FLASH #110 (1960)
by John Broome & Carmine Infantino
This is the same issue with the origin of Kid Flash, a.k.a. Wally West, but he doesn’t make it to the cover: that belongs to Weather Wizard.
Barry Allen is getting ready for a date, but he overhears about bad weather. Which is a job for the Flash, SOMEHOW.
Obviously Weather Wizard is behind this, with the fiendish plan of… cooling himself with some light rain. The monster!
0.0000000000001 nanoseconds later, the Flash wins.
Well at least that’s what SHOULD have happened. But apparently fog is faster than lightning (WTF!?).
Weather Wizard escapes, and then for no freaking reason a US Marshal shows up to narrate the villain’s origins.
He was an escaped convict who had a scientist brother, who he calls a “queer-duck”.
Which is 60s slang for… well honestly I have no clue what the heck THAT is supposed to mean.
Turns out his brother had been working on a weather machine, and by reading through his notes the future Weather Wizard is able to work on “a private project he’s been thinking about”.
Note that he had no clue his brother was working on a weather machine, so it’s really hard to understand what kind of project he’s talking about.
All the Flash villains using some kind of technology are completely wasting the potential of what they have on their hands, but that is particularly evident with Weather Wizard.
I mean, he could make MILLIONS by changing bad weather into a sunny day, and that wouldn’t be illegal in the slightest!
But no, he wants revenge on the cops that put him in jail, so he does THIS:
To say Weather Wizard is ridiculously overpowered is an understatement. The guy would give Storm trouble!
0.0000000000001 nanoseconds later, the Flash wins.
FOR REAL.
And it turns out that the “pet project” was indeed killing the cops.
I wonder if he was going to do that in costume if it wasn’t for the weather technology.
Historical significance: 6/10
Another member of the classic rogues. Pretty iconic, but not very significant.
Silver Age-ness: 9/10
Almost entirely based on the use of powers.
Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
Meh. Aside from the problem that 99% of Flash villains have (being able to last more than a single panel for no adequately explained reason), Weather Wizard is quite boring and there is little mystery around him. Having the US Marshal show up with an infodump is especially bad.
Ridiculous Flash feat of the day
Using an acetylene torch to melt an entire glacier, SOMEHOW without running out of gas.
How close is this to the modern character?: 10/10
While honestly I’m not too familiar with Weather Wizard, he seems to have pretty much all the characteristics of his Silver Age self: he’s a complete waste of that power and… well that’s about it, he’s quite bland aside from his powers.
His classic costume, while admittedly pretty silly, is still far better than the most modern version:
