Review by Frank Plowright
Many of the Flash’s decades-long familiar villains were introduced in Volume One, and John Broome realises their possibilities as all recur here bar the unusual Mister Element/Doctor Alchemy pairing. He doesn’t rest on his laurels, though, as the opening story introduces Captain Boomerang, on the face of it a feeble villain with a dogy motif in a terribly designed costume. Yet Carmine Infantino may have dropped the ball with the costume, but his distinctive design for Digger Harkness coupled with a thin, but notable personality means he’s shone over the years. That doesn’t really apply to the Top, but he’s also recurred ever since, nor to Abra Kadabra, posing as a magician, but actually using advanced science from the future.
Under Broome the Flash stories tend to fit into three broad categories of fighting costumed villains, science-based trickery, and aliens or invaders from other dimensions. The latter are the least memorable, but would never entirely disappear from Broome’s repertoire, not least because it was still believed two stories per comic provided better value for money. Kid Flash’s occasional solo back-ups begin here, and overall Broome’s plotting dexterity provides clever puzzles and traps to be solved. He also repays a favour seen in Green Lantern: The Silver Age Volume Two as Hal Jordan and Barry Allen have a second team-up, a rare occurrence in 1962.
Infantino’s art continues to shine as he develops visual elements for the Flash and his foes. Central City is beautifully depicted in ultra-modern architecture, and Infantino takes note of contemporary women’s fashion when drawing journalist Iris West, which has dated far more than the cityscapes. His one weakness is consistently unimpressive aliens.
With this volume Gardner Fox starts contributing scripts. He’d co-created the original Flash and written around two-thirds of Jay Garrick’s 1940s adventures, many of those with comedy relief supporting characters Winky, Blinky and Nod. Their return in his first contribution hasn’t dated well. Neither to some extent has his second script, but it remains a landmark and defined DC’s continuity for years to come by establishing the two different Flashes existed on different worlds, but by vibrating at a certain frequency each could access the other’s world. This was bravura stuff in 1961, recognised as such by being only the second Flash story to occupy an entire comic, and it prompted a still iconic cover design from Infantino. Fox’s third and final contribution reprises the premise by having Garrick visit what was now designated Earth One to battle the Trickster.
Flash’s stories have a dated charm, moreso for readers who grew up with Barry Allen, but for anyone just wanting to sample, this is the volume. It features a landmark story, many of Flash’s villains, smart plots and first rate art. The peak continues into Volume Three, but that’s more inconsistent overall. You can also find these stories presented more luxuriously in the first Silver Age Flash Omnibus, or spread over the smaller hardcover Flash Archives Volume 3 and Volume 4. In black and white on pulp paper they’re found in Showcase Presents The Flash Vol. 2.
