Synopsis for "Vengeance of the Immortal Villain!"
This story is reprinted from The Flash #137.
After a series of strange lights, Washington D.C. suddenly experiences a freak blackout, followed by many other cities across the United States. When Iris West tells Barry Allen the news, they wonder which city will be next and what the source of the strange events are. Barry finds that the cities in question ring a bell but can't exactly place a finger on it, and offers to walk Iris home. After dropping Iris off Barry realizes how the cities effected sound familiar. Rushing home Barry goes through his old comic book collection recalling that the cities that have been affected were home towns of super-heroes listed in comic books. Pulling out an old issue of All Star Comics, Barry realizes that the cities affected were cities where members of the Justice Society of America operated from. Remembering that these heroes actually exist in the alternate universe of Earth-Two, Barry decides to change into the Flash and pay a visit to the Flash of that native reality -- Jay Garrick.
Vibrating such a way to transport himself from Central City on Earth-One to Keystone City on Earth-Two, Barry races to the home of Jay Garrick where he finds Jay's wife Joan at home. When Jay returns from a mission, Barry explains to him what had happened and Jay is surprised because the same events are happening on Earth-Two, and his comrades in the Justice Society of America that live in those cities have gone mysteriously missing. When the strange lights appear over Keystone City, both Flashes speed out to try and find their source. Along the way Jay is stunned by a strange ray that encases him in a transparent cube and carries him off into the sky. Witnessing this attempted capture, Barry races after the cube, manages to hop onto it and smashes it open by hitting it at super-speed and then safely carry himself and Jay to the ground by creating a wind vortex at super-speed. With Jay fast recovering, Barry suggests that they go back to the sky-light making machine.
Meanwhile, in a secret hideout within Mammoth Caves, long time JSA villain Vandal Savage is the mastermind behind the capture of the heroes. So far he has already succeeded in capturing Doctor Mid-Nite, Wonder Woman, Hawkman, the Atom, Johnny Thunder, and the Green Lantern. Savage boasts over using technology invented by his comrades in the Injustice League to capture the heroes and vows to capture the Flash. Savage recounts how millions of years ago he was simply a primitive Cro-Magnon named Vandar Adg when the energies of an exploding meteor exploded over his head making him immortal, and lived out the centuries as sometimes as a ruler, sometimes as a warrior.
Vowing to capture the Flash, Vandal Savage then goes out in a specially prepared craft to personally capture the hero himself. He comes across Jay and Barry at the site of his sky-light device and is surprised to find another Flash. Despite this surprise, Vandal Savage manages to capture the two heroes with his ships high-tech devices and attempts to take them back to his hideout. The two heroes revive and combine their vibratory powers to shake up the ship and force it to crash, however Vandal Savage manages to escape unharmed and return to his base. The Fastest Men Alive trace Savage back to his cave where they run into his trap, a weapon that causes the two heroes to fight each other.
Barry knows that he will be able to defeat Jay in a fight because he is younger and can use his super-speed longer, and easily knocks Jay out. Then in order to capture Vandal Savage vibrates at super-speed to render himself invisible. Savage then captures Jay and then sets up a trap for Barry by putting up a hologram of himself in a trap that would trap the Flash in one of his cubes. Barry deduces this at the last moment, and springs the trap without getting caught in it. Savage believes that because the Flash was moving so fast that he was invisible, that he captured this other Flash. However, his guess proves wrong when he turns around and finds that the Flash has freed all the members of the Justice Society of America.
With Savage defeated and turned over to the authorities, Wonder Woman suggests that the heroes should prevent this form happening again by coming out of retirement and reuniting as the Justice Society once more, a suggestion that everyone agrees upon. With everything on Earth-Two set right again, Barry returns home to Earth-One where he calls Iris for a date. Iris declines because the Picture News is scrambling to find answers to the mysterious blackouts that happened on Earth-One, Barry realizes he's going to have to zip by the paper as the Flash and tell Iris the exclusive story if he's ever going to get a date out of her soon.
