Customer Reviews

Showcase Presents The Flash VOL 02

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The cover on this trade really says it all. If nothing else, SHOWCASE PRESENTS: FLASH Vol. 2 features the classic "Flash of Two Worlds!" story which set the stage for all the travels between Earth-One and Earth-Two and the (for a while) annual JLA-JSA team-ups and, ultimately, to CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. That's pretty up there in relevance.

But there are other wicked cool stories in this collection. During DC Comics' Silver Age, I don't think a character shone any brighter than the Flash. His improbable adventures, breezy and enjoyable and retro science-gimmicky, are part of it. And also writer John Broome's inventiveness in plonking our hero in bizarre, perilous predicaments. Then there's boring police scientist Barry Allen - chronically tardy and regarded by his reporter girlfriend as incorrigibly lazy - but then Barry transforms into the stupendous Flash, and that's part of it. Carmine Infantino's sleek pencilwork plays a huuuuuge role. And regarding super-powers as brought to life on comic book paper, the visuals don't get more exciting and gratifying than the Flash's blurry super-speed in motion. And this brings us back to artist Carmine Infantino.

SHOWCASE PRESENTS: FLASH Vol. 2 reprints issues #120-140, 550 pages worth and all in gorgeous black and white. I say "gorgeous black and white" because Infantino's art profits even more and pops out even more in this format. Without color your eyes focus solely on the sleek lines, the composition and creativity, the sheer craftsmanship that went into his work. Infantino doesn't draw absurdly muscled characters. He draws people closer to how people really look like, and I love that because an injection of realism then grounds Flash's crazy capers. Infantino captured a certain magic whenever he drew the Flash, his version frantically moving around with his average frame and spindly arms and legs.

One telling demonstration of Infantino's skills is found in "Secret of the Stolen Blueprint!" (page 51 in this trade), in which Infantino breaks down just how the Flash and Barry Allen are both able to converse with an old college pal. It's a nice trick to be in two places at once, but how about being two people at one place? Writer John Broome superbly complements Infantino's pencils, but Broome isn't the only one to pen Flash's exploits in this era. Gardner Fox drops by to write four stories, one of which just happens to be...

... "Flash of Two Worlds!" is the landmark event in this Showcase Presents edition, but that's not the only key story in this collection (I happen to like all the stories here). Kid Flash learns the Flash's true identity in "Land of Golden Giants!" but that issue also has the two speedsters accidentally transported to the prehistoric age. This temporal anomaly would inspire Flash to create his time-traveling treadmill in "The Conquerors of Time!" And in "Secret of the Three Super-Weapons!" Kid Flash gets a new costume. Jay Garrick, the original Flash, would also return in two more stories ("Double Danger on Earth!" and "Vengeance of the Immortal Villain!" - this last one also guest-starring the JSA). Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man, shows up for multiple appearances. Hal Jordan (Green Lantern) would also drop by once. Kid Flash occasionally teams up with his mentor, but also goes it alone in his back-up features.

The Flash battles familiar faces from his gimmick-dependent Rogues' Gallery, but there's also that endless string of bank robbers. And, of course, extraterrestrials check in it seems like every week just to see if this time the Earth is ripe for takeover. We note the debuts of the Top, Abra Kadabra, Reverse-Flash, and Heat Wave.

Maybe it's because I count super-speed as perhaps my favorite super power, but I'm always interested in how creative and versatile the Flash is in applying his ability to confound the bad guys. We're all used to his more common tricks (sprinting up walls or over water, creating wind tunnels with his arms, vibrating thru walls, etc.). But then there's the above mentioned bit of trickeration the Flash pulls in "Secret of the Stolen Blueprint!" In "The Case of the Real-Gone Flash!" the Flash is catapulted into outer space and we then see how effortlessly he makes his return home. In "The Threat of the Absent-Minded Professor!" he scoops out handfuls of oxygen from a bank safe being robbed, causing the felons in the safe to pass out. Barry Allen, boring? Tardy? Lazy? His girlfriend reporter Iris West is missing out on a hell of a scoop.

Plot synopsis of the issues in this collection:

- THE FLASH #120 - "Land of Golden Giants!" - On an expedition to South America, Flash and Kid Flash are flung 25 million years into the past... and stumble onto giant footprints.

- THE FLASH #121 - "The Trickster Strikes Back!" - Each time the Flash nabs a crook, the Trickster swoops in and snags the swag straight out of the Flash's grasp. It's pretty embarrassing for the Scarlet Speedster. "Secret of the Stolen Blueprint!" takes place during Barry's tenth college reunion, as Barry provides wingman duties for an old college pal. Oh, and the Flash foils some spies.

