-briefly revitalised comics world resulted in triumph after triumph all of which brightened our young lives and still glow today with quality and achievement.

The principle was a sound one and graphically depicted in the very first issue: the Editors at National were apparently bombarded with readers’ suggestions for new titles and concepts and the only possible way to feasibly prove which would be popular was to offer test runs and assess the fans reactionsâ€¦

This magnificent monochrome tome starts firmly ensconced in the age of genre thrillers and human adventurers, covering the first 21 issues from that historic series, spanning March/April 1956 to July/August 1959, and starts the ball rolling with the first and last appearances of Fireman Farrell in a proposed series dubbed Fire Fighters.

Following the aforementioned short ‘The Story Behind Showcase’ by Jack Schiff & Win Mortimer, the realistic dramas begin in ‘The School for Smoke-Eaters’ by Schiff and the superb John Prentice, which introduced trainee fireman Mike Farrell during the last days of his training and desperate to simultaneously live up to and escape his father’s fabulous record as a legendary â€œsmoke-eaterâ€.

The remaining stories, both scripted by Arnold Drake, dealt with the day-to-day drama of the job: first in ‘Fire under the Big Top’ wherein an unscrupulous showman ignored Farrell’s Fire Inspection findings with tragic consequences, then in ‘Fourth Alarm’ which mixed an industrial dispute over fireman’s pay, a crooked factory owner and a waterfront blaze captured on live TV in a blisteringly authentic tale of human heroism.

Showcase #2 featured Kings of the Wild: tales of animal bravery imaginatively related in three tales scripted by Robert Kanigher – who had thrived after the demise of superheroes with a range of fantastical genre adventures covering western, war, espionage and straight adventure. ‘Rider of the Winds’, stunningly illustrated by Joe Kubert, told the tale of a Native American lad and his relationship with his totem spirit Eagle, ‘Outcast Heroes’ (Ross Andru & Mike Esposito) related how an orphan boy’s loneliness ended once he befriended a runaway mutt who eventually saved the town’s kids from a flood and ‘Runaway Bear’, drawn by Russ Heath, used broad comedy to describe how an escaped circus bruin battled all the horrors of the wilderness to get back to his comfortable, safe life under the Big Top.

Issue #3 debuted Kanigher & Heath’s The Frogmen in an extended single tale following candidates for a US Underwater Demolitions Team as they moved from students to successful undersea warriors. Beginning with ‘The Making of a Frogman’ as the smallest diver is mocked and chided as a ‘Sardine’ by his fellows – especially the ones nicknamed ‘Shark’ and ‘Whale’ – but persevering and forging bonds until the trio were dumped into blazing Pacific action in ‘Flying Frogmen’, eventually learning the worth of teamwork and sacrifice by destroying a Japanese Sub base in ‘Silent War’â€¦

The feature, if not the characters, became a semi-regular returning strip in All-American Men of War #44 (April #1957) and other Kanigher-edited war comics: making Frogmen the first but certainly not the last graduate of the try-out system. The next debut was to be the most successful but the cautious publishers took a long, long time to make it soâ€¦

No matter which way you look at it, the Silver Age of the American comic book began with The Flash. It’s an unjust but true fact that being first is not enough; it also helps to be best and people have to notice. The Shield beat Captain America to the news-stands by over a year yet the former is all but forgotten today.

The industry had never really stopped trying to revive the superhero genre when Showcase #4 was released in late summer of 1956, with such precursors as The Avenger (February-September 1955), Captain Flash (November 1954-July 1955), Marvel’s Human Torch, Sub-Mariner and the aforementioned Sentinel of Liberty (December 1953-October 1955) and even DC’s own Captain Comet (December 1953-October 1955) and Manhunter from Mars (November 1955 until the end of the 1960’s and almost the end of superheroes again!) still turning up in second-hand-stores and â€œFive-and-Dimeâ€ half-price bins. What made the new Fastest Man Alive stand out and stick was â€¦ well, everything!

Once the DC powers-that-be decided to try superheroes once more, they moved pretty fast themselves. Editor Julie Schwartz asked office partner and Golden-Age Flash scripter Robert Kanigher to recreate a speedster for the Space Age, aided and abetted by Carmine Infantino & Joe Kubert, who had also worked on the previous incarnation.

The new Flash was Barry Allen, a forensic scientist simultaneously struck by lightning and bathed in the exploding chemicals of his lab. Supercharged by the accident, Barry took his superhero identity from a comic book featuring his predecessor (a scientist named Jay Garrick who was exposed to the mutagenic fumes of â€œHard Waterâ€). Designing a sleek, streamlined bodysuit (courtesy of Infantino – a major talent who was rapidly approaching his artistic and creative pinnacle), Barry Allen became the point man for the spectacular revival of a genre and the entire industry.

‘Mystery of the Human Thunderbolt’ (scripted by Kanigher) and ‘The Man Who Broke the Time Barrier’ (written by the superb John Broome) are polished, coolly sophisticated short stories that introduce the comfortingly suburban superhero and firmly establish the broad parameters of his universe. Whether defeating bizarre criminal masterminds such as The Turtle or returning the criminal exile Mazdan to his own century, the new Flash was a protagonist of keen insight and sharp wits as well as overwhelming power. Nonetheless the concept was so controversial that despite phenomenal sales, rather than his own series the Fastest Man Alive was given a second Showcase tryout almost a year laterâ€¦

Showcase #5 featured the last comics concept in years that didn’t actually develop into an ongoing series, but that’s certainly due to the changing fashions of the times and not the quality of the work that made up the three crime yarns comprising the cops-&-robbers anthology Manhunters. ‘The Greatest Villain of all Time’ by Jack Miller & Mort Meskin told how Hollywood screenwriter-turned-police detective Lt. Fowler was dogged by a madman who was playing for real all the fantastic bad guys the mystery author had once created, whilst in ‘The Two Faces of Mr. X’ (Miller, Curt Swan & Sy Barry) a male model was drafted by the FBI to replace a prominent mob-boss. Unfortunately it was the day before the gangster was scheduled for face-changing plastic surgery.‘The Human Eel’ (Miller & Bill Ely) pitted a cop unable to endure heights against an international high-tech rogue who thought he knew all the answersâ€¦

The next tryout was on far firmer fashion grounds and was the first feature to win two issues in a row.

