Flash Comics Vol 1 7

{{DC Database:Comic Template
 * Title              = Flash Comics
 * Image              = Flash Comics 7.jpg
 * Volume             = 1
 * Issue              = 7
 * Month              = 7
 * Year               = 1940


 * Executive Editor   = M. C. Gaines
 * CoverArtist1       = Sheldon Moldoff


 * Editor1_1          = M. C. Gaines
 * Writer1_1          = Gardner Fox
 * Writer2_1          = Gardner Fox
 * Writer3_1          = Gardner Fox
 * Writer5_1          = John B. Wentworth
 * Writer7_1          = John B. Wentworth
 * Penciler1_1        = Everett E. Hibbard
 * Penciler2_1        = Harry Lampert
 * Penciler3_1        = Sheldon Moldoff
 * Penciler5_1        = Stan Aschmeier
 * Penciler7_1        = Homer Fleming
 * Inker1_1           = Everett E. Hibbard
 * Inker3_1           = Sheldon Moldoff


 * Quotation          =
 * Speaker            =


 * StoryTitle1        = Flash: “The Metal Disintegrator”
 * Synopsis1          = While driving near Duluth, Jay Garrick's car is disintegrated. He invisibly investigates and learns of an invention created by Henry Smith which causes metal to disintegrate.  The Flash invisibly sabotages the machine until he can learn more about it.  Flash soon invisibly learns that Smith is being forced to use the machine for criminal purposes by a racketeer, Black Mike.  Flash stops the gangster from carrying out his plan of sabotaging a car race, then has Black Mike arrested.  Smith sells his invention to the government and retires.
 * The Flash relies very much on his speedy invisibility in this story.


 * StoryTitle2        = The King: “The Witch and the Lawyer”
 * Synopsis2          = The Witch plans to steal valuable securities from the home of a lawyer named Graves. The King poses as a janitor to thwart her robbery. During the heist, out-of-town gangster (Andy Carpon) has a plan of his own. He kidnaps the Witch and steals the securities himself. The King disguises himself as one of Carpon's men and rescues his friendly adversary, for the third time, and they briefly team up. King leaves Carpon for the police and returns the stolen securities.


 * StoryTitle3        = Hawkman: “Czar, the Unkillable Man”
 * Synopsis3          = Using a special “plasm clay,” Boris Nickaloff creates a life-like man, inside a cave.  He is then able to bring his sculpture to life and use it for crime.    The sculpture, which Nickaloff names Czar, is invulnerable to normal weapons, with "pseudo-flesh" of marble.  The next morning, Carter Hall reads of a strange heist, and mistakenly (from the story of the statue man's indestructability} believes the thief to be a vampire, so he prepares a silver bullet. That night, Czar strikes again at another bank. He's interrupted first by riot police, then by Hawkman, who hurtles down the elevator shaft to confront the Unkillable Man.  He gets his shot, but the silver bullet bounces right off, as the monster hurls himself at Hawkman. Grappling free, Hawkman makes a connection between the man of marble and the strange sculptor, and heads to the cave where he last saw Nickaloff, only to find it deserted. --  The next night, there is another brutal robbery, then Czar is ferried to a house by Nickaloff, in preparation for the duo sailing to South America. However, Hawkman has trailed the car, and overhears enough of Nickaloff's gloating to discern Czar's weakness - he needs to breathe.  Hawkman selects a bola from his weapons collection, and flies away to prepare for battle.  Just then, by unfortunate coincidence, Shiera Sanders (en route to visit Carter Hall) takes a shortcut across the park, only to encounter Czar and be abducted.  Meanwhile, Nickaloff plans to create an army of unkillable Czars.   As Czar arrives with his female trophy, Hawkman has already entered Nickaloff's house, and has commenced beating some information out of the sculptor.  Just then, Czar enters, and is enraged at the sight of his master's mistreatment.  There is a fight and a chase, in which first Nickaloff then Czar are strangled by Hawkman with his bolas.
 * So far in his career, Hawkman has killed Anton Hastor, Alexander the Great, Una Cathay and Count Torgoff, at least three of the Assassin cultists, Sheik Abdullah and one of his hench-slavers, the sorcerer Trygg and Beldame Gaffey, plus now Boris Nickaloff, and Czar, that's thirteen, that we know of.


 * Writer4_1          = Paul H. Jepsen
 * Penciler4_1        = Paul H. Jepsen
 * Inker4_1           = Paul H. Jepsen


 * StoryTitle4        = Rod Rian of the Sky Police: “The Gorilla”
 * Synopsis4          = Rod's friend, a Unicor, is kidnapped by talking gorillas. Rod goes to rescue him, but is menaced by a tri-horned buffalo. To be continued.
 * Unicors are green-skinned men with horns on their heads.

