I was thinking about the Flash: The Greatest Stories Ever Told collection recently, and about how I would have swapped out a few of the stories. (In particular, there’s a giant 80-page story that was decent enough, but I think that space would have been better used for more regular-length stories, like “Nobody Dies”).
And then I thought about tomorrow’s election in the US, and thought: let’s do a survey.
Here’s my question for you. Imagine that you can choose the contents of a Greatest Flash Stories Ever Told collection. You have room for 10 single-issue stories (or 20 half-length Gold/Silver Age stories, or 5 two-issue stories, etc.) from the entire history of the Flash.
What do you include?
Since Jay and Barry were covered pretty well in the previous volume(s), I’d have to go with stories spotlighting Wally. Most of Wally’s best stories are multi-part (3 to 6 issues) arcs,but a few issues I’d recommend would be:
Flash #3-4 : Introduction of the Kilg%re, also my introduction to Wally as the Flash.
Flash #48-50 : Wally is shot by Vandal Savage, gets resurrected and gets a shiny new costume.
Flash #53: A spotlight on the Wally/Piper friendship and what I think is the first “coming out” of a LGBT character in the DCU proper.
Flash #54: “Nobody Dies”. Classic.
Flash #91: Wally goes so fast time stands still.
Flash #107: great team-up between Wally and Captain Marvel
Flash #132: spotlight on Jay Garrick while Wally was recuperating from his battle with The Suit.
There was also a great short story by Mark Waid in one of the issues of Justice League Quarterly (#11?) in which Wally is trapped in a glass elevator and has to find a safe way to stop an assassination attempt.
what Craig said. might add in Chain Lightning finale and something from Blitz. I need to check out that JLQ story!
I think John Fox needs his day in the sun as an official Flash so I nominate his first appearance.
can we make it big enough to cover all of Wally’s run that hasn’t already been reprinted in trade? lol
Great question. along with the aforementioned Nobody Dies, I’d go for #19 of Wally’s series, the party with the Rogues. It was full of great characterisation, as it put a different, but believable, perspective on Barry and the villains’ relationship, and let us know things would be different for Wally,
Hmmm…Flash #0 (from Wally’s run), Flash #127-129 Hell to Pay Arc (Not sure if it’s a very popular Flash story, but I’ve always really enjoyed it quite), Flash #134 (a great Jay Garrick solo story), Flash #151 (a great issue depicting one of Wally’s first solo trials when he was Kid Flash), Now I realize all my choices are from Wally’s run, an I have nothing against Barry, but considering Barry is all I’ve heard about in the recent past, I decided to make all my choices form Wally’s run!
I LOVED Hell to Pay! It’s in my all time top 5. The ending is just…so corny-wonderful it makes me laugh and smile every time.
Speaking of laughing, there was a story in one of the Annuals(?) where a brain-impaired (Machine Accident) Wally invites Chunk to the JLE base for possible membership. Only Guy was there at the time and he thought he was getting a hot date with a reporter….comedy stuff like straight from Lauryl & Hardy. In fact for a few pictures there Wally and Chunk rather looked like caricatures of them. In fact I think my favorite take of Wally was when he was brain fried…..
On Barry Allen…I really want to read some of the stories with him (the old ones) but frankly now I’m confused. JL8 the webcomic is my favorite DC webcomic currently going, but Flash (Barry) in it is rather….a bit of a stinker, really. Wasn’t Barry supposed to be almost unrealistically nice in the comics? Is JL8 just doing artistic license type stuff with Barry as some kind of child delinquent there?
lol that was Annual #3 It was one of the Who’s Who annuals
(1990 the next year DC would introduce using the annuals for the big summer crossover events starting with Armageddon 2001) It’s one of my favorites there are actually two stories in it that are good the one you mentioned and the first which was where Wally tries to find out what happened to Jay Garrick and the Justice Society as a favor to Joan Garrick. (Meanwhile, his mother figures out how to operate the newly arrived JLE Teleporter.)
Oh gosh, YES–Wally’s Mom! Those first years of Wally and his family were the best. (No diss to Mark Waid who I also loved.) I recall now there was another side story with Wally’s father where they were protecting some bricks. It was rather bittersweet, a lovely tale that made me rather (almost) forgive Rudolph for trying to sell his son earlier on (or should I say forgive the stupid editorial mandates?)
I didn’t realize until just now how much I miss not only the Flash Family stories, but Wally’s own parents. 🙁
Flash #79. Irrespective that it’s double-sized, and irrespective that it’s the last of the multi-part “Return of Barry Allen” storyline and that the villain is already revealed by that point, there’s a bit at the end (that causes Wally to say “Thanks”) that always gives me the chills.
I am a rookie Flash fan.
My picks:
Flash v2 54: Nobody Dies
Flash v2 62:Flash: Year One – Born to Run, Chapter 1
Flash v2 77-79: Suicide Run, Blitzkrieg, The Once and Future Flash
Flash v2 100: Terminal Velocity, Overdrive: The Quick and the Dead
Flash v2 141: The Black Flash – Part 3
Flash v2 178: Caged (love this ish)
Flash v2 182: Absolute Zero (yeah, I know, it’s more a Captain Cold story than a Flash one, but still…)
Flash v2 200: Blitz
Runner-ups:
Flash v2 74-76: Trust, Running Behind, Identity Crisis
Flash v2 130-132: Emergency Stop
Flash v2 152: New Kid in Town
Flash v2 199: Blitz part 3
Flash v2 225: Rogue War part 6