Okay, so let’s dispense with the big ha ha funny knock against this cover which is: how can somebody know what it feel’s like to be turned into a puppet? Well, you could look at the arm you’re holding up in front of your face for starters. That would be a pretty good clue. So with that silliness out of the way, let’s dive in. After only a couple of month’s absence, Abra Kadabra is back after using the reflections from pots and pans in the prison kitchen to create a hypno-ray which he uses on the warden to have the warden give him a full pardon (and people are incredulous about the cover?). Once out, AK continues his pursuit of fame and fortune. He creates a new show that has a puppet Flash that he makes fun of. When Barry and Iris goes to see it, Barry decides that as the Flash he needs to start a campaign on crime to restore his good name. He does this and when it hurts the attendance at AK’s shows, the mad magician vows revenge.
And revenge he does get when he manages to turn the real Flash into a puppet which he then incorporates into his show. The Flash uses his amazing control over the molecules of his body to partially restore himself enough so that he manages to knock out AK and then returns himself to normal by turning AK’s magic wand around and using the other end on himself (and people are incredulous about the, you know…). And so AK goes back to the calaboose, not for turning the Flash into a puppet, which apparently is not illegal, but for the confession he’ll give about his pots and pans escape. Ok (and people… never mind) The Infantino/Giella art, by the way, is beautiful and some of the team’s best yet. They have hit their stride and then some.
The Kid Flash follow-up is a nicely turned story about three handicapped (a blind student, a deaf student and a student who can’t speak) fellow classmates of Wally’s who use their heightened remaining senses to discover Kid Flash’s secret identity, much to his consternation and dismay. In the end, they let Wally know that they plan to keep his secret. Writer Broome ends with the following: “And thus with the days falling serenely into place…”. Sweet. Who wouldn’t wish for that?
