Flash #53 (August 1991)
Flash #53 (August 1991)
Flash helps Superman rescue Jimmy Olsen from a crazy meth addict who shoots lightning bolts. The guy has Jimmy and is gonna kill him unless Superman brings him the deposed (and supposedly dead) dictator of a Caribbean nation – did I mention he’s a meth head? Anyway, Superman and Flash team up find the missing dictator and so on, but the part that people actually remember about this issue is the scene where Flash’s friend (and former enemy) the Pied Piper comes out as gay. Or, more accurately, Flash notices this guy he’s known for years is gay. The deliciously awkward moment happens when Flash is trying to get the Piper to tell him if the rumors about the Joker’s sexuality are true (since they were colleagues and all), and Piper says:
“Batman, on the other hand…”
Flash is taken by surprise and runs off to do the rescuing Jimmy thing, but he immediately feels crappy about it (being weird to the Piper, not rescuing Jimmy, though that’s also a bad thing). At the end of the issue, we see that things are cool between him and the Piper again when Flash uses him as part of a ruse to convince the kidnapper that they brought him the dictator:
Oh, yeah, the real dictator (who was being hidden by the CIA) was left in the middle of a busy intersection by Flash, dressed in nothing but shorts. THE END!
Character-Watch:
The Pied Piper’s gay revelation (gayvelation) was a first for mainstream comics. There were other gay characters in superhero comics before (including our own Maggie Sawyer) but no one actually used the word “gay” at the time, presumably because the editors thought the kids would burn all their comics and start collecting Barbies.
Plotline-Watch:
I won’t talk about every single non-Superman issue where Superman appeared during the ‘90s, because that would make me go crazy (and broke), but I picked this one because it’s pretty well connected to the regular continuity through the plotline about Jimmy Olsen’s shitty luck. The whole reason Jimmy gets kidnapped is that he’s feeling bummed about his recent firing from the Daily Planet, so he tries to get his job back by breaking into the apartment of a dangerous, superpowered drug addict and taking photos. This goes exactly as expected.
Also, Superman finds the dictator’s secret location (he’s living it up in a CIA resort or something) by doing some Clark Kenting around, which is always nice to see. After this issue, Jimmy actually mentions that he met Flash on Superman: The Man of Steel #2, but his co-worker in his new cafeteria job isn’t buying it. I wouldn’t, either.
Babe: “You got rescued by Flash? Yeah, sure, and I’ll become a vampire queen.”
Plug-Watch:
First plug: If you’re into Flash comics, check out my old column (and the precursor to this blog) at Comics Bulletin, “The Full Run,” where I very briefly talked about every Flash issue between 1987 and 2000. For this issue I actually had the chance to talk to Flash writer William Messner-Loebs, who told me how the plot about the Pied Piper came about and shared a cool anecdote:
“My favorite story from this happened a couple of years later. Lightning had struck with The Maxx, and every convention had huge lines filled with young kids clutching issues to be signed. For an hour and a half I noticed a tall, quiet young man working his way down the blocks-long line at this particular convention. When he got to me he smiled. “I don’t have a book to sign. I just wanted to thank you for the Piper.” He shook my hand and was gone.”
Second plug: The awesome “From Crisis to Crisis” Superman podcast I’ve mentioned before mentioned us back in their latest episode! They’re three years ahead of us in Superman continuity, so if you care about spoilers for 20 year old comics, I’d recommend listening to them from the beginning. I’ll catch up to you guys one day, you’ll see.