The original fastest man alive was created by writer Gardner Fox of the anthology comic Flash Comics #1 (dated January 1940); the same issue also featured the first adventures of Hawkman and Johnny Thunder. The publisher, All-American Publications, would later merge with others to eventually become what is now DC Comics. The original Flash was college student Jay Garrick, who accidently inhaled "hard water vapors" while working for his academic advisor Professor Hughes. These vapors gave him the power to run at superhuman speeds and to have likewise fast reflexes. Later tweakings of the original story had the vapors come from "heavy water" which contained a mutagen.
Fox based his creation on the Roman god Mercury; artist Harry Lampert took a depiction of Mercury from a dictionary and blended it with his original vision of Jay Garrick. The Flash's costume had a lightning bolt emblazoned across the front, red boots, and a winged helmet.
The Flash soon joined the Justice Society of America in All Star Comics while continuing to appear in Flash Comics. He got his own title in All-Flash Quarterly, beginning with the November 1941 issue. When the comic book moved from its quarterly status to bi-monthly it became simply All-Flash. Flash Comics ran for 104 issues; All Star Comics ran for 54 issues during its original run; All-Flash lasted for 32 issues. With the final issue of All Staar Comics in March 1951, Jay Garrick's days as The Flash were over. The Superhero would not appear again for ten years, and then revamped as Barry Allen, the second in a long line of characters who took up the mantle of the Flash.
All-Flash Quarterly#1 starts with a recap of how Jay Garrick got his powers and how he eventually turned those powers into fighting crime. The only person to know his secret is his life-long friend Joan Williams.
Several years pass and Jay, now out of college, is working at Chemical Research Corporation for old Mr. Norris, who has invented KZ-10, a formula that can turn corpses into stone -- something that should revolutionize the embalming industry. Callen, the gangster who runs the Ritz-Kat Club, learns of the formula and decides to us it for his own purposes. He kidnaps Norris and gains the formula. Anxious to test it, he orders his lackeys to kidnap people off the street for test subjects. One of the people happens to be Joan Williams. Another is a young mother whose daughter is now in tears. Soon the Flash and the little girl are also kidnapped and turned into stone. Garrick had been working on a blood plasma serum that would eliminate all four blood groups so that one serum would work of all people. (Don't ask. This is comic book science.) And Barry had been injected with the serum, which -- very conveniently, I might say -- works to eventually counteract the effects of KZ-10. Barry escapes, gives Callen a dose of his own medicine, and rounds up Callens lackeys -- who, it turns out, were about to kidnaps Joan's father, a wealthy industrialist. Callen is remorseful, disavows his evil ways, and begs to be punished by the justice system.
Phew! That's a lot to unpack there...
In the next adventure, The Flash tackles "The Monocle" and his Garden of Gems. Joan is the costume designer for a fancy fashion show where the models are to wear hats encrusted with valuable gems. A canister of gas is released in the dressing room, the models fall unconscious, and the hats are stolen. Is the fashion show ruined? Au contraire! Garrick, who thinks all the hat designs were laughable, get some material, rushes home, and -- using his super-speed -- created a number of hats for the show. Of course he thinks his designs are ridiculous and is stunned to find they are a huge hit. The fashion show is a success and hats are selling like hotcakes. But now it's time for the flash to find the missing hats and the $500,000 worth of jewels that adorned them. The bad guy is The Monocle, who places each gem inside a flower in his garden, so that the gems take the place of a flower's pistil. (Don't ask why. It's comic book logic.) Unable to find a clue to the missing hat and gems, Garrick stops by the Carson bank to make a deposit just as The Monocle's thugs are robbing the bank. He captures the bad guys but is lured to The Monocle's hangout where there are all manner of scientific traps. The Monocle escapes in a small plane by The Flash, using his speed powers, jumps on the plane in midair and captures the gang leader. What the Flash does not realize is that The Monocle has sent some of his men to kidnap Joan; what The Monocle does not realize is that The Flash has accidently made it possible for the police to capture The Monocle's men and save Joan. Funny how that all works out.
Cowboy Jack is a rodeo star and someone tried to kill him by placing poison on the horns of a bulldogging steer. The Flash manages to prevent that but does not know who wants to kill Jack or why. Then the bad guys try to gun Jack down but are prevent from doing so by The Flash. Again, Garrick has no idea why this is happening. The Cowboy Jack gets a telegram that his father has struck oil on his Oklahoma ranch. Another attempt is made on Jack's life before he boards the train for home, and a fourth attempt is made when he arrives in Oklahoma. The flash is there in both places to foil these attempts. Jack's father did not have the money to buy all the equipment so he took out a mortgage on the farm. aha! now it is clear. The bad guys will first eliminate Cowboy Jack, then his father, and finally his mother, and the oil rights will be theirs for the taking. A brilliant plot! But the main ne'er-do-well, Benton, did not plan on The Flash...
The final adventure of The Flash in this issue centers on ice hockey. "When Joe Vickers went to see the Redshirts, Brilliant League hockey team play, he intended to buy the team with his entire savings of a lifetime. But he did not know that Gunner Parker had an interest in the team...or that Dagger Daniels, gangster and racket king, was out to get Parker..." And in two shakes of a lamb's tail (or, perhaps, a shake and a half of a winged helmet), The Flash get involved to save Vickers and to ensure that hockey remains the good, clean game it always was.
Also included among the extras are brief bios of Gardner Fox and Harry Lampert.
Enjoy.
AFQ_1941_2.pdf (wasabisys.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment