Showcase Presents: The Trial of the Flash, Vol. 1 by Cary Bates

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


An epic tale stretching across Flash Issues 323-327, 329-336, and 340-350 as the Flash kills the Reverse to save Barry Allen's Fiance Fiona Webb and finds himself on trial for murder.

This is a good story where the world seems to keep dumping on the Flash, yet at the same time, it's also a celebration of Barry Allen. This book had a more realistic approach to the Trial given how many issues it took to even to get to that point and that Flash's most celebrated Rogues never let up. At the same time, he has to make key sacrifices of his own secret identity and Barry's heroism shines through. In the trial itself, there are some surprising twists including an attempt from someone from the future to make sure history comes out right. And then there's issue #350 which is pure magic, with excitement, twists, and a team up between Flash and his Rogues against a common foe.

The book does suffer because of some omitted issues. Issue #328 was a reprint, but Issues #337-339 were original stories which means there was a break in the tale and a jarring resumption in Issue 340. The information is not vital and you can enjoy the book without it, but it appears to have only been done to keep the book under 600 pages.

The book's got legal realism problems, but then again it was published when Matlock and LA Law where kings of legal drama on TV, so I can't judge it too harshly for that. It does drag in places. Wally West "testified" as an expert witness so that we can almost an entire issue of Flashbacks to ol Kid Flash stories.

Still despite some melodrama, this is an epic and really fun story if you're a fan of the Pre-Crisis Flash with some great emotional beats and foreshadowing of the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths. I hope DC eventually reprints all the issues in color as an omnibus. Until then, fans of the Silver Age Barry Allen should get a hold of this if they can.



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