Three Flashes and a Most Dangerous Game

 

Flash #173 (September 1967) was written by John Broome and drawn by Carmine Infantino and is more fun than a barrel of super-speed monkeys. It takes Comic Book Logic, then twists that logic around into a pretzel without actually breaking it, creating a story that drips with entertainment value.

It begins with Jay Garrick, the Earth-2 Flash, visiting Earth-1 along with his wife. This is because Jay's wife is a busy-body and wants to convince Barry that he needs to tell his wife Iris that he's a superhero. 

Heck, as of when I'm writing this, Angela and I have been married nearly 11 months and I haven't said a thing about any superhero activities I may or may not be involved in. So there, Jay's wife!

Anyway, that's just an excuse for getting Jay to Earth-1. Once there, he finds out that Flash was hit by a myserious ray and disappeared. 

When Jay and Kid Flash begin searching for him, Kid Flash disappears as well. It turns out they've been transported to another planet, where an alien called the Golden Man wants to hunt them.

What makes this an interesting variation of the Most Dangerous Game trope is his reasoning. He's really not worried about catching them. The Golden Man is a mutant, a super smart person on a planet otherwise inhabited by ape-men. He wants the two Flashes' to use their super-speed as much as possible. He'll gather up their expended energy and use it to mutate the rest of the planet's population into men like him. He essentially just wants someone to talk to.

A big chunk of the story involves Barry and Wally using their speed and vibration powers to avoid a number of booby traps. Infantino's art here is magnificent--full of energy, a sense of movement and imaginative imagry. 

Things take a tragic turn when Barry apparently sacrifices his life to save Wally.

So the Golden Man decides he needs another Flash and brings Jay to his world. But remember that Jay doesn't wear a mask. He habitually vibrates his face so no one can ever get a good look at him. Because of this, he's still conscious when he arrives on the planet. Because that's how SCIENCE works!

I'm not mocking the story, by the way. Within the context of the story and a Comic Book Universe, this is a perfectly legitimate and fun plot twist. 

But the Golden Man manages to subdue Jay. He's given up on the hunting idea and now dumps Jay and Wally into a chamber with the temperature set to Absolute Zero. The two are forced to vibrate as fast as they can to stay alive, with the alien absorbing the energy they produce.

But Barry turns out to still be alive, having simply vibrated through the entire planet to escape the quick sand he was in. Because that's how science works!

Gee whiz, I love this stuff. It is completely unashamed of its Comic Book Logic and embraces it whole-heartedly.

The Flashes all rescue one another, but Golden Man still activates his evolution machine. Sadly for him, it works in reserve of what it was supposed to do and de-evolves Golden Man into a cave man. Well, it sort of works, since he can now talk to his fellow aliens on a equal level. 

The Flashes head back to Earth, where Barry promises to tell Iris he's a superhero on their anniversary. Everyone lives happily ever after. Well, except for Barry, who is likely to spend his anniversary sleeping on the couch.

That's it for now. Next week, we'll return to Animal Comics.