The Flash #148

Captain Boomerang tries to send Flash off into space on a giant boomerang.

The Day Flash Went Into Orbit!

Captain Boomerang soars across the rooftops of Central City, ultimately breaking into the top floor of a skyscraper. Using an exploding boomerang, Captain Boomerang opens the safe, only to find it empty, save for a note. Once more, the Crooked Four have beaten him to a crime. Back in his hidden lair, Captain Boomerang stews over the Crooked Four's constant one-upmanship at every crime he's tried to commit.

Unbeknownst to Captain Boomerang, the leader of the Crooked Four is a man named Fanning, Captain Boomerang's old prison cellmate. Fanning, along with other like-minded convicts, is out to take Captain Boomerang down a peg, in response to Captain Boomerang's enormous ego, not to mention his disdainful arrogance. Using subliminal suggestion, Fanning steers Captain Boomerang into committing specific crimes at specific times. All so Fanning's gang can beat him to the punch every time.

Fanning's gang, however, is interrupted by the Flash, during their next robbery. Though the Flash is able to easily dodge the gang's gunfire, an errant sheet of paper creases his temple, rendering him unconscious. Fanning, and his men, are about to execute the Flash, when Captain Boomerang attacks them. Captain Boomerang swiftly disarms Fanning, and his gang, but stops short upon recognizing Fanning. Before Captain Boomerang can fully process Fanning's involvement, Fanning, and his men escape.

Fanning steers Captain Boomerang to his next crime, but also tips off the police. Fanning and his gang set up across the street, to watch Captain Boomerang's inevitable arrest. The Flash closes on Fanning's gang, and uses super-compressed air pressure to knock them all out. Spying the heavy police presence, Captain Boomerang flees the scene, with the Flash hot on his trail. Captain Boomerang leads the Flash to a boomerang shaped bridge. Crossing the bridge, the Flash is stuck midway, by a powerful adhesive.

The boomerang launches into the air, heading for orbit. As the Flash approaches the Himalayas, he vibrates his molecules at super-speed, to angle the boomerang down at Mount Everest. Grasping the flagpole, of the American flag planted at the summit, the Flash holds on until the boomerang tears free from his boots. Catching up with Captain Boomerang, the Flash swiftly returns his old foe to prison. Once again, Captain Boomerang finds himself sharing a cell with Fanning. Captain Boomerang demands to know how Fanning got the best of him, but Fanning says nothing.

The Doorway To The Unknown!

Returning from his evening patrol, the Flash finds a man waiting for him in his apartment. The man identifies himself as Fred Dalmon, the Vice President of a bank in Arizona City. Dalmon has spent the last 8 years embezzling funds from the bank. When auditors began to get suspicious, Dalmon framed one of the tellers, David Dean. En route to Central City, to start a new life, Dalmon learns that a prison breakout has occurred. Four vicious criminals have taken Dean hostage, to learn the location of the missing money. Fearing Dean's untimely demise for a crime he didn't commit, Dalmon has approached the Flash to set things right.

Having made his plea, Dalmon vanishes into thin air right before the Flash's eyes. Though startled, the Flash wastes no time in running to Arizona City. Quickly ferreting out the gang of convicts, the Flash beats them all into unconsciousness. After the Flash reveals that he knows Dean was framed, Dean asks the Flash to help his kid brother, Jack. After Dean's wrongful conviction, his brother lost faith in the system and fell in with a group of criminals. Dean asks the Flash to stop his brother from following a path into a life of crime. The Flash intervenes, and after pulling Jack Dean to safety, takes down young Dean's would-be criminal peers.

After taking the crooks to jail, the Flash sits down with the younger Dean and sets him back on the straight and narrow. The warden agrees to release David Dean, if the Flash can bring Dalman to justice. Returning to Central City, the Flash is astonished to learn that Dalman was killed in a car accident. In fact, Dalmon died at exactly midnight, the moment he vanished before the Flash's eyes. With the money recovered, Dean is released from prison. Though shaken by his brush with the supernatural, the Flash believes that, in death, Dalton has redeemed himself.