[MarkWarner]

Last week's book (Jim Dandy) didn't fair too badly considering it was targeted at early teens. Maybe this says something about the mentality of the reading group members ... moving swiftly on it's time for a good old fashioned superhero read.

The man who fits the bill admirably is Captain Flash. We are reading issue #1 and concentrating on the first story which tells us how the Captain came to be. The book can be found here https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=17682

[Captain Audio]

First thing I thought of when seeing this cover was the SNL animated sketch "the Ambiguously Gay duo".

[Mazzucchelli]

No wonder why Sterling Comics went bankrupt a while after this comic was published. Judging by the quality of this product, I think they bloody well deserved it! This comic is bad as hell, and if Captain Flash is or was

[narfstar]

I guess everything Mazz disliked, I liked. Being taken so serious was actually interesting. This was at the height of the McCarthy era. Things were taken very serious. Patriotism was the most serious thing with service to God and country. Sure the story and origin were silly, but no more so than many other GA. The idea that one little mistake in a regularly preformed procedure could be so disastrous was rather dumb though. I despise powerless sidekicks. Ricky reminds me of Bucky with both being dumb ideas IMHO. Tomboy is a really stupid idea for a "superhero" but I really like the feature. So extremely stupid for a young girl to put on a mask and kick adult butt, but fun.

[crashryan]

My negative reaction isn't quite as violent as Mazz's, but I'm not impressed by Captain Flash. Everything is so generic! In fact I was surprised to see that this isn't a Code-approved comic .All the action is bland and unexciting, like early Silver Age DC comics.

My biggest gripe is that no one seems to have put out any effort into making this comic. The stories are slapdash. Even Silver Age Batman villains have clearer motivations than these jokers. The conclusion to every story is rushed. Two of them don't even conclude, they just kick the can down the road. The writer pushes the limit on gobbledygook ("cervical thoracic trunk") and switches from past tense to present and back again. Missing dialogue is sloppily lettered into balloons and Tomboy gets to say "Yipes! It's Tomboy!" for herself.

On the art front, Mike Sekowsky is in his cop-out mode, using lots of close-ups and super-long shots. While I greatly admire Sekowsky's "street clothes" art, I never cared for him as a superhero artist. At least here he defines Captain Flash's anatomy. In his JLA stories the vagueness of the men's bodies (especially Superman's) made them look paunchy. Maybe the inker added the musculature here.

"Tomboy" is slightly better than Captain Flash because it is (for its time) an unusual concept. This could easily have turned into an exploitation feature, but Mort Meskin nobly avoids any temptation to go the GGA route. However this is far from Meskin's best work. And the story--even for comic books the big finish with the non-powered heroine holding bomb bay doors closed with her feet, then safely jumping from a crashing plane, strains credulity to the breaking point. And why does The Claw have claws? If he has 'em, why doesn't he use 'em?

A big ho-hum to an undistinguished product obviously cranked out in a Flash.

[Morgus]

Whoa. We are back in the 50's alright....what was the phrase? 'Crippled kids'?The Captain looked like a collection of ideas they threw at the wall to see if any would stick...including clapping the hands rather then saying;"Shazam". I'm guessing this did NOT go far. Liked the art work in the first story the best with some half decent detail...but the ads for wormfarms and the Kentucky ash tray at the back were my fave parts. I wonder if Col Tom Parker had one?

[paw broon]

As an inveterate and completely addicted fan of superheroes and masked mystery men, this comic didn't seem as bad as some of you suggested it is. Having read untold numbers of stories of this type of hero, from many different countries, I'm used to really poorly done superheroes etc.  So Captain Flash is not the same disappolntment to me.  Actually, I have read this, or at least some of this, comic elsewhere, perhaps in a British reprint?   I hope I'm not being heretical here in suggesting a slight similarity in  this origin story and that of Barry Allen.  And then there's the "Mirrorman".  How like the idea of Mirror Master.
Yes, I agree the stories are somewhat tattily put together and the denouements rushed but there is superhero action with powers and colour. 
As for Tomboy, I know the character and have read another story somewhere and I like her style, despite all that preposterous stuff she does on and hanging onto the plane. 
Perhaps my standards have slipped over the years but this wasn't too bad.  Of it's time and none the worse for that.

[SuperScrounge]

The Beginning - As origin stories go it's kinda dull. "Whoops! I've accidentally exposed myself to a fatal amount of radiation! Oh, wait a minute, I'm not dead and I've got superpowers! Might as well become a superhero!"

The Iron Mask - The ending is puzzling. The next to last panel Captain Flash punches the villain, then the last panel they're talking about how they don't know who the Iron Mask was, how he might not be dead and he might turn up again. Are we supposed to believe CP punched IM into the next county? Other than that it was okay.

The Claw - Eh, okay.

The Young Brave - Okay, although an odd choice considering the book is for super-heroes.

The Mirror Man - Eh.

