Flash #26

The title itself asks the question — "Flash?" — as a figure in the scarlet cowl and a casual red lightning-bolt sweatshirt stands defiantly with hands on hips, dwarfed by a massive, shadowy creature looming behind him with thorny, outstretched arms. The cover tag "Beware the Porcupine Man!" makes the threat explicit, and the juxtaposition of that eerie monster against the hero's almost nonchalant stance gives the whole image a wonderfully unsettling edge. Cover pencils by Greg LaRocque and inks by Larry Mahlstedt deliver a striking May 1989 done-in-one vibe from William Messner-Loebs's run on the series.