Once again, he had defeated his arch-nemesis. But there was a lingering feeling of doubt. Had she not too easily given in to the demands of the villain to marry him, while she let him, her own husband, know how incredibly clever the plan of his doppelganger was? “Don“t you see, Barry? Zoom has been planning this for months”¦”“ To set his scheme in motion, The Reverse-Flash had once again impersonated him as Barry Allen as he had done on their wedding day. This time however, Iris had seen past the masquerade. But then again, had Iris not told him, that she felt that he ought to “speed Barry Allen up a bit”“? In effect letting him know, that plain old Barry no longer was enough for her, that she wanted to see him become a changed man like the husband of one of her friends, that in fact she preferred a different him. At this moment, while the world of the future and his marriage were falling apart around him, he had to face the reality of their relationship. What if she had pretended not to know that this was not the real Barry Allen like she had pretended not to know his dual identity before he was ready to tell? What if she liked the Reverse-Flash“s pretend version of himself more? And what if the roles were reversed, and he was the villain in this story for a change? Would she like him more then? Not a slowpoke, not ambitionless, good old Barry, but an aggressive pursuer like Reverse-Flash was! On the cover to the issue we see this power-fantasy of Barry“s play out. While Iris has no say in the matter once again, and The Reverse-Flash reminding him that he had to let Iris go or Earth would surely die, he did and said the surprising thing: He refused to be Barry Allen any longer, slow and absent-minded Barry. And he even rejected his hero-persona in the process. With a newly found confidence clearly visible on his half-concealed face, on the cover for The Flash No. 237 (1975), readers saw the superhero proudly and utterly selfishly proclaim: “I don“t care! My wife is coming with me!”“ This new Flash would not be played for a fool this easily again. Even the splash page seemed to confirm that he was a changed man, that he“d had enough. Like on the cover Iris is again caught between the two Flashes while the men are tugging very violently on her arms, each of them about to go into a different direction at superspeed, seemingly oblivious to how they were literally tearing her apart, or simply not caring enough. “Let go of your wife, Flash!”“, demanded the man from the future who had stolen his face not once, but twice before. “Your very touch is destroying the world!”“ And his wife Iris, wordless no longer, only seemed to confirm his worst fears: “Reverse-Flash is right, Darling! From now on I“m his, not yours!”“ This time around, the Scarlet Speedster remained silent. But he would not relent his grip on Iris“ arm either. On the splash page, while Professor Zoom held Iris in the grip of both hands, The Flash had just closed the fingers of his right hand around her slender left wrist, the same hand he had raised years ago when he had sworn to reveal his secret identity to her on their wedding day, right before he had mind-wiped her, and only to forget his promise on their big day. But on the cover a much more violent struggle was on display. The super-villain had even dared to dress his wife Iris in a new outfit. He had decked her out in a long-sleeved, gold-colored dress, high heel shoes and a bridal veil. And as if to openly meet the fantasies of his rival, or that of the creators or the readers, the pleated skirt of her dress, designated to be a wedding dress of a sexy future, was very short like the mini dresses she had worn at the end of the 1960s, but hadn“t put on in a long time. It almost felt like the man from the future had stolen Iris not from the present she shared with Barry, but from a past to which he only had access via his cosmic treadmill, a past from which he and she had settled into a dull everyday life meanwhile. Maybe this was the reason why on the cover he is seen with both hands tightly around one of her arms as if not only to tear her away from his evil twin who had taken hold of her very brutally, but to bring this version of a younger Iris from the past into their present. And was she not but a “prize”“, this “beautiful woman”“ as the narrator of the story told readers? A prize he had to fight over! In the end, The Flash did not turn into villain, but he came up with a last second solution like he always had and like readers knew he would. Yet readers had witnessed the risk he was willing to take to prevent his arch-nemesis or any rival for that matter, from taking Iris away from him by trick or by force. All this was but writer Cary Bates foreshadowing of what was in store for the couple. We had seen how jealous Barry could get and how possessive, but we had yet to see what happened were Iris simply to pack her bags. What if she straight up left him? How would The Flash react then? Readers were soon to find out!