The Challengers of the Unknown were a bridging concept. As the superhero genre was ever so cautiously being alpha-tested in 1956 here was a super-team – the first new group- entry of the still-to-be codified Silver Age – but with no uncanny abilities or masks, the most basic and utilitarian of costumes, and the most dubious of motives: Suicide by Mysteryâ€¦

If you wanted to play editorially safe you could argue that were simply another para-military band of adventurers like the long running Blackhawksâ€¦ but they weren’t.

A huge early hit – winning their own title before the Flash (March 1959) and just two months after Lois Lane (March 1958, although she had been a star in the comics universe since 1938 and even had TV, radio and movie recognition on her side), the Squad struck a chord that lasted for more than a decade before they finally diedâ€¦ only to rise again and yet again. The idea of them was stirring enough, but their initial execution made their success all but inevitable.

Jack Kirby was – and still is – the most important single influence in the history of American comicbooks. There are quite rightly millions of words written about what the man has done and meant, and you should read those if you are at all interested in our medium. I’m going to add a few words to that superabundance in this review of one of his best projects, which like so many others, he perfectly constructed before moving on, leaving highly competent but never as inspired talents to build upon.

When the comic industry suffered a collapse in the mid 1950’s, Kirby returned briefly to DC Comics where he worked on mystery tales and the Green Arrow back-up strip whilst creating the newspaper strip Sky Masters of the Space Force. He also re-packaged for Showcase an original super-team concept that had been kicking around in his head since he and long-time collaborator Joe Simon had closed the innovative but unfortunate Mainline Comics.

After years of working for others, Simon and Kirby had finally established their own publishing company, producing comics with a much more sophisticated audience in mind, only to find themselves in a sales downturn and awash in public hysteria generated by the anti-comic book pogrom of US Senator Estes Kefauver and the psychologist Dr. Frederic Wertham. Simon quit the business for advertising, but Kirby soldiered on, taking his skills and ideas to a number of safer, if less experimental, companies.

The Challengers of the Unknown were four extraordinary mortals; heroic adventurers and explorers brought together for a television show who walked away unscathed from a terrible plane crash. Already obviously what we now call â€œadrenaline junkiesâ€, they decided that since they were all living on borrowed time, they would dedicate what remained of their lives to testing themselves and fate. They would risk their lives for Knowledge and, of course, Justice.

Showcase #6, dated January/February 1957 – which meant it came out in time for Christmas 1956 – introduced pilot Ace Morgan, wrestler Rocky Davis, daredevil acrobat Red Ryan and scholarly marine explorer â€œProfâ€ Haley in a no-nonsense short by Kirby, scripter Dave Wood and inkers Marvin Stein and Jack’s wife Roz, before devoting the rest of the issue to a spectacular epic with the doom-chasers hired by duplicitous magician Morelian to open an ancient container holding otherworldly secrets and powers in ‘The Secrets of the Sorcerer’s Box!’

This initial story roars along with all the tension and wonder of the B-movie thrillers it emulates, and Kirby’s awesome drawing resonates with power and dynamism as the heroes tackle ancient horrors such as ‘Dragon Seed!’, ‘The Freezing Sun!’ and ‘The Whirling Weaver!’

The fantasy magic continued in the sequel, a science fiction crisis caused when an alliance of Nazi technologies and American criminality unleashed a terrible robotic monster. Scripted by Kirby himself, ‘Ultivac is Loose!’ (Showcase #7, dated March/April 1957) introduced the beautiful and capable boffin Dr. June Robbins, who became the fifth Challenger at a time when most comic females had returned to a subsidiary status in that so-conservative era. As her computers predicted ‘A Challenger Must Die!’ the lads continued their hunt for the astonishing telepathic, sentient super-robot who inadvertently terrorised ‘The Fearful Millions’ but soon found their sympathies with the tragic artificial intelligence after ‘The Fateful Prediction!’ was fulfilledâ€¦

Showcase #8 (June 1957) again featured the Flash and led with another Kanigher tale. ‘The Secret of the Empty Box’, a perplexing but pedestrian mystery, saw Frank Giacoia debut as inker, but the real landmark was the John Broome thriller ‘The Coldest Man on Earth’.

With this yarn the author confirmed and consolidated the new phenomenon by introducing the first of a Rogues Gallery of outlandish super-villains. Unlike the almost forgotten Golden Age the new super-heroes would face predominantly costumed foes rather than thugs and spies. Bad guys would henceforth be as visually arresting and memorable as the champions of justice. Captain Cold would return time and again as the pre-eminent Flash Foe and Broome would go on to create every single member of Flash’s classic pantheon of super-villains.

The issue and this compilation also includes a filler reprint ‘The Race of Wheel and Keel’ by Gardner Fox, Gil Kane & Harry Lazarus, probably from Real Fact Comics and recounting the true story of how in 1858 a shipping magnate and stagecoach tycoon devised a contest to show which method of transportation was the fastestâ€¦

When Lois Lane – arguably the oldest supporting character/star in the Superman mythology if not DC universe – finally received her own shot at a solo title, it was very much on the terms of the times.

I must shamefacedly admit to a deep, nostalgic affection for her bright and breezy, fantastically fun adventures, but as a free-thinking, (nominally) adult liberal of the 21^st century I’m simultaneously shocked nowadays at the jolly, patronising, patriarchally misogynistic attitudes underpinning too many of the stories.

