An incredible Neal Adams cover not only declares itself the best of the recent covers, but a serious contender for one of the top twenty Flash covers of all time. Cover-wise, they really don’t get much better. The story within opens in a bowling alley where we find Barry, Iris, Stacy and her boyfriend Chuck Marston pairing off in competition. I find the scene most notable for the panel where Stacy points to her boyfriend and says: “You’re up, Chuck!” I don’t know… it made me laugh. Anyway, while they’re there, one of those odd scientific-law-breaking events occurs when one of the bowling balls grows to a massive size so large that it has to be destroyed by the Flash. These events were teased last issue and the Flash/Barry returns to his police lab where the first one occurred to investigates. The the Flash finds a small yellow pyramid on the shelf which once discovered transports him to the future.
The Flash arrives in the future just as the 64th century villain Abra Kadabra is performing magic tricks for an adoring crowd. When he talks with the police he learns that AK has been subjected to a rehabilitation process called mento-analysis that has removed the driving force that caused him to commit crimes.
AK is bored and frustrated and has devised a way out of his predicament. The plan is to bring the Flash to the future to kill… Abra Kadabra himself. When the Flash appears to do this by atomizing AK, he’s immediately arrested. The story stops with the Flash being led off to jail, with his fate to be made known next issue. The story to that point is good but awfully short with barely enough time to present the premise, let alone develop it. The problem may be remedied by the fact that at the end of the Green Lantern story in the book, the announcement is made that GL will be getting his own book again. If this happens, writer Cary Bates will be given a lot more room to roam. We’ll see what ensues.