When, while talking in his sleep on their wedding night, Barry subconsciously revealed to his bride that he was The Flash, his racing mind was on a man called Professor Zoom. Barry was having a nightmare. Once he had found the courage, or he trusted her enough, and he told Iris what she already knew, that he was The Flash, Barry would also reveal to her, that the villain from the future had impersonated him on their wedding day, that in fact she had almost married an imposter. When she“d met this man again, who also went by the name Reverse-Flash, he had once again worn the face of her husband. But by that time, she knew her husband well enough not to be fooled again by the villain (The Flash No. 233, 1975), like she had been on the most important day in her life. But then, once he stood exposed, Reverse-Flash did something to her which at that time had seemed like an attempt on her life. Instead, the man from a future that was further ahead than the future she was born into, had changed her so that her husband could no longer touch her. The idea was, that she would marry him, like she had almost done when the villain had worn Barry“s face for the first time. The difference being of course, that now she knew exactly that it was him to whom she would be married to. She did not have this knowledge when The Reverse-Flash had pretended to be Barry on their wedding day. But once Barry had told her about those events, did she not play this out in her mind, this what-if scenario of what her life would have been like had her intended husband not been able to stop the vile villain who had stranded him in the future? Like readers could witness in a comic book that was being promoted in a house-ad in The Flash No. 182 (1968), Lois Lane No. 86 (which for this one issue cleverly dropped the “Superman“s Girl Friend”“ from its title). This 80-pages giant-size book, exclusively consisting of reprint material, allowed readers to (re-)experience “Lois“ schemes and dreams to marry Superman!”“ with several stories that presented alternatives paths in the character“s lives not taken in what was considered the continuity of the DC Universe. But this was during this brief, wonderful period when she and her husband had shared adventures together, Barry in his sleek red uniform and she in her short, fashionable mini dresses. Their life seemed perfect then. But this was then, and in the meantime, their marriage had become routine like the marriages of many other couples, and there were no adventures to be had anymore, at least not where she was concerned, there weren“t. The adventures had ended when in issue No. 186 (1969), then under the pen of a young Mike Friedrich, they were sleeping in separate beds. Years later, like earlier, writers would show them sharing a bed. They were seen together, and yet they were apart, each of them wrapped into their own thoughts and dreams. When Reverse-Flash took control of her, her husband“s dark twin from the future, this came at a time in her marriage when she no longer was used to being a part of Barry“s adventures as The Flash. Here was this aggressive pursuer who she had almost married, unbeknownst to her, who had wanted to kill her, and who now wanted to marry her, again, and who now decided what she should look like. What kind of object was she? Was she a pawn or was she desired, even loved? But then again, the way he dressed her brought back her memories to that adventurous time, when things had seemed so easy. When marriage was easy. Maybe it had never been easy, but there was a spark of excitement. She had felt like an equal to her husband back then. He had let her in on his thoughts. Yet while his evil doppelganger desired her, Barry was now dreaming of another woman. Secretly, once again, she must have imagined what her life would be like with a different path taken, when the phone rang in the dead of night and her first thought was that this must be this other woman, the woman from his past he was dreaming about. Maybe this was the moment when she realized that she was no longer desired by her own husband like Captain Cold had desired her when they all were much younger. Or like the Reverse-Flash did, who forced her to wear the type of clothes that all but reminded her of what it was like when men paid attention to her. Why had Barry come to the future to rescue her? Was it because of her? Or was it because as a superhero he would not simply let the villain win his prize? She could not even say.
