Did Captain Flash kick off the Silver Age?

Fear not! This is not a debate about 'When did the Silver Age begin?' but why did the Silver Age begin?

It's pretty much accepted that Showcase #4, starring the debut of the Barry Allen Flash, started the whole Silver Age malarky, but his revival wasn't the first attempt to bring back the superhero in the 1950s.

Martin Goodman tried to bring back Captain America, The Torch and Subby back in the early-mid 1950s, Charlton made a couple of attempts to re-ignite interest in the Blue Beetle and Sterling Comics had a go with Captain Flash. The last one is interesting because, from what I've seen and read, it is very 'silver-agey'.

For whatever reason DC's Flash revival took off - after a couple of attempts, it wasn't immediately successful and took from 1956 to 1959 to get his own book - and I wondered why this was?

I may be wrong, but I suspect it was as much to protect the 'Flash' name and copyright than it was to revive a character and I think Captain Flash was the instigator of this move. So whilst I am not saying Captain Flash started the Silver Age I think it probably sparked a trail that lead to DC's superhero revival.

I agree that it seems very "silver-agey" although I also noted definite Golden Age elements, especially in the last story. The artist sometimes looks a bit like Carmine Infantino and, in a few panels, seems to be trying to copy Jack Kirby. This also looks like the basis for the Simpsons' Radioactive Man, although I doubt Matt Groening ever heard of it. (Then again Trina Robbins posted articles about Tomboy so who knows?)

And maybe this had something to do with them picking Flash to try to revive first rather than Green Lantern.

I do agree they probably took so long before really doing anything with Barry Allen, and rebooting other old heroes, after seeing Timely's planned revival didn't work.

What surprises me is that Marvel waited until 1961 to try it again. Had they been burned that badly by their Cap, Torch, and Namor revival? Or were they suffering too much from 1957 and their limits on how many titles they could carry to want to take a chance? It seems to me that Stan could have tossed a five page Cap or Namor story into Strange Tales for instance in 1959-60 just to see if anything happened.

Replies

Dave Blanchard June 2, 2011 at 12:33pm

To answer the question posed in the thread title: No.

There were plenty of superheroes in between the end of the Golden Age (circa the final issue of ALL STAR COMICS) and the first appearance of the Barry Allen Flash. The reason why YOUNG MEN and NATURE BOY and STRANGE ADVENTURES with Captain Comet and CAPTAIN FLASH and J'onn J'onzz in DETECTIVE and anything else you want to throw out there isn't given any consideration as the first Silver Age comic book is because SHOWCASE # 4 featured the first successful superhero launch since the end of the Golden Age, and even more importantly, because SHOWCASE # 4 led to SHOWCASE # 22 and BRAVE & BOLD # 28 and FANTASTIC FOUR # 1 and ADVENTURES OF THE FLY # 1 and a whole bunch of other superheroes that helped revive the superhero genre in the 1960s.

No other comic book even comes close to SHOWCASE # 4 when consideration is given as to the first Silver Age comic book. I doubt that CAPTAIN FLASH sparked much more than a yawn at DC back then.
Dandy Forsdyke June 2, 2011 at 12:41pm

Just to clarify; I was suggesting Captain Flash possibly made DC think about protecting the Flash's patent/copyright, not that Captain Flash started the Silver Age. As I've said in the last paragraph.
Dave Blanchard June 2, 2011 at 2:14pm

Don Markstein covered this a while back, and comes to the same conclusion I did: we'll never know for sure, but there's no evidence to suggest CAPTAIN FLASH even registered on anybody's radar: DC probably stifled a yawn when CAPTAIN FLASH appeared, figuring that Sterling Comics would be out of business before the papers could be drawn up to even start a lawsuit.

Here's Don's article:

http://www.toonopedia.com/capflash.htm
Captain Comics June 2, 2011 at 3:23pm

As to the other question in the post -- why it took so long for Flash to get his own book -- I'd have to open up my Julius Schwartz biography Man of Two Worlds again to be sure, but I seem to remember the reason was that they wanted to make sure Barry Allen wasn't a (koff) flash in the pan. (As everyone here has pointed out, there were numerous failed superhero revivals between 1951 and 1956, so the confidence level was low.) They ran several try-outs to make sure the numbers (which were very good) would hold up. When they did, Barry Allen got his own book. With later Silver Age try-outs, they were more confident, so the likes of Green Lantern leaped quickly to their own books.

I can't explain why Hawkman took so long. I'd speculate his numbers weren't very good, so they kept trying until they were. But I'm just guessing.
Dandy Forsdyke June 2, 2011 at 6:07pm

That explains it then. It looked to me like DC were shooting a warning across the bows with the Showcase issue of Flash - but I suppose they could just have easily issued a reprint of the Golden Age version if they wanted to do that.

Captain Comics said:
As to the other question in the post -- why it took so long for Flash to get his own book -- I'd have to open up my Julius Schwartz biography Man of Two Worlds again to be sure, but I seem to remember the reason was that they wanted to make sure Barry Allen wasn't a (koff) flash in the pan. (As everyone here has pointed out, there were numerous failed superhero revivals between 1951 and 1956, so the confidence level was low.) They ran several try-outs to make sure the numbers (which were very good) would hold up. When they did, Barry Allen got his own book. With later Silver Age try-outs, they were more confident, so the likes of Green Lantern leaped quickly to their own books.
Captain Comics June 3, 2011 at 2:06pm

It was an interesting idea, Dandy, and the inductive kind that I find very cool. So points for that! But I suspect we're barking up the wrong tree. If DC was worried, as you say, they could have reinforced the trademark with a reprint. But more likely they'd have just sued -- DC was notoriously litigious in those days (See: Captain Marvel, Wonderman). The fact that they didn't sue suggests they weren't very worried.
Dandy Forsdyke July 3, 2011 at 6:01am

Interestingly, the Silver Age/Bronze Age web blog Gorilla Daze suggests (in the July 2nd entry) that DC's 1966 Plastic Man revival may have come about after another 'Plastic Man' appeared in MFE's Captain Marvel (speedily re-named 'Elastic Man' for the following issue). Just sayin' ...
Dandy Forsdyke April 29, 2013 at 11:28am

Captain Flash in the public domain now and you can read all his issues for free.

Ron M. July 28, 2014 at 11:15pm

Midtown Comics announces their copies of the not yet released Captain Flash collection has already sold out.
Ron M. July 28, 2014 at 11:32pm

I agree that it seems very "silver-agey" although I also noted definite Golden Age elements, especially in the last story. The artist sometimes looks a bit like Carmine Infantino and, in a few panels, seems to be trying to copy Jack Kirby. This also looks like the basis for the Simpsons' Radioactive Man, although I doubt Matt Groening ever heard of it. (Then again Trina Robbins posted articles about Tomboy so who knows?)

And maybe this had something to do with them picking Flash to try to revive first rather than Green Lantern.

I do agree they probably took so long before really doing anything with Barry Allen, and rebooting other old heroes, after seeing Timely's planned revival didn't work.

What surprises me is that Marvel waited until 1961 to try it again. Had they been burned that badly by their Cap, Torch, and Namor revival? Or were they suffering too much from 1957 and their limits on how many titles they could carry to want to take a chance? It seems to me that Stan could have tossed a five page Cap or Namor story into Strange Tales for instance in 1959-60 just to see if anything happened.

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