Flash Fridays – The Flash #280 December 1979

Staying on task for an entire issue without any side trips to other places or chasing off after shiny things, writer Cary Bates delivers a taut and linear resolution to the Clive Yorkin saga. We see the monster battling police and even bringing down a police helicopter in King Kong fashion. All leading up to the final battle with Yorkin. It comes about through Barry doing some diligent police work as he checks though police records looking for the previous hideouts that Yorkin used when he was just a bad guy and not a big bad monster bad guy, and then checking them out as the Flash. When he finally locates Yorkin he finds that Melanie has gotten there first and gotten herself into trouble. Together they combine their minds to focus on Barry’s love for Iris and they drive Yorkin to distraction and to falling into a sink-hole where his desperate attempts to claw his way back out cause the sink-hole to collapse and bury him. There’s one little epilogue of a surprise that drops when Frank Curtis calls Barry to say that he has positive proof that Yorkin didn’t kill Iris… and new clues as to who did.

But there was another surprise awaiting us in this issue. In a fabulous Flash fill-in, Don Heck has stepped in to limn the text with his lush, evocative and slightly impressionistic style. I’ve always been a fan of Heck’s work from his early days at Marvel. He brings to The Flash a very solidly drawn, but also romantic look. The Flash hasn’t  looked quite this good in a while.