The cover to The Flash No. 261 (1978) must have come as a shock to readers. This was Cary Bates telling us that the second act of the drama he had planned was about to begin. Like with the cover to No. 237, Iris is again caught between The Flash and second man. This time, his rival has one arm wrapped around her waist. He is very large, high up in the air, with Iris at his side, and he“s beyond The Flash“s reach. But this was not a new super-villain as Barry“s expressed thoughts let us know. And once again, like he had in his most recent confrontation with The Reverse-Flash, Barry acted extremely selfish: “I don“t care if The Ringmaster is the new super-hero in town”¦ he won“t get away with stealing my wife!”“ And speaking of rings, cover artists Al Milgrom and Jack Abel even show us Iris“ wedding band on her ring finger, while she is wearing a short skirt and boots, as if to further validate Barry“s claim to her and to simultaneously ascribe a sinister motive to this new superhero. A blurb in huge letters on the cover asks readers: “Can you guess the sensational secret behind The Ringmaster?”“ This was not the first time a new superhero had come to Central City. When The Elongated Man first appeared (The Flash No. 112, 1960), The Flash immediately considered him a rival. Not only this, but The Whiz Wizard suspected that there was a dark, ulterior motive behind the new hero“s heroic deeds. And The Scarlet Speedster“s suspicion seemed very plausible. That The Elongated Man was wearing a costume that was purple did lend additional credence to The Flash“s conclusion. Purple was a color for a super-villain, every reader knew this. Unless nobody had clued The Elongated Man in on this, did this not prove, beyond any doubt, that he was a villain? As readers followed The Flash“s reasoning, like he, they were quickly led to belief that The Elongated Man indeed was a criminal. But as it turned out, it was The Sultan of Speed who had ample motive to suspect, to even hope, that this was the case. If The Elongated Man was the villain he clearly seemed to be, and were to be revealed as such, this interloper would no longer be able to steal the spotlight from Central City“s true hero. But it was all a big misunderstanding, and not only was The Elongated Man a hero, but both heroes became good friends. Yet it is easy to see why The Flash had deluded himself into thinking this. Why share the honor of being voted man of the year, when a year prior, this award had solely gone to you? Now once again, we saw a superhero stealing a prize from our hero. Clearly, like the cover blurb seemed designed to encourage us to, we were suspicious. But then again, The Ringmaster did not look as goofy and non-threatening as The Elongated Man had, and even he had turned out to be a superhero. Clad in a skin-tight, dark-blue costume, this new hero had a ripped, muscular body, and he was fiercely handsome with a full head of brown hair. Had he not chosen a life of fighting crime, you could imagine him on the dancefloor of a local disco. And despite his gimmick, brightly gleaming, golden rings of which he was wearing at least hundreds on each finger, while riding on a gigantic golden ring suspended high up in the air, he was virile and all-manly. Potent even. Like a hero in a supermarket romance novel. And once the story started, we see him succeed where The Scarlet Speedster spectacularly and pathetically is seen failing, namely in apprehending The Golden Glider, the villainess who had figured out the secret identity of our hero. Looking slightly less glamorous and more callous even, hardened under the inks of Frank Giacoia, not only had she yet again made a fool out of The Flash. In his civilian identity, Barry was made to watch the footage of her capture, expertly handled by this new superhero. And together with the Captain of Police and other male police officers, he witnessed what to these men, and himself, must have seemed like an incredibly intoxicating wish fulfillment. The impossibly gorgeous blonde villainess, seen in her golden, mini-skirted costume and knee-high, high-heeled go-go boots, was not just defeated by the new hero of their city. As if to demean the beautiful woman and to demonstrate her helplessness to the viewers of the film of her arrest, and by extension, to the readers of this comic, The Ringmaster used five of his rings, which expanded and then tightened around her as they absorbed her body heat. The Ringmaster seemed like a modern Hercules performing one of his twelve labors, not by robbing the magic girdle from the body of Hippolyta, the Queen of the fabled Amazons, de facto enslaving the whole tribe of noble warrior women, but by fulfilling a fantasy of male dominance in front of everybody who cared to watch. Clearly excited by this display of kinky bondage, the Captain quickly informed his men: “The debt we owe The Flash for his help all these years can“t be measured, but nobody“s infallible. Let“s face it”¦ The Ringmaster captured The Golden Glider where The Flash failed!”“ After such a speech, left to his own thoughts, a downtrodden Barry had to reassert his value: “My assets as a crime-fighter are so much more versatile than his, there“s no comparison! Every molecule of my body is charged with the super-speed I command at will in my fight against criminals! All he“s got going for him is a lot of gall and a few gimmicked-up rings!”“ But then again, how did his assets stack up where his wife was concerned?
