by Chris Ryall
ABRA KADABRA A sixty-fourth-century magician who uses his future technology in ways that look like magic. Did we mention he turned Flash into a puppet?
The most dreaded of Flash's foes is Eobard Thawne, a.k.a. Professor Zoom, the Reverse Flash. Another resident of the far future, he bears a centuries-old family grudge against the Allen bloodline. Thawne discovers one of Barry Allen's Flash costumes, and scientifically treats it to extract the residue of Flash's powers, transferring them to whoever wears the costume. Now just as fast as the Flash, Zoom uses his historical knowledge of Barry Allen's life to torment him, appearing during the happiest moments of his life and trying to snatch the joy away. After numerous tries, Zoom finally succeeds, and murders Iris, Barry Allen's wife. (Yes, the Flash was a happily married superhero, another of John Broome's innovations.) Barry Allen mourns, grieves and moves on, eventually meeting someone else, a young woman named Fiona Webb. Barry and Fiona's relationship grows over time, and on their wedding day, you can probably imagine who shows up. Only this time, Barry plays for keeps and breaks Zoom's neck in the struggle.
The Flash's murder of Professor Zoom sets off a lengthy storyline in which the Flash stands trial for manslaughter. The series ends with The Flash #350 (October 1985), when Barry Allen leaves the twentieth century forever to live with his miraculously resurrected wife, Iris, in the far-future world of the thirtieth century. Unfortunately, Barry and Iris enjoy only a few weeks of renewed marital bliss before DC's epic miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths hits, and, well, it doesn't end well for the second Flash. After twenty-nine years of publication, Barry Allen is dead. The Flash, however, is destined to keep running.
THIRD TIME'S A CHARM
Back in 1960, Broome and Infantino had introduced Wally West, Iris's nephew and the world's biggest Flash fan. While on a tour of his “friend” Barry Allen's laboratory, the Flash shows Wally how he got his powers, even rearranging the contents of the chemical cabinet exactly as they were when the lightning struck. By blind, sheer, stinking, plot-device coincidence, another lightning bolt hurtles through the window and strikes the cabinet exactly as it had before, drenching Wally in the same chemical mixture. Wally gains the same superspeed powers as Barry, who quickly gives the youngster his own costume and ring and dubs him Kid Flash.
Kid Flash is active throughout the next three decades, eventually changing from a copy of Barry's uniform to his own unique and much cooler costume. He appears in the pages of The Flash and alongside other teen sidekicks Robin, Wonder Girl, Aqualad and Speedy in various Teen Titans series.
With the death of Barry Allen in Crisis, Wally gives up his Kid Flash identity and takes on the costume and name of his departed mentor. With the first issue of his own series, The Flash (Vol. 2) in 1987, Wally struggles to fill Barry's shoes. But the defining period in Wally West's career as the Flash is during Mark Waid's lengthy run as writer.
Waid focused the series on the legacy of the Flash. In Waid's mind, Wally was the first teen sidekick to “fulfill the promise” and actually replace his mentor. Waid slowly added every major speedster character in the DC Universe to Wally's supporting cast, including the semiretired Jay Garrick, Golden Ager Johnny Quick and his daughter Jesse, and Max Mercury, a mysterious speed guru. Max Mercury introduces Wally to the Speed Force, an energy field beyond the speed of light that all speedsters tap into, knowingly or not. As Wally taps into the Speed Force, his speed increases dramatically, and reaches levels of velocity previously matched by only Barry Allen. Waid also introduced Impulse, a.k.a. Bart Allen, Barry's grandson from the thirtieth century. Bart would have his own brief run as the Flash in 2007, but a negative reception from the fans and poor sales led to his untimely demise and the return of Wally West.
Waid's Flash run lasted nearly a hundred issues, starting with #62 (May 1992), and stands as the best treatment of the Wally West character, second only to Broome/Infantino as far as Flash comics go. Several of the story arcs are available in trade paperback, including Waid's retelling of Wally's origin and early career, “Born to Run,” as well as “The Return of Barry Allen” and “Terminal Velocity,” the introduction of the Speed Force. The “Terminal Velocity” trade also includes the story “Flashing Back,” a touching time-travel tale of ten-year-old Wally West and his meeting with a stranger from the future. Very good stuff.
