Direct Course #2

Flash #121

 “Falling for my trap!" -The Trickster 

The Trickster Strikes Back 

by John Broome, Carmine Infantino & Joe Giella
                         
In the courtyard of a state prison, prisoner James Jesse alias The Trickster, is tasked along with the other inmates to make toys for children. The guards are not aware that inside the model plane he has made is a jet propulsion system using compressed air inside of it. With some protest from the guards, James mounts the model plane and manages to fly it up over the prison wall. One guard takes a shot at him from the guard tower, but misses as the criminal flies out of range.

At Picture News, where Iris West works, they receive the information on The Trickster’s escape. Iris’s boss asks her to go into their archives to find out what they already have on him to make a new story about him. Looking through their file, Iris finds that he was an aerialist. He invented special shoes using compressed air to allow for him to walk on air, so he could not fall from the tight rope. Unsatisfied with being only an aerialist, he turned to crime, using his shoes to rob airplanes in mid-flight. Eventually the Flash caught him, using a pogo stick. As Iris is about to Phone her boyfriend Barry Allen to cancel their date in light of this new story, she receives a call from him who also has to cancel.

Barry Allen must cancel their date plans, for he is secretly the Flash, and he must rush out in search of the escaped Trickster. During his search he finds a robbery already in progress by two random crooks. He grabs their stolen necklace, and brings the crooks to the police station. As the Flash is delivering the crooks, the Trickster appears on the police station roof. He snatches the necklace out of the Flash’s hands using an extended hook.

After dropping the crooks into the police station, the Flash rushes up the side of the building after the Trickster. He leads the Flash across electric power lines, the Flash having to run slower to keep his balance. The Trickster shoots an arrow down behind him, severing the electric line so that the Flash will fall with it and be electrocuted. The Flash uses his speed to build up air pressure to slow his descent and avoid the falling wire. After the Flash gets his bearing, he realizes he’s lost the Trickster.

A news report tells of the Flash’s constant duel over the next several days with the Trickster. The Flash failing to stop him with every encounter, as the Trickster continues his ploy to steal the jewels from robberies already in progress as the Flash stops them. At his apartment, the Flash sits down and tries to figure out where the Trickster’s hideout is, because he knows he can capture him if he does, before he can take off to the air with his special shoes.

The Flash figures out that the Trickster must be hiding out in a toy factory, because with every encounter the Trickster shows up with some new toy-like device to stop the Flash. Speeding from one toy factory to the next, he finds one on the edge of town with a light still glowing in its second story window as dusk approaches.
Rushing instead the factory, the Flash find the Trickster at work. The Flash grabs him and tosses him around until wires and arms start falling apart, only to realize that this Trickster is a dummy. The Trickster looks on while mocking the Flash, hidden behind a door. Just as the Flash realizes what’s going on, the dummy explodes in his hands.

Thinking the Flash dead, Trickster briefly laments the passing of his foe when he suddenly gets tap on his shoulder. It’s the Flash, and he’s still alive. He reveals that just as the dummy exploded, he used his speed to vibrate through a wall of the building, and ran around to another window that he then came back in through. The Flash then grabs the Trickster’s hand and gives him a super-speed whirl, spinning him around and around in the air until he’s too dizzy. Completely baffled, the Trickster complies for the Flash to take him back to prison.

After the news reports that the Flash has caught the Trickster, Barry and Iris meet for a date. As they dance together, Barry has to bow out and rest, for his foot is injured from having to cover  five thousand miles in one day in search of the Trickster as the Flash. He can’t reveal this to Iris who doesn’t know he is the Flash, and she responds accusing him of just being lazy.

Notes/Observations/Thoughts

• The Trickster is a jerk!

• With that out of the way, I just picked this issue at random. It’s the second appearance of the Trickster, who is a bit of an odd villain for the Flash. He’s kind of a very low-key version of the Joker, but for Flash instead of Batman.

• The Trickster is pretty clever despite his kinda dopey-ness. He lures the Flash to his terrain, a high wire in the form of an electrical wire, knowing that the Flash would have to slow down after him to keep his balance. Then when he believes he’s killed him, the Trickster for a moment shows regret at his actions, because the Flash was such a good dueling buddy.

