Tag Archives: Trial of the Flash

Annotations: Flash #273 – “Harvest of Hate”

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Welcome to the latest entry in our breakdowns of classic Flash comics, leading up to Showcase Presents: The Trial of the Flash!  This week, we’ll check out issue #273, a pivotal chapter on the road to the historic #275.

UP TO SPEED:  Last week, we saw Flash take down The Clown.  As Barry Allen, our hero also uncovered a heroin smuggling operation that was using his lab as a drop point.  Meanwhile, he and Iris struggled to make time for each other as Barry’s obligations to his police work and his Flash duties took complete hold of his attention. 

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Annotations: Flash #272 – “The Girl With the Master Mind…”

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Welcome to the third entry in our breakdowns of Flash stories by Cary Bates!  We’re counting down to the July 20th release of Showcase Presents: The Trial of the Flash.

UP TO SPEED:  Last week, we saw the Flash and three Central City “V.I.P.’s” at the mercy of the Clown!  Meanwhile, Barry Allen was dealing with the onset of Dr. Nephron’s controversial criminal-rehabilitation procedures, and the growing frustrations of his wife!

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Annotations: Trial of the Flash – Issue #271

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Welcome to the second entry in our breakdown of Flash stories from the late 1970s and early 1980s, leading up to the July 20th release of “The Trial of the Flash”!

UP TO SPEED:  Last week we looked at Flash #270 and the introduction of the mysterious Clown, who seemed to have gotten the best of Barry Allen.  We also witnessed the birth of Dr. Nephron’s prisoner rehabilitation program, a female fan out to “ensnare” our hero, a jilted Iris Allen, and a heroin smuggling operation based in Barry’s crime lab! 

This week, we’ll review the events of issue 271. 

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Annotations – Trial of the Flash: Introduction and Issue #270

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Welcome to the first installment in our analysis of the soon-to-be-reprinted “Trial of the Flash”, and related Flash storylines!

Arguably the most praised and vilified pre-Crisis Flash tale, the Trial story was written by Cary Bates, began in 1983 and ran through the title’s cancellation in 1985.  With seeds in stories from as far back as 1979, the Trial was essentially the collision of years of Flash plot threads.  These stories are some of the earliest examples of long-form, soap-opera style writing in DC Comics.

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Trial of the Flash in 2011

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The Collected Editions blog has spotted news of a new Showcase collection that, surprisingly, isn’t from the 1960s: Trial of the Flash, collecting the epic 2-year storyline that ran through the end of Barry Allen’s original series.

The story ran at least 25 issues, not counting the setup years earlier with Professor Zoom killing Iris, so a giant collection like the Showcase books is probably the best way to reprint it, even if it will be black and white.

Interestingly, the last time I remember seeing a reprint of a Flash story from the 1980s was in the original Greatest Flash Stories Ever Told…almost 20 years ago! Head over to Collected Editions to read more.

»Pre-Order from Amazon.