GUEST LECTURER
MARK WAID, writer, The Flash
THE FIRST ISSUE OF THE FLASH I EVER READ
Flash #163 (August 1966) — editor Julius Schwartz's favorite cover of all time. Flash holds his hand out to us and commands us to “STOP!” and read the issue — his life depends on it! Got my attention!
THE BEST CREATIVE TIME ON THE TITLE
The first four or five years, from about 1959 to 1964 or thereabouts. Artist Carmine Infantino was at his peak, showing us vistas and super-speed tricks we'd never seen in comics before, bringing his legendary sense of design and storytelling to every page.
THE BEST COVER
Despite what Julie said, I think it's The Flash #174 (November 1967), the “giant logo” cover. Maybe the best comic book cover of all time, certainly one of the best 1960s covers. It's bold, it's dramatic and it pops from across the room — the three things you want most in a cover.
THE BEST STORYLINE/ISSUE
The Flash #173 (September 1967), “Doomward Flight of the Flashes.” It had none of the Flash's characteristic rogues' gallery villains, but did have all the other characteristic elements that made the Flash exciting and original, such as Kid Flash and the Golden Age Flash and a weird science-fiction adventure on another planet. Plus, the story is genuinely good.
THE GOOFIEST STORYLINE/ISSUE
When talking about 1960s Flash comics, how can anyone not say Flash #167 (February 1967), “The Real Origin of The Flash!” An impish, clumsy, scatterbrained wizard from another dimension comes to Earth and claims to be responsible for the freak accident that gave the Flash his speed. Wow. Way to undercut the whole tone of the series. As someone who's unintentionally written more than his share of bad stories, I have to be careful about throwing stones, but … wow.
5 Green Lantern
In brightest day, in blackest nightLots of superheroes are self-explanatory: Batman, Superman, Spider-Man. You kind of get the idea right from the get-go. Others require a little more elucidation. Case in point: just what the blankety-blank is a Green Lantern?
As the story goes, struggling artist Martin Nodell approached National Comics editor Sheldon Mayer in the winter of 1940 looking for work. Mayer informed the artist that they were looking to expand their line of superhero comics, and if Nodell had any good ideas, they were willing to listen. Encouraged by the meeting, on the way home Nodell was inspired by a delay at the subway station, and by the green lantern the trainman waved to indicate that the tracks were all clear.
Nodell utilized the green lantern in the character he was devising, one whose greatest power would be his own willpower. Nodell soon returned to Mayer's office with his new character concept, the Green Lantern. Mayer approved, and brought in Batman writer Bill Finger to provide the scripts for Nodell's stories. The two clicked immediately, and the Green Lantern made his debut in the pages of All-American Comics #16 (July 1940).
In his first appearance, entitled “The Green Lantern,” readers meet engineer Alan Scott, whose company is selected to construct a trestle bridge for the government. One of Scott's competitors does not take kindly to the selection, and sabotages the bridge, destroying it just as Scott takes a train across the bridge on a test run. All aboard the train are killed except for Scott, who was clutching an emerald-colored train lantern at the time of the crash. Suddenly, the lantern flares brightly, and in a burst of exposition begins to explain its origins to the dazed engineer.
Hundreds of years ago, the lantern explains, a meteor fell to Earth, landing in provincial China and “speaking” to those who witness its fall. “Three times shall I flame green! First — to bring death! Second — to bring l
ife! Third — to bring power!”
The meteor is carved into the shape of a lamp by a local sorcerer, who is then murdered by fearful villagers. And just as the meteor promised, the lamp comes to light, killing the murdering villagers. The lamp changes hands many times over the passing decades, eventually landing in the workshop of an asylum, where a patient reworks the metal into a modern train lantern. When the patient sparks the lantern, the green flame comes alive again and cures the patient's mental illness, bringing life.
Artist Martin Nodell, creator of Green Lantern, revisited his creation in a 1994 con sketch for Professor Tipton.
THE GREEN LANTERN™ © DC COMICS. FROM THE COLLECTION OF SCOTT TIPTON. ART BY MART NODELL.
