It's me again, that person, and I'm going to talk about this man again.
Music Meister, specifically the one seen in the Speed Force comics, because goddamn it, this man is the most interesting character in it.
Something I have to mention right of the bat:
Music Meister is a massive control freak. You put him in charge of a project and he will take over completely. If he sees an opportunity, he's going to go get things rolling because he wants it to and if it crashes, it's because he's determined the project is no longer viable.
He loves control and the type of control he's able to exert on people is honestly extreme and absolute.
The DC universe is lucky he's not remotely interested in world domination and JUST wants to start musicals to make people steal for him.
Personally I take his mind control powers be telepathic in nature (this might be blindingly obvious and you're likely going "Well yes duh?", but I've never seen it mentioned ANYWHERE?)
In my mind, he's a telepath, but he's only able to connect to people when he sings high enough. To me, that explains how he's able to what he does. It might not obvious with the original Meister, but I'm certain it applies to Speed Force Meister.
That man is in your brain and he can do everything to it.
Just to touch on the TB&TB cartoon, Meister's level of control is shown to be absolute and limit of people he can control at the same time is realistically, in the billions.
The only downside his powers has, is it seems likely his mobility becomes limited once he's in control of that many people. The power suit he wears isn't for show, it's likely to help him move?
Now, where do we start?
Oh, I know.
This man is RIDICULOUS, I don't know if you noticed? This the scientists he has Mas y Menos abduct. They're really stylish, the colors are clean, cool. Black, white and red, you can't go wrong with these. 10/10.
They're also wearing headphones with cat ears. Presumably because Meister has to look at them the whole day and that makes them adorable to him.
I wouldn't be surprised if he calls them his "little kittens".
This actually brings up a few other points:
Mas y Menos and Superboy's suits and the uniforms, they are Meister's creations, not Mad Mod's despite the fact he's a designer.
Mod seems to be in charge of how their day-to-day clothes look and so on. I imagine Meister would start running after him while making aggressive cello noises if he starts messing Mas' suit.
Creating/manipulating clothes is a subset of Meister's powers. The TB&TB Meister has this power too and is able to change them at will.
I always thought it's really funny that Meister just even remakes Superboy's jacket in the next issue. Like, the second you stop thinking about the artist drawing this, you have to realize Meister went and MADE that for him.
Just imagine them getting back to the HQ? Fiddle says he wants to humiliate whoever Meister captures, but he never gets to because Meister is fussing over Superboy and his jacket.
(Also, what are Lex and Superman doing? Meister basically took control of him on live tv. Batman, Meister is in charge of music app, STOP HIM.)
Another point is Symphonee's logo.
Symphonee was originally Fiddler's idea. We see him build it, we see him teach himself how to build apps. He meets Mod on the during a Stagg course and they join forces. It's cute, we see them working together!
We also see Symphonee's logo getting made.
Now, we see it's Mod who designs it.
The thing is, Symphonee's logo looks just like Meister's symbol. It's what his powers look like when they manifest.
Now, if Symphonee was Meister's idea, there wouldn't be anything really weird about this. But it's Fiddler's. Fiddler thought up the app. Mod supposedly designed the logo, by himself.
Mod is friends with Meister, as he says later in a flashback, so he could just be thinking music logo=music note.
I personally think Meister and Mod are lairmates and he's likely sitting in on all their chats, likely not THAT interested in it and just gives Mod an idea.
He's not interested until Mod mentions the one thing thing Meister loves more than music and mind control.
Money.
(Do you think he like the letter m too? Does he get kick out of alliteration? Is that why he likes Mod? Music Meister, Mad Mod?)
Most of the Meister's we've seen so far love money.
TB&TB Meister: Temporarily takes over the world to make the world's biggest musical so he can make the world's population steal for him.
Batwheels' Meister: Robbing a bank. (And stealing voices.)
Speed Force Meister: In charge of an music app that makes money.
Pride Meister: I think he really just wants to perform Phantom of the Opera, but he would most likely rob all the rich people there.
Harley Quinn's Meister: I don't know anything about him, besides the fact he's a very aggressive therapist, BUT I need to point out the fact wears red, a color Meisters' REALLY like and appears fond of money, going by the gold chain. (And he still has shades!)
Anyway.
MONEY. Meister loves money. That's actually what makes him so odd. He LOVES money. That's what brings him fully into Symphonee. We see how they all meet in the Key Code club in a flashback.
But here's the thing.
