Every day this month will have the five goofiest moment from a five-issue stretch of a particular comic book run. Once a week it will be the ten goofiest moments of a ten-issue stretch. Here is a list of the moments featured so far.

Today we're looking at The Flash #175-180 (you might notice that that is six issues, well, #178 was an all-reprint issue, so I'm not counting it), which were all drawn by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, with a different writer handling each issue (E. Nelson Bridwell wrote #175, John Broome wrote #176, Gardner Fox wrote #177, Cary Bates wrote #179 and Frank Robbins wrote #180). These issues are all from 1967-68.

As always, this is all in good fun. I don't mean any of this as a serious criticism of the comics in question. Great comics often have goofy moments (Kirby/Lee's Fantastic Four is one of the best comic book runs of all-time and there were TONS of goofy stuff in those 100 plus issues!).

HONORABLE MENTIONS

So common it loses its goofiness points...

The whole "head enlarged" bit was used fairly frequently during the Silver Age, so I can't really make too big a deal out of the Flash getting an enlarged cranium in #177...



It's still pretty darn goofy!

They were lucky that they didn't have the Department of Homeland Security in 1968...

In #179, the Flash is transported to Earth-Prime, which is, in effect, OUR Earth. Once there, he meets up with Julie Schwartz so that he can build a Cosmic Treadmill.





Don't you just love that Julie Schwartz is able to just go out and pick up all the materials needed to build a cosmic treadmill?

Even back then superheroes were mean to each other...

In #175, two villains try to manipulate Flash and Superman into racing each other again (as they had the previous year in the pages of Superman). To start, they hack into the JLA signal so that first Superman answers what he thinks is a distress call from Flash and later, the reverse. What is strange here is how angry both heroes get to their fellow Justice Leaguer lending a hand...





During the race, later in the issue, Superman tries to lend Flash a hand. I love Flash's reaction...



Where's the trust, Barry?

5. That's probably not the best use of your power, J'onn...

In #175, the rest of the Justice League is held captive while Superman and Flash are forced to race (with the loser's city being destroyed). Well, Martian Manhunter gets free in a truly absurd use of his powers...



So he can BECOME Superman? And he just, what, chose not to do that this whole time? Especially when doing so would have meant no vulnerability to fire? Weird idea by Bridwell.

4. I don't think I WANT to know what they're talking about...

In #180, Barry and Iris Allen go to visit Japan and Barry meets up with a fellow crime lab guy. Well, once there, the two men discuss how Barry is not single anymore...





Tentacles?!? I don't think we want to know what they're talking about, do we?

And yes, they are, indeed, apologizing for not having the Japanese guy exclusively saying "r" instead of "l." More on that later!

3. Yeah, the velocity spectrum can totally lead you into dreams! Why not?

In #176, Iris is having a terrifying dream while suffering from a terrible fever. Her dreams are so strong that they might end up killing her! Barry has to find a way to help her, and boy does he find a way...







The dude RAN into her dreams!!! That's badass, but also totally absurdly goofy.

2. Oh, those fish are quite common...

So during the race in #175, Flash is despondent when he is contacted by someone...



What he was told was that the whole thing is a scam set up by two of Flash's Rogues. WHO informed him of this is, well, quite bizarre.

Here's how it went down...



Ah, yes, the good ol' "imitate human speech" fish. I think I saw that at the aquarium last year.

1. Oh, I didn't know that about the Japanese! This is such a helpful comic book!

As mentioned, in #180, Barry and Iris travel to Japan where they meet up with an old police friend of Barry's.

Check out their introduction...



Yes, there is a caption to explain to you why they're putting "r"s in place of "l"s!

Later on, with a character who, no joke, is named Tushi (seriously!), we discover that she can speak English well and we're told how...



That's some really bizarre stuff, huh? I intentionally had us stop at #180, because otherwise, I'd have to repeat all the same goofy (plus pretty offensive) stuff from this issue in #181, as well, as the jokes keep coming in exactly the same fashion.