Today, we look at the first time that a Flash vibrated through a solid object.
In "When We First Met", we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore, like the first time someone said, "Avengers Assemble!" or the first appearance of Batman's giant penny or the first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth or the first time Spider-Man's face was shown half-Spidey/half-Peter. Stuff like that.
Reader Daniel S. wrote in to ask, "When was the first time the Flash discovered he could vibrate through solid objects? And was it Jay or Barry?"
DID JAY GARRICK VIBRATE THROUGH OBJECTS?
It's interesting, people often talk about how the Flash's powers should make him essentially impossible to defeat. It's what has bothered a number of writers over the years when it comes to writing the character, as the theory is that if he used his powers even SEMI optimally than how could someone ever stop a guy who could run so fast as to seem invisible? Well, with that in mind, people like that should love to read Golden Age Flash stories, as that basically is precisely what happens in these stories!
Created by Gardner Fox and highly unsung artist Harry Lampert (not even that I am some huge Harry Lampert fan, but the dude co-created the Flash and nobody seems to ever mention his name) in Flash Comics #1, Jay Garrick gained the ability to run at superspeed from a nonsensical origin...
Besides the fact that his origin was set into motion when he decides to take a cigarette break in the middle of his experiment IN THE LAB WITH ALL OF THE CHEMICALS, the key thing about this origin is that "hard water" is pretty much just water. It is water that simply has high mineral content in it, like calcium and magnesium (based on where the water originally percolated). If you boil hard water, it is still just basically steam.
So Jay got his speed powers from, in effect, a steam bath.
However, once he HAD his powers, Jay then used them to basically become an unbeatable superhero...
Fox would routinely come up with clever ways for Jay to essentially torture criminals who had no chance against Jay and his superspeed...
For the most part, Jay Garrick did not fight supervillains during his original run of stories, which made it hard for him to ever really be challenged that much. Oh sure, he would occasionally mess up, but very rarely. The stories were really more like sort of fantasies about what kind of messed up stuff you could do to criminals.
Because of that, Jay never even HAD to run through objects, because he never was tested to the point where such a skill would have been needed. So no, Jay Garrick didn't vibrate his body through walls.
WHEN DID BARRY ALLEN VIBRATE THROUGH OBJECTS?
The big changes from the Golden Age Flash to the Silver Age Flash was twofold. One, Julius Schwartz had taken over editing the Golden Age Flash towards the end of his original run, but by then, things were pretty much just going to go the way they were going to go. Nobody was going to, like, do a huge revamp of Jay Garrick in, like, 1947, ya know? However, Schwartz was heavily involved in Barry Allen's creation and his ongoing series. The other was the more obvious case where Gardner Fox was not the regular writer on the new Flash, as John Broome was, instead. However, the first Barry Allen story in Showcase #4 was Robert Kanigher, working with Carmine Infantino and Joe Kubert and, again, a heavy Schwartz influence.
Schwartz was fascinated with science and even before the original Jay Garric series ended, 1948's Flash Comics #98 saw Schwartz debut "Flash Facts" as a recurring feature that detailed scientific facts. Flash Comics was still an anthology at the time (and Flash's co-star, Hawkman, had actually becoming a more prominent feature in the series by the late 1940s), so the first "Flash Facts" really didn't have anything to do with speed...
Still, that showed you what Schwartz was interested in and that was why there were multiple bits in those early Barry Allen Flash stories deal with scientific stuff, just with a twist, like Barry Allen's Flash costume being kept in a ring and would inflate, like life rafts...
In that first story, Barry has to basically crash through a wall with force, so obviously he could not vibrate through them at the time...
However, in the second story in the issue, Barry DOES vibrate himself THROUGH TIME ITSELF!!!
So that's crazy.
When Barry got a second shot in Showcase #8 (by Broome, Infantino and Frank Giacoia), we see him actively not vibrating through a grate, but instead using his powers to vibrate the grate open...
In Barry's last try-out issue before getting his own series again, Showcase #13, we see that again, he couldn't vibrate through a wall...
Once Barry got his own series, though, with Flash #105 (by Broome, Infantino and Joe Giella, continuing the numbering of Jay Garrick's series), Schwartz kept pushing Broome to come up with interesting scientific-based approaches to the Flash's powers (actually, I am speaking out of turn, as it wasn't that Schwartz was telling Broome to do these stories, but rather Broome KNEW that Schwartz liked those sort of things, so he went out of his way to add them to his stories out of his own volition. Same BASIC difference, but there is a definitely a distinct difference)...
Schwartz also loved to pepper the stories with captions detailing the various scientific principles of the superspeed feats that the Flash would do.
In any event, in Flash #107 (by Broome, Infantino and Giella), we saw Barry vibrate his molecules through an object for the first time...
This would slowly but surely become a regular occurrence in the series, although it took a while. In fact, I actually believe that Wally West, Kid Flash, in Flash #114 (by Broome, Infantino and Giella) was the first Flash that we specifically saw vibrate through a wall...
That looks like he could have possibly just gone through the door, right? However, later in the issue, Wally sees a door too late and notes that it is too late for him to vibrate through it, suggesting that the first time WAS him vibrating through the wall...
EDITED TO ADD: Tom Brevoort very correctly noted that Barry actually DID run through a wall in Flash #105, but I think they were suggesting some odd use of speed-based brute force as opposed to vibrating molecules by suggesting that paper can be forced through solid walls during hurricanes...
But really, Tom is probably right that Barry WAS vibrating through that wall and they just didn't CALL it that in the issue. Thanks either way, Tom, as I should have mentioned it no matter what!
Thanks for the question, Daniel! If anyone else has a suggestion for a notable comic book first, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!