Both Meister and Mod come off as rather manipulative here. Mod defers to Fiddler as the boss while Meister just announces Fiddler is the CEO.
This might not set off alarm bells, but it should. He's not really deferring to Fiddler as the leader. He is giving Fiddler that position because Meister already considers himself the leader of Symphonee.
It has his symbol after all. If Batman showed up and saw it, he'd bypass Fiddler completely and go right for Meister, because clearly, this all Meister's doing.
I've mentioned this elsewhere, but I'd worried if Meister's going LA LA LA at me. Meister is likely pushing Fiddler to through with Symphonee here be HE wants part of the money it brings in.
Fiddler is the one who first mentions injecting his own hypnosis powers into the app, but Meister follows it up instantly and positions himself as the one in charge of brainwashing people, neatly pushing Fiddler's own powers out of the way.
"Don't worry about that. I'll take care of everything. I'll take charge of everything. Everything. You just look nice and stand in front of the cameras..."
And Mod is in on this. I think Meister and Mod are genuinely very good friends.
To me, the background of this panel reads as "Yes, mate! I see what you're doing and I agree. Let's hijack this operation!"
Something the comic likes to do is position Meister behind Fiddler because he's the actual mastermind behind everything and is basically in charge of Symphonee.
He's usurping everything Fiddler has, even his color and style.
The first we actually see of him is, of course, this
It's really similar to Fiddler clothes.
Meister's original colors are dark purple and bright/pale greens. He wears them in the comic before Symphonee starts and after he loses control of Mas y Menos and Superboy (because he sees the project has having reached the end.)
I've said this before, but I can't get over how he's so completely usurping Fiddler's place. He's so fucking diabolical and I love him.
One thing I personally love is most of the comic series goes out of its way to obscure Meister's face and it really does a lot make sure his eyes are seen as little as possible.
And it's really obsessively doing it for the most part. The flashback to the Key Code club really beats you over the head with the idea his face shouldn't really be seen without something obscuring it or his eyes.
And like, he could have worn his shades there, but he's specifically not wearing them. The chibi version of him has shades, but that's the red ones, which go with his green set.
He wears another pair in issue 5-6.
We don't see TB&TB Meister's eyes all and I like to think it's just one of those "things" now where his eyes have to remain unseen.
Pride Meister funnily enough has a panel where his eyes fully visible, but his mouth is obscured. (I'll never get over how fucking furious he looks, I love him.)
On a side note, I think Speed Force Meister has such an odd smile? It's very flat and sinister.
Something I've mentioned both here and elsewhere is Meister instantly goes 'Weeeell that was nice run' after he loses control of Mas y Menos and Superboy. He goes back to his original colors right away.
I like to imagine Mod having to stop him and has him by his coat tails and is just screaming 'think of the money! We can still get the money!' while dragging him backwards. Meanwhile, Meister's playing Subnautica's "Abandon Ship" at full volume. To him this is over.
Funny enough, it is Mod who eventually says they're abandoning Symphonee and Fiddler in the end.
I love this comic. Ignore the super teenagers. It's all really about poor old Fiddler trying to prove himself and getting betrayed by his two friends who are most likely villainous soulmates.
My brother and I recently bought all of the DC Comics Who's Who issues that contain Flash characters in them (except for the ones with Abra Kadabra and Thinker, who I somehow forgot about). These issues were published between 1985 and 1987, and they provide a very interesting snapshot into how the characters were viewed around the time of Crisis on Infinite Earths.
As such, I decided to post the relevant Flash entries and give some of my own commentary.
The most interesting thing about Captain Boomerang's entry, at least as far as I'm concerned, is that it's the first time that we see the name "Ian Harkness" attached to Digger's father. Prior to this point, Digger's dad (who had only appeared once, in Flash vol. 1 #227) had been referred to solely as "Pop" (by Digger) or as "Aussie Green" (by the narrator). Since "George Green" was the alias Digger used to land the Captain Boomerang job at Wiggins' Toys, I think that Cary Bates forgot that Digger's last name had been established to be Harkness, and that his father's last name should therefore have been Harkness as well. As such, I suspect that the writer of this Who's Who entry decided to fix Bates' mistake by giving Aussie Green the more appropriate name of Ian Harkness.
But what's really fascinating about this is that, since this issue was published in 1985, it means that the "Ian Harkness" name predates Suicide Squad #44 (published 1990), the story where Digger's stepfather was called Ian Harkness. I had always previously assumed that Ian Harkness was created for that issue, and that Aussie Green had been retconned out of existence, but it seems that there's an argument to be made that he instead was just given a major personality overhaul, much in the same way that Wally West's father, Bob/Rudolph West, was.
