Flash Fridays – The Flash #346 June 1985

Picking-up two or maybe three seconds after the closing events in the previous issue, we see the Flash who has been unmasked in the courtroom by his attorney Cecile Horton, and it’s definitely not the Barry Allen we’ve come to know and love, but a more rugged looking man with close-cropped dark hair. Confusion ensues, the first of which is that Fiona Webb who was in the courtroom collapses upon hearing Cecile say that the Flash is Barry Allen. In an expository newscast, writer Cary Bates brings the reader up to speed on what has been happening, and then we jump cut to the Flash visiting the hospital where Fiona was taken. He talks with the doctor who tells him that any visit by the Flash or Barry Allen might set her back permanently, so the Flash leaves knowing that, for Fiona’s well being, he can never return. 

In a strange turn, we cut to the pied Piper in the same hospital as he succeeds in escaping. He’s later caught (and possibly killed?) by someone in a Flash costume. That person is shown mostly in silhouette with only the Flash chest symbol as an identifier, but it’s only done as a tease. Of course we all know who the character being teased really is because THE REVERSE FLASH SHOWN ON THE COVER! Why you would do that when you’re planning to still tease the character’s identity is beyond me, but that’s what they did.

The Flash confronts Cecile and explains that when he had the surgery in Gorilla City after his beating by Big Sir, he had the doctors change his image. So Barry Allen as we knew him is gone for good. Jump cut to the Flash jury being transported to the courthouse in a bus when a car runs it off the road sending it into the river. The mysterious juror Newbury tells everyone that they will all survive it, which is exactly what happens when the Flash saves everyone. This leaves the jurors wondering how Newbury could have known they would be okay in advance.

Yet another jump cut to a city street scene where Captain Frye sees a criminal fleeing into an alley. When Frye runs in to alley after him, he finds the Reverse Flash (surprise!) standing over him. RF tells Frye that he caught the crook as a favor, and that, in return, he wants Frye to let the world know that the Reverse Flash is back and that he plans to murder the Flash. Next: The trial ends, and the revenge begins!

In an interesting personal side note, on the Flashgrams page, is a letter from a reader who would one day contact me to get his copy of The Complete Funky Winkerbean Volume One signed, and who would continue to do so for each subsequent volume. Such loyalty deserves to be rewarded, so I asked him to send me a pic and later this year he will appear as a character in Crankshaft. It’s not only a small world, it’s a cool world as well.