Number 4:  Flash #350
"Flash Flees" (DC Comics, October 1985)

Before I prepare each article for the "Mike's Favorite Comics" series, I remove the featured issue from my "Wall of Fame" and give it a quick read before setting to work.  I have read each of the comics in my "top 12" many, many times over but it's always helpful to get re-acquainted before I try my hand at describing them for these articles.  So I removed this issue from the wall the other day and read through it for the first time in quite a long while.  I hadn't read this issue in years and the first thought that I had was that the issue doesn't probably stand on it's own as a phenomenal work in the annals of comic book fandom.  But nevertheless, it is one of my personal favorites for a few important reasons...

First of all, The Flash (a.k.a. "The Silver Age Flash" or "Flash of Earth One" to you comic geeks…or, to the even geekier, we can refer to him as "Barry-Flash") is my all-time favorite comic book hero. Let's face it…Flash's super-speed is probably one of the better super-powers to possess.  Not only could Flash run really, really fast, but he could actually move so fast that he could defy gravity, travel through time and even vibrate his molecules so that he could pass through solid objects like buildings or the Earth itself.  Flash even beat Superman in a foot race on more than one occasion.  Flash also had some of the best arch-foes in the so-called "Rogues Gallery" of super-villains.

Flash #350 is the final issue of the Silver Age Flash series.  This issue wraps up several long-running loose ends in the series, including the matters of Flash's bogus conviction in the murder of Professor Zoom and the final fate of Flash's wife, Iris West.  The book also features an unprecedented team effort by Flash and the Rogues to defeat another of Flash's greatest arch-rivals, Abra Kadabra.  In the end, Flash is reunited with Iris and they go off to live happily ever after in the far-flung future.

A short time later (relatively speaking), Flash meets his final fate in the pages of Crisis on Infinite Earths #8.  DC effectively "killed" this incarnation of the Flash off in this story and he has remained "dead" for over 20 years.  DC basically took the stand that Flash (like Supergirl) was dead for certain after Crisis and that he would not be resurrected in the future.  For a long time, I was resentful of the decision to kill off the Flash, as he was an integral character in the DC Universe for more than 30 years.  But in retrospect, there has probably been some benefit to having Flash out of commission for all these years.  In many respects, Flash has remained just as I remember him from the stories yesteryear and the old stories from the Silver Age up through the mid-1980's have fantastic qualities that make them superior to many other comics from that era.

DC's current earth-shaking miniseries Infinite Crisis has recently featured brief cameos by the Silver Age Flash.  I have to admit that it is nice to see him back in action after all these years.  But I get the feeling DC is toying with the old generation of Silver Age Flash fans and because of this, I won't get too excited...yet.