I love that the entry talks about Digger's ability to use his own body as a boomerang, a hilarious feat that only appeared in Flash vol. 1 #227.
The art for Digger was drawn by his original artist, the late, great Carmine Infantino (and Murphy Anderson). I like that it includes Digger shooting the Flash into space on a giant boomerang.
I love the art for Captain Cold's Who's Who entry. Interestingly enough, it was drawn by Bob Smith, rather than by his original artist, Carmine Infantino.
Technically, since this entry is about Alvin, not Albert, his first appearance should probably be listed as Flash #287, since all of the earlier Dr. Alchemy appearances were Albert, not Alvin. But since Showcase #14 was the first appearance of Dr. Alchemy as a costumed identity, I can understand why it was chosen.
I don't think this bio is inaccurate to state that Albert didn't have the ability to telekinetically control the the Philosopher's Stone, since to my knowledge he had not shown that capability up to the point that this issue was published, but for a modern reader it is somewhat odd, since it was established that Albert also had psychic control over the Stone in Flash vol. 2 #40-41 (published 1990), and it was a major part of his powerset during Geoff Johns' run in the early 2000s.
Much like Captain Cold, Alvin isn't being drawn by his original artist, Don Heck. Instead, the art for his entry was done by Mike Vosburg and Dick Giordano.
In speaking of Albert, here's his entry.
Some interesting observations:
Albert is an inch taller and 3 pounds heavier than Alvin. So they wouldn't be physically identical in the costume, as one might assume.
Alvin's parents are identified as Mr. and Mrs. Herman Desmond, a name taken from Flash vol. 1 #288. This is very helpful, as it clarifies that he was the Al born in San Diego, California, and also establishes that Albert was born in Tampa, Florida (as per the backstory given in that issue). Flash #288 states that Albert's parents are Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Desmond, but that was a mistake on writer Cary Bates' part, since in Flash vol. 1 #221, Albert's father was named Peter Desmond. This Who's Who entry correctly identifies his parents by that earlier name, which is a level of ridiculous nerdiness that I can respect.
The claim that the Philosopher's Stone is more powerful than the Element Gun does make sense.
There's also an interesting omission in the entry. In Flash vol. 1 #221, it's made explicit that the Element Gun is at most a conduit for Albert's own natural powers. It doesn't work for the Flash, and Albert is able to use his elemental powers even when the gun isn't in his hand.
I am not surprised to learn that Albert has "little strength in hand-to-hand combat". Nor am I surprised that Alvin is more physically adept than Albert is.
Albert was drawn by his original artist, Carmine Infantino.
At 6'1", Fiddler is a bit taller than I expected. And he is a "vile" and "villainous violinist". I appreciate the Silver Age-esque alliteration.
And the Fiddle Car makes an appearance, both in the text and in the artwork. I love the Fiddle Car. It's so gloriously goofy.
I'm not sure exactly when the Fiddler gained weight, but I guess it's good to know that his diet plan worked out for him.
Artists Sandy Plunkett and Joe Rubinstein did a great job on the main drawing of Fiddler for this entry.
I like that Jay Garrick's name is written in the font that was used for the 1940s All-Flash series, of which he was (unsurprisingly) the leading character.
I actually didn't know that Jay was specifically the head of Keystone Research Laboratories, Inc. I knew that he was a research scientist, but not that his place of work had been specifically named.
Artist Eduardo Berreto did an excellent headshot of Jay, and I like that he included the Fiddler and the Three Dimwits (Winky, Blinky, and Noddy) in the background. That being said, I'm not the biggest fan of the main drawing of Jay here. He looks a bit stiff as he runs.
Barry Allen gets a massive two-page spread. The really interesting thing about this is that, while this issue was published in October 1985, after Barry's series had ended, it was published just before Crisis on Infinite Earths #8 (November 1985), the issue where Barry actually died. As such, he's still alive here, but will be dead by the time the Who's Who series wraps up in early 1987.
Weirdly, Ira West (Iris' adoptive father) is described as Barry's stepfather-in-law, which doesn't seem quite right.
Carmine Infantino, Barry's original artist, does the art with help from Murphy Anderson. He does a good job, as is expected, and in addition to the headshot and the main drawing, he includes a picture of the accident that gave Barry his speed, headshots of Iris and Wally, a picture of Barry shooting his costume out of his ring, and headshots of a ton of Barry's villains.
