The Flash tale in this issue is credited to Len Wein and Bob Rozakis. Hard to tell the reason for the Rozakis co-credit, but since Rozakis was handling the letter cols along with various and sundry duties at DC such as driving their ill-fated comic-book-mobile, it’s natural to assume that he provided the spark for the story that Wein wrote. Which in this case would be the fact that a hair dresser could, by the use of telekinesis, switch bodies with someone else by simply touching a lock of their previously shorn hair. No explantation is given for just how the hairdresser acquired these powers of telekineses, just that he suddenly realized he had them. The Flash dubs him Mr. Originality thus coming up with one of the most boring villain names in the history of coming up villain names, and, believe me, there’s some pretty stiff competition out there. The Flash trips him up because Mr. Originality also happen to cut Barry Allen’s hair. When Mr. Originality tries to use Barry’s hair to escape a crime by making a body switch, Barry as the Flash makes sure that he’s in a jail cell when that happens. As Flash stories go, there’s not a lot to chew on here. Which brings us to the crux of what bothered me about this issue. It’s just kind of well… boring. It starts with an uninspired cover, and rides a lame premise to a rather dull and obvious conclusion. Everyone has an off day now and again, and this appears to be one of those times when, as they say, Wein didn’t have an idea for a story but wrote one because he had an issue to finish. No colorful costumed foe, no clever origin story, no real character development, no nothing really. Frankly, the most interesting thing in the story is at the conclusion when we find that the Allen’s house guest, Stacy Conwell, is harboring a secret that she doesn’t dare tell anyone. And then she finds that some pages have been torn from her diary…