Yes, I’m fully aware that the series was intended for young readers at a time when â€œdizzy damesâ€ like Lucille Ball or Doris Day played to the popular American gestalt stereotype of Woman as jealous minx, silly goose, diffident wife and brood-hungry nester, but to ask kids to seriously accept that intelligent, courageous, ambitious, ethical and highly capable females would drop everything they’d worked hard for to lie, cheat, inveigle, manipulate and entrap a man just so that they could cook pot-roast and change super-diapers is just plain crazy and tantamount to child abuse.

I’m just sayingâ€¦

Showcase #9 (cover-dated July/August 1957) featured Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane in three tales by Jerry Coleman, Ruben Moreira & Al Plastino and opened with the seminal yarn ‘The Girl in Superman’s Past’ wherein Lois first met red-headed hussy Lana Lang, childhood sweetheart of Superboy and a pushy conniving go-getter out to win Lois’ intended at all costs. Naturally Miss Lane invited Miss Lang to stay at her apartment and the grand rivalry was off and runningâ€¦

‘The New Lois Lane’ aggravatingly saw Lois turn over a new leaf and stop attempting to uncover his secret identity just when Superman actually needed her to do so and the premier concludes with the concussion-induced day-dream ‘Mrs. Superman’ as Lois imagines a life of domestic super-blissâ€¦

The next issue (September/October 1957) featured three more of the same, all illustrated by Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye, beginning with ‘The Jilting of Superman’ scripted by Otto Binder, wherein the Man of Tomorrow almost fell for an ancient ploy when Lois pretended to marry another man to make the alien oaf realise what she meant to himâ€¦

‘The Sightless Lois Lane’ by Coleman told how a nuclear accident temporarily blinded the journalist, but her unexpected recovery almost exposed Clark Kent‘s secret when he callously changed to Superman in front of the blind girl, after which Binder delightfully detailed the contents of ‘The Forbidden Box from Krypton’: a cache of devices dug up by a Smallville archaeologist originally packed by Jor-El and intended to aid the infant superbaby on Earth. Of course when Lois opened the chest all she saw was a way to become as powerful as the Man of Steel and soon became addicted to being a super-champion in her own rightâ€¦

Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane launched into her own title scant months later, clearly exactly what the readers wantedâ€¦

Showcase #11 (November/December 1957) saw the Challengers return to combat an alien invasion on ‘The Day the Earth Blew Up’, with the unique realist Bruno Premiani inking a taut doomsday chiller that keeps readers on the edge of their seats even today, as whilst searching for missing Antarctic explorers the lads discovered an under-ice base where double-brained aliens were preparing to explosively alter the mass and gravity of Earth.

‘The Tyrans’, although intellectually superior, are no match for the indomitable human heroes and with their Plan A scotched, resort to brute force and ‘The Thing That Came out of the Sea’ even as Prof scuttles their aquatic ace in the hole with ‘One Minute to Doom’â€¦

By the time of their last Showcase issue (#12, January/February 1958) they had already won their own title. ‘The Menace of the Ancient Vials’ was defused by the usual blend of daredevil heroics and ingenuity (with the wonderful inking of George Klein, not Wally Wood as credited here) as international spy and criminal Karnak stole a clutch of ancient chemical weapons which created giants and ‘The Fire Being!’, summoned ‘The Demon from the Depths’ and created ‘The Deadly Duplicates!’ before the pre-fantastic four were able to put their enemy down.

Flash zipped back in Showcase #13 (March/April 1958) in a brace of tales pencilled by Infantino and inked by Joe Giella. ‘Around the World in 80 Minutes’, written by Kanigher, followed the Scarlet Speedster as he tackled atomic blackmail in Paris, foiled kidnappers and rebuilt a pyramid in Egypt, dismantled an avalanche in Tibet and scuttled a pirate submarine in the Pacific whilst Broome’s ‘Master of the Elements’ introduced the outlandish chemical criminal Al Desmond who ravaged Central City as Mr. Element until the Flash outwitted him.

One final try-out issue – inked by Giacoia – cemented the Flash’s future: Showcase#14 (May/June 1958) opened with Kanigher’s eerie ‘Giants of the Time-World!’ as the Fastest Man Alive smashed dimensional barriers to rescue his girlfriend Iris West from uncanny cosmic colossi and stamped out an alien invasion plan, after which Al Desmond returned with an altered M.O. and new identity as Doctor Alchemy whose discovery of the mystic Philosopher’s Stone made him ‘The Man who Changed the Earth!’ This stunning yarn was a memorable and worthy effort to bow out on, but it would still be a nearly a year until the first issue of his own title finally hit the stands.

To reiterate: Showcase was a try-out comic designed to launch new series and concepts with minimal commitment of publishing resources. If a new character sold well initially a regular series would follow. The process had been proved with Frogmen, Lois Lane, Challengers of the Unknown and Flash and Editorial Director Irwin Donenfeld now urged his two Showcase editors to create science fiction heroes to capitalise on the twin zeitgeists of the Space Race and the popular fascination with movie monsters and aliens.

Jack Schiff came up with a â€œmaskedâ€ crimefighter of the future who debuted in issues #15 and 16 whilst Julie Schwartz decided to concentrate on the now in the saga of a contemporary Earth explorer catapulted into the most uncharted territory yet imagined.

Showcase #15 (cover-dated September/October 1958) commenced without fanfare or origin the ongoing adventures of Space Ranger in ‘The Great Plutonium Plot’ plotted by Gardner Fox, scripted by pulp sci-fi veteran Edmond Hamilton and illustrated by Bob Brown.