The villain headshots are especially amusing in an oddly-drawn way, and include, in the words of @gorogues, "shampoo ad Digger, movie star Kadabra, middle-aged Roscoe, and ate-too-many-Twinkies Sam".
In most modern DC guidebooks, Lisa is listed at 5'5" and 115 pounds. Here, she's listed as 5'5" and 105 pounds. In case it wasn't clear that she was tiny, I guess.
The issue with Golden Glider's entry was published in November of 1985, and, sure enough, it's noted that the Flash is dead in her entry.
The notion that Lisa's gem weapons were adapted from some of the Top's designs isn't something that was explicitly stated in any of her appearances, but it is an interesting idea, and it does make sense as an explanation for how she was able to build them so quickly.
Golden Glider's art is drawn by her original artist, Irv Novick, with assistance from Dick Giordano, and it all looks amazing. I'm especially fond of the drawing of her with Captain Cold in the bottom right.
I love that Gorilla Grodd's occupation is "Would-Be World Conqueror".
It's also nice to get confirmation that the gorillas of Gorilla City have amplified strength even when compared to normal gorillas, as I hadn't been sure if that was the case before now.
Grodd's art was done by his original artist, Carmine Infantino, alongside Bill Sienkiewicz. He doesn't really look like an actual gorilla, but there will basically be no realistic-looking gorillas in Flash comics until the early 1990s.
Also, while Grodd is usually big and muscular (since he's a gorilla and all), he's especially massive here.
I think the most noteworthy thing about Heat Wave's entry is the fact that it highlights a very important fact about him: namely, the fact that he was the second-ever Flash villain, and first Rogue, to reform (specifically, in Flash vol. 1 #312, in 1982). He reformed some two to three years before the Trickster (James) semi-reformed in Blue Devil, and six years before the Pied Piper reformed in Flash vol. 2 #20 (1988)! Most people seem to have forgotten about this nowadays.
Another aspect of Heat Wave's character that seems to have been forgotten is that Heat Wave's gun isn't just a flamethrower....it's also capable of superheating the air around it and effectively firing "beams" of heat.
Oh, and Mick's suit used to be made of asbestos. So if you're wondering how he got terminal cancer in Jeremy Adams' run on the Flash, now you know.
I've always thought that 5'11" seemed short for Heat Wave. For some reason, I can't shake this mental image of him as this 6'6" giant (even though the artists don't usually make him that much taller than everyone else). Maybe it has something to do with Dominic Purcell's portrayal of the character on the CW Flash show...but even then, Purcell is only 6'1" (so tall, but not enormous). Maybe it's just because he's often depicted as the least intelligent Rogue, and unintelligent villains tend to be very large in fiction.
Heat Wave's art was drawn by his original artist, Carmine Infantino, alongside Joe Giella.
Wally's entry claims that his parents have never been named, but his father was named Bob West in Flash vol. 1 #116, so he at least had been given a name by this time. (Post-Crisis, Wally's dad was renamed Rudolph, and his mother was named Mary.)
The issue with Wally's entry was published in February 1986, a month before he would take up the mantle in Crisis on Infinite Earths #12 (March 1986). As such, he's still Kid Flash here, even though Barry is dead.
It's interesting that this entry states that Wally was in high school when he became Kid Flash. This is mostly consistent with what we see in the early Wally stories from the Silver Age (even if the art makes him look 10 to 12 years old rather than 14 or so), but it is a noticeable contrast to William Messner-Loebs' and Mark Waid's takes on Wally's backstory, which both claim that Wally was 10 years old when he became Kid Flash.
Also interesting, and sometimes forgotten about, is the fact that Wally went to college towards the end of his career as Kid Flash, and was even hoping to settle down and start a normal life before Barry died. The events of Crisis on Infinite Earths threw a wrench in these plans. Wally became the Flash full-time, and as a result never finished college.
The art for Wally's entry was done by George Pérez, who unsurprisingly did a very good job.
Mirror Master's entry was published in May 1986, four months after his death in Crisis on Infinite Earths #10 (January 1986). As such, his death is described here. His successor, Evan McCulloch, wouldn't debut for another three years (first appearing in 1989 in Animal Man #8).
The entry underlines Sam's popularity in his day; he's described as "one of the Flash's most formidable and persistent foes", and he is accurately credited with forming the Rogues. This is something that often gets forgotten now that Len has taken the spotlight as the de facto leader of the group.
