Tag: Flash

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Flash v.1 #193: Captain Cold holds up a photo labeled 'Censored' and says, They wouldn't let me show you what I did to the Flash. Do you dare read this issue and find out for yourself!?I didn’t think I had anything to add to the discussion on the infamous Heroes For Hire #13 cover. (Some of those links possibly NSFW.) Something stuck in my mind, though. Typolad suggested that “you would never, ever see Marvel or DC make a cover like this with a male protagonist. Yes, a male hero may be shown in peril, but his face will be defiant. He won’t be shown as submissive.” Lea Hernandez’ remix of the cover alters the expressions to do just that.

Now, I agree—that cover was way past the line, and I can’t imagine DC or Marvel doing the same thing with male characters, especially when you take into account the sleaze factor. But phrases like “never, ever” tend to read like a challenge. Looking just at the defiant/passive stance, I knew I’d seen at least one cover with the Flash beaten to within an inch of his life, unable to put up a fight or even a glare, so I took a trip through the Grand Comics Database’s cover gallery. Continue reading →

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Showcase Presents: The Flash.The first volume of Showcase Presents: The Flash came out today, reprinting ~500 pages of Silver-Age Flash stories in black-and-white for cheap. If you’re familiar with Marvel’s Essential line, it’s the same concept.

I took a look at it to see what stories were included. (DC’s solicits didn’t say.) As expected, it features the first several years of Barry Allen’s run as the Flash, from the original Showcase appearances starting in 1956 through the beginning of his series in 1959–1961. That includes the first appearances of the Elongated Man (who got his own Showcase Presents book last year) and Wally West as Kid Flash.

There was one surprise: “The Rival Flash,” from Flash Comics #104 (1949). That was the final issue of the Golden-Age series, and the last solo Jay Garrick adventure printed for years. I’d heard that the Showcase Presents books were making use of restoration done for DC’s Archives series, and this tracks: That same story also appeared in The Flash Archives Volume #1.

It also appears as a backup in The Flash #211 (1971), and is listed in the contents for the upcoming Flash: The Greatest Stories Ever Told, tying the origin story in Flash Comics #1 for the most-reprinted Golden-Age Flash story yet.

Full contents:

  • Flash Comics #104 (1949)
  • Showcase #4, 8, 13, 14 (1956–1958)
  • The Flash #105–119 (1959–1961)

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The suggestion box on my Flash site has picked up a couple of requests for the Flash’s “weakness.” The concept doesn’t really apply to the Flash’s powers, though. Thinking about it, if your hero has to have an off-switch, that’s kind of a sign that they’ve been over-powered, isn’t it?

It reminds me of a line that bothered me in Unbreakable. (Minor spoiler.) Samuel Jackson’s character explains to Bruce Willis that water is his Kryptonite. That’s hardly the case, though: a glass of water isn’t going to take him out of commission. He’ll still be invulnerable and super-strong while swimming. All it means is that he still has to breathe (and, presumably, eat and drink). A plastic bag over his head would be as effective as drowning.

Compare that to, say, Superman and Kryptonite, or Wonder Woman and being tied up, or past Green Lantern books and yellow objects or wood. It’s not in the same league (pun not intended).

Which brings us back to the Flash. What “weakness” does he have? Well, he’s a specialist, so he doesn’t have the advantage of super-strength or invulnerability. He can get tired. Like David Dunn, he has to breathe. He can get distracted. He can make mistakes. He can act without thinking. Are any of these really “weaknesses” in the Kryptonite sense, though?

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Hmm, I wonder how many newsstands displayed these books next to each other:

Flash Comics 6 Smash Comics 16 Crash Comics 5

An explanation: I recently stumbled across a mention of Smash Comics, a series from Quality Comics that ran more or less concurrently with the more familiar Flash Comics. Just for kicks, I searched the Grand Comics Database (which is where I got the cover images) for Crash Comics, and found Crash Comics Adventures, which ran for 5 issues in 1940 before spinning off a series on the original Cat-Man. So the three books would have been on sale at the same time!

I couldn’t find any other books with the same pattern in the title. The GCD does substring matches, and “ash comics” only brought up variations on these three series. Though it did remind me that DC resurrected the Smash Comics title for one chapter of the 1999 The Justice Society Returns! event.