Planet DC Flash And Green Lantern

Even more coverage of the Planet DC Annuals of 2000, where DC's greatest American heroes worked with heroes from other lands.

Here, the Flash (Wally West) teams up with the members of Super Malon including sorceress Salamanca), while Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner) meets Sala.

Flash Annual #13 (September, 2000)

Here it is a whole team of heroes in Argentina, in this story by Chuck Dixon and Enrique Alcatena, but first we start out with one of the earliest heroes, Jay Garrick, the Flash, trapped in some mystical land, while Wally West, the Flash, plays chess with Oracle in the JLA Watchtower on the moon.  There, Wally gets a mystical summons from Salamanca, and beams down to Argentina, where he faces the Peteys (little hairballs that are super fast servants of Gualicho).  Gualicho entraps Salamanca in a mystic bottle, with one of the Peteys taking it, leading Wally on a chase through Argentina, where it finally disappears.  

Wally uses his super speed to follow the Peteys' vibrations, ending up in the mystic land, where he meets Jay and the rest of the Super Malon (Cachiru, wolf Lobizon, blue costumed Pampero, brown hooded Vizacacha,  swashbuckling Cimarron, jaguar styled Yaguarette and horse headed Bagual), where they explain that Flash must race los Peteys and win or become trapped in phantom form as they are (and do it before the solstice or the wizard Gualicho can free himself from this land Salamanca trapped him in).  Wally starts to race the Peteys, but instead confronts Gaulicho, freeing Salamanca from the bottle, so she can free the rest from their phantom forms, and combined, beat Gaulicho.

In the second story, also by Dixon/Alcatena, readers learn of the romantic ties between Salamanca and Cachiru, as the duo have to deal with a ghostly Mazorquero (a secret police member of a governor of Argentina long ago) who haunts the Dona Rosario Echeverria, an old woman who was dying....and, the love of Jose, who was that secret guard, who was waiting for her to die to be with her, leaving Salamanca and Cachiru to decide if they would resurrect their old affair.  Salamanca and most of the Super Malon appear again in Wonder Woman #186 and #187, with Salamanca attending a meeting of mystics in Infinite Crisis.

Green Lantern Annual #9 (September, 2000)

Meanwhile, in Tunisa, Sala is introduced in a story by Timothy Truman, Koi Turnbull and John Lowe (with a cover by Truman), starting with demons of the air decimating a small tribe, raising one of them from the dead to become Pazuzu (who will open the gateway).  Soon after, on an archeological dig in the area, Sala Nisaba and friends (including Assan) find an old well that is a passageway to the gates of hell, with local soldiers killing all but Sala and Assan, as Green Lantern appears to save them.  Sala recognizes Kyle (as they attended college classes together), and, along with the old man the soldiers were torturing, go to explore the well. 

There, they find the wall keeping the Kurnugi (Babylonian Underworld) from invading Earth.  Sala finds the ruins to explain the wall, that it keeps Nergal (lord of terror), his wife (Ereskigal) and her evil mother (Tiamat), the demon lord (Pazuzu) and Humbaba (entrail faced demon) away from Earth.  Istar (the lady of heaven) and her ring bearer (Ninurta) fought to keep them back there in ancient times...and, Kyle finds the ring bearer was an agent of Oa (and the Guardians of the Universe).  Then, the demons appear and take Sala and the rest to Kurnugi, where the family plots to escape (and against each other...), but needed the ring of one of the Guardians' agents (Kyle) as well as Istar's ringstaff to get free, which they now have.  They also reveal that Sala was a descendant of Istar and Ninurta, and has the power of Istar...

In the second story, by Tim Truman and Paul Ryan, the plans continue, with the family sending their demons into Kyle to try to get him to relinquish the ring, which they eventually do, but even as Nergal opens the gateway, Kyle continues to fight, with Sala fully embracing her new identity as the lady of battle.  Kyle gets Assan as Sala continues to fight the family, with Sala getting Kyle his ring, as he and Assan escape through the gateway, but leaving Sala behind.  Kyle would return to help Sala in the JLA: Gatekeeper mini-series, with Sala later appearing in the Infinite Crisis Special: Day of Vengeance.

Flash Facts: Flash Annual of 1963

Flash was the envy of all the other DC heroes except for Superman, Batman and Lois Lane, as the fastest man alive got his first annual in the Summer of 1963.


This book featured reprints of the first appearances of important characters to the Flash mythos....


....and we'll take a look at these stories below!

Katmos

The first reprinted story is from Flash #105 (February-March, 1959) by John Broome, Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella, with Barry Allen facing off against the "Conqueror From 8 Million B.C."....that being the menace of Katmos (though the cover of the original issue features the Mirror Master, who was in the other story of that book).


