The Flash: The Greatest Stories Ever Told

The Greatest Stories Ever Told

by John Broome, Gardner Francis Fox, Paulo Siqueira (Illustrator)

Three strange accidents transformed police scientist Barry Allen, college student Jay Garrick and young Wally West into super-speedsters -- but it was no accident that made them heroes!

This fast-paced volume finds The Flashes locked in battle against their greatest foes, including Gorilla Grodd, The Reverse Flash and many others. These titanic stories also feature the Flash's allies against evil, including Johnny Quick.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes

208 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1991

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bro...

Reviews

[Dirk Grobbelaar · Rating 4 out of 5]

The absolute bulk of this collection is from the 1940s and 1960s. In fact, there are only two stories here that were printed after the sixties, one is from 1978 and the other from 1994. Is this important? It depends. I’m partial to post-Crisis Flash (Wally West), because (in my opinion) he had the best storylines. It was certainly not quite as goofy as some of the earlier Barry Allen stuff. On the other hand, Barry Allen is by far the most famous and longest running (no pun intended) Flash (not counting Wally’s tenure as Kid Flash).

So, this collection then. It’s mostly Barry Allen. The early stories obviously feature the Golden Age Flash (Jay Garrick), and there is only one story with Wally as the Flash (again, not counting his Kid Flash appearances alongside Barry). Like I already mentioned, the pre-Crisis Flash stories had a penchant for being a bit goofy, but this collection is fairly solid. We get to see an origin story for Jay Garrick and the “Flash of Two Worlds” story collected here is considered a Classic. Funnily enough, there isn’t an origin story here for either of the other Flashes, and despite what the foreword says it’s been years and we’re still waiting for “Volume 2” to make an appearance. Let’s face it, compiling more than half a century’s worth of Flash stories into one volume is an exercise in futility. Other noteworthy inclusions here: Barry and Iris getting married, and, Wally revealing his secret identity to his parents.

All told, I did enjoy this collection quite a bit. I’m not sure whether I would recommend it to newcomers, though. Comics have changed a lot over the years, and even though the stories collected here are fun, they lack the sophistication of modern titles. Like I did with Green Lantern: In Brightest Day I will give this two ratings: For fans of the Silver Age Flash and old-school comics – 4 stars; for anybody else – 3 stars.

[Wes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Greatest Flash stories ever told? Not even, but DC does this with most of their flagship characters. I prefer to think of these more as character overviews/evolutions through time. This one is pretty much the Carmine Infantino show, and if you combine this with the reprint of the Giant Sized Flash Annual #1, you have a pretty damn good Flash 101 course right there.

My Flash and general DC comics knowledge is pretty lacking, but I've been doing my reps with these "Greatest Stories Ever Told" collections that I found at an estate sale and I'd like to think that if I took a test I've progressed to D level grades by now.

I'm sure I mentioned it before, but as a kid, I was not into Silver or Golden Age comics AT ALL. The art "sucked" and the stories were "boring and silly." Toss in the random idea that DC comics were "lame" and there would be no way you'd have caught me reading this in my teens. Now that I have a more refined taste, and can appreciate the nuances of the art and the history of the character, I find that I not only enjoyed this collection, but that I really kind of like the Flash. While the stories may be "silly" at times, they aren't boring the way I thought they were when I was younger and I do love the art.

All the artists in the collection are great for the own reasons, but Carmine Infantino is the star in this collection. I love the way he handles the Flash's super speed motions from panel to panel and in various situations. It reads perfectly and the illusion of speed is EVERYWHERE.

While reading this, it dawned on my that there aren't many Superheroes that successfully pass on the mantle, at least in the minds of fans and readers or even in a way that really sticks within the comic series. It is usually why the original namesake generally finds their way back as the lead. The Flash is very different in this sense. Wally West, Barry Allen AND Jay Garrick are all equally The Flash in fan/reader eyes and you'd never get any comic book argument as to any of them NOT really being the Flash. I mean, sure, Dick Grayson has worn the mantle of Batman, but is anyone going to count him among the Batmans? I think not.

Good stuff if you are a fan of silver age comics. Great if you're trying to understand the Flash from a bird's eye view or get to know some history of the character. If you're looking for bronze and modern age stories, move along, this collection is not for you.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a nice little collection. These "Greatest Stories Ever Told" books provide a snapshot into the characters they highlight, though if you're looking for a more in-depth history of the characters, then the "Celebrating 75 Years" titles are a better choice. But, still, this is worth a read, even if you don't get as much behind-the-scenes and backstory as the other collections. The biggest pull is the nostalgia, though a couple of the older stories I'd read in another volume. They were nice to revisit, though the later issues were definitely more interesting stories. I really liked getting to see more of Wally West as Kid Flash, as I haven't read a ton of him in that persona (rather than as the Flash). I also liked getting to see Gorilla Grodd; I'd never read older iterations of him before, so that was both interesting and amusing. It's always fascinating to see how these characters have evolved over the years. In short, this is a solid read, but even more so if you're in a nostalgic mood.