And speaking of Iris, we next see her interviewing The Ringmaster with a photographer from her paper standing by. And she is very impressed. Especially with how he had dealt with The Golden Glider. Asked to give her another demonstration of just how totally awesome he is, The Ringmaster is happy to oblige. He immediately involves Iris in this performance of his superpowers. And unlike Barry, who put so little trust in his wife, Iris is on board with this as we learn from her thoughts: “There is something about him I feel compelled to trust!”“ And just like that, without much hesitation, on his behest, Iris puts herself in harm“s way only to be rescued by the new superhero. Iris allows him to fulfill the ultimate hero fantasy. He gets to save a damsel in distress, a pretty female reporter no less. The Flash, who happens to be on site, gets what“s going on right away: “Why, that lowdown skunk of a Ringmaster is trying to steal my wife!”“ But then, at the end of the issue came the big reveal: of course, all this was part of Golden Glider“s plan. With the cover to the next issue alone, there could be no doubt who was in control. Dramatically rendered by Rich Buckler with inks by Dick Giordano, The Flash is seen in mid-air, but not riding the air waves like The Ringmaster had on the previous issue“s cover, but thrown off a roof by the blonde villain, while Iris and the new hero of Central City could be seen below on the street towards The Whiz Wizard was falling feet first. And of course, the irresistible villainess would not let the opportunity pass without taunting the failing, and as you were, falling hero: “Look, Flash”¦ it“s your wife running off with that new super-hero, The Ringmaster!”“ And this time around, the big cover blurb asked: “Has The Golden Glider brought about The Flash“s final fling?”“ Pun very much intended, and wide-eyed spectators standing by. And behind the cover readers witnessed this sordid, heartbreaking tableau expertly laid-out by Bates and artist Irv Novick. As he had seemingly humiliated The Golden Glider when he had not only captured her, but he had bound her, The Ringmaster now denigrated The Scarlet Speedster as well. On the splash page, he was seen riding in the air with the wife of our hero in his arms, who cooed “Flash? Flash who?”“, while the cuckolded Flash was a tiny figure that was running on the pavement beneath their feet, totally insignificant and made impotent. “There goes my wife running away”¦ flying off”¦ with The Ringmaster!”“ And speaking of the villainess: in what normally only The Joker or Lex Luthor (or on the Marvel side of things, let“s say Magneto) would be able to pull off, the statuesque blonde only needs a single ice cube to walk (or ice skate) out of prison. And once again, The Flash is unable to catch her. Bates seems ahead of the curve in how he shows how quickly the media turns on the erstwhile superhero who had his own museum, and seemingly, this is where he belongs. Even more shocking, by the end of the issue, readers witnessed the impossible: Iris packed her bags and left Barry! The cover for issue No. 263 looked like cover artists Joe Stanton and Frank Giacoia were using some bizarre image duplicator. Once again, The Flash was pulling violently on the arm of a woman like he had done on the cover for issue No. 237 (that one by Ernie Chan), with another man pulling on the chain he had her in. But this time, this woman was not his wife, but The Golden Glider, and this time for sure, The Scarlet Speedster was cast in the role of the villain. He apparently had lost his mind since he was protecting the cold-hearted ice princess from none other than The Ringmaster (or he was trying at least). And while this series had had some creepy covers that depicted all sorts of weird transformations that had seemingly befallen The Crimson Comet, one such cover had showed The Flash with a giant head, another even presented him as a heap of bones clad in the tattered remains of his famous outfit, none of these had prepared readers for what they saw on the splash page of the issue: the hero reduced to a feeble old man who depended on a walking cane. To add insult to injury, The Ringmaster and his own wife were ever so gently guiding him towards a tall building, which was none-discretely marked as “Old Age Home for Super-Heroes”“. This was of course a nightmare Barry was having. But the true nightmare appeared on his TV screen in form of a cheery and upbeat news anchor who happily related the hero“s numerous failed attempts at catching the villainess, like some Greek chorus put in place to let everyone catch up (especially readers who had not read the previous two issues). But then The Golden Glider appeared on his screen, cutting in on his TV feed only to replay to him scenes from his marriage falling apart she had video-taped. She (and Cary Bates) were turning the screw even tighter by the minute. Shock followed shock as readers next saw a shirtless and mask-less Ringmaster, who was a total hunk, getting very cozy with Iris. Wouldn“t you know it, this real-life dream from a romance novel was a writer. Then came the biggest surprise. Of course, the villainess was responsible for the creation of The Ringmaster (as we had seen in the previous issue) and of course we“d long suspected, that she not only had put this poor guy under her spell, but Mrs. Allen as well. But even now, The Golden Glider deliciously (and perversely) observed the two hypnotized love-birds close-up while they, oblivious to her presence in the very same room, were making out. This was voyeurism brought to you by Cary Bates in a comic book. Obviously, by that time, the good folks responsible for upholding the standards of the Comics Code were not paying that much attention any more. And it did not stop there. All this was intended to drive Barry Allen not only slowly mad with his wife apparently, and quite literally, two-timing him, but into such a state in which he was willing to murder his own wife!
