Random Happenstance

The Flash has one of the best rogues' galleries in comics: the first half of this issue features the Pied Piper, a perfectly fine villain, but well down the depth chart for the Flash. So it is slightly odd to see him up against another hero's bad guys, the Atomic Skull from Superman! Who himself is further down Superman's depth chart. From 1981, the Flash #293, featuring "Pied Piper's Paradox Peril!" Written by Gerry Conway, art by Don Heck; and "The Fastest Deadliest Man Alive!" Written by Gerry Conway, breakdowns by George Perez, finishes by Rodin Rodriguez.

Running on the water below "Superman's Island," an anti-grav prison for the Man of Steel's most dangerous foes, Flash sets off a sonic boom and worries he may have accidentally damaged it. Investigating, he finds one prisoner got loose: Dr. Albert Michaels, better known as the Atomic Skull! (They do a similar intro for him twice here! Getting that name recognition out.) He zaps Flash with one of his "brain-blasts," then tells Barry he's going to get enough radium to crank up his blasts so they'll affect Superman. The Flash should be dead of radiation poisoning long before that. Using internal vibrations to slow the damage...somehow...Flash knows he needs help, specifically that of Firestorm, the Nuclear Man!

Speeding through New York and leaving a glowing message in his wake, Flash is able to get Firestorm's attention, and he absorbs the radiation...and gets hammered. This might be specific to A-Skull's radiation, since we've seen a ton of stories since where Firestorm is consigned to hazmat clean-up duties, and I don't think we've ever seen him act like he was hitting the sauce. Meanwhile, in Colorado...wait, this has been about half an hour. The Skull flew, apparently via little belt-jets like Wonder Man used to wear, from Metropolis, wherever that is, to Colorado, in under thirty minutes? I didn't think he was invulnerable or anything; wouldn't that speed shred his face right off? Er, what's left of his face, anyway.

While the Flash is able to get Firestorm to Colorado, F-S is still too drunk to be helpful. Flash has to taunt him into taking a shot at him, then ducking out of the way so Atomic Skull gets zapped. With the radiation out of his system, Firestorm is back to normal, but wonders if he shouldn't be mad at Flash for something. We've only seen a few times where Barry had been rude or snippy; it's not impossible, but it's usually surprising.