Sam appears to be the least physically capable of the Rogues described thus far ("only a fair hand-to-hand combatant"), which makes sense, given that he was primarily an inventor.
Something else interesting is that it's only starting in this issue that "the Flash's Rogues Gallery" is listed as a group affiliation for the people on the team. Len, Digger, and Mick weren't listed as members of the group, even though they were definitely part of the team. (Golden Glider is a borderline case. She worked with Len and Roscoe before Crisis, but didn't appear alongside the full group until afterwards.)
Carmine Infantino, Sam's original artist, did the art here, alongside Steve Mitchell. I like the background art, but I'm not a huge fan of the main drawing or the headshot, primarily, I think, because Mirror Master looks way too buff. There are a number of better Infantino drawings of Sam.
In speaking of weirdly buff Rogues, here's the Pied Piper, about two years before he reformed (the issue his entry is in was published in August of 1986, and he reformed in late 1988).
The entry claims that "Henry Darrow" was the alias his parents paid to establish for him, while "Thomas Peterson" was the alias he chose for himself. This is an interesting idea, but it doesn't seem to fully align with the Flash comics of the time. For example, during the interminable Trial of the Flash arc, Digger called the Pied Piper "Henry", which suggests that Piper told gave at least him the "Henry Darrow" name, which wouldn't really make sense if "Thomas Peterson" was his chosen alias. (That being said, Cary Bates' habit of confusing characters' names really doesn't help here. Since he later called Piper "Henry Rathaway" by mistake, it's possible that he was intending to have Digger call Piper by his actual name, but forgot that the actual name in question was Hartley and not Henry.)
I am not surprised that Hartley is a poor hand-to-hand combatant. Even if he had a weird period in the early-to-mid-80s where the art made him look like He-Man's stunt double (and you can still kind of see that here), he's usually drawn as being fairly skinny, and he was also a sheltered rich kid. It makes sense that he wouldn't know how to fight.
Pied Piper is kind of the opposite of Heat Wave in that 5'10" somehow seems too tall for him. There's no good reason for it, but I always picture him as being short and slight. Maybe it's just because he's often so thin?
It's also interesting that Hartley's hair is listed as being blonde here. It swapped between red (as per his first appearance, Flash vol. 1 #106) and blonde all the time before eventually seeming to settle on a light red/strawberry blonde color.
Pied Piper's art was drawn by his original artist, Carmine Infantino, and Dennis Jensen. Like with the Mirror Master, I like the background art, but not the main picture or the headshot. Infantino has drawn better Pipers too.
I did not know that Rag Doll was an "eccentric dancer" in addition to being a contortionist until now.
The fact that he used to work for the circus also makes him one of three Flash villains who can make that claim. The other two are Heat Wave (who worked as a fire eater) and the Trickster (who worked as a hire wire and trapeze artist).
Ragdoll was drawn by Steve Leialoha, and I think his take on the character is really unique and interesting. He makes the character look appropriately bendy and rubbery.
Somehow I never realized that Rainbow Raider's eyes were grey.
I appreciate that the Who's Who entry treats Roy as a legitimate threat. Enjoy it while you can, buddy. It won't last.
Rainbow Raider was drawn by Don Heck, his original artist. I especially love the headshot here.
I think this may be the first time that "Professor Adrian Zoom" was established as an explicit alias. (This name, like Sam and Roscoe's middle names, exists entirely because Cary Bates forgot a character's name.)
Barry, Jay, and Eobard are all 5'11" and 179 pounds, and Wally is 5'10" and 179 pounds. I guess we now know why Eobard is so good at impersonating Barry.
Carmine Infantino, Eobard's original artist, did the art alongside Murphy Anderson. This may be the best Eobard's hair has ever looked (although that's a very low bar to clear). It's also darkly amusing that the two background pictures are of him creeping on Iris and getting killed by Barry.
Rose and Thorn's story is very interesting and tragic, and I really need to track down the issues where it happened so that I can actually read them.
She also seems a lot like a proto-Poison Ivy. They're very similar looking physically, and Rose and Thorn had natural plant-controlling powers long before Poison Ivy did. (Notably, Ivy's Who's Who entry states that her only power is immunity to poison. Her other plant creations are attributed to her scientific acumen, rather than to any inherent abilities.)
Rose and Thorn was drawn by Todd McFarlane.
