flash story

Few superheroes can claim an editorial history as rugged, as fertile and as structuring for the comic book industry as Flash. The character is not only the third major superhero in DC history after Superman and Batman: he is directly responsible for the birth of the Silver Age in 1956, the invention of the concept of the multiverse in 1961, and one of the most iconic deaths in all of American comics in 1985. Few costumes have been worn by so many different characters — Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, Wally West, Bart Allen — while maintaining a continuity of name and symbol that is also readable to the general public.

This narrative richness has a direct downside on the vintage comic book market: it multiplies the key issues, the possible collection eras, and the entry points for a buyer. Understanding this story is not only about satisfying a reader's curiosity — it is also about knowing why certain specific issues (and not others) concentrate most of the character's market value. This article traces, period by period, the editorial evolution of Flash from 1940 to its contemporary screen adaptations, relying on verifiable publication facts — publication dates, creative teams, print runs, documented auctions.

From the pulps to the hut: the birth of Jay Garrick in 1940

Flash appeared for the first time in January 1940 (cover date; the work went on sale November 20, 1939) in the pages ofFlash Comics #1, published by All-American Publications, one of the publishers that would later merge with National Comics to form DC Comics. The character is the work of screenwriter Gardner Fox and designer Harry Lampert. According to Lampert himself, the original idea belonged entirely to Fox, who wanted to build a hero inspired by the Roman god Mercury: “I looked it up in the dictionary, there was a wonderful depiction of Mercury, and I superimposed my Flash on top of it — they were almost identical. »

In this original version, student Jay Garrick gains his super-speed after accidentally inhaling "hard water" vapors during a university laboratory experiment. The character adopts a distinctive costume—winged helmet and winged boots, a direct nod to the iconography of Mercury—that will forever be associated with the "Golden Age" version of the hero, including after the introduction of Barry Allen decades later.Flash Comics #1is not limited to the origin of Jay Garrick: the same issue also contains the very first appearance of Hawkman, as well as that of Johnny Thunder and the Whip, making it one of the densest multiple first appearance issues of the Golden Age.

The Golden Age: Jay Garrick, forgotten pillar of the Golden Age

Throughout the 1940s, Jay Garrick wore the winged costume withinFlash Comics, then its own titleAll-Flashlaunched in 1941, before becoming a founding member of the Justice Society of America inAll Star Comics. This golden period of the character ended, as for almost all superheroes of the time, with the commercial decline of the genre at the end of the 1940s: the market reoriented towards horror, western and romance comics, andFlash Comicsceased to appear in 1949, after 104 issues.

In terms of the collection,Flash Comics #1today occupies a special place among the absolute keys to the Golden Age: the CGC census only counts a very limited number of unrestored examples listed, the vast majority in low to medium grades, and a single known example at grade 9.6 - the copy from the famous Mile High collection, sold for a million dollars in a private transaction, a sum which has long been a benchmark for the entire Golden Age DC segment. More recently, a copy graded 8.5 sold for $396,000 at Heritage Auctions, the house confirming on this occasion that only three copies were then listed at a higher grade. The issue also appears in the Overstreet ranking of the 100 most sought-after Golden Age comics, where it occupies a place close to the top 15. This structural rarity – less than a hundred unrestored copies identified, all generations combined – explains why the issue remains out of reach of the vast majority of collectors and is traded almost exclusively in auction rooms.

The Silver Age Revival: Showcase #4 and the Birth of Barry Allen

The return of Flash, in October 1956, is not a simple relaunch of a character: it is the founding act of the entire Silver Age of American comics.Showcase #4is written by Robert Kanigher, penciled by Carmine Infantino, and inked by Joe Kubert, all under the editorial direction of Julius Schwartz — a creative quartet that would become one of the most celebrated teams in DC history. The character is no longer Jay Garrick but Barry Allen, a scientific expert for the Central City police, who obtains his powers when a lightning discharge passes through a shelf of chemicals and sprays him in the middle of the laboratory. Schwartz deliberately chose to start with an entirely new name and origin rather than simply relaunch Jay Garrick, an editorial gamble that would become the model for the entire wave of DC relaunches in the following years (Green Lantern, Atom, Hawkman).

