Cover: Carmine Infantino & Joe Giella

The Flash #124

Nov 1961 · DC · 0.10 USD

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“Space-Boomerang Trap!”

About this Issue

The Flash #124 is the second appearance of Captain Boomerang (George 'Digger' Harkness), cementing his place as a fixture in Barry Allen's growing Rogues Gallery only one year after his debut. The issue is equally notable as an early team-up between Barry Allen and Ralph Dibny (the Elongated Man), a pairing that would recur throughout the Silver Age and help establish Dibny as a supporting cast regular in the Flash's world rather than a solo novelty act. Its two-story anthology format — one Boomerang caper, one Iris West spotlight — is a textbook example of how editor Julius Schwartz structured the Silver Age Flash title to develop both villain and supporting-cast depth simultaneously. The story's science-fiction conceits (time-traveling boomerangs, an interdimensional invasion repelled by hero and villain working together) reflect the imaginative, anything-goes storytelling energy that made this era of DC Comics so influential on the superhero genre.

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writer John Broome · artist Carmine Infantino · inker Joe Giella · cover Carmine Infantino, Joe Giella

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History

The issue was produced by the core creative team that defined the Silver Age Flash: writer John Broome, penciler Carmine Infantino, and editor Julius Schwartz, with Joe Giella on inks — a slightly different configuration from Captain Boomerang's debut in #117, where Murphy Anderson had inked Infantino's pencils. Schwartz's editorial records, preserved by DC Comics and cited by the Grand Comics Database, confirm the 36-page count and place the book's arrival on newsstands around 14 September 1961, ahead of its November cover date. The issue falls at the end of the run collected in Flash Archives #3 (2002), meaning it served as a capstone to a particularly dense period of Silver Age world-building that had introduced or developed Captain Boomerang, the Elongated Man's marriage to Sue Dibny, and the Flash's multiverse-establishing 'Flash of Two Worlds' story.

Trivia · 8 facts

Second appearance of Captain Boomerang (George 'Digger' Harkness), who had debuted in The Flash #117 (December 1960) — created by writer John Broome and artist Carmine Infantino.
Features an early team-up of Barry Allen's Flash and Ralph Dibny (the Elongated Man), with Sue Dibny and Iris West also appearing, making it a showcase issue for the full Flash supporting cast of the period.
Lead story title: 'The Space-Boomerang Trap!' — Captain Boomerang uses time-traveling boomerangs to commit crimes with an airtight alibi; the scheme inadvertently triggers an interdimensional invasion, forcing Flash, Elongated Man, and Captain Boomerang to temporarily cooperate.
Second story, 'Vengeance Via Television!', features villain James Lawton using a psi-helmet to control witnesses and jurors — and attempts to unmask the Flash — with Iris West narrating events in diary form.
Creative team: writer John Broome, penciler Carmine Infantino, inker Joe Giella, editor Julius Schwartz; cover date November 1961, arrived on stands approximately 14 September 1961 per GCD-documented records.
The lead story has been reprinted multiple times: The Flash #160 (April 1966), DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #2 (1980), The Greatest Flash Stories Ever Told, Flash Archives Vol. 3 (2002), Flash Chronicles Vol. 4, and The Flash Omnibus Vol. 1.
The Flash Archives Vol. 3 (January 2002) collects issues #117–124, meaning this issue closes the archive volume covering the entire first year of both Captain Boomerang's and the modern Elongated Man's history alongside Flash.
Captain Boomerang's characterization here — including his attempt to launch the Flash into space strapped to a giant boomerang — echoes a near-identical gambit from his debut issue, establishing the boomerang-as-launch-device as a signature gimmick of the character.