"Heat Wave Plays it Cool!"
Heat Wave, along with three other crooks, have sequestered themselves inside a large pyramid, being delivered to the Central City Museum of Art. The museum is currently exhibiting the treasures of King Ah-Mose. On hand for the exhibit's opening are Picture News reporter, Iris West, and her husband, police forensics scientist, Barry Allen. Heat Wave makes his dramatic entrance, burning his way out of the pyramid. Heat Wave's infra-red rays cause the museum guards' bullets to explode in their guns, and on their person. Heat Wave ramps up the intensity of his infra-red rays until the guards pass out from the extreme heat. Allen makes his own dramatic entrance, as the Flash.
After quickly taking out Heat Wave's gang, the Flash goes after Heat Wave. The Flash finds a hole burned into the floor. Suspecting a trap, the Flash chooses to vibrate his way through the floor, rather than leap down the hole. Heat Wave, though, has anticipated this tactic, and turned the metal floor molten. The Flash's boots immediately melt to the floor, leaving him a sitting duck. Heat Wave fires on the Flash, but the Flash dodges by leaping up out of his boots. The blast from Heat Wave's Hot Rod strikes the air conditioning unit, causing it to explode. The Flash vibrates his molecules into intangibility, allowing the shrapnel to pass harmlessly through him. Heat Wave leaps for cover.
Despite his precautions, the Flash is still struck by a piece of flying debris, that renders him unconscious. Rather than finish the Flash off, while he's helpless, Heat Wave, curiously, flees the scene. Puzzled over his own compulsive behavior, Heat Wave, as Mick Rory, makes an appointment to see Doctor Synett, the underworld's psychiatrist. Placing Rory under hypnosis, Synett zeroes in on Rory's issues. As a boy, Rory had taken a school field trip to a meat packing plant. Rory broke off from his class to do some exploring on his own, ending up accidentally locked in one of the freezers. Desperately, Rory blew hot air on his hands to warm them up enough to work the latch.
Rory escaped the freezer, but from that moment on he could never be warm enough. His obsession with heat and warmth eventually led him to taking a job as a carnival fire-eater. From there, it was a short journey to his costumed criminal identity, Heat Wave. Synett's diagnosis is cryophobia. To prove his point, he hurls a bucket of ice at Rory, causing Rory to fall to the floor, on his knees, in terror. Synett declares that Rory's cryophobia is the reason he fled the scene, when the air conditioning unit exploded, coating everything in frost. It's also why he always loses in battles with his rival, Captain Cold.
Primarily, though, it's why Rory has never achieved his full criminal potential, as Heat Wave. Synett, though, promises to change all that. The Flash receives word that the head butler, of the Alden Norton estate, has been trying to reach him. An arctic explorer, Norton had his estate fashioned to look like a giant igloo. Dying of a terminal disease, Norton had himself frozen, to be revived in the year 2100. The Flash meets up with Alden's head butler, only to find the staff behaving as if mesmerized. It's a trap, one laid by Heat Wave. After avoiding Heat Wave's heat seeking beam, the Flash mercilessly beats Heat Wave into unconsciousness.
Unmasking Heat Wave, the Flash sees the face of Norton's head butler. The Flash realizes, too late, that Heat Wave is disguised as the head butler. The Flash is struck down from behind. Heat Wave unmasks the Flash, but doesn't recognize his true identity. Having removed Norton's frozen body, Heat Wave puts the Flash in his place. The Flash is left in cryogenic suspended animation. With the Flash out of commission for the next century, Heat Wave makes plans to embark on a crime spree, the likes of which Central City has never seen.
"The Case of the Missing Super-Speed!"
Kid Flash races to keep Howie Cramer from being struck by lightning. The save is especially close, with both youths receiving a bit of a shock. The next day, Kid Flash, as Wally West, and his parents, are at the bank to deposit West's summer earnings. As West and his parents exit the bank, they are followed by a super-humanly fast bank robber. West gives chase, as Kid Flash. The robber easily eludes Kid Flash, though, as Kid Flash has lost his super-speed powers. Kid Flash, as West, contemplates his situation. West had planned to retire his costumed identity after college, but now considers ending his career immediately.
Liza Bodner first distracts West, then provides him with the insight needed to get his super-speed back. West realizes that his powers were transferred to Cramer, when they both took that glancing lightning strike. West also determines that Cramer must be the super-speed thief. West, as Kid Flash, tracks down and confronts Cramer. Though Cramer possesses Kid Flash's super-speed, Kid Flash's greater combat experience allows him to gain the upper hand. Luring Cramer in close, Kid Flash uses a downed power line to effect the transfer of his super-speed out of Cramer, and back into his own body. His super-speed restored, Kid Flash easily apprehends Cramer.
Notes:
- This issue contains the Hostess Superhero Ad "Batman and the Corsair of Crime"
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