Welcome to the latest installment in our annotations of the collected edition of The Trial of the Flash! We analyzed related stories leading up to the summer 2011 release of Showcase Presents: The Trial of the Flash. In addition, we interviewed author Cary Bates about the buildup and the Trial itself, plus showed you what wasn’t included in the collection.
Links to artwork and research are included throughout this post. For legal analysis of the story by Bob Ingersoll, go here. For this issue’s corresponding Tom vs. The Flash podcast, go here!
COVER: Another memorable cover from this era, notable for combo of: all white background, use of title and three images of Flash. Carmine Infantino is inked by Dick Giordano. Here is the original artwork, couresty of LiveAuctioneers.com:
PG 2: Joey Cavalieri scripts his second of two issues. Frank McLaughlin is on interior inks for the remainder of the collection. In this interview from 2010, he discusses some recreations of classic Flash artwork he was generating with Infantino.
FM: Carmine and I were collaborating on some stuff and it was selling. He suggested getting together and he penciled some stuff and I inked it and the first couple sold very quickly. I thought, “Wow. There are still people out there who appreciate this kind of work.” …. One guy just adored the series where the Flash went on trial for something and he said, “Whatever you’ve got.” I don’t have any of the original art any more, so Carmine and I were doing recreations of the stuff.
PG 3: The boy is Angelo Torres, used as bait by Grodd in the previous issue. This site has a great number of “monkey” idioms, all offensive to super-gorillas.
PG 7: Angelo’s last gang was the Vultures, who were also brought into this dimension after teaming with Grodd. They were subsequently destroyed by Grodd while serving as a gauntlet.
PG 13 – 15: Solovar’s last appearance was in Flash #295, the issue before Infantino retook penciling duties. Check out the reference site for a detailed history of Gorilla City.
PG 16: Steven Speilberg’s name is misspelled.
PG 19 – 21: Flash mentions Moses, which appears to be more significant than just a reference to the parting of the sea. In addition to the religious themes of the literature (re: Dawson Trotman and A.W. Tozer) spotted in Barry’s apartment back in issue #326, the title of this story/collection is a reflection of The Trials of Moses, a series of paintings by Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli. One of the stories portrayed is Moses’ killing of an Egyptian man, which is done in defense of a fellow Hebrew and results in Moses taking flight to the land of Midian.
Cary Bates had this to say about the original, intended direction of the Trial story:
CB: But the far more interesting question is what might have been had there been no Crisis [on Infinite Earths] event? Well, for one thing the Trial would’ve probably ended a good 8 or 9 issues earlier. Flash would’ve been vindicated and found not guilty in the court of public opinion—but perhaps not by the court system. In fact, before the Crisis entered into things, I do remember toying with the idea of Flash being found guilty and going “on the run” (literally).
PG 22 & 23: Here’s a small peek at Flash’s relationship with the media, something that will come into play in a big way over the next few issues. Check out this post, which sets the speed of one particular explosion’s blast wave at 300 meters/second, to get a general idea of how fast Flash has to move to save his lawyer’s life.
See you next time!