The characters of the Golden Age of comics often put a final end to their foes. While many times the villain died by their own hands and the hero didn't work to hard to stop it, sometimes the good guy outright whacked them. Don't feel bad though, they usually returned later, cackling with madness. Batman once machine-gunned some hoods from a plane and the Hawkman used ancient weapons to end the life of his enemies because they 'deserved it'.
The Golden Age Flash always seemed too much the caring father-figure to deliberately kill someone. In modern times he's always the mentor to others and represents the model other heroes strive to emulate.
Yet as this cover shows he's taking out a cult of evil using his super-speed!
Hitting the robed evil-doers at speed tosses three of them into high power lines, the smoldering corpses spark violently. A fourth villain gets thrown at extreme velocity head-first into the power pole, surely fatal, if he survived being struck by the super-speeding Flash in the first place. The final robed figure has a fate is yet to be determined, but you can tell he's scared to death by the panic in his wide eyes, visible through his hood. He's running, knows it is useless to flee but panic rules his actions.
Through it all the Flash holds an expression that reveals nothing. No anger, no sadness, he snuffs the cult with as much feeling as a man turning off a lamp.
Tags: Golden Age
Monday, September 05, 2005
Golden Age Flash - MURDERER!
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You've got a point about the guy who was flung head-first into the telephone pole, but the other threhey wouldn't be electrocuted for the same reason birds aren't electrocuted when they sit on high-voltage lines: they're not grounded, and their resistance is much higher than that of the wire on which they're sitting, so the current will just continue down the line without bothering to take a side trip through the bodies of those three thugs.
ReplyDeleteAs long as birds don't touch the other line they are fine. Those guys are draped over several and are spitting sparks.
ReplyDelete... well, uh ... well, uh ... I've got it! That's not the Flash, it's his evil opposite number, Rival, who Looked Just Like The Flash and had the same powers and everything! Yeah, the Rival, that's the ticket!
ReplyDeleteOh, you know, not.