COMIC BOOK OF THE WEEK

COMIC BOOK OF THE WEEK

Once again, Professor Mike here, welcome you back to another edition of Comic Book of the Week.  We're on a theme right now, and our focus is on the Fastest Man Alive - The Flash.  It's been 80 years since the speedster made his debut on the comic pages, and joined one of the core members of the old guard of the superhero set, with the likes of Superman and Batman.  Jay Garrick was our hero for the wartime, and was a founding member (and Chairman), of the Justice Society of America.  But after 1949, Jay Garrick all but disappeared from the comics pages.  The Golden Age of Comics had come to an end, and the world didn't need superheroes anymore....then came 1956.  And the Silver Age of Comics began...and it all started with the revival of a certain speedster.

SHOWCASE #4

 

COVER: Carmine Infantino, Joe Kubert

WRITER: Robert Khaniger

ARTIST: Carmine Infantino

INKS: Joe Kubert

LETTERS: Gasper Saladino

COLORS: N/A

EDITOR: Julius Schwartz

COVER DATE: October 1956

PUBLISHER: DC Comics

STORY TITLE: "Mystery of the Human Thunderbolt", "The Man Who Broke the Time Barrier"

TAGLINE:  Presenting THE FLASH!  Whirlwind Adventures of The Fastest Man Alive!

Showcase #4 was an edition of a book that was, well, a showcase for not only new characters, but new talent as well.  The series ran all the way into the 70's, and gave a chance for DC comics to seek out new talent and ideas to bring to their audience.  In 1956, Julius Schwartz was the editor/publisher of the company at the time, and was VERY interested in reviving their superhero line.  With this particular issue of the series, Schwartz assigned writer Robert Khaniger and artists Carmine Infantino and Joe Kubert to come up with an idea to revive the genre'....and they took a classic character in The Flash, and gave him a sleek new look, a new origin, and created the character of Barry Allen.  This new Flash proved to be such a success with his first issue, he appeared in 3 other issues of the series, before being assigned his own book in 1959.  This series also gave us such iconic characters such as Green Lantern (we'll get to him a little down the road), Challengers of the Unknown, and Adam Strange.  The series died out in 1970, but revived in 1977, but died out again in 1978.  The title was then revived yet again in the 80's as New Talent Showcase.  But this issue is iconic as being the spark that gave us the Silver Age of Comics---perhaps the greatest era of the business in its history.

THE STORY: "Mystery of the Human Thunderbolt" gives us the story of Central City police scientist Barry Allen, who is struck by lighting, while having a cabinet of chemicals douse him at the same time.  The combination of the two grant Allen the ability to move at superhuman speed, and, based off his comic book hero Jay Garrick, became a new version of the Monarch of Motion - The Flash!

"The Man Who Broke the Time Barrier" is about The Flash tracking a criminal from the future, who's supposed to be serving his sentence in the 50th Century, only to have broke free, and has travelled to the past.  The Flash battles him, and travels through time in order to defeat the thief, and get him back to prison to serve his sentence.

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This issue was a great start to the career of the Scarlet Speedster.  Khaniger didn't spend too much time on exposition in regards to Barry Allen's origin, and both stories move at a steady pace.  Carmine Infantino begins his historic run on this character, and defines the art of moving at super speed.  And while I think Joe Kubert is a fine artist and inker, his inks don't really work with Infantino's art.  Thankfully, Murphy Anderson began inking Infantino later on, and the marriage of the two was more pleasant.  Khaniger didn't stay with the character long, and John Broome became the writer of the Fastest Man Alive for a good chunk of his series' run.  But this is a great intro into the new Flash, and the spark that lit the fuse of the Silver Age of Comics.

Next week:  A brand new speedster....a brand new series.