1956 Showcase #4 CGC VF- 7.5

The first appearance of Barry Allen as the Flash, in the issue widely regarded as the beginning of the Silver Age of comics.

Showcase #4, dated September–October 1956, introduced Barry Allen as the new Flash. A police scientist struck by lightning and doused in chemicals in his laboratory, the new Flash reimagined a hero from the 1940s for a new generation. The issue also marks the first appearance of Iris West.

The story is by Robert Kanigher and John Broome, with cover and art by Carmine Infantino and Joe Kubert. The success of the new Flash led DC to revive further heroes of the 1940s, and eventually to the formation of the Justice League.

Barry Allen is shown in the story reading an old issue of Flash Comics, and he takes his name as a hero from Jay Garrick, the Flash of the 1940s whom he had admired as a boy. He remained the Flash for almost thirty years, until he died saving the multiverse in Crisis on Infinite Earths #8 in 1985, and he did not return to the comics for twenty-three years. On screen he has been played by John Wesley Shipp in the 1990 television series The Flash, by Grant Gustin in The Flash from 2014, and by Ezra Miller in the 2023 film The Flash.

The cover shows the Flash racing out of a strip of film. The issue was edited by Julius Schwartz, who went on to oversee the revival of Green Lantern, the Atom and Hawkman in the years that followed.

Eleven examples have achieved Very Fine- 7.5 at CGC, with twenty-two graded higher.

Population report accurate at the time of listing and subject to change.