Moving on to another Jay Garrick villain, we have the Shade, who won't get his natural darkness-controlling powers for another eight years or so. (This issue was published in September 1986, and Shade's natural powers weren't established until he appeared in the Starman series, which began in 1994.) At this point, he was dependent on technology (more specifically, his cane) to control shadows.
At 6'2", Shade is one of the taller Flash villains. He's the same height as Len, but at 170 pounds to Len's 197, he's a lot lighter.
Shade's white hair is probably attributable to two factors. First, he hadn't yet been established to be immortal, and so would have been an older villain during this time period (since he was an enemy of Jay Garrick). Second, and probably more importantly, the Shade actually did have white hair during his first (and only) Golden Age appearance:
Yes, that really is the Shade. He looked different during the Golden Age.
It's interesting that the Shade is stated to have little experience in hand-to-hand combat here, but I suppose that the fact that he's so reliant on his shadows may have something to do with that. (I think I'm surprised because his later appearances in the Starman series gave him a ton of life experience, including experience in at least some athletic endeavors.)
The Shade was drawn by Carmine Infantino and Rick Magyar, who did a great job with him. Both of the background drawings seem to be based on scenes from Flash vol. 1 #151, in which Shade fought both Barry and Jay.
"Presumably the Top's spirit is no longer active on Earth." The issue with Top's Who's Who entry was published in February 1987, almost six years after his last appearance (Flash #303, from November 1981). It would be another three years before he returned in Hawk and Dove Annual #1 (1990), and an additional year before he properly returned to the land of the living by possessing the body of Senator Thomas O'Neil in Hawk and Dove #27-28 (September-October 1991). It took a while, but he did come back!
The entry also states that the Top "could spin at high, but not superhuman, speed". Since we saw the Top spinning fast enough to outpace the Flash and deflect bullets, I have my doubts about the accuracy of this statement.
The fact that Roscoe has blue eyes bothers me irrationally. He really seems like he should have green eyes.
The Top was drawn by his original artist, Carmine Infantino, and Joe Giella. I love the background art, and I like the main image, even if Roscoe is maybe slightly more buff than it seems like he should be. The headshot is one of the vanishingly few drawings of Roscoe without his mask (basically all the others are either of him before he became the Top, or from Flash vol. 1 #219, the only issue where he's out of costume for the majority of the story).
Remember how I said the Top looked too buff? Here's the proof. The Top is 6 feet tall and weighs 179 pounds. The Trickster is also 6 feet tall and also weighs 179 pounds. So either the Top is too buff in his entry, or James is WAY too skinny here. And I'm definitely leaning towards the former, given that having a lot of muscle mass will increase weight.
Trickster's list of known relatives does not mention his mother, who had not only appeared but been named by this point. (She's called Helen in Flash vol. 1 #113, the Trickster's debut issue).
Interesting fact: James actually reformed before Hartley did! James is already listed as being reformed in this issue, which was printed in 1987; Hartley won't be shown to be reformed until late 1988.
I really wish Trickster's brief career as a special effects artist was reference more often.
Trickster was drawn by Paris Cullins and Gary Martin, who were not his original artists. That being said, I love their take on him, especially his rubber chicken.
Both the Golden Age Turtle and the Silver Age Turtle Man share one entry, with the primary art being of the latter. The Golden Age villain only appears in the background art.
I always confuse the Turtle and the Turtle Man, probably because they have nigh-identical names, very similar M.O.s, and don't appear very often. The fact that neither one of them has a civilian name also doesn't help, since I can't even distinguish them that way. I guess the main difference is that the Turtle Man is somewhat more of an inventor than the Turtle.
Also, at 5'6", the Turtle is very short. He's only an inch taller than Lisa (though he's 73 pounds heavier)! The Turtle Man, at 5'11", is a lot taller.
The Turtle and the Turtle Man are drawn by Peter Laird, who was not the original artist for either character. Their drawings of the two characters are still effective, though.
Last, but not least, is the Weather Wizard, who, in a continuing trend, is weirdly buff. It's especially noticeable in his case, since he's usually drawn to be quite slender (although it is in keeping with the way Infantino drew basically all the Rogues during the Trial of the Flash arc).
Weather Wizard's reformation didn't last terribly long, but, due to the fact that he didn't show up very much during the late 80s and early 90s, it lasted a bit longer than you might expect. He reformed in Blue Devil #30 (published November 1986, about 3 months before the issue with his Who's Who entry was published), and wasn't shown doing anything illegal again until Flash Annual #5 in 1992. So he was more-or-less reformed for five to six real-world years.
