Welcome to the latest installment in our annotations of the collected edition of The Trial of the Flash!  A while back, we analyzed related stories leading up to the 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.

IN THIS ISSUE:  “Love Over Gold”!

Links to original artwork, scans and research are included throughout this post.  For definitive legal analysis of the story by Bob Ingersoll, go here.  Tom vs. Flash Podcast links here, including these issues.  As always, huge thanks to the DC Indexes. See you after the jump!

COVER by Carmine Infantino and Klaus Janson. We’ll cover the clues here in the post. Here is someone who really didn’t like it.

The original art for page two is viewable here, via Comic Art Fans.

PG 3 & 4: Looks like the future city may be dealing with the effects of a coronal mass ejection, sometimes called “ion storms”.

The original art for page five can be seen here.

PG 6: Goldface’s appearances in this issue and back in Flash #315 – 317 were his only pre-Crisis on Infinite Earth’s appearances outside of the pages of Green Lantern. Here’s the original sequence of Office O’Malley’s execution. His funeral occurred off-panel.

PG 7: Here’s the first appearance of Nathan Newbury, omitted from the Showcase collection.

PG 9 – 11: Not only was Goldface lying about the timing of his ultimatum to Flash – once Flash did receive the warning he moved only at hyper-speed to avoid detection. Page nine also has the secret origin of Cecile’s watch.

PG 13 & 14: Going back to the cover – the yellow/gold hand on the cover seems to represent three things: Goldface (as seen in last panel on page 13), the murdered-by-gold O’Malley (actual grave occupant) and, in the context of future issues, a certain opposite number’s comeback. Goldface’s usual alias is Keith Kenyon, but his is named here as “Curtis” Kenyon. The last five issues alone have seen a couple of secret ID discrepancies, something of a Flash inside joke.

PG 16: The encephalo-scanning technology used here is reminiscent of Magnetoencephalography (MEG), which “is a non-invasive neurophysiological technique that measures the magnetic fields generated by neuronal activity of the brain.” Check out this site for more on MEG.

PG 18: Jet-copters use jet engines to drive the rotors/propeller. Here is an article from a couple of years back about the fastest jet-helicopter on Earth.

PG 20: There is no precise speed at which a fall into water can be fatal, but this article on cliff diving goes into terminal velocity and one 22,000 foot fall onto snow that a pilot happened to survive. A 2,000-foot fall at Flash’s top super-speed, assuming he’d go all-out to catch up to Cecile’s fall, is not considered.

PG 22: Michael Jackson participated in The Jacksons’ Victory Tour in 1984. Here is video of a full show from Dallas.

PG 23: Kid Flash had retired back in New Teen Titans #39 (cover date Feb. 1984), but appeared as Wally West occasionally in that book (i.e. “The Terror of Trigon“) and Tales of the Teen Titans prior to his showing up here. The appearance most relevant to The Trial is an Infantino-illustrated story in Tales of the Teen Titans #49, written by Titans scribe Marv Wolfman, where Flash and Kid Flash meet to discuss the condition that was causing Kid Flash great pain and the loss of his super-speed. Wally and his girlfriend Frances Kane also fight Dr. Light in Central City during their visit.

See you next weekend!

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