Unfortunately, Bates didn“t stick the landing with his unique story. Maybe he had planned for a different way for this narrative to play out (with his editor asking him to come to a conclusion, but fast, lest these very adult-leaning themes and situations got too far out of hand). In any case, his conclusion feels over-convoluted to put it mildly. Matters were not helped in that Bates had to settle for a guest artist (read: fill-in artist) for this one issue. An artist whose style couldn“t be any further away from Novick“s sketchy, yet highly naturalistic renderings. Kurt Schaffenberger, who in 1961 saw one his drawings of Superman (from an issue he did for Superman“s Girl Friend Lois Lane) co-opted by a young Andy Warhol, was four years younger than Novick, yet at the end of the 1970s, his art felt like a throwback to better times. But Barry and Iris“ relationship had never looked this sugar-sweet. Or this innocent. The contrast was jarring. Yet Bates found a way to let this near-perfect image flicker, as if readers were watching some old movie on a TV with a nearly worn out light tube, or like a boom microphone left in the shot. The illusion that this was comic book that had travelled the entire way from the early 1960s when DC Comics had had a house style that was so perfect and clean that it was overwhelming in the boredom and uneventfulness it exuded, or simply a reprint issue from that era, was getting corrupted by one panel alone. As if these characters had a life of their own, or as if the villainess specifically had simply found a way to reject this gleaming, competent art style and the world it represented. Her world was that of desire. Of sweat, of disco, of adultery, of kink and especially of revenge. While men might think, they had power over her with their knowing glances, she simply made men her toys, to be used in ways she wanted. Thus amidst all this cartoony, visual sugar in which Bates resolved all the threads of his carefully laid plot to a perfect happy ending in which The Golden Glider is defeated and the status quo in Barry and Iris relationship is re-affirmed, we see this one lurid image: the blonde ice princess straddling the man she had made into a superhero by robbing him of his free will, her derriere buried deep into his lap, one of her long, naked legs slightly raised up, his hand stroking her upper thigh. She was in control, of the narrative inside this comic book and she let readers know just that. Like Iris with her wedding band, The Golden Glider had allowed herself to get bound by a man with his rings. But for her, it was part of a show. And then again, that Iris had fallen so easily under the spell of The Ringmaster, and that Barry had mistrusted her once again so quickly, what did this say about the state of their marriage? What about Barry? Would he later talk about this in his sleep? And would she want to hear it? Would she want to listen? Like before when he had revealed his secret identity to her, or when he was talking about the love of his younger days. It seemed especially cruel that under Schaffenberger“s pencils she looked like a housewife wearing some hand me downs, the frumpiest clothes imaginable. Next to this golden cosplayer, this Vegas showgirl, with her big blonde hair and her bare legs, she was back in the late 1950s, but less confident so, like the gloves she had worn back then and which no longer were modern. Inadvertently, with Schaffenberger“s rendition of Iris, the final act for this couple had begun quicker than maybe Bates himself had planned. Even though readers had no way of knowing, Bates had broken Iris. First in spirit. Breaking her soul and breaking her body would come next. Come back in a week for the conclusion, to find out what happens when a superhero is too late. Not once, but twice. But be warned now: there won“t be a happy ending.
Author Profile
Chris Buse (RIP)
A comic book reader since 1972. When he is not reading or writing about the books he loves or is listening to The Twilight Sad, you can find Chris at his consulting company in Germany... drinking damn good coffee. Also a proud member of the ICC (International Comics Collective) Podcast with Al Mega and Dave Elliott.