Now, in the hands of Alan Scott, the lantern will bring power. At the lantern's instruction, Scott carves off a piece of its metal to construct a ring, which will channel the lantern's power. The ring must be touched to the lantern once every twenty-four hours to recharge its power. As Scott uses the ring's power to go after the saboteurs, he discovers that the ring allows him to fly, pass through physical objects, generate a force field to protect him from danger, and create physical manifestations of his will — its only limitation is the imagination and willpower of its wielder. Alan Scott also discovers that the ring is incapable of affecting anything made of wood, and therefore its force field cannot protect him from attacks made with wooden objects.
After bringing the saboteurs to justice, Scott resolves to continue to battle the forces of evil: “I must make myself a dreaded figure. I must make a costume that is so bizarre that once I am seen I will never be forgotten.” Scott then dons a poofy red shirt, green tights, red-and-yellow lace-up boots and a purple cape with a high Dracula collar. Mission accomplished, dude. In addition, while Alan Scott recharges his ring, he also recites a solemn oath:
“And I shall shed my light over dark evil, for the dark things cannot stand the light, the light of the Green Lantern!”
The Green Lantern was an immediate hit. He soon appeared not only in All-American, but also in the anthology title Comics Cavalcade, as a member of the Justice Society of America over in All Star Comics, and eventually in his own title, Green Lantern Quarterly. Yet despite the fanciful mystic trappings of his origin, Green Lantern's adventures in the 1940s were very much down-to-earth, and focused more on urban crimes like kidnapping and racketeering. When the superhero craze died down in the late 1940s, Green Lantern slipped into limbo like most of National's mystery men.
THE SAME, BUT A LITTLE DIFFERENT
By 1959, DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz was looking to follow up the success of his Flash revival, and chose Green Lantern for his second subject. As with the Flash, Schwartz opted for a streamlined, science-fiction approach, and placed his new assignment in the hands of writer John Broome and artist Gil Kane.
As reconceived by Broome and Kane in the pages of Showcase #22 (September 1959), the new Green Lantern was daredevil test pilot Hal Jordan. The story, “S.O.S. Green Lantern,” opens with the crash landing of an alien spacecraft, piloted by Abin Sur, who lies dying within. Abin Sur is a member of the Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic organization of space policemen organized by the Guardians of the Universe, a race of immortals with great intelligence and mental power. In his final moments, Abin Sur commands his power ring to seek a deserving Earthman to carry on as his replacement, one entirely without fear.
At that very moment, at Ferris Aircraft in Coast City, California, pilot Hal Jordan is suddenly enveloped in a green glow and whisked through the air at amazing speed, touching down at the site of Abin Sur's grounded craft. The dying alien explains to Jordan that he has been chosen to take his place in the Green Lantern Corps, protecting this sector of the universe. He gives Jordan a power ring and the battery of power, which have the power to do anything that the wearer imagines, based only on his willpower. To charge the ring it must be touched to the power battery every twenty-fourhours, but because of the impurity of the battery's construction, the ring, and battery will have no effect on anything yellow. With that, Abin Sur is no more, and Hal Jordan is the Earth's new Green Lantern. Like the Green Lantern of the 1940s, Hal Jordan also recites an oath when he charges his ring:
“In brightest day, in blackest night, No evil shall escape my sight! Let those who worship evil's might Beware my power – Green Lantern's light!”
GUEST LECTURER
JUD MEYERS, owner, Earth-2 Comics
ALL-TIME FAVORITE SUPERHERO
Green Lantern. He protects the entire universe, he's only limited by his imagination and belief in himself (meaning he can have any power he can dream up) and he always gets the girl (alien or otherwise). He makes Batman look mean and Superman look downright insecure.
Gil Kane's modern art style was a perfect match for the new Green Lantern. In contrast to the gaudy operatic costume of Alan Scott, Hal Jordan's Green Lantern uniform is sleek, streamlined and downright snazzy. The stories are vastly different from the urban-jungle, street-crime-focused Lantern tales of the 1940s. Instead, the sci-fi trappings of the new GL origin open the door to all kinds of cosmic concepts, such as the Weaponers of Qward, evil scientists from the antimatter universe of Qward determined to get their hands on all of the Green Lantern power batteries.
