The Flash #177

There's something delightfully off about the Scarlet Speedster in this March 1968 issue — the cover by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito presents a literally giant-headed Flash looming over a crowd of startled bystanders, his expression smug as he quips, "What's wrong with these people? You'd think they never saw The Flash before!" The title "The Swell-Headed Super-Hero!" promises a story from writer Gardner Fox that plays gleefully with the idea of a hero whose ego — or perhaps something stranger — has gotten the better of him. It's a wonderfully playful piece of Silver Age DC comics that captures the era's knack for turning superhero conceits into genuinely fun visual puzzles.