BHOC: THE FLASH #268

There’s a lot to unpack about this issue of THE FLASH for me. For starters, I bought it not at any of my regular comic book haunts but rather in a far-off stationary store in distant Ronkonkoma where my family had gone for some reason. That store was a supply chain for the Cub Scouts and specific musical instruments, so our visit there may have had something to do with one of those as related to my brothers. Anyway, this was the moment when the DC Explosion was over for me. The cover price of this issue had gone down by a welcome dime, but the page count had naturally been reduced as well. I don’t think I ever really cared, having no awareness of the behind-the-scenes turmoil that came close to ending DC Comics as a publishing entity and which resulted in a sharp reduction of both the publishing line and the editorial staff. This cover, in fact, was penciled by Al Milgrom, who was one of the DC editors who was let go during what became known in later years as the “DC Implosion”. Don’t worry too much about Al, though–he quickly found a place at Marvel.

This was also the last issue of THE FLASH edited by Julie Schwartz that I would read, not that it was Julie’s last quite yet. But the reason I’d been getting copies of FLASH at different outlets was because it had stopped being carried at my local 7-11 for some reason, and so I grabbed up copies whenever I could find them. This explains why I wasn’t around for issue #269, Julie’s last as editor–I missed it completely, which was another traumatic moment for me as the Flash was still a favorite character. And it was close to the end of the line for artist Irv Novick as well. He’d produce one issue of FLASH under new editor Ross Andru before being replaced. Novick was a reliable journeyman, but his artwork defined the Flash for me growing up, and none of the artists who followed him were able to connect with me in the same manner.

This issue featured a fun if slightly self-indulgent story, one that revolved around Barry Allen’s recently revealed love of collecting old comic books. The issue opens on a Saturdy with the Flash helping out in the search for a bear who’s escaped from a local zoo. With that action opening out of the way, Barry Allen returns home to a visit from his next door neighbor, Barney Sands. Barney had appeared in earlier stories and was both a comic collector himself and an aspiring comic book artist. As they visit and Barney helps Barry to sort his own comic book collection, Barney tells Barry about a recent acquisition of his that has gone missing–a copy of FLASH COMICS #26. Mysteriously, the missing book turns up in Barry’s collection, despite him never having owned a copy of it. Since it’s there anyway, Barry asks Barney to borrow the book so that he can read it–but as soon as Barney departs, Barry is astonished to see the comic book fading away into nothingness.

Writer Cary Bates and editor Julie Schwartz didn’t just make up a fake cover for the comic book in question, they used the original cover image from the actual FLASH COMICS #26 throughout the story. And beyond that, they didn’t bother with statting the image photographically. No, it was easier to make poor Irv Novick draw this classic E.E. Hibbard cover image over and over again throughout the story.

The issue ran a House Ad here promoting the first Dollar Comics-format issue of the long-running DETECTIVE COMICS, which has a bit of a story behind it. See, during the DC Implosion, a whole bunch of titles were slated for cancellation, including DETECTIVE COMICS, which wasn’t selling all that well. But a number of people within the company couldn’t stand the notion that the outfit’s flagship series, the one the organization was named after, would be discontinued. So they came up with a clever way to save it. See, BATMAN FAMILY was still selling well and would be sticking around past the Implosion. So they suggested simply folding BATMAN FAMILY into DETECTIVE COMICS–in essence, adding a DETECTIVE COMICS banner and the larger numbering to BATMAN FAMILY in order to keep the series afloat. And it worked! That said, as my 7-11 also had difficulty carrying any oversized comics, I missed DETECTIVE COMICS regularly from this point on.

Having nothing better to do with his Saturday afternoon, Barry becomes the Flash and goes in pursuit of the missing comic book. He’s able to make out a teleportation trail at super-speed, one that he follows to a Central City Hotel, where the town’s first comic book convention is being held. How good of a convention it is when neither Barry nor Barney is attending is questionable. Anyway, the book materializes on the table of a dealer who’s been thinking about how he’s wanted to own a copy for years. Barry shows up in civilian attire to attempt to purchase the copy, but it turns out that he’s got competition in the form of two cosplayers dressed up like the Earth-2 Green Lantern and Wildcat. To make sure they get it, the two cosplayers pull a gun and steal the book, right before Barry’s unbelieving eyes.

DC put a lot of effort behind a sort of “we meant to do that” approach to the slashing of their line. This House Ad illuminates their new publishing limitations for the time being: Twenty standard monthly titles and six Dollar comics would hereafter make up that line.

The two comic book thieves make the ill -considered move of having Barry walk out with them as a shield, and he’s of course able to elude them the instant that he wants to. What’s more, he’s able to switch into his Flash costume (being admonished by some con-goers that the theme for this show is Golden Age super heroes, not modern ones–and then catch up and dispatch the two faux Eath-2 heroes. Despite what the deceptive cover showed, these guys are just simple crooks in colorful costumes, they don’t possess Green Lantern’s Power Ring or Wildcat’s combat skills. But while the Flash is making the two goons tell him what’s behind the secret of the vanishing comic book, the issue of FLASH COMICS is stolen again, this time from out of the hands of the cab driver who had been taking the two goons to their boss.

And now we start to get down to the nitty-gritty, as we hone in on a meeting of representatives of different families who are all part of an international crime syndicate. They’ve got the FLASH COMICS #26 and they reveal what it’s all about. See, there had ben this scientist who was working to perfect telepathic teleportation. He was successful, but refused to hand it over to the syndicate, and got killed for his trouble. But it turned out that the scientist had tested out his formula on his son’s copy of FLASH COMICS #26–why his son had a 35-year-old comic book is anybody’s guess. But the process worked, and now the book would teleport itself to whoever wanted it the most within a certain radius. The syndicate had been buying up every copy of FLASH COMICS #26 available on the back issue market in an attempt to recover the right book, but to no avail. But somehow, they figured out that it was at that show at that dealer’s table–and now they’ve got it back and can use it to uncover the secret of the scientist’s discovery.

But suddenly, the comic book once again disappears out of the hands of the criminals–and appears in the hands of the Flash. He’s located them, and caused the comic book to teleport to him by genuinely wanting it more than they do. He then takes a few seconds to mop up on all of the syndicate members in the area before ringing in the police. In the end, both Barry and Barney wind up with their own copies of FLASH COMICS #26 rescued from the stash that the syndicate had been buying up. And with that, Julie Schwartz’s run as the editor of the Flash came to an end for me.

The issue also included another weekly installment of the Daily Planet which plugged the coming week’s comics. I hadn’t thought about this before, but it’s possible that the reason why there was now space for the Fred Hembeck comic strip on this page was due to the reduction in the number of titles being published thanks to the implosion.

ADDITION: As mentioned by Mark Waid in the comments, here is the original set-up for the cover to this issue featuring the inset panel promoting a Kid Flash story that wouldn’t see print until THE FLASH #325 many years later.