After a brief recap of the Flash's origin, Barry faces off against the ancient threat of Katmos, freed by archeologist John Haines (as the metallic monarch used his mind control ray on the man).  Katmos then encountered the Flash, even taking control of him for a time, but Barry Allen proved to be too fast for this  menace, beating his plans....and still being able to go to dinner with Iris West!

Mr. Element

Next up is the first appearance of another enemy of the Flash, from Showcase #13 (March-April, 1958) by John Broome, Carmine Infantino and Frank Giacoia, that of the "Master Of The Elements", Mr. Element (though this also was not the feature of the issue to make the cover).


Barry faces Mr. Element and his gang (Argon, Krypton, Xenon and Radon, named after the inert elements of the periodic table), with the tricky Mr. Element using pre-prepared tricks with elements to halt the fastest man alive.  Mr. Element evades capture, and even calls out the Flash while Barry is on a dinner date with Iris...the villain ruins Barry's night, but the Flash proved he could think fast enough to dash the hopes of his enemy.  Mr. Element returns later, in a new identity, that of Dr. Alchemy!

Elongated Man

Flash really needed a friend, and he found one in the Flash #112 (April-May, 1960) by John Broome, Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella, at least he would as soon as he solved "The Mystery Of The Elongated Man".


Flash is being out-heroed by newcomer to Central City, the Elongated Man.  Elongated Man was really Ralph Dibny, who was fascinated by circus rubber men since he was a kid, found they all drank a soft drink, Gingold, and took an extract from that which allowed him his elastic powers.  Flash suspected Elongated Man of recent robberies in his city, and set a trap for the Gingold guardian....but he found EM to have captured the real thieves instead.  Flash and Elongated Man tied for the Man of the Year award given by Picture News, and became fast friends after this (with Elongated Man later joining the JLA!).

Star Sapphire

The next story of the issue featured the Flash from the Golden Age, Jay Garrick.  "The Amazing Star Sapphire" was the one of the menaces of All-Flash #32 (December-January, 1947/1948) by Robert Kanigher, Lee Elias and Moe Worthman (thought Flash foe, the Fiddler, got the cover).
 
The Flash and Dr. Flura were found comatose, and brought to a laboratory to be revived.  While in the lab, the villainous Star Sapphire appeared, with a plan to have her world destroy the Earth (and lured Flash and the lady doctor to it, via a space-time machine).  Flash stopped Star Sapphire's evil plan, rescued Dr. Flura as well, returning to Earth.   This Star Sapphire later proved to be similar to the Star Sapphire who was the foe of Barry's friend, Green Lantern Hal Jordan (but that connection took a few decades to reveal....).

Grodd

Flash faced the "Menace Of The Super-Gorilla" in Flash #106 (April-May, 1959) by John Broome, Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella, though this story wasn't featured on the cover...it was the first appearance of Gorilla Grodd and King Solovar of Gorilla City.

Grodd secretly comes to Central City, while Barry's friend, actor Fred Pearson, thinks he's losing his mind (as he performs in an act disguised as a gorilla, but can't remember his last performance, which people say was his best).  Really, it was Grodd, hiding for a time, as he searched for Solovar (the king of Gorilla City, who had been captured and was in a circus, hiding his own telepathic abilities).  Grodd found Solovar, took the secret of Force of Mind (mind control) from him, and Solovar broke free to find Flash.  Solovar explained this to the Flash, who then had to stop Grodd from taking over Gorilla City...which he quickly did (and also promised to keep the existence of telepathic gorillas and their home from the world).  Grodd would return many times to face the Flash....

Kid Flash

Flash got a little bit of help in his life as he would "Meet Kid Flash" in Flash #110 (December-January, 1959/1960) by John Broome, Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella (in the non-cover featured story of this issue).  

Iris' nephew, Wally West, was a big fan of the Flash.  Iris asked Barry to escort Wally around town, and hoped to meet the Flash.  Barry brought Wally back to his lab, and super-speed around to meet Wally as the Flash.  While explaining his origin, a lightning bolt struck, hitting the chemicals and dousing Wally, giving him the same super-speed Barry has.  The Flash gives Wally a smaller version of his own suit, allowing the boy to be a super-hero as Kid Flash, as long as he keeps his abilities a secret from everyone.   Later, Barry tells the boy his own secret, and Wally even joins with other sidekicks of other heroes to form the Teen Titans.

There were also special features in this issue, like how artist Carmine Infantino drew the Flash, as well as an index of the Barry Allen Flash issues of the time, and a few special Flash firsts covers.  While it took a long time for Flash to get another annual, Flash did have a couple of 80 Page Giants (#4 of October 1964 and #9 of April 1965) devoted to his earlier adventures (which you can use the index in the annual to guess which ones they are).  Better still, you can get a replica edition of the Flash Annual (which came out in 2001).