Flash Fridays – The Flash #242 June 1976

Jan 24, 2020

In this issue, the Flash battles the Electric Gang. The Electric Gang uses the natural charge of electricity that people have in their bodies to paralyze their victims (when the charge in their body is drained) and uses it to commit crimes and KO superheroes like the Flash. The effect on the Flash not only knocks him out of commission but gives him a case of amnesia in regard to what just happened. Hard to solve a case when you can’t even remember that there was a case to be solved. Luckily for the Flash, Iris is able to step up and solve the crime in her capacity as a reporter. Her capacity as a reporter? Yes, in this issue, Iris goes back to work. Even though they had no children, Iris apparently gave up her career to become a housewife. Things in the real world were changing however, and, in their attempt to acknowledge those changes, the old men at DC Comics had Iris return to work… and just in time because Iris is the one who discovers that the Electric Gang have been using the cover of being floor cleaners to put down chemicals that would later allow them to return and “absorb body-electricity from their victims through their footgear!”. Iris woman-splains all of this to Flash/Barry at the end and then, speaking of children, seems to drop the hint that she might be pregnant in a bit of a domestic cliffhanger.

But hold the iPhone… there’s another cliffhanger to deal with Flashinistas! All throughout the story members of Flash’s Rogues Gallery have been seen surreptitiously returning to the city. In the closing panel, we see them all gathered for a funeral of one of their own with a caption that reads: “And on this sad note we leave you till next issue… to wonder which Flash foe died… and under what circumstances!” Or until the next Flash Friday. (Speaking of wondering, I’m betting it’s the Top since he’s not pictured.) (Spoiler alert!)