The commercial success ofShowcase #4is today difficult to quantify with precision due to the lack of public sales figures from the period, but its historical importance is completely undisputed: it is the issue that the entire comic book community designates as the official starting point of the Silver Age. On the collecting market, this centrality is reflected in record highs: an example at the highest grade listed by CGC was sold for $900,000 during a Heritage Auctions sale in January 2024, an absolute record for the sale. The CGC census counts several hundred certified copies in total, but only a handful of copies reach grade VF/NM 9.0, and a single copy was graded NM+ 9.6 — no higher exists to date. It is this pyramid of rarity at the top of the grade, much more than the raw number of copies in circulation, which explains why the very high grades ofShowcase #4continue to break records year after year.

Flash of Two Worlds: the comic book that invented the multiverse

If Barry Allen revives the character, it is an issue published five years later which will lastingly shape the entire DC continuity:The Flash #123, published in September 1961, under the title “Flash of Two Worlds!” ". Written again by Gardner Fox—Jay Garrick's original author twenty-one years earlier—and drawn by Carmine Infantino, under the direction of Julius Schwartz, this issue features Barry Allen vibrating at such a particular frequency that he crosses the dimensional barrier and finds himself in Keystone City, the home town of...Jay Garrick. Barry then discovers that the Golden Age Flash was not a fictional character in his own universe, but a very real hero living on a parallel Earth, later named Earth-Two.

The importance of this story goes far beyond just the character of Flash. “Flash of Two Worlds” is unanimously considered the founding text of the concept of the multiverse at DC Comics, a narrative principle which would subsequently irrigate decades of crossover stories, until its culmination inCrisis on Infinite Earthsin 1985, then in the multiple relaunches and “Crisis” which will follow until today. The issue also paved the way for the regular reunions between Jay Garrick and Barry Allen, which would become a recurring ritual in the pages of the title for the entire following decade, before the formal appearance of the Justice Society alongside the Justice League in annual team-ups that have become cult. In terms of the collection,The Flash #123remains one of the pillars of any file devoted to the historical runs of the character - a subject that we detail in more depth in ourselection of the best Flash runs, which classifies and analyzes the most significant narrative arcs of all periods, where this article focuses above all on the factual chronology of the publication.

The Heroic Death of Barry Allen and the Rise of Wally West

Twenty-four years after relaunching the character, DC Comics chooses to sacrifice him at the end of the event maxi-seriesCrisis on Infinite Earths. In issue 8 of the series, published in 1985, Barry Allen finds himself facing the Anti-Monitor and his anti-matter cannon capable of annihilating the entire multiverse. To defuse the weapon, Barry runs at a speed never before achieved, circling the unstable energy core thousands of times until it turns the antimatter against itself. The energy released is too much for his mortal body: he begins to phase out across the timeline before dissolving entirely, leaving behind only his empty suit and compactor ring. This sacrifice, one of the most famous in the history of American comic books, closes an editorial cycle opened twenty-nine years earlier inShowcase #4and paves the way for succession.

It is Wally West – Barry's nephew by marriage, former sidekick under the name of Kid Flash within the Teen Titans – who inherits the costume and name of Flash. The launch of the second volume of the seriesThe Flash, in June 1987, under the pen of Mike Baron and the pencil of Jackson Guice, took the radical step of making Wally a Flash without a secret identity, known publicly to the general public, and affected by an unprecedented defect for the character: a hyper-metabolism which forces him to ingest massive quantities of food to maintain his speed, under penalty of collapsing from exhaustion. This editorial choice, going against the classic model of the infallible superhero, allows Wally West to develop his own identity during nearly twenty-five years of continuous publication - the longest period during which a character other than Barry Allen has worn the Flash costume in the main DC continuity.

The Return of Barry Allen: Flash Rebirth and the Modern Era

After more than two decades of absence from the main continuity, Barry Allen returns for the eventFinal Crisisin 2008, before getting its own official comeback miniseries:The Flash: Rebirth, written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Ethan Van Sciver, the first issue of which appeared on April 1, 2009. The commercial reception was immediate: the first printing ofFlash: Rebirth #1was sold in full by the distributor Diamond from the first day of sale, which pushed DC to urgently order a second printing with a variant cover, published on April 29, 2009 - an extremely fast reprinting time which testifies to the anticipation aroused by the return of the original character. The series, initially planned for five issues, is extended to six during publication as the critical and commercial reception is proving positive.

