Flash of Two Worlds

Of all the covers that have been paid hommage to over and over and over, my favorite has to be the Flash of Two Worlds cover from Flash #123. More than Superman crashing a car, more than Peter Parker leaving his costume in the trash, and more than Speedy getting caught shooting up. Just look at it:It's the story that blew the multiverse wide open as the Flash of Earth-1 meets the Flash of Earth-2 by vibrating his body to the apprpopriate quantum state (in updated terminology). Everytime I see a take on this cover, I can't help but try to imagine how the two worlds are different and how they are the same. Both Earth-1 and Earth-2 have a character called the Flash, and both have that same guy who is going to be hit by the same girder next to the same unfinished wall, but otherwise... it's ALL DIFFERENT!

Or is that guy in the middle totally on some other Earth, and Earth between 1 and 2. Earth 1.5, as it were. I wasn't alive when Flash #123 came out, but I imagine myself going "Waaaaa??" at the corner market and immediately needing to sell my blood for the requiste 10¢. TWO Flashes? That's outrageous! The one I don't know fought crime in the 1940s? Amazing!

For once, the cover hype isn't just hype. "A spectacular story that is sure to become a classic!" And it has! From that simple meeting between DC's Golden and Silver Age properties would come annual meetings between the JLA and the JSA, a proliferation of new Earths, DC adding the Fawcett and Quality heroes via their own Earths, and next thing you knew, worlds would live and worlds woud die, and the DC Universe would never be the same.

Except that it's kind of back to the way it kinda was with the recent return of the Multiverse.

Which I heartily applaud, by the way. As if it was ever really gone. Pff. Morrison's JLA Earth 2? Amalgam? Flex Mentallo? Animal Man's Crisis 2? That marketing-inspired crossober between DC's Milestone imprint and the Superman titles? The multiverse never left us. But since it's come out of the closet, so to speak, let us celebrate with Thursdays of Two Worlds. Every Thursday, I mean to blow another hole in the multiverse with another hommage cover, starting with a natural, the OTHER Flash #123.

Yes, from Wally West's series, I'm real glad they thought to pay hommage to Flash of Two Worlds. And while I know both sides of the cover occur on Earth-1 (at this point, there ain't nothin' but), I'm always gonna make like I don't care. Let's see...

On Earth-1, Flash lives in Keystone City in the American midwest. On Earth-6, he lives in Malibu, on the west coast. Note Earth-1.5 Guy's varying dress sense this time around. How would the Flash's adventures be different on the beaches of California? How indeed? Thanks to the return of the Multiverse, we'll get a chance to find out. Would Heat Wave lord it over Captain Cold instead of vice-versa? Does the Golden Glider ride a surfboard? Is this Wally a lot more like his cartoon self from the Justice League cartoon?

Next week: We open the gates between 2 more of the 52 worlds!