Flash #173

Flash #173 (On Sale: July 20, 1967) features another great cover by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson. Great to see Jay Garrick in action on a Flash cover!

"Doomward Flight of the Flashes" is by John Broome, Carmine Infantino and Sid Greene. While battling the Domino Gang alongside Kid Flash, the Flash suddenly vanishes in a bolt of light. Kid Flash returns to Barry Allen's house where he meets Jay Garrick and his wife Joan who have dropped by to visit from Earth-2. Jay joins Kid Flash on a search for Barry. Then Kid Flash is also teleported away by a flash of light.

Kid Flash awakens on an alien planet next to his mentor where they meet an alien mutant called Golden Man who claims responsibility for teleporting them to his planet. He is far more evolved than other beings from his planet and has teleported the Flashes there to provide a hunt. Flash and Kid Flash are then forced to outrun their captor to stay alive.

Golden Man secretly has another motive for the hunt. He plans to use the super-speed energy expended by his opponents to evolve the rest of his race. Then he can rule over them as a dictator. However, Flash is lost in a pit of quicksand. Since his plan requires two speedsters, Golden Man returns to his laboratory with the unconscious Kid Flash.

Golden Man then teleports Jay Garrick to his world. However, Jay's internal vibrations allow him to remain conscious upon arrival. Jay and Kid Flash try to defeat Golden Man, but are captured again. Then Barry Allen arrives, having survived the quicksand by vibrating through the planet's crust.

The three Flashes are then able to defeat Golden Man. In a last ditch effort to succeed in his world domination plan, Golden Man activates an experimental machine.Reprinted in DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #2 and Crisis on Multiple Earths:Team-Ups Vol. 2 TPB.

Edited by Julius Schwartz.