This return of Barry Allen foreshadows the complete editorial relaunch of the DC universe in 2011 with the New 52, ​​where Barry once again becomes the reference Flash of the main continuity, Wally West being temporarily erased before making his return a few years later in a reinvented form. This alternation of incumbents — Jay Garrick, then Barry Allen, then Wally West, then Barry Allen again — constitutes one of the most studied textbook cases of legacy character management at DC Comics, a subject that we explore visually, cover by cover, in our article dedicated tomost beautiful Flash covers, which focuses on the graphic evolution of the character rather than the editorial timeline detailed here.

The impact of adaptations on the rating

As with most prominent DC characters, audiovisual adaptations of The Flash have had a direct and measurable influence on general public interest in the character, with contrasting effects on the comic book market. The TV seriesThe Flash, which aired on The CW beginning October 7, 2014 with Grant Gustin as Barry Allen, enjoyed a long and steady run for nearly a decade, helping to maintain consistent visibility of the character among a general audience well beyond the traditional comic book readership — a classic phenomenon of prolonged media exposure that tends to sustain demand for key original issues over the long term rather than generating a one-time peak.

The movieThe Flashreleased in June 2023 with Ezra Miller in the lead role conversely illustrates the difficulty of a failed cinematic launch in generating a positive halo effect on the collectible market. The film, whose production budget reached around $200 million plus nearly $100 million in marketing, brought in only $271.4 million in total worldwide revenue, with a particularly weak start of $55.1 million in its first American weekend - well below the studio's expectations, which were counting on 70 to 75 million. Personal controversies surrounding the lead actor, mixed critical reception and direct competition with other summer 2023 releases were identified by the specialist press as the main factors in this commercial failure, described as a “bomb” by Warner Bros. with estimated losses of up to $200 million. Unlike successful launches for other characters, this episode did not generate a notable speculative surge on the historic key issues of Flash, a useful reminder that media exposure alone is not enough to sustainably move a rating: it is actual rarity, grade and structural demand from long-time collectors that remain the main drivers of the vintage market.

Buying guide

Buying a vintage Flash comic requires clearly distinguishing the different editorial layers of the character, each having its own rarity codes and its own pitfalls. Here are the essential points to watch out for before any purchase:

• Identify the correct iteration of the character.A “first issue” of Flash may refer toFlash Comics #1(1940, Jay Garrick),Showcase #4(1956, Barry Allen) orThe Flashflight. 2 #1 (1987, Wally West) — three collectibles radically different in rarity and price. Always check the volume and exact publication date before bidding.
• Favor certified copies for Golden Age and Silver Age numbers.On titles likeFlash Comics #1ouShowcase #4, the difference in value between two adjacent grades can represent several tens of thousands of dollars; a CGC or CBCS gradation is not a luxury but a necessity to secure a transaction of this level.
• Be wary of undeclared restorations.Comics from the 1940s and 1950s still frequently circulate with spine repairs, color additions or binding reinforcements not reported by the seller; systematically require a grading certificate explicitly mentioning the “unrestored” status or precisely detailing the type of restoration.
• Compare prints and variant editions for the modern era.On recent titles likeFlash: Rebirth #1(2009), the existence of a second print with an alternative cover creates a hierarchy of rarity that must be identified before purchasing: the first print generally remains more sought after despite no difference in content.
• Check the entire creative team, not just the writer.The collection value of numbers likeThe Flash #123is as much due to the presence of Carmine Infantino in the drawing as to that of Gardner Fox in the screenplay; incomplete sales sheets sometimes omit one or the other.
• View actual sales history rather than list prices.Traditional price guides move slowly and can lag the actual market by several months; cross-referencing several recent sales remains the most reliable method for evaluating an offer.

To organize a collection that covers several decades of publication like that of Flash, with its volume changes, its relaunches and its special issues, structured monitoring often makes the difference between a coherent collection and a pile-up of disparate pieces. OURcollection management applicationallows you to precisely catalog each issue with its volume, its grade and its origin, to keep a clear vision of the whole throughout the acquisitions.

If you already own a copy of one of these key issues — whether it's aShowcase #4inherited from a family collection or aFlash: Rebirth #1first print kept since 2009 — the best first step is to check its current rating before any decision to sell or insure. Also find all the information dedicated to the character on itsFlash page, which centralizes the key numbers, notable runs and reference coverages associated with the Scarlet Bolide.

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