The hero was in actuality Rick Starr, son of a wealthy interplanetary businessman who spent his free time battling evil and injustice with incredible gadgets and devices and the assistance of his shape-shifting alien pal Cryll and capable Girl Friday Myra Mason. When Jarko the Jovian space pirate began targeting only ships carrying the trans-uranic element, Rick suspected a hidden motive and donning his guise of the Space Ranger laid a cunning trap, which revealed a hidden mastermind and a deadly ancient device which endangered the entire solar systemâ€¦

From his base in a hollow asteroid, Space Ranger ranged the universe and ‘The Robot Planet’ took him and his team to Sirius after discovering a diabolical device designed to rip Sol’s planets out of their orbits. At the end of his voyage Starr discovered a sublime civilisation reduced to cave-dwelling and a mighty computer intelligence intent on controlling the entire universe unless he could stop itâ€¦

Issue #16 opened with ‘The Secret of the Space Monster’ (plot by John Forte, scripted by Hamilton, illustrated by Brown) as Rick, Myra and Cryll investigated an impossible void creature and uncovered a band of alien revolutionaries testing novel super-weapons after which ‘The Riddle of the Lost Race’ (Fox, Hamilton & Brown) took the team on a whistle-stop tour of the Solar system in pursuit of a vicious criminal and the hidden treasures of a long-vanished civilisation.

A few months later Space Ranger was transported to science fiction anthology Tales of the Unexpected, beginning with issue #40 (August 1959) and holding the lead and cover spot for a six year runâ€¦

One of the most compelling stars of those halcyon days was an ordinary Earthman who regularly travelled to another world for spectacular adventures, armed with nothing more than a ray-gun, a jetpack and his own ingenuity. His name was Adam Strange, and like so many of that era’s triumphs, he was the brainchild of Julius Schwartz and his close team of creative stars.

Showcase #17 (cover-dated November-December 1958) proclaimed Adventures on Other Worlds, courtesy of Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky & Bernard Sachs, and told of an archaeologist who, whilst fleeing from enraged natives in Peru, jumped a 25 foot chasm only to be hit by a stray teleport beam from a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri. He materialised on another world filled with giant plants and monsters, and was rescued by a beautiful woman named Alanna who taught him her language via a cunning contrivance.

‘Secret of the Eternal City!’ revealed that Rann was a planet recovering from atomic war, and the beam was in fact a simple flare, one of many sent in an attempt to communicate with other races.

In the four years (speed of light, right? As You Know, Bob, Alpha Centauri is about 4.3 light-years from Sol) that the Zeta-Flare travelled through space, cosmic radiation converted it into a teleportation beam. Until the radiation drained from his body Strange was to be a very willing prisoner on a fantastic world of mystery, adventure and romance…

And an incredibly unlucky one apparently, as no sooner had Adam started acclimatising than an alien race named The Eternals invaded, seeking a mineral that would grant them immortality. Strange’s courage and sharp wits enabled him to defeat the invaders only to have the radiation finally fade, drawing him home before his adoring Alanna could administer a hero’s reward.

â€¦And thus was established the principles of this beguiling series. Adam would intercept a Zeta-beam hoping for some time with his alien sweetheart, only to be confronted with a planet-menacing crisis.

The very next of these, ‘The Planet and the Pendulum’ saw him obtain the crimson-and-white spacesuit and weaponry that became his distinctive trademark in a tale of alien invaders, attacking a lost colony of Rannians on planetary neighbour Anthorann which also introduced the subplot of Rann’s warring city-states, all desperate to progress and all at different stages of recovery and developmentâ€¦.

The next issue featured the self-explanatory ‘Invaders from the Atom Universe’ with sub-atomic marauders displacing the native races until Adam unravelled their nefarious plans and ‘The Dozen Dooms of Adam Strange’ wherein the hero had to outfox the dictator of Dys who planned to invade Alanna’s home-city Rannagar.

With this last story Sachs was replaced by Joe Giella as inker, although the former did ink Showcase #19’s stunning Gil Kane cover, (March/April 1959) which saw the unwieldy Adventures on Other Worlds title replaced with the eponymous logo Adam Strange.

‘Challenge of the Star-Hunter’ and ‘Mystery of the Mental Menace’ were classic puzzle tales wherein the Earthman had to outwit a shape-changing alien and an all-powerful energy-being, and after so doing Adam Strange took over the lead spot and cover of the anthology comic Mystery in Space with the August issue of that year.

Clearly on a creative high and riding a building wave, Showcase #20 (May/June 1959) introduced Rip Hunterâ€¦ Time Master and his dauntless crew as ‘Prisoners of 100 Million BC’ (by Jack Miller & Ruben Moreira in a novel-length introductory escapade which saw the daredevil physicist, his engineer friend Jeff Smith, girlfriend Bonnie Baxter and her little brother Corky travel back to the Mesozoic era, unaware that they were carrying two criminal stowaways.

Once there the thugs hi-jacked the Time Sphere and held it hostage until the explorers helped them stock up with rare and precious minerals. Reduced to the status of castaways Rip and his team became ‘The Modern-Day Cavemen’ but when an erupting volcano caused ‘The Great Beast Stampede’ the chrononauts finally turned the tables on their abductorsâ€¦

Miller was always careful to use the best research available but never afraid to blend historical fact with bold fantasy for Hunter’s escapades, and this volume concludes with an epic follow-up in ‘The Secret of the Lost Continent’ (Showcase #21, July/August, 1959, illustrated by Sekowsky & Joe Giella) wherein the Time Masters jumped progressively further back in time in search of Atlantis.

Starting with a dramatic meeting with Alexander the Great in 331BC, the explorers follow the trail back centuries to ‘The Forbidden Island’ of Aeaea in 700BC and uncover the secret of the witch Circe before finally reaching 14,000BC and ‘The Doomed Continent’ only to find the legendary pinnacle of early human achievement to be a colony of stranded extraterrestrial refugeesâ€¦

Rip Hunter would appear twice more in Showcase before winning his own comic and the succeeding months would see the Silver Age kick into frantic High Gear with classic launches coming thick and fastâ€¦

These stories from a uniquely influential comicbook truly determined the course of the entire American strip culture and for that alone they should be cherished, but the fact they are still some of the most timeless, accessible and entertaining graphic adventures ever produced is a gift that should be celebrated by every fan and casual reader.