[Adam Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Composing a Greatest Stories Ever Told book for the Flash is hard. because the Flash isn't a single hero like Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman. Rather, three different heroes have been known for a decade or more as the Flash: Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, and Wally West (who also was Kid Flash fighting alongside Barry Allen during the Silver and Bronze Age.) This is also the second attempt from DC which did a similar book in the 1980s.

The book begins with two Golden Age stories featuring Jay Garrick's Golden Age Flash, "Stone Age Menace," a fine Mystery Sci-Fi elements, and the last golden age Flash story, "The Rival Flash" which ended the series in style and also could be seen as a precursor to the villainous Reverse Flash.

Then, we have the Silver Age Era which gives us the oft-reprinted, "Flash of Two Worlds" which founded the DC multiverse, "The Gauntlet of Super Villains" features the first team up of Flash's very colorful rogues gallery. There's the wedding of Barry Allen and the Reverse Flash's attempt to foil it in, "One Bridegroom Too Many." In there, we also learn that Barry Allen got married to Iris during the Silver Age and not revealing he was the Flash for fear Iris wouldn't marry him, because it's a good idea to have a marriage based on lies.

Also featured is "The Flash-Fact or Fiction" which has the Flash travelling to our universe in an accident caused by fighting a strange alien. A lot of fun, particularly when the Flash comes to DC comics Editor Julian Schwartz to get a treadmill built.

Then the book reprints a 63 page story from 1978 from DC Special Series #11. The series features the apparent Death of Gorilla Grodd and is split into four parts one each with Garrick, Alan, and Wally West, and then one where you get three flashes together. It's a solid story and really a fitting rarely reprinted item to go in this book.

The book wraps up with a post-Crisis story with Wally West as the Flash called, "Out of Time." Unlike the 1980s edition which just seemed to pick a random Wally West story, this one is an important one. It shows the character's persistent fear of not being able to be everywhere at once. It also gives us more clues as to how the Speed Force actually works in a way that would begin to redefine the Speed Force.

Overall, I not only enjoyed this book, l liked it better than the 1980s version which is a rare thing to say about the 21st century run of Greatest stories book. It's true that we don't have as much introductory material, but given the straightforward stories, Mark Waid's introduction is more than adequate. The stories are simply better and this book includes some of the very best Flash stories, so I heartily recommend it.

[Bryson Kopf · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty great collection of Flash tales of three generations of the Flash. While the balance is never quite right in these types of collections, this is by far the most solid collection from this second iteration of these Greatest Stories series. There are many classic examples of Flash adventures featuring a great spotlight of the Rouges teaming up, parallel worlds (which was a major contribution to the DCU from the Flash books), Reverse Flash, and the mystical Speed Force. I wanted a few more stories for Wally (Flash #3), but the Mark Waid tale selected (Out of Time) here is fantastic. I am also happy to see Cary Bates well represented with Flash: Fact or Fiction (seriously one of my all time favorite Silver Age comics tales), and the surreal Beyond the Speed Barrier. Barry gets the most love here with Flash of Two Worlds, The Gauntlet of Super-Villains, and One Bridegroom Too Many are all bonafide classics (gotta love that Carmine Infantino art too). One problem though, the Alex Ross cover is pretty lousy with the realistic costume-on-a-model look, which fails here.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title is a bit of a misnomer.

There had been, at the time this was published three Flashes: Jay Garrick in the 1940s, Barry Allen from 1961 to 1985, and Wally West from 1985 to 2007 (when this book came out). As such, one might expect Allen and West to be equally represented, with Garrick a little less so. Instead, we got 2 Garrick-era stories, 5 Allen ones, and 1 West story.

The Garrick and Allen stories are pretty run-of-the-mill Golden and Silver age superheroes. The one West story, which has him getting trapped into moving so fast that the entire world around him is frozen, is excellent, and I really wish they had more like it. Given the excellent creators that have worked on Wally West-era Flash (Baron, Messner-Loebs, Morisson, even Geoff Johns to give the devil his due), it seems like a bit of a slap in the face to them to ignore all their work in favour of stuff like "One Bridgegroom Too Many".