Once again it’s nice to see some Flash villains featured on the cover. The Flashinados had been clamoring for more such appearances and editor Julie Schwartz was apparently paying heed. He was aided and abetted by Flash letters page graduate and writer Cary Bates. The Million Dollar Death Trap yarn would have been right at home with the Flash tales from early in the Silver Age run. The Mirror Master cons (pun, of course, intended) his cellmate the Top into betting a million dollars that not only will he, MM, escape from prison, but that he’ll have the Flash trapped in the same prison cell within twenty-four hours. The Mirror Master shining his shoes to a mirror-like and escape-enabling finish using his earwax and oil from his hair is gross but clever (and to think that the prison authorities could have kept him around as a guest with just a little more attention to proper hygiene). Once outside the walls, Bates provides MM with a solar powered reflector racer which nicely serves the purpose of allowing him to keep pace with and keep away from our Flashy friend as he goes after the Top’s million dollar stash. Mirror Master succeeds in landing the Flash in the calaboose with the Top as he manipulates things from a tiny computer and tech filled compartment beneath the cell block (so apparently it wasn’t just the earwax and hair oil). He even rigs things so that if the Flash vibrates even a teeny weeny little bit, it will detonate a concealed bomb. This next bit is where Bates really earns his spurs by having the Top team-up with the Flash so that he can spin to counter the Flash’s vibrations allowing The Flash to escape thus preventing the prison and and the Top himself from being blown to smithereens. Why the Top couldn’t have just vibrated himself out of jail any time he wanted prior to that has yet to be addressed.
The Green Lantern/Green Arrow story in the book wraps up the longer story from their own book and I’ve already spent two posts raving about it, so just go back and read those if you need to.
Speaking of prior posts, on the Flash-Grams page, a Flashinado takes writer Bates to task for having the Flash travel in outer space, something I expressed annoyance with myself in said prior post. Bates is given the opportunity to respond and proceeds to get a little testy with the reader, citing prior instances where the Flash had ventured into and survived in space, as his defense. The only problem is… those were dumb too. It was interesting to see Bates get all spunky with with the reader like that. I wonder what he would have thought if he’d known that the internet coming.