Buy this for yourself, get it for your friends and get a spare just because you canâ€¦

June 12, 2012June 11, 2012

The Flash: the Secret of Barry Allen

By Geoff Johns, Howard Porter, Livesay & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0723-6

Created by Gardner Fox and Harry Lampert, Jay Garrick debuted as the very first Scarlet Speedster in Flash Comics #1 (January 1940). â€œThe Fastest Man Aliveâ€ wowed readers for over a decade before changing tastes benched him in 1951. The concept of speedsters and superheroes in general was revived in 1956 by Julie Schwartz in Showcase #4 when police scientist Barry Allen became the second hero to run with the concept.

Initially Wally West struggled to fill the boots of his predecessor, both in sheer ability and, more tellingly, in confidence. Feeling a fraud, he nonetheless persevered and eventually overcame, becoming arguably the greatest hero to bear the title.

There are now many super-speedsters populating the DCU and the majority congregate in the conjoined metropolis of Keystone and Central City. Wally West lives there with his true love Linda Park, his Aunt Iris – Barry’s widow – and fellow fast-fighters such as the apparently tireless Jay Garrick.

Bart Allen, grandson of Barry & Iris, is a juvenile speedster born in the 30^th century and has recently taken up Wally’s old role as Kid Flash.

This volume reprints issues #207-211 and #213-217 (issue #212 being a tale devoted to the Mirror Master which was bumped to the next compilation) of the monthly comic and opens with an absolutely crucial scorecard and checklist of charactersâ€¦

In the aftermath of a staggering extended war of attrition that plagued the Twin Cities for over a year the Scarlet Speedster disappeared and, thanks to the intervention of nigh-omnipotent spirit The Spectre, everyone who knew Wally West was the Flash forgot the secret: friends, foes and even Linda and Wally tooâ€¦

In The Flash: Ignition Wally recovered his memories but lost his wife as the attack of evil speedster Zoom caused her to miscarry unborn twins and the constant life of turmoil compelled Linda to take a desperately needed time-out. Wally, heartbroken, didn’t even have time to grieve. The Rogues Gallery of Flash-foes were still making trouble and, thanks to the Ghostly Guardian’s spell, all the Scarlet Speedster’s old Justice League allies felt that they could no longer trust a comrade who could so casually meddle with their memoriesâ€¦

Now, with the again anonymous hero back, the Twin Cities have declared a celebratory Flash Day against the wishes of the man himself – who feels that it’s a provocation to the super-villains haunting Central and Keystone. He’s proved right in ‘Rush Hour!’ as Plunder, the new Trickster, Tarpit, Abra Kadabra and a herd of Golden Giants crash the parade intent on much mayhemâ€¦

Meanwhile in super-penitentiary Iron Heights, Ashley Zolomon, criminal profiler and estranged wife of Zoom, is trying to see her comatose former spouse, determined to cure him of his murderous obsession, but she’s getting little help from draconian warden Gregory Wolfe.

When Jay Garrick and Kid Flash appear the three speedsters quickly drive off the party crashers in ‘Red Carpet’ before taking a tour of the newly refurbished Flash Museum, whilst in Chicago FBI Special Agent James Jesse – the original Trickster – is forming a task force of reformed Rogues intent on arresting his former criminal associates. Suddenly Wally vanishes, teleported to the JLA citadel and a brusque confrontation with his angry team-matesâ€¦

The stories in this collection were first seen during the shocking Identity Crisis crossover event when DC heroes were forced to re-assess their careers and procedures whilst hunting down the murderer of Sue Dibny, wife of the Elongated Man.Â As the investigation progressed, heroes – and villains – were forced to challenge many of their bedrock principles, especially when it was revealed that a cabal of heroes had indulged in involuntary, illegal brain-wiping and behaviour modification of criminals in their custodyâ€¦

Thus the understandably antsy reaction of the JLA in ‘Fast Friends’, when the assembled heroes demanded answers from Wally regarding their own enforced selective amnesia, resulting in a speedy clash with Superman and an agreed rapprochement with the entire heroic community.

In ‘Reconnected’, Captain Cold puts the Rogues on a war footing as Wally reminisces with Nightwing and reconnects to his former Teen Titans chums. Whilst Ashley finally gets her time with Zoom – which everybody will come to regret – The Penguin briefly and painfully relocates into and out of the Twin Cities, courtesy of the Flash and Nightwing, just as the FBI’s reformed Rogue unit (Jesse, Heatwave and Pied Piper) turn their attention to the murderous Flash-foe Murmurâ€¦

When Wally gives Dick Grayson an after-hours tour of the Flash Museum they are ambushed by the horrific Gorilla Grodd in ‘Animal House’ resulting in a devastating battle and the super-ape’s crushing defeat. Returning the beast to Iron Heights, Flash clashes with Ashley, whose husband he holds responsible for Linda’s leaving.

Later that night Zolomon almost dies when her car brakes mysteriously failâ€¦

‘Slow Motion’ sees events spiral out of control. Although nobody remembers that Wally is the Flash, Zoom’s attacks on him and Linda are common knowledge and, in his job of police motor mechanic, West was the last person to service her vehicle. However during his interview with Detectives Chyre and Morillo, time literally stands still as The Turtle – Slowest Man Alive – escapes custody by stealing the city’s kinetic motion and the Vizier of Velocity is compelled to stop him between ticks of the clockâ€¦

In ‘The Secret of Barry Allen’ chapter 1 the ongoing crisis and pitched metahuman battles of the Identity Crisis begin to hit home as more heroes’ family members are targeted. When Flash discovers that his comrades and idols – particularly his uncle Barry – had crossed a line with their mind-control tactics, he confronts the JLA-ers originally involved and is given a letter written before the second Scarlet Speedster’s deathâ€¦

In ‘Reformed’ Wally learns that his sainted predecessor was a mere man, filled with fears and foibles who, in a moment of weakness, took the behaviour modification a stage further and attempted not to merely neuter an implacable foe, but, with the aid of magician Zatanna, turn him into a force for justice.