Appearing in "Vengeance of the Immortal Villain!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Vandal Savage (Flashback and main story) (first appearance in the Silver Age) (Origin)
Other Characters:
- Justice Society of America (first appearance in the Silver Age)
- Wonder Woman (Earth-Two) (first appearance in the Silver Age)
- Atom (Al Pratt) (first appearance in the Silver Age)
- Hawkman (Carter Hall) (first appearance in the Silver Age)
- Green Lantern (Alan Scott) (first appearance in the Silver Age)
- Doctor Mid-Nite (Charles McNider) (first appearance in the Silver Age)
- Johnny Thunder (first appearance in the Silver Age)
- Injustice Society (Mentioned only) (comic book)
- Brainwave (Mentioned only)
- Cro-Magnons (Flashback only)
- Napoleon Bonaparte (Flashback only)
- Bismarck (Flashback only)
Locations:
- Earth-One
- Central City
- Washington, D.C.
- Pentagon
- Calvin City (Mentioned only)
- Gotham City (Mentioned only)
- Earth-Two
- Kentucky
- Keystone City
- Egypt (Flashback only)
- Sumer (Flashback only)
- Mongolia (Flashback only)
- France (Flashback only)
- Germany (Flashback only)
- Calvin College (Mentioned only)
Items:
- All-Star Comics #37 (comic book)
- Flash's Costume Ring
- Cube Prison
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "The Big Super-Hero Hunt"
This story is reprinted from The Brave and the Bold #62.
The Sportsmaster and Huntress work together as husband and wife, him stealing expensive sports memorabilia, while she captures any superhero that gets in the way. When Wildcat falls into Huntress' trap, only Starman and Black Canary can help him.
Appearing in "The Big Super-Hero Hunt"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Sportsmaster
- Huntress (Paula Brooks) (First Appearence as Paula Brooks-Crock)
Other Characters:
- Guards from the Larry Lance Detective Agency
- Mr. Benson
Locations:
- Federal City
Items:
Vehicles:
- Jet Power Boat
Synopsis for "Finale for a Fiddler"
This story is reprinted from The Flash #201.
Jay and Joan take in an outdoor concert only to find the Fiddler playing the same old song of taking money from the crowd.
Appearing in "Finale for a Fiddler"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "The Sight Stealers"
This story is reprinted from Adventure Comics #418.
McNider has built an echo-flashlight to help the blind. On his way to his friend Lacey's fund-raising show he is accosted by several crooks on Lacey's secretary Murvis' payroll, set to steal his especial flashlight.
McNider pretends to skedaddle and swiftly changes into Dr. Mid-Nite. Mid-Nite is easily overpowering the mobsters when Murvis' sudden appearance knocks him out. The gang tie Mid-Nite up to Murvis' bike and push him downhill, but he manages to guide the bike to a safe spot.
Later Murvis' gang attempts to steal the fund-raising but they are stopped by Mid-Nite for good.
Appearing in "The Sight Stealers"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Murvis (Single appearance)
- Coyne (Single appearance)
Other Characters:
- Mr. Lacey (Single appearance)
Locations:
Items:
- None
Vehicles:
- None
Synopsis for "The Mystery of the Vanishing Detectives"
This story is reprinted from All-Star Comics #57.
Four international detectives are invited to a demonstration set up by the Justice Society, where a model crime is carried out in an auditorium, and they then have to solve it despite being blindfolded as the theatrics are played out. They succeed, but suddenly the lights double in brightness, and by the time Flash's fixed the wiring the detectives have vanished! The only clue's a silver skeleton key found at the scene. A messenger brings in a cablegram for each of the missing detectives, and in light of the situation the JSA reads through them, learning each detective was being called home to investigate a baffling crime. The JSA realize the crimes must all be carried out by one syndicate, if all of the detectives were kidnapped at once to get them out of the way. The heroes split up to investigate the crimes themselves.
Dr. Mid-Nite arrives in London. He follows the trail of clues from a robbery of a high security bank to a series of underground air raid tunnels the British police overlooked as they're too used to seeing those. After a merry chase, Mid-Nite captures the thieves and learns a key isn't only the mastermind's calling card, also his nom de guerre.
