"THE HERO WHO COULDN'T KEEP UP“ WHAT THE FLASH TEACHES US ABOUT LOSS

The joke with The Silver Age Flash was that he was always late. He was the Fastest Man Alive, the Scarlet Speedster, the Monarch of Motion. Yet in his civilian identity as police scientist, Barry Allen was always late. To every appointment. And he showed up late to every date with his fiancÃ©e Iris West. This was the point of contention between the couple for the entire time of their courtship. And even after, once the two got married to each other. But this was not the only flaw in their relationship. Barry had spied on Iris, before they were married and even after. He did not trust her. He did not trust her with his dual identity, not at first anyway, and he did not trust her faithfulness. Especially not at a point in time when hooking up with another partner, even though you were married, seemed so very easy. Iris had already let him know, on numerous occasions, that he wasn“t enough, that she thought that he wasn“t his best. She had enrolled Barry in a motivation class against his will once, and during the hangover period of the early 1970s, she wanted him to take up amateur acting to become a changed man. But what if this still wasn“t enough? Whenever she had admonished him for being late, before she knew his secret, Iris had always been very vocal about her assessment that, in her eyes, he was slow and lacked energy. That he was lazy and ambitionless. But with a carefully hidden smirk, in an aside to us, the readers, The Sultan of Speed had let us know that she didn“t really know him, that of course this was not who he really was. However, once Iris was in on his dual identity and the thrill of the few adventures they had had together, and the turn on of him spying on her when, as a reporter and in a tiny tennis outfit, she was meeting a he-man of a tennis pro, had worn off, what else was left there for his attractive wife to discover in him?

A few years into their marriage, Barry might still remember how easily he had almost been replaced at the time when she was his fiancÃ©e. First, in his civilian identity as police scientist, by another scientist, Dr. Wiley Summers, a college buddy of his even, in whom Iris quickly showed an interest. As the Flash, Barry, unbeknownst to Iris, had spied on her and her new beau when they were out on a date, and soon he won back her favors. But even in his superhero alter ego, he had learned, there was always a chance that he could lose her affection at the drop of a hat. When a new hero had showed up in Central City, a guy who went by the name The Elongated Man, all the way back in The Flash No. 112 (1960), this new protector of his city immediately proved so very popular with everybody, that Iris, who at that time had not known that he was The Flash, had asked him to let The Whiz Wizard know: “”¦ if you see your friend Flash would you pass on a friendly warning to him from me?… Tell him he may not win the Man of the Year Award this year! The Elongated Man is a strong contender and could beat him out for the honor!”“ In the end, it had all worked out and he and the new hero not only shared the honor, this was The Silver Age after all, but became good friends. But what about other rivals who wanted to replace him as the man at Iris“ side, both in his role as superhero and as her husband? The Reverse-Flash came to mind, a man from the far future who was jealous of his exploits as a superhero and who wanted to see him and all that made up his world perverted. And that included Iris of course. Not only had the villain managed to gain the exact superpowers he possessed, but in a bizarre twist, he had taken on his identity as police scientist Barry Allen, wearing his face beneath the mask of the outfit that mirrored his own, except with the colors reversed. Pretending to be him, The Reverse-Flash had almost married Iris in his stead. Even she had been fooled by his act. Even though Barry had been able to show up in time and beat the villain who was also known as Professor Zoom, this event clearly still haunted him during the first night he and Iris had spent as husband and wife, as we learn in a flashback in The Flash No. 249 (1977), the first time we saw the moment in which she found out his secret identity, since Barry was talking in his sleep. The Yellow Flash had returned several times since then to mess with him. He had nearly killed Barry and he had nearly killed Iris. Then the villain came back to steal her from him and to force her to marry him. It was a diabolical plan the villain had come up with. If The Flash even so much as touched her, this would trigger a chain reaction set to wipe-out Earth throughout time. To prevent this from happening, and to find a way how to lift this curse, The Flash“s arch-nemesis, who hailed from the 25th century, had placed on her, two heroes from Earth-2 abducted Iris. For a second time in their marriage, The Flash had come home to find himself alone. The first time she had gone missing, she was being pulled towards the time she was born into, the future. He had followed her. This time however, it seemed that she had left him without so much of a word. On a hunch and motivated by sheer desperation, Barry once again travelled to the time in the future he had found her in before and from which she had been sent as a baby to our time, the 30th century. Once again reunited with his wife, The Flash learned that he had doomed Earth itself. Just by touching her, he had given the ultimate bargaining chip to the villain. Only if Iris agreed to marry him, The Reverse-Flash would save Earth from assured destruction. Barry had to make a choice. Either he acted as the hero he was supposed to be, allowing his nemesis to be the hero who saved Earth from the weapon of mass destruction he himself had turned her into, de facto letting Iris marry his rival as she“d offered so the villain would reverse the chain-reaction her husband had unintentionally caused. Or he became a villain himself, who selfishly would bring about the destruction of Earth only to be with his wife in the planet“s final moments. The Reverse-Flash had in effect rendered The Flash impotent, as even his father-in-law from the future seemed to confirm: “I know how you must feel, son, but you did all you could!”“ (The Flash No. 237, 1975). Even Iris“ biological father had so little confidence in him, that he was convinced, that Barry wouldn“t be able to outrun his opponent this time. The truth seemed like one of those Flash Facts that ran in the earlier issues of the series to let the readers of this comic learn about the laws of physics in a fun way. Like with Newton“s laws of motion, science was a constant Barry could not violate. But as The Flash, Barry did find a way to negate the effect, and to save the Earth with only a few seconds to spare. “Plenty of time for me…”“, as The Flash told Iris when he reunited with her.

