The curator of the Coast City Museum discusses it's latest Modern Art acquisition. An enormous meteor was on a collision course for Coast City. As the panicked citizens looked skyward, two gigantic hands, composed of green energy, caught and crushed the meteor. The Green Lantern had saved the city. A large meteor fragment fell towards Coast Park. This, too, was intercepted by the Green Lantern, then melted down. The Green Lantern was just about to blast the rock into dust, when a local artist convinced him to donate it to the Coast City Museum. The curator leads several of the museum patrons to the next exhibit. One man, William Hand, breaks off from the larger group, lingering by the meteor fragment.
Hand absorbs the residual power ring energy from the meteor, then heads to Central City. The Flash is presented with a bronze insignia plaque, by the mayor of Central City. Among the crowd of onlookers are Lisa Snart, the infamous Golden Glider, and the Sands family, next door neighbors of police forensic scientist, Barry Allen. Young Barney Sands furiously snaps photograph after photograph of the award ceremony. The Green Lantern arrives. Upon shaking the Flash's hand, the Green Lantern causes the Flash's invisible protective aura to appear around the Scarlet Speedster. This results in the Flash feeling a momentary wave of weakness, that brings him to his knees. While the Flash is down, the Green Lantern kicks him off the stage, and into oncoming traffic.
Vibrating his molecules at super-human speed, the Flash becomes insubstantial, allowing a tractor trailer to pass harmlessly through him. The "Green Lantern" reveals himself to be Black Hand, one of the Green Lantern's rogues gallery. Greatly recovered, the Flash attacks Black Hand, flooring him with a single punch. Black Hand uses the residual power ring energy, collected at the Coast City Museum, to levitate the entire stage into the air, before transforming it into an attack craft. Black Hand rolls the attack craft, pitching the Flash off the hood. As the Flash falls, Black Hand fires on him, with beams of power ring energy. Astonishingly, the Flash is able to race along the beams, even controlling their direction, through his super-speed vibrations.
The Flash redirects the beams back at Black Hand, destroying his ship. Before impact, Black Hand vanishes. Back at home, Sands is disappointed to find that all of his photographs of the Flash are blurry. The Flash, as Allen, has also returned home. Allen absentmindedly mows his lawn, while he ponders why Black Hand has come to Central City. Black Hand reveals that the moment he illuminated the Flash's invisible, protective aura on stage, his weapon locked onto it, and Black Hand has been remotely absorbing it ever since. Without his protective aura to protect him from the enormous heat friction generated by running at super-human speed, the Flash runs the risk of catching fire and burning to death. Sands tries to do some drawings of the Flash.
Sands asks Allen to model some running poses for him. Allen spies an enormous, gaseous black hand rising up over Central City. Allen investigates, as the Flash. The Flash is decked by a power-ring energy constructed fist. The Flash is then lifted, high into the air, by a power-ring constructed geyser. Running in place, at super-human speed, the Flash works his back down to the street, through the geyser. The Flash scours Central City, searching for Black Hand. The Flash begins heating up. Sweating profusely, the Flash realizes that he has lost his protective aura. The Flash tries to slow down, but it's too late. The Flash bursts into flames. By the time the Flash stops, all that remains of him is a smoldering pair of yellow boots, at the end of a miles long, still burning, scorch mark in the road. With the Flash dead, Black Hand prepares to enact the next part of his sinister scheme.
Notes:
- This issue contains the Hostess Superhero Ad "Batman and Sable Lady"
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