Thus deadly, psionic phantom menace The Top became a man compelled to â€œdo goodâ€ but with catastrophic results and, plagued by guilt and remorse, Barry’s last wish was that Wally undo this well-meaning mistake and rectify any harm the ill-advised procedure had causedâ€¦

As The Top Roscoe Dillon tapped into incredible mental powers and in ‘Spinning’ his full lethal potential was restored, with terrifying results. Possessed once more of evil free will, Dillon disclosed that he had carried on Barry’s mistake: forcibly making many of his fellow Rogues defenders of society. Almost all of Barry’s Rogues had tried to reform after his death for different lengths of time and with qualified success. Some even became FBI operativesâ€¦

Now the vengeance-crazed Top intends to undo his past mental manipulations and see just how many poachers-turned-gamekeepers actually changed their spotsâ€¦

This volume concludes with ‘Post-Crisis’ and yields the spotlight to the Rogues as they prepare to bury Captain Boomerang and induct his son Owen Mercer as his replacement. Meanwhile Flash is put on final warning by Batman, but isn’t too fussed since Linda has finally returned.

What nobody knows is that the FBI have stolen Boomerang’s corpse (another casualty of the Identity Crisis) in preparation for an all-out war against Captain Cold and the Roguesâ€¦

With a cover gallery by Michael Turner, Peter Steigerwald, Howard Porter & Livesay and including a photo-feature revealing how Turner’s cover was converted into a statue of Flash triumphant over Gorilla Grodd, this tome is a captivating reaffirmation of the strength and vitality of the Flash as a fan-favourite who always delivers the goods.

Fast, furious and fabulous, the numerous Scarlet Speedsters have always epitomised the very best in costumed comic thrills and these spectacular yarns are among the very best. Moreover, this entire book is just a prologue for a blockbusting epic still to comeâ€¦

March 27, 2012March 26, 2012

Secret Origins

By various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 0-930289-50-1

The best and worst thing about comicbooks is the perpetual revamping of classic characters whenever changing tastes and the unceasing passage of years demand the reworking of origin tales for increasingly more sophisticated audiences.

Once upon a time, DC’s vast pantheon of characters was scattered and wholly distinct: separated and situated on a variety of alternate Earths which comprised Golden Age hold-overs, current Silver Age and later-created heroes. Further Earths were subsequently introduced for every superhero stable the company scooped up in a voracious campaign of acquisition over the decades.

Charlton, Fawcett, Quality Comics and others characters resided upon their own globes, occasionally meeting in trans-dimensional alliances and apparently deterring new readers from getting on with DC.

Thus, when DC retconned their entire ponderous continuity following Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985-1986, ejecting the entire concept of a multiverse and re-knitting time so that there had only been one world literally festooned with heroes and villains, many of their greatest characters got a unique restart, with the conceit being that the characters had been around for years and the readership were simply tuning in on just another working day.

Fans old and new therefore had no idea what pre-Crisis stories were still â€œtrueâ€ or valid and to counter confusion the publishers launched the double-sized Secret Origins comicbook series to peek behind the curtain and provide all-new stories which related the current official histories of their vast and now exceedingly crowded pantheonâ€¦

Of course now the multiverse concept is back and not confusing at all (who’d have thunk it?) but whatever the original reasons the dramatic 1980s refit did provide for some utterly astounding and cleverly cohesive storytellingâ€¦

This sterling softcover collection from 1989 gathered some of the most impressive headline-grabbing reworkings and even offered an all-new reinterpretation of the Batman’s beginnings to fit the new world’s reconstructed history and opened the action after ‘Legends’, a fascinating Introduction by series editor Mark Waid.

‘The Man Who Falls’ by Dennis O’Neil & Dick Giordano incorporated the revisions of Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s Batman: Year One and Batman: Shaman into a compelling examination of vengeance, obsession and duty describing how the only survivor of the Wayne Homicides dedicated his life to becoming a living weapon in the war on crimeâ€¦

When DC Comics decided to rationalise and reconstruct their continuity the biggest shake-up was Superman and it’s hard to argue that change was unnecessary. All the Action Ace’s titles were suspended for three months – and boy, did that make the media sit-up and take notice – for the first time since the Christopher Reeve movie. But there was method in the madnessâ€¦

In 1986 Man of Steel, a six-issue miniseries written and drawn by John Byrne with inks by Dick Giordano, stripped away vast amounts of accumulated baggage and returned the Strange Visitor from Another World to the far from omnipotent, edgy but good-hearted reformer Siegel and Shuster had first envisioned. It was a huge and instant success, becoming the decade’s premiere ‘break-out’ hit and from that overwhelming start Superman returned to his suspended comic-book homes with the addition of a third monthly title premiering in the same month.

The miniseries presented six complete stories highlighting key points in Superman’s career, reconstructed in the wake of the aforementioned Crisis and ‘The Haunting’ comes from the last issue; relating how the hero returned to his Kansas home and at last discovered his alien roots and heritage when a hologram of his father Jor-El attempted to possess and reprogram Clark Kent with the accumulated wisdom and ways of dead Kryptonâ€¦

‘The Secret Origin of Green Lantern’ by James Owsley, M.D. Bright & JosÃ© Marzan Jr. hails from Secret Origins #36 (January 1989) and told how Hal Jordan was selected to become an intergalactic peacekeeper by a dying alien, all viewed from the fresh perspective of a young aerospace engineer whose brief encounter with the Emerald Gladiator a decade earlier had changed his life forever. The expansive yarn re-visits all the classic highlights and even finds room to take the plucky guy on an adventure against resource raider on Oa, home of the Guardians of the Universeâ€¦

Mark Verheiden & Ken Steacy then drastically upgrade the legend of J’onn J’onzz in ‘Martian Manhunter’ (Secret Origins #35, Holiday edition 1988) in a moody innovative piece of 1950’s B-Movie paranoia, nicely balanced by an enthralling, tragic and triumphant reinterpretation and genuinely new take on the story of Silver Age icon Barry Allen . The freshly-deceased Flash Â reveals the astonishing truth behind the ‘Mystery of the Human Thunderbolt’ in a lost classic by Robert Loren Fleming, Carmine Infantino & Murphy Anderson, first published in Secret Origins Annual #2 1988.

