{"id":3486,"date":"2021-12-22T15:06:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-22T23:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/?p=3486"},"modified":"2022-07-09T18:28:34","modified_gmt":"2022-07-10T01:28:34","slug":"623-the-silver-age-flash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/623-the-silver-age-flash\/","title":{"rendered":"623 &#8211; The Silver Age Flash!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/195607-flash-2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"381\" height=\"294\" src=\"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/195607-flash-2.png\" alt=\"A panel from Showcase #4, July 1956\" class=\"wp-image-3487\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/195607-flash-2.png 381w, https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/195607-flash-2-300x231.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 381px) 100vw, 381px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>A panel from Showcase #4, July 1956<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Comic book historians like to call the appearance of the Silver Age Flash (Barry Allen) in Showcase #4 (July 1956) the beginning of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Silver_Age_of_Comic_Books\">Silver Age of Comic Books<\/a>. From my standpoint, having gone through the first twenty years of superhero comic books, I don&#8217;t think there is single defining moment. I believe the Silver Age was a gradual evolution. There are many moments before the Flash that I&#8217;d call &#8220;Silver Age-y&#8221;:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>1949&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/430-kryptonite\/\">introduction of Kryptonite<\/a> into the Superman mythos and further deepening of Krypton in stories<\/li><li>1950&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/452-lana-lang\/\">introduction of Lana Lang<\/a> to Superboy&#8217;s supporting cast of characters<\/li><li>1950&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/479-captain-comet\/\">introduction of Captain Comet<\/a>, DC&#8217;s first &#8220;mutant&#8221; superhero<\/li><li>1954&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/577-supermans-pal-jimmy-olsen\/\">introduction of Jimmy Olsen<\/a>, a Silver Age character if I ever saw one<\/li><li>1955&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/592-comics-code-authority-arrives\/\">introduction of the Comics Code Authority<\/a> and the demise of EC<\/li><li>1955&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/607-the-martian-manhunter\/\">introduction of the Martian Manhunter<\/a>, one of the founding members of the JLA<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>But any way you slice it, we are definitely in the Silver Age now with a great addition to DC&#8217;s cast of dynamic superheroes: Barry Allen as the Flash!  A police scientists who wishes he was like Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash. The story also unwittingly opens the door to the concept of DC&#8217;s multiverse, by explaining that the Golden Age Flash were comic books in Barry Allen&#8217;s world (meaning those stories took place on a different Earth).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/195607-flash-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"369\" height=\"377\" src=\"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/195607-flash-1.png\" alt=\"Another panel from Showcase #4, July 1956\" class=\"wp-image-3489\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/195607-flash-1.png 369w, https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/195607-flash-1-294x300.png 294w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 369px) 100vw, 369px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Another panel from Showcase #4, July 1956<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The third story in Showcase #4 features the Flash&#8217;s first instance of breaking through the time barrier:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/195607-flash-3.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"350\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/195607-flash-3.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3490\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/195607-flash-3.png 350w, https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/195607-flash-3-300x270.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Yet another panel from Showcase #4, July 1956<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Note that Barry Allen shows up in some issues of Showcase over the next couple years, but does not get his own comic until late in 1958!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Comic book historians like to call the appearance of the Silver Age Flash (Barry Allen) in Showcase #4 (July 1956) the beginning of the Silver Age of Comic Books. From my standpoint, having gone through the first twenty years of superhero comic books, I don&#8217;t think there is single defining moment. I believe the Silver [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[578,14,73,528,445,553,16],"class_list":["post-3486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-578","tag-dc","tag-flash","tag-multiverse","tag-silver-age","tag-superhero-revival","tag-time-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3486"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3970,"href":"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3486\/revisions\/3970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.codedread.com\/comicbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}