The Flash (1959) or The Flash (Volume 1) was a comic book series published by DC Comics from 1959 to 1987, totaling 350 issues, plus 1 Annual.
The Silver Age of Comic Books could be said to begin when its Flash, Barry Allen, arrived on the scene. In the fourth issue of Showcase, a try-out series for new concepts, DC Comics brought back the idea of the Flash, but gave him a new costume, origin, and secret identity, creating the first Super Hero Legacy Character. Sales took off, and not long thereafter, he gained his own series, The Flash, picking up numbering with #105 where the Golden Age series Flash Comics had left off.
The Flash created many of the features of the Silver Age DCU. In 1961, the story "Flash Of Two Worlds" was published. It featured Barry accidentally crossing the "vibration barrier" between dimensions, and ending up in a world he dubbed "Earth-2", where Jay Garrick still lived, having retired from superheroing after marrying Joan. Thus, the first seeds of the Infinite Earths were planted. He was also a founding member of the Justice League of America.
The Flash (1959) story arcs with their own pages include:
Tropes found in other issues of The Flash (1959) include:
- Arch-Enemy: Gorilla Grodd to Barry Allen, as Grodd was the only serious threat in the Flash's Rogues Gallery of otherwise Harmless Villains.
- Breakout Character: Barry Allen's credited for kick-starting the Silver Age.
- Creator Cameo: Cary Bates appears in issue #228.
- Endearingly Dorky: Wally West was a cutely awkward child as Kid Flash during the Silver Age.Wally: It worked!! Go Team Flash!
Barry: And you call me a dork. - The Fat Episode: In issue #115, Gorilla Grodd, while possessing a random person, invents a device that increases the Flash's weight to 1000 pounds. This also renders the Flash amnesiac, which he uses to put him on display as a sideshow exhibit. The Flash eventually regains his memories while walking through a mirror maze and quickly loses all the excess weight.
- Gaslighting: In issue #300, the villain Abra Kadabra sought to pull this on Barry Allen by putting him in a situation where he'd be tricked into thinking that the iconic lightning-chemical bath, instead of giving him his powers, actually left him with horrible skin-burns. Kadabra even set up illusions of Barry's friends coming in to try and convince him that he'd never been a superhero, but rather that he'd been in a coma following his hospitalization. Near the end, though, Barry managed to defeat Kadabra after noticing a key detail that the villain had overlooked. Kadabra had brought in an illusion of Professor Zoom to taunt Barry, something which, if the supposed reality was true, should be impossible, as Zoom's origin was inspired by the Flash — basically, if the Flash never existed, then logically Zoom shouldn't exist either.
- Meet Your Early-Installment Weirdness: "The Flash of Two Worlds", where Silver Age Flash Barry meets Golden Age Flash Jay in an interdimensional mishap. The major success of this Silver Age story lead right into the annual JLA/JSA crossovers throughout the pre-Crisis era.
- Nice Guy: Barry is the archetypal Silver Age hero, complete with being one of the nicest guys around.
- Odd Name, Normal Nickname: Back in the Silver Age, Barry Allen's first name was "Barrence", though it has since been retconned to "Bartholomew."
- The Pollyanna: Barry Allen is an eternal optimist who always sees the best in every situation. He is an easy-going and laid-back person who has huge amounts of patience, understanding, and kindness for most everybody. His life motto is literally "Every second is a gift". Can't get more optimistic than that.
- Puppet Permutation: In The Flash (1959) #133, Abra Kadabra turns the Flash into a marionette.
- Sharing a Body: In issue #220, The Flash (Barry Allen) and Kid Flash (Wally West I) accidentally merge their molecules when they run into each other in front of The Turtle's centrifugal booster, essentially sharing a body.
- Sounds of Science: Usually in the Silver Age, Barry Allen loved calling his scientific expositions "Flash Facts".
- Super Costume Clothier: Debuting in The Flash #141 in 1963, Paul Gambi was a criminal tailor who designed and maintained costumes for the Flash's Rogues Gallery and he may be the Trope Maker. His brother Peter who creates costumes for superheroes rather than villains was later introduced in Black Lightning.
- Super-Strength: In The Silver Age of Comic Books, Barry Allen occasionally karate-chopped his way through concrete and steel with a single blow. Being able to move his hand at near-light speed made it pretty easy; what was amazing was that the impact didn't shatter his own bones.
- You Can Barely Stand: In issue #166, the Flash sprains his ankle rescuing people from a fire,. However he doesn't let that stop him, and miraculously, when he is attacked by Captain Cold and Heat Wave, the alternating effects of heat and cold fix his ankle and allow him to capture the Rougues.