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!

But the pendulum also swung the other way. While Iris hid her insecurities well, by the end of the 1970s, readers found out that she was not free from jealousy either. The short mini dresses artist Ross Andru had depicted her in, during that first honeymoon period in the hip and happening late 1960s, and that impossibly radiant beauty she had possessed when Gil Kane and Vince Colletta were her stylists seemed gone. Like with many other couples, maybe they had become too similar, too. Back when she was dating Barry without her knowing that secretly he was The Scarlet Speedster, the superhero had seemed very exciting and special, and every so often she“d found herself comparing him to Barry, who was ordinary, very middle of the road and so slow. Back then, she was very young and stylish. Yet in her pencil skirts and wearing gloves, outfits that were the high point of fashion for a career woman, her attire, her entire look meant business and she was in control. Of who she was and what the man at her side was supposed to be like. But since she“d learned his secret, even The Flash seemed less special. Sure, he was superfast and his body was lean and athletic, but he was also a science geek. And his friends were nerds like him. There was Ray Palmer, another scientist and not really a real man, but an incredibly shrinking man, The Atom. And there was The Elongated Man with whom The Whiz Wizard once shared the Man of the Year Award. How times had changed and how naÃ¯ve they all had been. The Elongated Man was a joke really. A pseudo-intellectual, a wannabe greatest detective. Had Barry and his friends not slowed them down? Both of them, as a couple? Even Clark Kent had long moved on from being a reporter, invisible behind a by-line, to a news anchor, seen by millions of viewers on their TV screens every night. And now, that she was on Barry“s level, was she still enough for him? These might have been Iris“ thoughts when once again, in The Flash No. 249 (1977), Barry was talking in his sleep. But he wasn“t dreaming of a fight with one of his enemies, but of another woman. And not any woman, but the love of his youth who had re-entered his life, and Iris“ life for that matter, and who was a movie star by now. Iris herself had wanted Barry “to speed up”“ his personality, to be a different man. Barry wanted this woman to change as well. Talking in his sleep, Barry once again revealed a secret to her. And like he had done so often in his sleep, re-shaping one of the many battles he had fought as The Flash by giving it context and words, he would also try to cast Daphne, the actress, into a role that better fit his needs. Not as a Hollywood star, but as her younger self. Like with the theater of war his mind played out for her by moving his vocal cords free from permission, Iris was a witness to the fantasies his busy thoughts made audible to her: “Try, Daphne try! Think back, try to remember the great times we had together!”“ Iris wasn“t too pleased: “How much more of this is a good wife supposed to take? All I“ve been hearing around here is Daphne Dean”¦!”“ And was Iris not reminded of the happier times when she was younger and unmarried? Back then, even a villain like Captain Cold had professed his love to her. And what“s more, he even wanted to marry her: “Iris”¦ I love you and want you to marry me! I“ll do anything to make you happy!”“ (The Flash 114, 1960). Of course, she had had no intention to do so. But still, what a let-down it was, when only a short while later she visited the prison cell of the escaped criminal, only to find out to her dismay, that the walls of his confinement were not adorned with pictures of herself, but with those of a different woman. And to further add insult to her vanity, this person was not only very pretty and clearly younger looking than she was, but in these photos, the woman presented herself as far more glamorous and less conservative than she did: “Captain Cold is certainly the fickle type! On a previous occasion when he escaped from jail he came to my apartment and swore eternal love for me! But now it“s clear that he“s forgotten me and has his newest heartthrob the dancer known as Miss Twist!”“ (The Flash No. 134, 1963). Iris related this during a date with Barry, with little to no regard to how he might feel about the villain“s infatuation with his fiancÃ©e. However, when this criminal, who had escaped from prison again, was sighted, Barry simply suggested that perhaps she may want to get on the case as a reporter immediately. Naively, she had viewed this as a promising development in their relationship: “How thoughtful Barry has become! The way he thinks not of himself”¦ but of my interests is really touching!”“ If only she could have known, that back then his thoughts were not on her or her interests, but this was all pretense to get rid of her so he could do his superhero thing: “As soon as she gets out of sight, I“m going to move at super-speed!”“ But now she did know. Not only was she no longer on Captain Cold“s mind, but Barry had only pretended to be looking out for her best interest. It was another of his excuses. He had wanted to change into his costume. He tricked her into thinking that it was ok that she did her thing, he was fine with her leaving. A few years later, Iris was more than ready to do just that. Not for her own selfish reasons, but because the fate of the world depended on it. Because his greatest rival had found a way to outsmart The Flash.

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

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.