Flash investigates the disappearance of some of Notre Dame's gargoyles. He catches thieves carrying off another one, and uses a piece of paper to drill through a stone wall to chase after them. Not only that, the paper he grabbed has the thieves' orders, telling them where to go after the crime. He catches them and recovers their stolen gargoyles, but is left wondering who the Key could really be.
Wonder Woman investigates the crime involving the Emir of Kasdan, who receives his literal weight in gold on his birthday from the people. But the emir who received the gold was a phony, the real one showing up late because his car broke down. Wonder Woman chases them down in her invisible plane, then hoists the thieves' entire escape sub out of the water with her bare hands and shakes it until they fall out. The thieves promise the Key will exact revenge on the Justice Society.
Green Lantern investigates the theft of a millionaire's "short-snorter bill", which in his case is a 100k-bill autographed by numerous celebrities, making it practically priceless. Lantern tricks the ship's magician into revealing himself as the thief by making him think the bill is radioactive, then attacking when he tries to decontaminate it. With the four crimes foiled, Green Lantern notes the Justice Society's next job is to hunt down the Key himself.
When the four heroes return from abroad, Hawkman, Black Canary and Atom relay the results of their findings into the disappearance of the detectives: only four sets of footprints departed the scene, meaning the Key must be one of the four detectives! Fully assembled, the Justice Society heads to a manor house and finds the four detectives as if in a trance, and that the Key had been masquerading as the detective from England. He orders the four detectives to kill the JSA, but the Flash steals their guns at ultra-speed and Green Lantern uses his ring to break their hypnosis. The Key tries to escape in a cable car, but when Atom starts reeling it in, he jumps rather than be captured. The four detectives give the Justice Society a solid silver key in gratitude for their help.
Appearing in "The Mystery of the Vanishing Detectives"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Chief Harry Van (Single appearance)
- Mustapha Hakim (Single appearance)
- Jacques Durand (Single appearance)
- Inspector Drew Dawes (Single appearance)
Antagonists:
- Key (First appearance; dies)
- Pierre (Single appearance)
- The Emir of Kasdan (impostor) (Single appearance)
- The Great Gordini (Single appearance)
Other Characters:
- Chief Inspector MacReady (Single appearance)
- Jenkins (Single appearance)
- Harris (Single appearance)
- Malcolm (Single appearance)
- Bill (Single appearance)
- M. Commissaire (Single appearance)
- The Emir of Kasdan (Single appearance)
- Colonel Masir (Single appearance)
- F. Fred Wallis (Single appearance)
Locations:
- United States of America
- Civic City
- Civic City Palace
- Tiffanier (Mentioned only)
- Hawaii
- Civic City
- England
- London
- Trafalgar Square
- The Charing Cross Bank (Single appearance)
- Paddington Station
- Scotland Yard
- London
- Turkey
- France
- Paris
- Notre-Dame Cathedral
- Eiffel Tower
- Club Atilla (Single appearance)
- Sûreté Central Office
- Paris
Items:
- Doctor Mid-Nite's Blackout Bomb
- Doctor Mid-Nite's Infra-red goggles
- Green Flame of Life
- Green Lantern Ring
- Hawkman's Nth Metal Wings
- Wonder Woman's Bracelets of Submission
- Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth
- Wonder Woman's Tiara
Vehicles:
See Also
Recommended Reading
- Justice Society Recommended Reading
- Adventure Comics (Volume 1)
- All-Star Comics (Volume 1)
- All-Star Squadron (Volume 1)
- America vs. the Justice Society (Volume 1)
- Infinity Inc. (Volume 1)
- JSA (Volume 1)
- JSA: All Stars (Volume 1)
- JSA Classified (Volume 1)
- JSA: Strange Adventures (Volume 1)
- JSA vs. Kobra (Volume 1)
- Justice Society of America (Volume 1)
- Justice Society of America (Volume 2)
- Justice Society of America (Volume 3)
- Justice Society of America (Volume 4)
- Last Days of the Justice Society Special #1
- The Flash Recommended Reading
- Starman Recommended Reading
Links and References
The events from this issue or series involve a Multiversal Crossover between Pre-Crisis worlds and characters. This template will categorize articles that include it into the Pre-Crisis Multiverse Crossover category.
See also Post-Crisis Multiverse Crossovers.