The creation of the Justice League of America was the event which truly signalled the return of superheroes to comicbooks in 1960, inspiring the launch of the Fantastic Four, the birth of Marvel Comics and a frantic decade of costumed craziness.

Their rallying adventure wasn’t published until #9 of their own title and was in fact the twelfth tale in their canon, because, quite frankly, origins, crucible moments and inner motivation were just not considered that important back then.

When Keith Giffen, Peter David & Eric Shanower crafted ‘All Together Now’ for Secret Origins #32 (November 1989) such things had come to be regarded as pivotal moments in mystery-man mythology but it didn’t stop the creative team having lots of snide and engaging fun as they retooled the classic tale of rugged individuals separately battling an alien invasion only to unite in the final moments and form the World’s Greatest Heroic team. The refit wasn’t made any easier by the new continuity’s demands that Batman be excised from the legendary grouping of Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Flash and Superman whilst the under-reconstruction Wonder Woman had to be replaced by a teenaged Black Canaryâ€¦

Nevertheless the substitution worked magnificently and the daring adventure is the perfect place to end this fabulous compendium of a DC’s second Lost Age as yet another continuity-upgrade revitalises some of the most recognisable names in popular fiction.

March 17, 2012March 16, 2012

The Flash: Race Against Time

By Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn, Oscar Jimenez, Anthony Castrillo, Jim Cheung, Sergio Cariello & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-721-4

Created by Gardner Fox and Harry Lampert, Jay Garrick debuted as the very first Scarlet Speedster in Flash Comics #1 (January 1940). â€œThe Fastest Man Aliveâ€ wowed readers and inspired dozens of high-velocity knock-offs for over a decade before changing tastes benched him and most other superheroes in 1951.

The concept of speedsters – and superheroes in general – was revived in 1956 by Julie Schwartz in Showcase #4 when police scientist Barry Allen became the second DC good guy to run with the concept.

The Silver Age Flash was the heroic match which sparked off the 1960’s revival of costumed adventurers. His rollercoaster ride of jet-age escapades ushered in a new and seemingly unstoppable proliferation of superheroes and villains. When he died in a typically gallant manner along with many others during Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985 he was succeeded by his sidekick Kid Flash.

The neophyte human meteor initially struggled to fill the golden boots of his predecessor, both in sheer physical capability and, more tellingly, in confidence: Wally West felt a fraud, but like a true champion he persevered and eventually overcame all odds and challenges.

However after years in the role West grew and become, arguably, an even greater hero than his mentor, triumphing over not only his predecessor’s uncanny foes and a whole new Rogues’ Gallery of his own in a non-stop succession of increasingly incredible exploitsâ€¦

Most of the super-speedsters in the DCU congregate in the twinned metropolis of Keystone and Central City. Here resides Wally’s true love, journalist Linda Park, his aunt Iris West-Allen (a refugee from the 30^th century and Barry’s widow) and fellow velocity vigilante Jay Garrick. Nephew Bart (Impulse) Allen and elder statesman of Speedsters Max Mercury reside nano-seconds away in Manchester, Alabama.

At the end of his last adventure – battling a ruthless maniac who attempted to seize control of the extra-dimensional Speed Force which empowers all super-fast heroes and villains – the legion of speedsters were anxiously awaiting his return after Wally vanished into the extra-dimensional phenomena.

But, as Race Against Time (reprinting issues #112-118 of the monthly Flash comicbook) opens with ‘Future Perfect’ by Mark Waid, Anthony Castrillo & Anibal Rodriguez, Linda has a new Flash in her life: John Fox an new hyper-hero who has travelled back from the 27^th century.

Wally has gone missing before and always found a way to return and so, while he’s gone, Fox has come back to protect the Twinned City from harm, especially new thermal felon Chillblaine. However as the goes go by and Linda grows dangerously close to the Future Flash she is utterly unaware of his secret agenda and dark motivesâ€¦

Wally, meanwhile is lost and bouncing around the corridors of chronology. As ‘Race Against Time’ proper begins he materialises in ‘Wallyworld’ (with Oscar Jimenez & Jose Marzan Jr. joining Castrillo & Rodriguez); the 64^th century era where he is venerated and revered as a god.

The drone-like citizens dote on his every word, devoid of individual initiative and, having adopted all his bad habits beg The Flash to â€œwisely lead themâ€â€¦

After utterly failing to set them straight Wally dumps the whole mess into the hands of the last responsible adult of the epoch and escapes back into the time-stream just as back in the 20^th century, Linda and Fox discover that the new Chillblaine is a foe far beyond their ability to handleâ€¦

‘Sibling Rivalry’ finds Wally in the 30^th century clashing with Barry Allen’s children Don and Dawn Allen. The super-fast â€œTornado Twinsâ€ have grown to adulthood in an oppressive, xenophobic dystopian World-state where aliens and metahumans are hunted, and without their aid he’s stuck there. In Central/Keystone a millennium earlier, Fox’s troubles also multiply when magnetic maniac Dr. Polaris and a hideous, hidden ally kidnap Iris for her knowledge of future eventsâ€¦