In time, Hal Jordan meets other members of the Green Lantern Corps, an organization of galactic peacekeepers 3,600 strong. Members include the birdlike Tomar-Re, the crystalline entity Chaselon, the walking vegetable Med-phyl, the alien chipmunk Ch'p, the enormous Kilowog of Bolovax Vik (charged with training new recruits) and many, many others. (Nothing's as funny, and at the same time cool, as the rock dude, the veggie-man and the chipmunk charging their rings and reciting the Green Lantern oath.)
The Corps is headquartered on the Guardians' homeworld of Oa, a planet located in the exact center of the universe. The individual members power their batteries from the Central Power Battery on Oa, which is itself fueled by the combined mental energies of the Guardians.
Hal's most tenacious adversary over his career is the renegade Green Lantern Sinestro. Once a revered member of the Corps, Sinestro is seduced by his own power, and sets himself up as dictator of his sector. His actions force the Guardians to strip him of his ring and banish him to the antimatter universe of Qward, where he secures a yellow power ring, the perfect weapon against the Green Lantern Corps.
THE MORE THE MERRIER
There have been other human Green Lanterns over the years, as well. When the Guardians order Hal Jordan to train an alternate GL in case he should become incapacitated, Hal enlists Detroit architect John Stewart, whom the ring identifies as totally honest and without fear. John subs for Hal Jordan on many occasions, and has had several lengthy stints as Green Lantern from the 1980s until today.
Another famous (or perhaps infamous) Green Lantern of Earth is Guy Gardner. In an interesting twist on the Hal Jordan origin, the Guardians reveal to Hal that there were actually two men on Earth who the ring found worthy of replacing the dying Abin Sur — Hal Jordan was chosen first because he was geographically closer. Curious, Jordan goes to meet the other candidate, schoolteacher Guy Gardner. After he receives a power ring, Guy spends much of the 1980s and 1990s serving in both the Justice League and Green Lantern Corps as a sort of right-wing reactionary loose-cannon GL with an “I-hate-everyone” attitude and one of the most atrocious “bowl-haircuts” in comic-book history. Guy's a hoot.
Another Green Lantern from Earth, Kyle Rayner, has a more complex introduction. Travel back to 1993, when the biggest news in comics is the death of Superman. At the climax of the storyline, the resurrected Superman is facing off against one of his replacements, the Cyborg Superman. The Cyborg's fiendish scheme depends on the success of his creating two massive engines that will destroy two American cities: Metropolis and Coast City. Superman manages to save Metropolis, but Coast City is not so fortunate. Hal Jordan's hometown is destroyed, and seven million souls killed. Driven insane by the tragedy, Hal first tri
es to re-create Coast City with his own power ring. When that's not enough, Hal realizes that he needs more power, and he knows just where to get it: Oa.
Hal heads to Oa, murders his friend and trainer Kilowog, dispatches numerous Green Lanterns, kills Sinestro (who the Guardians had enlisted as a last line of defense) and then murders all the Guardians but one, absorbing the almost limitless power of the Central Power Battery in the process. Hal then renames himself Parallax, making the full transformation from hero to villain.
The Green Lantern logo.
GREEN LANTERN™ LOGO © DC COMICS.
The sole remaining Guardian, Ganthet, manages to get away with the ring that had belonged to Abin Sur and Hal Jordan. He flees to Earth, where he haphazardly passes on the ring to the first person he sees: young artist Kyle Rayner. It is worth noting that the conversion of one of DC's first-string heroes to supervillain status was highly controversial, and somewhat tainted Kyle Rayner's reputation as Hal's successor. It took a few years' worth of good comics to really dissipate the negative opinion.
SCOTT SAYS
The random aspect of Kyle Rayner's selection is a big part of what makes him so appealing as a GL. Instead of being chosen as the bravest and best the planet has to offer, Kyle simply stumbles upon the most powerful weapon in the universe and has to find his own way through the responsibilities he now carries. As created by writer Ron Marz and artist Darryl Banks, Kyle could be any one of us. He makes mistakes, he has doubts and he never feels like he's living up to the huge expectations set by his predecessors.
Marz and Banks had a huge task before them to gain comics fans' acceptance of Kyle after the vicious and extremely vocal backlash of the Hal Jordan character assassination, and they pulled it off admirably.
Writer Grant Morrison's portrayal of Kyle in his JLA revival also helped a great deal, placing an uncertain Kyle on the same legendary footing as Superman and Batman.