I like all other comic book fans know that the Silver Age of comics began when Julie Schwartz got veteran writer Gardner Fox and longtime artist Carmine Infantino together and they brought forth a new dazzling rendition of the vintage Golden Age character called The Flash. Barry Allen, the new Flash was sleek and modern and a hero for the new time. That's what we all know. But of course we are wrong.
The presumption of the Flash theory is that superheroes disappeared from the comic book stands, replaced by other genres such as war, romance and horror. The masked marvels of the early days of comics were represented by stalwarts Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. With few exceptions that was it for the underwear set. But how do we account for Captain Flash.
Created by Mike Sekowsky and possibly the editor at Serling Comics, one Martin Smith, we get a brand new superhero in 1954, two years ahead of the DC revival we all know about. Captain Flash is a transitional hero, evocative of the olden days but also drawn with a somewhat modern flair. He could create little atomic explosions by clapping his hands together, a somewhat unwieldy power admittedly. He had a boy sidekick in the Golden Age tradition, something that would be eschewed in the Silver Age for the most part. Tomboy was the companion feature in the book, a young teen who fought crime but who didn't seem particularly tormented. Captain Flash was at once a throwback and look forward. He was a superhero at a time when supposedly there were no superheroes. What he didn't spark was a new wave of superheroes. That would have to wait until a particular lightning bolt struck in a particular police lab a few years later.
The PS Arts book features all four of the Captain Flash comics and since that makes it a bit thin adds two issues of The Tormented, a handsome pair of comics from Sterling.
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