- THE FLASH #122 - The Fastest Man Alive! takes on the Top, whose top-relevant scheme is a giant spinning grenade which could blow up half the planet in "Beware the Atomic Grenade!" In "The Face Behind the Mask!" Kid Flash helps out a beleaguered rock star.

- THE FLASH #123 - "Flash of Two Worlds!" - While entertaining a theaterful of kids with his "magic" tricks (ie: super-speed stunts), Flash accidentally vibrates out of his world and into Earth-Two's Keystone City, home of Jay Garrick, the original Flash.

- THE FLASH #124 - "Space-Boomerang Trap!" has the newly paroled Captain Boomerang acting all innocent even as thefts are committed in his presence. But the Sultan of Speed finds the time to stymie Boomerang AND an alien invasion (okay, the Elongated Man helped some). In "Vengeance Via Television!" an ex-con gets back at those what sent him up the river. He does this by sending mind-controlling thought waves thru the television set. I call shady science shenanigans!

- THE FLASH #125 - "The Conquerors of Time!" - Flash's famous time-traveling treadmill is introduced, a device which catapults Kid Flash to the distant past and Flash to the far future as they take on separate missions to thwart a host of space invaders.

- THE FLASH #126 - In "The Doom of the Mirror Flash!" the Mirror Master escapes incarceration and into the world behind mirrors, which happens to be populated by beautiful Amazon women. Unable to steal anything - because the women keep presenting him with riches - Mirror Master is soon bored to pieces. "Snare of the Headline Huntress!" has a Hollywood starlet - who used to be Barry's childhood sweetheart - reconnecting with Barry. But it's all a publicity stunt.

- THE FLASH #127 - Grodd returns to Central City in "The Reign of the Super-Gorilla!" and the super-intelligent ape is suddenly popular. Could this be Grodd's nefarious neo-magnetic radiation at work? (Of course it is.) And, in his quaint hometown of Blue Valley, Wally West solves "The Mystery of the Troubled Boy!" and frustrates a gang of Russian spies.

- THE FLASH #128 - "The Case of the Real-Gone Flash!" introduces Abra Kadabra, a magician who can't get work in his own 64th Century. He travels back in time to the 20th Century where his insatiable craving for applause puts him on a collision course with the Monarch of Motion. In "The Origin of Flash's Masked Identity!" Barry daydreams of what could have been if, when the Flash was starting out, he'd revealed his secret identity to the public.

- THE FLASH #129 - "Double Danger on Earth!" - Jay Garrick visits Barry Allen's world on a desperate mission to save Earth-Two, although he finds some time to spare to help Barry counter the newly formed partnership between Captain Cold and the Trickster.

- THE FLASH #130 - "Who Doomed the Flash?" finds a flabbergasted Flash as five of his deadliest costumed foes seem to have simultaneously broken out of stir. But when Flash double checks, he's amazed to see these same five still cooling their heels in penitentiary. In the back-up story "Kid Flash Meets the Elongated Man!" and they investigate a small northwestern town besieged by an unrelenting winter.

- THE FLASH #131 - Barry Allen and his new pal Hal Jordan (Green Lantern) hang out and become "Captives of the Cosmic Ray!" Eventually, yet another alien invasion is staved off.

- THE FLASH #132 - Even back in the '60s, reality television rears its ugly head. In another dimension, the greedy producer of a popular television series called "Thrills of Earth" begins to invent disasters for our planet. When the Flash throws in his two cents, he's rendered "The Heaviest Man Alive!" In "The Farewell Appearance of Daphne Dean" the famous starlet, formerly Barry's childhood sweetheart, now claims to be in love with the Flash.

- THE FLASH #133 - Here's a thought bubble from the Flash: "I -- I have the strangest feeling that I'm being turned into a puppet!!" That about says it all, as Abra Kadabra makes his encore appearance in "The Plight of the Puppet-Flash!" Meanwhile, Kid Flash attends a camp for disabled children and learns the "Secret of the Handicapped Boys!"

- THE FLASH #134 - Why does the Elongated Man keep helping "The Man Who Mastered Absolute Zero!" in his getaways from the Flash? Also, Barry faces "The Threat of the Absent-Minded Professor!" (who happens to be the father of his girl friend Iris West).

- THE FLASH #135 - In "Secret of the Three Super-Weapons!" Earth is granted three enigmatic super-weapons to thwart yet another alien invasion. But then the weapons get destroyed. This one actually puts Kid Flash in an even more featured role.

