DC Comics Classics Library: The Flash of Two Worlds [Hardcover]

DC Comics latest edition in its Classic Library, "The Flash of Two Worlds," reprints the first six stories teaming up the Silver Age Flash (Barry Allen) with the Golden Age Flash (Jay Garrick). These stories laid the ground work for the multiple worlds that run throughout the DC Universe and the Crisis story arcs.

When The Flash was revived in 1956, it had been over five years since Jay Garrick's last adventure. The powers that DC decided to recreate the character, giving The Flash a new name, costume and origin. The thinking was that no one reading comics then would remember a character that old as most comic readers only read comics for five years. But fortunately writer Gardner Fox and editor Julius Schwartz still had fond memories of The Flash from the Golden Age, Jay Garrick. The classic 1961 story "Flash of Two Worlds" had the new Flash, Barry Allen, accidently vibrate to a world on which Jay Garrick was alive as The Flash, and not just a comic book character as was the case on the world inhabited by Barry Allen. Barry quickly realizes that he is on this world, a world he had read about in Flash Comics! In fact, his origin story shows him reading an issue of Flash Comics. He surmises that Gardner Fox was tuning in on this other world when his sotries about The Flash came to him in dreams. It's a fascinating concept perfectly carried out. Barry and Jay quickly become fast friends and work together to capture three super-villians on Jay's world (named Earth 2, although it came first). The story provides a logical and entertaining explanation as to why there are two totally different versions of The Flash.

With the succes of the initial pairing of the Golden Age and Silver Age versions of The Flash, a follow-up story was inevidable. "Double Danger on Earth" has Jay Garrick traveling to Earth 1 to help find a solution to a radiation threat on his earth. While there, he helps his new friend Barry battle Captain Cold and The Trickster. And, of course, save his world and provide a warning and solution for a future radiation problem sure to crop up on Earth 1. Gardner Fox tosses in a short story on the last case of the Justice Society of America as a hint that more Golden Age revivals are on the way.

"Vengence of the Immortal Villian" is another classic featuring the return of the Justice Society of America and the classic villian Vandal Savage. Like the first two encounters, it is briliantly written by Gardner Fox and beautifuly drawn by Carmine Infantino. This story laid the ground work for the JSA coming out of retirement and meeting with the Justice League of America on an annual basis to solve various crisis situations.

"Invader from the Dark Dimension" has the Flashes battling the Golden Age villian The Shade. It's a fun story with more great art from Infantino.

By the time the last two stories in the collection were published in 1967, Infantino's art style had changed. The realistic renderings were being replaced with drawings that were more angular, often from tilted perspectives. His classic period of The Flash was sadly over. In addition, these two stories were written by John Broome, the primary writer on The Flash. Although well plotted, they do not have the same finese as the prior Fox-written yarns. "The See-Nothings Spells of Abra-Kadabra" features the magician/villian from the 64th century, along was some guest stars. "Doomward Flight of the Flashes" sports a great cover and the teamup of three Flashes as Wally West, then Kid-Flash, is thrown into the mix.

While the Superman entry in the DC Comics Classic Library has poorly reproduced art, this collection does not suffer from that problem. The print is in registration and similar to the quality found in most of the DC Archives titles. As there are some great Flash team-ups that came out after 1967, let's hope DC does a second collection of "The Flash of Two Worlds."

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