I love that his entry includes the ridiculous fact that the Weather Wand is telepathically linked to his brain (as established in Adventure Comics #466 in December 1979), and that it makes mention of his habit of riding around on clouds.
Weather Wizard's art was done by his original artist, Carmine Infantino, and Murphy Anderson. I love the background art of him fighting Batman, and I like the art of him battling the Flash, but I think he looks a bit too buff in the main drawing and in his headshot. That being said, that headshot must be the neatest that Mark's hair has ever looked. Usually it's way more windblown than that.
Flash #123. The comic that created a multiverse. The story that opened the door to infinite potential. Next to the actual golden age debuts of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, this may be one of the most influential issues in the history of the superhero as a genre. I'm here to tell you: The hype is real. Welcome to the Gutters!
Flash #123 didn't just create the DC multiverse, it might well have created the very concept of a multiverse. It existed as a theoretical physics exercise, of course, but those don't move the needle. Outside of Portal Fantasy stories - which the kids today call isekai - such as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz or The Chronicles of Narnia, one of the first writers to use the concept of a network of interconnected alternate universes was Michael Moorcock, who made it the basis of his sprawling Eternal Champion series. Moorcock was the first to use the term "Multiverse" in a story published years after this issue, but speculation about who originated the theory is an errand far beyond the scope of this fool.
Before we actually get to the starring feature, we have some ado to do. I want to briefly touch on issues #121 and #122, because they're actually pretty alright. I was a bit hard on this series in my last post, which I think might be a symptom of overexposure. Watching one Michael Bay movie can be a fun evening, watching Michael Bay's entire filmography can make your eyeballs bleed. Whatever faults these comics may have - and there are many - when done right, they can be a fun kind of dumb and a dumb kind of fun.
Flash #121 features the return of the Trickster, who's always fun to have around. There's a very different dynamic than Batman has with the Joker because the Flash has enough of a sense of humor to trick him right back. Flash always seems to enjoy encounters with the Trickster, which foreshadows the congenial relationship he has with most of his recurring villains, one of my favorite characteristics of Flash stories.
I also believe this issue is the first time that the Flash uses his speed to effectively appear in two places at once during the same conversation, an ability that strains credulity to the point that I have to laugh at the unrestrained audacity of it. Like, the other guy should be able to feel the wind, right? I'm not the only one who sees the secondary effects? Whatever, Speed Force did it.
Flash #122 introduces a new supervillain, Roscoe Dillon, AKA the Top. For the most part, he's just a gimmick villain with weapons and traps hidden in kids' toys, but he has an amazing superpower: spinning! That's a good trick! He apparently was able to teach himself how to spin at speeds comparable to the Flash on his own, because apparently it's as easy as riding a bicycle.
Over the course of an singel isseue, the Top escalates his schemes from spinning real fast and robbing armored cars to constructing a spin-powered atomic bomb capable of destroying half the planet and then being fully prepared to let it end the world. The Top does not give a single fuck, my dudes. Flash defeats this maniac the only way he possibly could: even more spinning. He spins so fast it flies out into orbit.
I enjoyed these issues a bit more than the last few. I don't know if I just needed to get something out of my system, but I think these are doing more things right. There's just that bit more focus on Barry's chemistry with Iris, and on Flash's chemistry with his villains. There's a kind of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure quality to Flash's villain encounters, where they each have a narrow ability with a lot of potential applications and it's all about each character navigating the mechanics of their powers to gain advantage over each other. I love reading that, and it's magic when it works.
With that out of the way, we proceed to our main event. Flash #123, The Flash of Two Worlds. The story begins as Flash is doing a demonstration of super-speed stage magic, when, in an attempt to vibrate himself invisible, he instead vanishes completely. Which, according to international standards of magic, is a separate thing entirely. Flash finds himself not in his hometown of Central City, but Keystone City, a city he's never heard of, where nobody recognizes him as the Flash.
Flash soon puts the pieces together and realizes where he's heard the name Keystone City. He goes to a phone book - which was a kind of hard-copy doxxing database available on every street corner in small kiosks called "payphones" - and looks up the name Jay Garrick, the Golden Age flash. Do you remember how Barry Allen was reading an issue of the Golden Age flash all the way back in his first appearance? Foreshadowing is a literary device-
Unlike many stories of a similar genre, Barry Allen hasn't just stepped into an issue of his favorite old-school comic, he's actually stepped into a living universe. Jay Garrick is presented as a person every bit as real as Barry Allen, and his universe isn't treated as a work of fiction, but a parallel and valid universe. Barry Allen creates the hypothesis that Gardner Fox, the real writer who created the Golden and Silver age Flashes, and wrote this very issue, was receiving telepathic visions of Jay Garrick's earth - and by extension the same thing is happening on the real world, a thing that is true in DC Comics.