[Morgus]

For TOMBOY, where was Supergirl at the time? Did she have a comic of her own yet? The reason I ask is because I'm seeing Tomboy as a Supergirl knock off, but wonder how much of a market there could be in it for anybody. Or was the DC audience so big in contrast that any piece of their action would be worth trying to grab? Wasn't she still hiding out in the orphanage, trying to blend in?

[josemas]

The character of Supergirl was not introduced until 1959, five years after this Tomboy story.  More likely it was the Mary Marvel character (a member of the Marvel Family published by Fawcett) that would have been an influence on the creating of Tomboy.  Mary Marvel had been introduced in 1942 and had appeared as recently as the last issue pf Marvel Family (January 1954) which would have come out just months before this issue of Captain Flash.

[Morgus]

wow, cool to know, thanks for the info.

[bowers]

 This one was pretty average for a mid-50's superhero comic. The genre was just beginning to make a big
comeback and give us a glorious Silver Age.
Capt. Flash's origin story was no less believable than many others of the time. Radiation, electrical, and chemical accidents gave us an awful lot of heroes. His oath matched the times. Heroes were heroes because they believed in goodness and weren't ashamed to say so. Most villains were bad because they enjoyed being evil. A simple arrangement for a simpler time. Unfortunately, this simpler time also deluged us with mostly useless and annoying kid sidekicks.
The Iron Mask story had a great premise, but was really too short to be effective. It just seemed to jump around way too quickly.
Tomboy was good, but not memorable.
I enjoyed the Mirror Man tale the most. A truly lethal foe who had a remarkable mode of transportation. I am going to have to read the next issue just to see the rematch.
Paw mentioned a similarity to the Barry Allen Flash, both in origin and a mirror-foe. May I add the similarity in costume and even name? Also, DC didn't resurrect The Flash until nearly two years after this story.
Not a bad read. Cheers, Bowers

[crashryan]

After a couple of people mentioned Captain Flash's oath to be a good guy, I got to thinking about what a comic character would do when he/she suddenly got super-powers. There are four choices. One, he could decide to use the powers to be a Good Guy. Two, he could decide to use his powers to be a Bad Guy. Third, he could decide keep his abilities for personal use: winning races, travelling the world, cleaning the garage. Finally, he could pretend he doesn't have super powers and try to pass as a "normal" human.

The last has appeal, but it wouldn't hold up during a long comic book series. Circumstances would eventually force him into using his powers. This is what happened to Matt Price in the Brain Boy series, one of the only old school comics I remember in which the hero at first refused to acknowledge his super abilities.

The third option could be fun, but it'd be difficult not to picture the hero as a selfish bore.  Might make a good one-shot, though.

That leaves either being a Good Guy or a Bad Guy. I guess it makes sense that someone not inclined to crime would decide to take the oath.

[MarkWarner]

After reading the first story I can confirm that Captain Flash is a good old fashioned Superhero,  of the "scientist has an atomic accident and develops superpowers" variety. He can summon a multitude of powers by clapping hands. So it's probably not a good idea to sit next to him at a concert. In this, the origins story, we hear that after the accident 

The cervical thoriac trunk and extremities are saturated with ten trillion ergs of radiation.

Blimey that is complicated medical sounding stuff and an awfully big number of ergs.

I notice that Captain Flash defies the laws of physics by keeping the boat on track by blowing into its sail. According to Newton this is an impossibility. But I guess defying the laws of physics is exactly what superheroes do!

The next story we meet Iron Mask? Who is he and is the mask an affectation or there is a reason for it. Hmmmm...

Tomboy by Mort Meskin is one of those stories that I really ought to hate, but rather like. I am really not sure why, a young female heroine, a ludicrous plot and Mort Meskin's art work I find rather disturbing. But this is the standout story for me (so far).

I noticed in the small ads on the next page.

STARTLING NEW BOOK "Truth About Tobacco" Everyone should read it. Only 50c A.C. Johnson Chemist

What was he saying about it??

I confess I started the two page text story, but didn't finish it. In the final story Captain Flash battles silicon eating Mirror Man. He is a rather intriguing villain.

Verdict: The book has quite a few "scientific" terms dotted all the way through it. All of these I guess are meaningless. As I said at the beginning Captain Flash is a good old-fashioned superhero. So that (and the cheese) score a hit from me.

[Morgus]

You have to WONDER about that tobacco book, don't you? I saw that one too...But holy cow, Brain Boy? I Had forgotten all ABOUT HIM until I read crashryan's post! I HAD NUMER TWO! The one with the bat guano crazy dictator and the highjacked planes! Our school librarian was thowing out old comics at school and Bussy Robinson found them in the garbage. I snagged that one before she caught us and had a melt down. (Always WONDERED about what the story behind THAT one...were they her SON'S? Did someone donate them?) But here it  at this web site after over 40 years...on line to read again. I even remembered the lady on the phone on the inside page getting the call from 'far away'. But I had forgotten ALL ABOUT the dog who could smell death!