Featured Characters: Supporting Characters: Villains: Other Characters: Locations: Items: Vehicles:
 * Appearing4 =
 * Rod Rian of the Sky Police
 * a Unicor
 * gorilla men
 * talking skeletons


 * StoryTitle5        = Johnny Thunder: “The Mystery Woman”
 * Synopsis5          = Johnny Thunder protects a girl on the street from four men who are chasing her.  After she gets away, the men reveal that they are government agents, and the girl is a spy known as La Belle Tartes.  Johnny is fired from his job as a G-Man for letting the spy escape, and gets dumped by Daisy Darling, who sees the bad girl thanking Johnny with a kiss.  Johnny returns home and asks his mother (Mildred Thunder) to sew a costume for him. Donning the outfit and a mask, Johnny becomes a super-hero, or at least adopts the identity of "the Thunderbolt." Aided by the power of his Thunderbolt, Johnny tracks down the spy and turns her over to authorities. Johnny then tries to impress Daisy with his powers, but by then the effects of the Thunderbolt have worn off.
 * Writer6_1          = Gardner Fox
 * Penciler6_1        = Sheldon Moldoff
 * Inker6_1           = Leonard Sansone
 * StoryTitle6        = Cliff Cornwall: “The Clue Criminal”
 * Synopsis6          = Cliff Cornwall, Special Agent goes up against the Clue Criminal, an art thief who likes to send the FBI clues to his future crimes, but then he decides to blow up a zeppelin for no apparent reason.

Featured Characters: Supporting Characters: Villains: Other Characters: Locations: Items: Vehicles:
 * Appearing6 =
 * Cliff Cornwall, Special Agent
 * the Clue Criminal


 * StoryTitle7        = The Whip: “The San Creso Mine” part 1
 * Synopsis7          = In 1845, Don Basilo Seldon Carlomango Mercenas flees from Texas with a load of gold. The gold is stolen by bandits, but they are unable to carry all the gold. The bandits bury the gold and draw a map to its location. However, all but one of the crooks is killed in an Indian raid a short time later.

The surviving bandit is nursed back to health by a pair of kindly ranchers (Jim and Sairy Shiner). In gratitude he leaves a clue to the location of the treasure. After he has left the ranch months later, he is attacked and killed by highwaymen after the gold. The highwaymen trace the gold to Jim and Sairy's ranch.

El Castigo, (Don Fernando Suarez, the original Whip), spots the highwaymen and protects the Shiners. The couple locate the clue left behind by their visitor and plan to locate the gold. However, despite the involvement of El Castigo, the highwaymen have not given up their own pursuit of the treasure.

Featured Characters: Supporting Characters: Villains: Other Characters: Locations: Items: Vehicles:
 * Appearing1         =
 * Jimmie Dolan
 * Black Mike
 * Henry Smith
 * Belle Smith
 * Duluth

Featured Characters: Supporting Characters: Villains: Other Characters: Locations: Items: Vehicles:
 * Appearing2         =
 * Andy Carpon
 * Andy Carpon
 * Graves

Featured Characters: Supporting Characters: Villains: Other Characters: Locations: Items: Vehicles:
 * Appearing3         =
 * Boris Nickaloff
 * Czar

Featured Characters:
 * Appearing5         =

Supporting Characters: Villains: Other Characters: Locations: Items: Vehicles:
 * Mildred Thunder
 * La Belle Tartes
 * Herman Darling
 * Herman Darling

Featured Characters: Supporting Characters: Villains: Other Characters: Locations: Items: Vehicles:
 * Appearing7         =
 * Ike Coffey
 * Jim Shiner
 * Sairy Shiner
 * Don Basilo Seldon Carlomango Mercenas


 * Notes              =
 * The Metal Disintegrator is reprinted in Golden Age Flash Archives 1.


 * Per this issue's Flash story, the U.S.Government on Earth-Two had owned a metal disintegrator weapon since 1940. It hardly got any use during WWII, for some reason.   It's easy to speculate, but would be hard to prove, that some later supervillain may have stolen the prototype and notes, then claimed credit for inventing such a weapon.


 * Czar, the Unkillable Man is reprinted in Golden Age Hawkman Archives 1.
 * Boris Nickaloff molded a statue out of “plasm-clay” and injected it with adrenaline, bringing it to life as a bullet-proof, white-marble-skinned golem. Hourman had two different scientist-sculptor villains with pretty much the same M.O.:
 * Doctor Snegg (Adventure Comics #51 June 1940) animated wax figures of people.
 * Doctor Slight (Adventure Comics #56 Nov 1940) animated plaster casts of people and animals.


 * At this point in their careers, Batman and Hawkman both believed in vampires.


 * In this issue's Johnny Thunder story, there remains a one-hour limitation on his powers, thus Johnny had essentially the same weakness as Aquaman and Hourman, plus Johnny's magic word only worked if he could pronounce it, so gags worked against him about as well as they worked against Billy Batson or Zatara.


 * Aside from the stories above, this issue contains:
 * "Planet of the Metal Men" by Evelyn Gaines (text story)
 * ""Circus Curse." A Flash "picture novelette"" by Ed Wheelan

}}
 * Trivia             =
 * Recommended        =
 * Links              =
 * Flash Comics #7 index entry
 * Flash Comics #7 spoilers
 * Flash Comics #7 Hawkman spoilers
 * "The Metal Disintegrator" plot summary at dcindexes
 * "The Witch and the Lawyer" plot summary at dcindexes
 * "Czar, the Unkillable Man" plot summary at dcindexes
 * "The Mystery Woman" plot summary at dcindexes
 * "The San Creso Mine" plot summary at dcindexes