What sells Jay's world, later referred to as "Earth-2" is that the world hasn't just been in limbo since the golden age comic stopped. The world didn't stop existing just because the comic was no longer being published, the comic stopped being published because Jay retired. He got married to his longtime girlfriend Joan and settled down to live a quiet life in a peaceful world. He's aged a full twelve human earth years in that time! Look at the sides of his hair! Later comics would flesh out Jay's private life to a greater degree and make him a distinct character from Barry, but that's for later.
Coincidentally, while all of this multiverse nonsense has been happening, three of Jay's old supervillains have broken out of prison. I guess the Speed Force brought Barry to help. We have the Shade, who controls living darkness; the Fiddler, who controls minds with his hypno-violin; and the Thinker, whomst thinks real good. The Flashes split up to investigate, but the villains get the better of both of them. The Thinker is able to use his mental powers to confuse Jay with his illusions, having him run around in circles until he runs out of stamina, because he's an old man with tired old man knees. Meanwhile, Barry is able to use his superior speed to counter the Shade, but wasn't prepared for him to have a second gimmick in his arsenal.
This is very much the antithesis of the powerscaling question from last time. On paper, all three of these villains - together or separately - should be no match for a single Flash, let alone two. But they're able to get the better of their respective speedster through clever strategy and an understanding of their foe's capabilities. These may be old white men in silly hats but they've been fighting the (a) Flash for over a decade and they know what they're doing.
By the time the villains figure out that there are actually two The Flashes, Jay and Barry have joined up to fight the Fiddler as a team. However, it looks like they were defeated so quickly and easily that they didn't even bother to show it. Despite able to move faster than sound, the Flashes are somehow weak to hypnotic sound. Look, I just review this stuff. The Fiddler hypnotizes the two Flashes to rob the museum, and then commands them to not to move at all for 24 hours. How do the heroes get out of this fiendish predicament? Through the flimsiest of loopholes.
See despite having apparent complete mental control over the Flashes two, they were able to escape because the Fiddler didn't explicitly tell them not to try to escape. That is just bullshit. You could sooner fit a camel through the eye of a needle than you could fit this plot through that narrow justification. But honestly, it almost doesn't matter, because the venn diagram of dumb and fun for this story is a perfect circle. I'm honestly able to overlook everything for the sake of the pure joy I get from this issue.
I wanted to recapture the experience of a silver age audience reading this comic without assuming any knowledge of the golden age Flash. To that end, I didn't go back and look at any issues featuring Jay Garrick, and relied on my existing cultural osmosis of these characters. I wanted to be completely free of nostalgia. And I had an absolute blast. You can tell that Gardner Fox has a lot of affection for these characters he created and is loving the chance to bring them down off the shelf. Jay and Barry have such a great chemistry, and all of the villains are absolutely dripping with charisma. I wasn't just entertained, I wanted to see more of them.
I naturally compare this to what I am reluctantly going to call "slopstalgia" that's been showing up in a lot of Superhero movies of recent years. Spider-Man: No Way Home, Deadpool & Wolverine, and ironically, The Flash (2023) all feel like nakedly pandering attempts to appeal to the familiar by propping up the corpse of long-defunct intellectual property like some necromarionette. We're not going to get another movie with Michael Keaton as Batman. That ship has sailed, docked, been put up into a museum, and had every individual component replaced with identical copies five separate times by now. Theseus would not recognize this ship if you read him the VIN number.
Contrary to pretty much every other example of unabashed nostalgia bait, this adventure was actually the start of something new. Jay Garrick wouldn't just be a passing of the torch, he and his whole universe would open up wide new avenues for storytelling. This would not just affect Flash comics, but the entire DC Universe, which still to this day is telling stories across multiple dimensions, creating bold new worlds that mix the familiar and the unfamiliar together. Recently it's even come back around to the point that the characters themselves are aware that their universe has been reboooted from the ground up several times, and at time of writing, the current storyline is about them fighting against the forces of multiversal resets to preserve the world they love. That conflict has taken the form of a fighting game complete with non-canon DLC characters, but you can't have everything in this life. Until next time!
