Bring on the back-ups: The last Green Lantern by Neal Adams & Denny O'Neil

One of my favourite comic book series of all time is Green Lantern/Green Arrow (# 76 -89 - 1970/72) by the legendary team of Neal Adams and Denny O'Neil. However, the first time I actually read an Adams\O'Neil Green Lantern tale was when the strip moved over to the Flash comic (#217 - 219) in 1972 after the GL\GA comic was cancelled with # 89. Until recently I thought that was the last time that the Adams \ O'Neil team worked together on Green Lantern. Well that was until I picked up Flash #226 (December 1973) which to my surprise contained the story below which I think may have been the last time that Adams/O'Neil worked together on the character.

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Below the Flash #226 (cover by Nick Cardy) The Green Lantern back -up strip would last until #244 in 1976 when a new Green Lantern \Green Arrow comic by O'Neil\Grell was published.

My Famous Firsts: Flash - issue 208.

Back in 1971 when my 11-year-old self was deciding on what comic to buy, the subject matter of any comic had to conform to stories about super-heroes batting monsters or super-villains. So, upon seeing a comic cover featuring our hero running past a church with a nun praying in the background was on the face of it, not going to appeal to me. However, that wonderful cover (by Neal Adams) just looked so good to my childhood eyes that I just had to make The Flash #208 my first US Flash comic. The addition of the Elongated Man illo above the Flash logo, made me want this comic even more as I don't think I was aware of this character at this point and new characters at this time fascinated me.

In this issue the Flash seeks to help a young man who worked for a drug dealer. Realising that he wants "out" from the gang he decides that he will try to track down the drug dealer's hidden loot and return it , with the help of his sister, who is a nun and prays for St. Jude to assist them. The Flash assists the young man in tracking down and defeating the gang by vibrating his body at superspeed and thereby not being seen and the event being attributed as a miracle.

Like many of DC's comics from this time they also contained some great fun back-up tales. This issue was no exception and featured a zany Elongated Man tale where criminals dressed up as characters from Alice in Wonderland during a parade in order to steal a rare, first edition of the book. The crooks are caught out by the Elongated Man who recognizes that the crooks are wearing costumes based on the cartoon adaptation and not the original book. Like I said "zany", but a wonderfully illustrated tale by Dick Giordano - I have been an Elongated Man fan ever since reading this story.

In the 1970's we really got value for money as this issue rounded up its 52 pages of content by featuring a classic Flash /Kid FLash tale from 1964. A tale that is now 60 years old but in 1971 was only 7 years old..... I feel so old!

Superman v The Flash - Who is the fastest man alive? - there is a winner (of sorts)

One of my favourite comic book storylines as a kid were always those that featured two (or more) heroes being pitted against each other. And in the 1960's /1970's one of the most popular and exciting comic book tropes was the race to find the “fastest man alive”.

The above cover (Superman #199 by Infantino and Anderson from 1967) featured the first race between these two comic book titans.The result was of course a tie.

The first race must have been a commercial success as fans wouldn't have to wait too long for the return race which appeared later that year in the pages of The Flash #175 (December 1967 - cover by Infantino and Esposito), written by E. Nelson Bridwell with art by Ross Andru. The rematch was set up by Rokk and Sorban, two intergalactic gamblers and as with Superman #199, the race once again ended in a tie.

Both these comics were reprinted in the large format and excellent DC Limited Collectors Edition series “ The Greatest Race of all time" from 1976. Covers to Superman #199 and Flash 175 from the DC database.

In 1970 the third race, billed as the race "where there must be a winner," took place over two issues of World Finest - #198 (at header, cover by Curt Swan) and #199 (above cover by Neal Adams). In the story written by Denny O’Neil with art by Dick Dillin, the faster-than-light robot Anachronids appear on Earth-One and the Guardians of the Universe enlist Superman and The Flash to race in the opposite direction to counteract the time-warping effects their arrival has caused. As can be seen by the page below the Flash wins this “race“ by crawling to the finish line to turn off the machine, allowing Superman to destroy it and in turn the Anachronids.

It wouldn’t be until 1978 in the then new title “DC Comics Presents” that Superman and the Flash would meet again in a race (of sorts) in the two-part story (#1 and #2 - covers and art by the wonderful J. Garcia Lopez). This time The Flash and Superman race through time to save Earth from a rogue alien-scientist hoping to change his world's past, altering Earth's in the process. As with previous "races" there was no winner.

The last comic I bought that featured the Flash v Superman "race" storyline ( and one of my last Superman comics) was "Adventures of Superman" #463 (below) from 1990 by Dan Jurgens. This was the first race between Superman and Wally West as the Flash. In this tale Mr Mxyzptlk tricks the 2 heroes to race saying that it is the only way he will return to the 5th Dimension. In this tale Wally West wins the race making it 2 wins for the men wearing the Flash uniform.

I'm pretty sure that there have been more Flash v Superman races since 1990, but over the period that I was buying and reading comics the Flash was proven to be the fastest man alive, and for myself, thats the way it should have been.

Above: Panel from "Adventures of Superman " #463.