FLASH #140 (1963)
by John Broome & Carmine Infantino
The last of the notable Flash villains to be introduced in the 60s: Heat Wave.
I can’t even make the joke that he’s Discount Captain Cold: the comic makes it too easy!
Little known fact, but Barry Allen had a crush on a Legionnaire.
Just kidding, of course, Dream Girl won’t be introduced until 1964’s Adventure Comics #317.
But that’s the cue for Barry Allen to lie his way through narrate a Flash adventure.
There’s a length exposition, but to summarize: a rich guy died in a boat crash and left behind a girl who would inherit a lot of money if identified, and she has a mark on the back of her neck.
So that’s why the Flash looks at girls.
Sounds legit.
Before we can learn what secret Barry knows, he discovers that Captain Cold has escaped from prison… because he recovered his Cold Gun™. Why didn’t the Flash throw that thing into the Sun!?
It’s been a while since we’ve last seen Captain Cold, but by this time him being a sleazeball obsessed with beautiful women has been firmly established.
So Captain Cold’s plan is basically:
1) commit crimes to impress a girl who likes heroes
2) ?????
3) love!
Hey come on, you can’t steal Weather Wizard’s gimmick!!!
The Flash shows up and 0.0000000000001 nanoseconds later, the Flash wins.
Or that’s what SHOULD happen. Instead Heat Wave finally decides to show up in his own first appearance (on page 9 of a 15 page story) to shoot the Flash in the butt.
And then we learn Heat Wave’s origin story… summarized in a single sentence.
Oh the other hand he built his Heat Gun™ by himself. After the Trickster, it’s clear that circus performers in the DC Universe have surprising technological skills!!!
Yeah I wonder why he’s not as popular as Captain Cold.
He can’t even get a unique gimmick in his first story!!!
The two continue fighting until the Flash tracks them down.
At this point I’m firmly convinced that the Flash can ONLY dodge lightning because he constantly gets hit by ANYTHING ELSE.
The Flash’s solution? Turn himself into a superconductor!!!
That’s not even the way to defeat the supervillains: the Flash wins by the power of sucking.
With that plot out of the way, all that’s left is to confirm Dream Girl is the girl with the birthmark.
An older picture confirms the birthmark was the same from the orphan girl, who has had a fear of water because that’s how babies work.
I for one am glad this plot nobody cared about and had no suspense whatsoever had a happy ending.
Historical significance: 2/10
Even if Heat Wave is a recurring villain, we basically know nothing about him from this story. Not that there’s much to know.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
Seriously, can he actually dodge ANYTHING!?
Does it stand the test of time? 3/10
The Infantino artwork is the only saving grace. The inheritance plot is little more than an afterthought, Captain Cold doesn’t really bring anything new, and Heat Wave is utterly forgettable.
Ridiculous Flash feat of the day
Presented without context, from the other story of the issue.
How close is this to the modern character?: 9/10
I’ll be honest: I don’t know much about Heat Wave. He’s a mainstay of the Flash Rogues, but he’s easily the most forgettable and generic of the bunch. Except for the emphasis for pyromania, he’s basically already the definitive version.
He’s been reformed a couple of times, died and came back a couple of times, and still nobody really cares about Heat Wave.
I mean, just look at him! Could he possibly look less interesting?
To be fair though, like most supervillains he can be freaking badass sometimes.
He tends to work better in ensemble stories with the other Rogues, though.
