December 1959: Lightning Strikes Twice

Born in an era that valued science, the Flash’s foes tended to embody various scientific fields: temperature, aerodynamics, sonics, gyroscopic effects, the periodic table — and meteorology.

In Flash 110 (Dec. 1959), the Scarlet Speedster faced The Challenge of the Weather Wizard — a John Broome/Carmine Infantino tale that introduced the super-criminal Mark Mardon, whose “electro-vibrator wand” gave him complete control over the atmosphere.

“Broome especially concentrated on origin tales during the period September 1959 to September 1960,” noted comics historian Michael E. Grost. “This was the period in which he built and put into place all the main elements of his Silver Age Green Lantern revival: Green Lantern himself, Carol Ferris, the Guardians of the Universe, and Thomas Kamalku. These Green Lantern tales appeared in Showcase and Green Lantern. During this same period, he was prolifically inventive in adding new characters in The Flash.”

Though an enduring member of the Flash’s rogue’s gallery, the Weather Wizard wasn’t even the most important character introduced in this issue.

In the backup story Meet Kid Flash!, another unlikely accident turned Iris West’s nephew Wally into a pint-sized version of the title’s protagonist.

“The relationship between Flash and Kid Flash is a universal one, one in which an experienced person mentors a younger one,” Grost observed. “This relationship is a positive one, and one that is part of standard human experience. Mentoring is often done by one person teaching another a job or profession. Here both Flashes have the common job of being super-fast super-heroes.”

But unlike the Boy Wonder Robin, Kid Flash would sort out the majority of his adventures without his mentor’s help. In that, he anticipated Spider-Man, a fully independent teenage superhero who would debut two years later.

Whether set in the Flash’s Central City or Kid Flash’s suburban Blue Valley, the stories fairly glowed with the assured, lustrous art of Infantino inked by Murphy Anderson and Joe Giella.

Together, they could somehow make absurdities seem appealingly matter-of-fact.