Tag Archives: Silver Age

Speed Reading: Letters Columns, MK vs DCU, Wanted Trades

Comic Coverage looks at an old letters column in which a fan confesses her crush on Kid Flash.

Speaking of letters colums, Clandestine Critic talks about comic shops, including one that was once co-owned by Paul Gambacinni, the radio personality and former Flash letter writer who inspired the Rogues’ tailor, Paul Gambi.

The Continuity Blog looks at Flash #231–246.

Variety reviews Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

The Dork Review suggests collecting Cary Bates’ run on The Flash in two volumes: The Murder of Iris Allen (Flash #275, #281–284, #321–326) and The Trial of the Flash (Flash #340-350). The first volume would feature Iris’ murder and Barry’s subsequent battles with Professor Zoom, including the one years later that would lead to the villain’s death.

More reviews of this week’s Flash #246 at Men in Tights and Comix 411.

This Week (Oct 8): Going Ape

This week, two Flash stories are reprinted in the DC Goes Ape collection.

DC Goes Ape

Written by Otto Binder, John Broome, Gardner Fox and others; Art by Carmine Infantino, Wayne Boring, George Papp, Ross Andru, C.C. Beck, Jim Starlin and others; Cover by Arthur Adams
You’ll go bananas for this new title collecting simian stories from Superboy #76, Superman #138, The Flash (vol.1) #127, Detective Comics #339 and 482, Hawkman , Wonder Woman #170, Strange Adventures #201, Shazam #9, Super Friends and The Flash (vol.2) #151!

168pg. | Color | Softcover | $19.99 US

Notes: The two Flash stories are:

“Reign of the Super-Gorilla” (Flash v.1 #127, 1962), in which Gorilla Grodd imbues himself with “neo-magnetic radiation,” making everyone within a 100-mile radius think he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. Everyone but the Flash, that is. He easily takes over Gorilla City, then moves on to Central City…where the citizens decide to run him for state governor.

“Territorealis” (Flash v.2 #151, 1999), a flashback told at the beginning of the Dark Flash Saga. Kid Flash mistakes another intelligent Gorilla for Grodd himself, then has to help him return to Gorilla City in order to prevent an invasion. In a way, it serves as a prologue to the “JLApe” storyline that ran through that summer’s annuals.

DC has a long tradition of using intelligent apes as characters (Grodd, Monsieur Mallah, Detective Chimp, etc.), but I have to wonder whether the timing of this collection might be influenced by the Marvel Apes miniseries currently in stores.

Flash vs. the Pirate Torpedo

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Arr! Barry Allen may not know how to celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day, but he do celebrate Jog Like a Pirate Day!

Showcase #13: The Flash runs across the water from a torpedo with a pirate flag on front. 'No matter how fast I go---this pirate torpedo keeps following me!'

From Showcase #13, it’s “Around the World in 80 Minutes,” a tale of the Flash. (Mostly he runs around the world, helps people out, and gets kissed by women. Aye, it be good to be a superhero.)

(Cover via GCD. This story appears in Showcase Presents: The Flash vol.1 and The Flash Archives vol.1. And yeah, it’s a repost, but it’s from a year ago on my other blog, so I figure it’s fair game.)

Flash Archives 5 Coming in 2009

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Flash Archives 5Keith Dallas (author of The Flash Companion) spotted The Flash Archives Volume 5 on Amazon.com, with a release date of March 10, 2009.

The detail page doesn’t list contents, just that it’s 248 pages. Like most of DC’s Archive Editions, the list price is $50 (still less than it would cost to track down the originals in decent condition), but Amazon is currently offering it at a 37% discount.

Dallas figures that it most likely contains stories from the Silver Age Flash #133–140, which would include:

  • the introduction of Professor Zoom (#139) and Heat Wave (#140);
  • stories with Abra Kadabra (#133), Captain Cold (#134), Mirror Master (#136) and Pied Piper (#138);
  • another Jay Garrick/Barry Allen team-up, this one involving the entire Justice Society of America against Vandal Savage (in fact, this is the first JSA appearance of the Silver Age);
  • and the tale of Kid Flash finally losing the “Mini-Me” costume for the yellow one he joined the Teen Titans with (#135)

Interestingly enough, going through Flash #140 would exactly match the current span of the cheaper, black-and-white Showcase Presents: The Flash collections (volumes 1 and 2).

Update (October 2008): The official solicitation is out, and it covers #133-141 — one more issue than predicted. The additional issue contains another milestone: the first appearance of the Rogues’ tailor, Paul Gambi.

Review: DC Super-Heroes: The Filmation Adventures

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In 1967, the Filmation-produced Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure featured short animated segments with additional DC characters. The Superman and Aquaman segments have previously been released on DVD, and the rest are now available as the two-disc set, DC Super-Heroes: The Filmation Adventures.

These discs feature three seven-minute episodes each focusing on:

  • The Atom
  • The Flash
  • Green Lantern
  • Hawkman
  • The Justice League of America (made up of the above heroes, plus Superman)
  • Teen Titans (Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Speedy, and Aqualad)

I’ve never seen these before (I grew up on Super Friends), and it’s hard to not compare them to the Bruce Timm-designed Justice League cartoons, which benefit from 30-odd years of advances in animation techniques (and technology) and storytelling — not to mention a decent budget. The stories are simplistic, the villains’ motivations even more so; lots of footage is re-used, and the heroes are flat. But the action tends to be wild and crazy, in keeping with the comics of the time.

In fact, a lot of the aspects that stand out when viewing these today are true to the source material. This was deep into the Silver Age at DC, and wild and crazy sci-fi adventure hadn’t yet given way to the more street-level storytelling of the Bronze Age. Continue reading →

Showcase: The Top #4

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Comics Should be Good has been running a Top 50 Countdown of the “most notable issue numbers in comic book history,” with the top issue , the top issue , the top issue , etc. They’ve been revealing the numbers in a more-or-less random order, and wrapped up the series today with . Their choice: Showcase #4, the 1956 comic in which DC Comics decided to try revitalizing super-heroes with a revamped Flash, and launched the Silver Age of Comics.