1961 The Flash #123 CGC NM 9.4

"Flash of Two Worlds," the landmark story that brought the Golden Age and Silver Age Flash together and introduced DC's multiverse, in Near Mint 9.4.

The Flash #123, dated September 1961, contains “Flash of Two Worlds,” in which Barry Allen vibrates his molecules during a charity show and finds himself in Keystone City, on another Earth, where he meets Jay Garrick, the Flash of the 1940s. Jay had retired years earlier, and Barry, who knew him only as a comic book character, suggests that the writer Gardner Fox must have been picking up events from Jay’s world. The issue introduces the idea of a parallel Earth, later named Earth-Two, which became the basis of DC’s multiverse.

The story is by Gardner Fox, with art by Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella and a cover by Infantino and Murphy Anderson, and the issue was edited by Julius Schwartz. The Shade, the Thinker and the Fiddler make their first Silver Age appearances, and at the end of the story Jay Garrick comes out of retirement.

The story’s success led DC to revive many of its 1940s heroes, and meetings between the two Earths became an annual event in Justice League of America, leading eventually to the 1985 series Crisis on Infinite Earths. The cover has been referenced on many later Flash covers, and the story’s title was reused for an episode of the television series The Flash.

Eight examples have achieved Near Mint 9.4 at CGC, with one graded higher.

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