- THE FLASH #136 - The Mirror Master's latest stint in prison ends when he discovers that he's dropped to third place in the most recent inmates' poll of "Most Successful Criminal." A jailbreak later and he now intends to prove that he still belongs on top of that list. And against the Flash he's lined up "The Mirror Master's Invincible Bodyguards!" Then, when a felonious hypnotist proclaims: "Barry Allen - You're the Flash! - And I Can Prove It!" the Fastest Man Alive! may have no option but to sit back and allow a spree of jewel heists.

- THE FLASH #137 - Vandal Savage, a formidable Golden Age menace, at last enters the Silver Age of comics. Can the Flashes of Earths One & Two and the Justice Society of America withstand the "Vengeance of the Immortal Villain!"?

- THE FLASH #138 - "The Pied Piper's Double Doom!" translates to the Piper's eerie music hypnotizing the Flash and the Elongated Man into committing criminal acts. And Kid Flash befriends a down-and-out actor in the "Mystery of the Matinee Idol!"

- THE FLASH #139 - "Menace of the Reverse-Flash!" - The Flash journeys to the 25th Century to defuse an atomic bomb but then encounters the dastardly Professor Zoom, the Reverse-Flash, who's even faster than the Fastest Man Alive!

- THE FLASH #140 - "The Heat Is On for Captain Cold" - Captain Cold and Heat Wave contend over the same woman, but then they pool their resources to take down the Flash. Also, Barry Allen's hormones get him in trouble against "The Metal-Eater from the Stars!"

Flash of Two Worlds is as great a comic story as we'll ever see. For sheer inventiveness, nothing beats it. That it managed to wreak havoc throughout comics for 40 years is just a bonus. The Flash was fun -- that was his greatest problem. His shtick was silly and two dimensional. When readers decided that super-heroes had to be real -- something more than the fictitious avatars they were intended to be -- the Flash turned out to be too improbable to survive. What a shame, and what a loss. This book contains so many delightful fantasies that it is worth an afternoon of anyone's time. Make it a sunny afternoon -- he was the last of the sunshine boys, and comics haven't been the same, or nearly as much fun, since he dashed off the stage more than 20 long years ago.

This collection might be my favorite of all DC's Showcase volumes I've read (and I've read a lot). The first story where the Silver Age Flash (Barry Allen) encounters the Golden Age Flash (Jay Garrick) is one of the greatest superhero tales of all-time. It's worth picking this volume up just for that! The rest of the stories feature lots of appearances by classic Flash villains like Professor Zoom, Captain Cold and the Mirror Master! Kid Flash gets an updated costume and we even get to see a couple guest-appearances by Elongated Man. Highly recommended!

Barry Allen rocks. This Showcase includes, among many other cool adventures, Flash of Two Worlds, which was the start of the Earth-1 and Earth-2 relationship. If that's not a good enough reason to buy this volume, it 552 pages of Flash for just a little over $12.

All that said, this was the first Showcase volume I'd ever bought. I was VERY excited for it and, when it arrived, it was the first item of my order that I picked up. I opened it with the anticipation of seeing the SCARLET Speedster rush down a Central City street...and was met with regular ol' black and white. I hadn't read the rest of the reviews on this page (there was one that mentioned it wasn't colored). It's not like the lack of color has any effect on the way the stories are told, but if you're like me, black and white puts you off. The color definitely adds something, and conversely, the lack thereof took something away. I was disappointed, and it was my own fault.

I still highly recommend the book, but just so you know, Barry's winged boots don't shine in it.

Showcase volume two makes your money worth it if you don't mind the black and white print. It's worth it if you don't want to spend the extra $$$$ on Archives and aren't getting enough out of Chronicles. Catch up with your classic Flash stories here. Wally wears a miniature version of Barry's exact uniform, Sam Scudder turns Barry into a big mirror, Vandal Savage turns Barry and Jay against each other, Grodd earns respect from Central City's citizens and the cover doesn't lie. The classic golden age and silver age Flash scene racing to save the construction worker included for anyone tired of using their imagination to finish the story after looking at the cover art that haven't read the full story (like I have). Since they've brought Barry back to life you might as well learn about how awesome he is and get some history on Wally too. Golden age, silver age or legacy if it's a Flash he's one of the coolest characters in the DCU. Flash fact.

For whatever reason, I felt like I enjoyed this volume of Flash stories better than the first. All the familiar Flash villians are present. Jay Garrick makes his presence. We still have Kid Flash. Fans of DC's Showcase editions will enjoy this volume. I think Flash is one of the DC's best super-heroes, especially Barry Allen's Flash, and these stories remind me why I like the Scarlet Speedster.