The Future Flash’s secret is revealed as Wally, gradually nearing his home era with each temporal leap, arrives in the 27^th century and meets Fox for the first time. In this world hyper-velocity and time-travel are illegal, mandates enforced by super-robots known as ‘Speed Metal’ (with additional pencils from Jim Cheung). Most worrying however is the realisation that with each jump Wally’s memory of Linda erodes: the closer he gets the more the Speed Dimension pulls at him and the less he remembers of his human life and loveâ€¦

After helping Wally return to the time-stream Fox makes a momentous decision. He knows that a Great Disaster will afflict the end of the 20^th century: a mini Ice Age that will devastate the world. Assuming Wally will be unable to stop it – if he arrives at all – Fox follows him, determined to change history, save humanity and, if necessary, replace his ancestorâ€¦

By the time of ‘Flash Frozen’ (Jimenez & Marzan Jr.), Linda thinks she has fallen for Fox and Wally consequently finds himself drawn into the Speed Force, becoming pure unthinking energy just as the Ice Age trigger event begins. Frantically hunting for the cause – be it Chillblaine, Polaris or something else – Fox is completely overwhelmed, and his troubles only increase when Linda realises he has been manipulating her from the start.

Luckily, that’s the moment when Wally becomes the first person ever to return from beyond the Speed Barrier to save the day and redeem John Fox in the spectacular climax ‘Double Team’ (illustrated by Cheung & John Nyberg), but tragically it’s not soon enough to save everybody…

There’s no rest for the repentant however, and in the aftermath when Speed Metal robots arrive, hunting the fugitive Fox, the far-flung Flashes have to unite once more to defeat them and save Linda in ‘Cold, Cold Heart’ (scripted by Brian Augustyn & Waid with art from Sergio Cariello & Brian Garvey)â€¦

Superlative scripter Mark Waid and this impressive band of collaborators went into imagination overload to produce a stunning adventure which called on a wealth of fascinating facets from the vast mythology that has grown around three generations of Scarlet Speedster.

Race Against Time is another sublime, superb rocket-ride of drama, tension and all-out inspirational action, captivatingly told and perfectly pushing the buttons of any superhero fan, whether a Flash follower or not. Catch and enjoy, time and time againâ€¦
Â© 1996, 2001 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

January 16, 2012January 15, 2012

The Flash: Ignition

By Geoff Johns, Alberto Dose, Howard Porter & Livesay (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0463-1

There are many super-speedsters in the DCU and most of them congregate in the conjoined metropolis of Keystone and Central City. Wally West, third incarnation of The Flash, lived there with his true love Linda Park, his Aunt Iris and rocket-racers such as Jay Garrick, with juvenile speedster from the Future Impulse and his mentor/keeper Max Mercury, the Zen Master of hyper-velocity, only an eye-blink awayâ€¦

Created by Gardner Fox and Harry Lampert, Garrick debuted as the very first Scarlet Speedster in Flash Comics #1 (January 1940). â€œThe Fastest Man Aliveâ€ wowed readers for over a decade before changing tastes benched him in 1951. The concept of speedsters and superheroes in general was revived in 1956 by Julie Schwartz in Showcase #4 when police scientist Barry Allen became the second hero to run with the concept.

The Silver Age Flash, whose creation ushered in a new and seemingly unstoppable era of costumed crusaders, died heroically during Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985-1986) and was promptly succeeded by his sidekick Kid Flash. Of course Allen later returned from the dead – but doesn’t everyone?

This volume reprints issues #201-206 of Wally’s long-gone-and-much-missed monthly comic and opens in the aftermath of a blockbusting battle which tore the Twin Cities and the extended Flash Family apart.

In the wake of those events the Scarlet Speedster disappeared and, thanks to the intervention of nigh-omnipotent spirit The Spectre, everyone who knew Wally West was the Flash forgot the secret.

Unfortunately that also included Linda and Wally tooâ€¦

Scripter Geoff Johns and artists Alberto Dose, Howard Porter & Livesay kick started a new era in the hero’s life with ‘Driven’ as the double metropolis began to suffer the lack of a super-fast protector. Crime went up and a wave of cold-themed killings seemed to indicate that former thief Captain Cold had graduated to homicidal mania. Meanwhile, slow but steady police garage mechanic Wally West plodded on with his new job, fixing the battered vehicles of Keystone PD and coming to terms with the fact that Linda has just miscarried their unborn childâ€¦

When a huge car-crash jump-started his powers an ultra-swift Wally was baffled, but by the end of ‘Shifting Gears’ had deduced that his newfound ability to not be killed by a variety of accidents and attacks meant something or someone had messed with his mindâ€¦

In ‘Crash and Burn’, as the freeze murders escalated and with every cop hunting Captain Cold, Wally was forced to confront the fact that he must be the long-missing Flash. He has a long, illuminating chat with a guy in a diner; and if he had been in possession of his memories he would have realised that he’d just shared coffee and philosophy with the suspected murderer everybody wantedâ€¦

Back in the scarlet suit but with his memories still vague, Wally tracked the icy felon but evidence was slowly pointing to another killer framing the sub-zero scoundrel – a suspicion confirmed when the befuddled speedster was attacked by a new Mr. Element and only saved by the Bad Captain in ‘Cold Reality’.

Whilst Linda, tormented by insidious dreams, left Wally, her confused husband was driven to research the life of the Flash; convinced at last that it was his own, and when Batman hit town, determined to discover who had doctored the memories of the entire Justice League, the motive behind the miracle was finally uncovered in ‘Secrets’ culminating in a spectacular confrontation with the true killer, a poignant reconciliation with Linda and a blistering fresh start for the Fastest Man alive in ‘Up to Speed’â€¦

For more than seven decades the adventures of the Flash have been the very acme of superhero storytelling, with successive generations of inventive creators producing the very best of high-speed action and superlative drama. This is another of those supremely readable classics and a terrific place for new readers to jump aboard the rollercoasterâ€¦
Â© 2004, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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