• My favorite part of this story is that news report on what is happening between the Flash and the Trickster is written over a montage of what is happening, whether on purpose or not, it makes that moment feel more cinematic than most silver age stories.

• I also like that the Flash takes a moment to just sit down and think things through, which lead to him figuring out how to find the Trickster.

• The ending is supposed to be humorous, I guess, but it just makes Iris come off as a shrew, which happens a lot in the silver age. It’s not like it’s the character is at fault for being depicted that way, it’s mainly men who are writing the woman character that way, and these days it’s just embarrassing.

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Flash #121 - 2nd story

 “You carry the “ball" and see if you can get past me!" -Bill “Beefy” Lawson

Secret of the Stolen Blueprint 

by John Broome, Carmine Infantino & Murphy Anderson
                         
At his college’s 10 anniversary, Barry Allen runs into his old roommate Pete Forester. After introducing him to his girlfriend, Iris West, Barry learns that his old friend is trying to get the drum up the courage to propose to his girlfriend, Doris Hunt. However, his old rival  Bill “Beefy” Lawson keeps trying to butt in and take her for himself.

Pete tried to get Beefy to stop talking to his girlfriend, when Beefy challenges him to recreate what happened when they played football together long ago, using a balloon as the ball. Successfully recreating an incident from their past makes Pete look like a weak fool in front of Doris’s eyes.

Deciding to help out his friend, Barry changes into the Flash. He uses his super speed to make Pete win through more challenges that Beefy sets up for him, without anybody being able to see him through vibrating so fast. This makes Beefy miss as he attempts to tackle Pete, and he trips on his face.

In his nearby hotel room after the afternoon festivities, Barry awaits for Pete to call him on his phone to tell him about some new scientific development. When he receives the phone call, Pete tells him that the blueprints of his discovery have been stolen by foreign agents. Berry knows this is a job for the Flash, so he tells his friend that he is good friends with the Flash and will contact him at once.

Appearing as both the Flash and Barry simultaneously through the use of super speed at Pete’s lab. As the “three” of them discuss the disappearance of Pete’s blueprints, Beefy enters the room to see if he can lend a hand after he just got done giving a tip to some skin-divers. The Flash figures out the the skin-divers must be the thieves, because he guesses that they used a submarine to reach the country. Too busy to pay attention on their way to the coast, the Flash makes Barry “vanish” and uses his speed force to bring his two friends to the coast with him.

The Flash dives underwater in search of the skin-diving foreign agents as his friends remain on the shore. Reaching the enemies, he kicks at super speed in the water, causing an undertow effect like a ship’s propeller blade, bringing them towards him.

Back on shore, the Flash brings the agents up with him, and Beefy punches one of them out. The Flash uncovers the blueprints just as the police arrive, Beefy telling them that he wants to make sure the Flash gets some of the credit for stopping the thieves. The police tell them that the coast guard has been alerted to find the sub that the agents were heading to.

Pete is feeling so happy that his blueprint he’s been working on for over 10 years have been rescued, that he could finally propose to his girlfriend. The Flash grabs his friend and rushes him over to Doris, unbeknown to Pete, and he pops the question. Doris cheerfully accepts as the two embrace.

The next day, Iris and Barry are having coffee on the balcony of their hotel room. With the college’s Reunion Bulletin in hand, Iris reads that the Flash helped in bringing Pete and Doris together. Iris wonders when the Flash will help Barry propose to her, while Barry wonders what she is thinking.

Notes/Observations/Thoughts

• I didn’t like this one as much as the other story. I do like it when superheroes are forced into the odd social situation, but with this one the Flash seems to make things more complicated for himself more than he should to maintain his secret identity.

• In addition to that, for a story based on a social situation, I think the characters should have more depth to them. All we know about Pete is that he has a girlfriend he wants to propose to, he’s a scientist of some sort which isn’t really explained, and he’s friends with Barry. We get nothing out of his girlfriend Doris. The only one here with more dimensions to him, is Beefy who is a big asshole bully, but still seems to be friends with both Barry and Pete. 

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