Origins Silver Age and Kirby, 1956–1978
The Flash
Robert Kanigher, Carmine Infantino · Showcase #4, DC, 1956
Police scientist Barry Allen is struck by lightning while standing next to a shelf of chemicals, which is exactly the sort of workplace accident health and safety was invented for. He becomes the fastest man alive. In a nice touch, Barry was a fan of the original 1940s Flash comic, which makes him the first superhero with a reading list.
This issue is generally counted as the start of comics' Silver Age: a superhero reborn with a science fiction origin, sleek design and a detective's brain. A few years later, "Flash of Two Worlds" introduced parallel Earths, and comics have been tangled in multiverses ever since. You can blame him for that too.
