The Flash #285
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeThe Flash #285 is the quiet but consequential pivot point where writer Cary Bates began rebuilding Barry Allen's personal world from the ground up after the murder of Iris West-Allen. Its greatest long-term contribution is the debut of Fiona Webb — the witness-protection fugitive who becomes Barry's next serious love interest — whose eventual near-wedding and Reverse-Flash's murder of her at the altar sets the entire 'Trial of the Flash' saga in motion, the storyline that would carry the series all the way to its final issue. The issue also introduces Captain Darryl Frye, who becomes Barry's new police-department superior and remains a series regular through the book's end, grounding the cast with a fresh civilian anchor at a moment when the supporting roster had been gutted by Iris's death. Taken together, the debut characters and the domestic reset in #285 represent the deliberate first chapter of what Bates clearly planned as a years-long personal odyssey for Barry Allen, one that ultimately terminated in Crisis on Infinite Earths.
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The issue falls squarely in the early tenure of penciler Don Heck, who had taken over art duties on the title with issue #280 (December 1979) and would hold the penciling assignment through issue #295. Editor Len Wein oversaw the issue, with Frank Chiaramonte inking, Gene D'Angelo on colors, and Ben Oda lettering — a production team that was stabilizing the book after a turbulent creative stretch. Bates, the series' long-standing writer, had already killed Iris West-Allen in #275 (1979) and was now methodically introducing a new status quo: a new apartment (Utopia Towers), a new boss, and new neighbors to replace what had been lost. The story's title, 'If, at First, You Don't Succeed,' functions almost as a winking authorial statement of intent about that rebuilding project.
Trivia · 7 facts
- First appearance of Fiona Webb (real name Beverly Lewis), a witness-protection refugee who moves into Utopia Towers and becomes Barry Allen's next major love interest after Iris's death — a role she carries through the 'Trial of the Flash' arc and into issue #345.
- First appearance of Captain Darryl Frye, Barry Allen's new boss at the Central City Police Department crime lab, who goes on to be a series regular from this issue through #345 and later appears in the 2010 Flash volume.
- First appearance of Mack Nathan and his son Troy Nathan, Barry's new neighbors at Utopia Towers; Mack's work at S.T.A.R. Labs directly triggers the Trickster's 'spy-toy' scheme that forms the issue's villain plot.
- The story is titled 'If, at First, You Don't Succeed' — written by Cary Bates, penciled by Don Heck, inked by Frank Chiaramonte, colored by Gene D'Angelo, lettered by Ben Oda, and edited by Len Wein.
- The issue was reprinted at least twice internationally: in the West German anthology Roter Blitz (Egmont Ehapa) #9/1980 and in the French anthology Flash (Arédit-Artima) #56 (September 1982, in black and white).
- A British price variant edition also exists, distinguished by its own barcode, making this one of two known printings of the cover.
- Fiona Webb's debut here is the direct narrative seed for 'The Trial of the Flash' (beginning #323), itself later partially collected in DC's Showcase Presents: The Trial of the Flash trade paperback — the only Bronze Age Flash arc from this period to receive a dedicated trade collection.
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Reprinted in Roter Blitz #9/1980 (1980), Flash #56 (1982)
Key issues in The Flash
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