This one has kind of a striking cover--it got me from a spinner rack in the comic shop! Although I'm almost positive the cover was done first, then the story backfilled. From 1971, Flash #206, "24 Hours of Immortality!" Written by Robert Kanigher, pencils by Irv Novick, inks by Murphy Anderson.

Two people are on their own races against time here: single mom pilot Susan Logan is trying to get to the "Sky Devils Circus" to compete for a $50,000 prize, with which she plans to guarantee her son Timmy's college education. The kid is like six, and doesn't seem like a budding genius; there's probably other ways to do that besides killing yourself? Meanwhile, on the ground, neurosurgeon William Xandel and his wife Sylvia are on their way, for him to operate on a cancer researcher, that was working and put the operation off to the last minute. Susan's plane crashes into William's car, and Timmy and Sylvia are killed. Fortunately, there are some helpful...ish? aliens, who offer them the supreme test: they'll bring back Timmy and Sylvia, if Susan and William sacrifice themselves. They agree, and the aliens say they will return in 24 hours: until then, Susan and William were immortal.

The aliens repair Susan's plane and William's car, and send them on their way. William wants to bag out of the surgery, to spend more time with Sylvia, but she refuses: the cancer researcher might be close to a cure, and he had to save him. He catches another bit of bad luck, though: two slugs from some escaping convicts! Flash captures the convicts, then is amazed at William's story; and assists in the surgery to free up some more time for him with his wife. Flash wonders about the other temporary immortal, who was currently dismayed that the Circus might be cancelled because of a forest fire. Flash stops the fire, saving Susan's plane again; then she competes in the circus, finally winning by jumping from a plane and landing without a chute, which should have reduced her to a chunky living paste, but the aliens maybe covered her on that one. Kinda feel like she cheated a bit; but Flash is determined to save William and Susan, and was willing to fight for them. The aliens try to kill Flash three times--which could be significant, or could just be how much time was left in the story--before recanting, allowing William and Susan to live. Presumably, not immortal and indestructable...probably.

Also this issue: the Elongated Man faces a "Showdown in Elongated Town!" Story by Cary Bates, art by Dick Giordano. In a strangely distorted old western town, E-M finds himself in a showdown, with one of Flash's foes--I won't say who!--who wants to kill E-M as practice for waxing the Flash. Actually, that's not entirely correct: he's also going to use Elongated Man's corpse as bait, which makes more sense. I couldn't figure how the skills to kill E-M would carry over to killing Flash... Read more!

Why am I surprised it took multiple issues for Ollie to quit?

Yeah, like I've never tried to milk another story from a plot! From 1980, Justice League of America #182, "Reprise" Written by Gerry Conway, pencils by Dick Dillin, inks by Frank McLaughlin.

Green Arrow thinks he has teleported down from the JLA's satellite for the last time, as he's just quit, on the grounds that the team spent "too much time fighting super-crooks" and apparently not enough busting kids for petty crime. Lost in his thoughts, Ollie barely notices a generic multiracial street gang stripping a car, and does miss an old foe passing by: the reformed Felix Faust! Still, even if he had seen him, Ollie may not have been able to do anything, as he's beamed back up to the satellite by Green Lantern and the League, who want more of an explanation why he resigned. (Shades of the Prisoner! Possibly because I've been watching a ton of that.) Perhaps rightly, he feels like he doesn't have to explain squat, but sine he's not an active member the teleport tubes won't send him back! This is somewhere between a totalitarian abuse of power and friendly ribbing of a friend; possibly more of the latter because the madder Ollie gets the funnier it is.

Busting Ollie's chops--ugh, that's a turn of phrase I hate, but it applies--is put on hold when Faust sends out a mystic SOS. He found the secret diary of ancient wizard Nostromus, and was possessed by it. If Nostromus's soul returned to his body, he could tear up the planet, so the JLA leaps into action; with Black Canary practically having to drag the stubborn Arrow. And lucky they did, since the team has a remarkably poor showing. Ollie puts an arrow through Nostromus's diary, and that's that. It's still not enough to get him back on the team, even with Canary opting to stay. Ollie's a cold bastard, if he can walk away from a crying Dinah--she was not quite as hardass as she would become, sure. Also, Ollie walks away from the team...in the Alps. I don't know if any of his solo tales followed up on how he got back to the states, since I don't think he would've had a passport-arrow or anything.

Also this issue: an Elongated Man back-up, with the unfortunate title "the Sun Queen Snatch!" Written by Paul Kupperberg, pencils by Rodin Rodreguez, inks by Vince Colletta. The Dibnys are on vacation with the Halls, Hawkman and Hawkgirl! Hawkman's swimsuit...well, he's got the ass for it, I have to give him that.


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