So The Flash hits issue 250 without a whole lot of fanfare. Actually, without any fanfare. These days when every six issue run is hyped with a trade collection celebrating some timeless story arc like it’s the second coming, this rather impressive reaching of a notable milestone in the Silver Age Flash’s run passed unremarked. Curious. Discuss.
Meanwhile, what we have here is a pretty good issue where Cary Bates finally steps up the plate and knocks one out of the park bloops a single to right field with the creation of his first solid Flash villain the Golden Glider. Rather than the bland Flash foes he has foisted on us up to this point, this is a villain that seems to have some… nope, not in the me too era. Let’s just say that the Golden Glider is the first original villain that he’s come up with to date (if you don’t pay attention that Silver Surfer namey likey thingy if you get my drift, wink wink). One nice original touch is that the Golden Glider is Lisa Snart the sister of Len Snart (but then, again, there’s that L thing… Lois Lane, Lucy Lane, Lana Lang, Lex Luthor, Lena Luthor, Lori Lemaris, Lisa and Len la la la la la) (sorry about that little trip to L and back, just getting a little stir fried these days).
Okay, so if we’ve all been paying attention, Len Snart is the nom de pen (as in jail) of Captain Cold, and his sister Lisa is a world class figure skater who visits Roscoe Dillion AKA the Top to pick up some coaching tips on how to spin faster. She also falls for him. After Roscoe’s death a few issues back, she’s vows to get revenge on the Flash as the Golden Glider with a cold gun of her own. So she waves her brother Captain Cold off so she can go after the Flash herself.
Anybody remember that B story about Daphne Dean that we’ve been following on and off for the past two issues? Well Cary Bates finally remembered it too and suddenly she’s at Barry’s house after he gets home following his dust-up with the Golden Glider. It’s turns out that it’s just a modified rehash of the older plot involving her and that she’s just faking amnesia to show that she’d be good for a movie part that she wants to get. Iris, because she’s been spying on her, blows her cover and Daphne apologizes and leaves. Which kind of makes her comment at the end of last issue about “ringing down the curtain on Barry Allen” not make much sense. Speaking of not making sense, with the air finally cleared, Iris gets mad and stomps out of the house. ? Meanwhile, The Golden Glider has been watching their house because she has a device of the Top’s that lets her track the Flash’s aura (strange that the Top himself never used it). When Iris stomps out, GG shoots her with her cold gun announcing a “lover for a lover” and we’re left to wait until next issue to see if Iris becomes the world’s first freeze dried fatality.
It seems at this juncture The Flash has completed the transformation from multiple stories in an issue to continuous ongoing stories a la the Marvel style because that was what the readers now wanted. It only took DC Comics a decade and then some to finally figure that out.
