The Flash #305

Few covers hit with the quiet devastation of this January 1982 issue, which places two generations of the Flash side by side against a cosmic backdrop — the scarlet-clad Barry Allen and the golden-helmeted Jay Garrick, each cradling a limp, white-robed woman in his arms. The cover copy — "When YOUR wife died… you knew MINE would die, too! Why didn't you tell me?" — makes the emotional stakes bracingly clear without a single punch thrown. Carmine Infantino and Mike DeCarlo deliver a composition that is genuinely moving, and Cary Bates's story title, "Don't Take My Wife — Please!", promises that the heartbreak visible here runs all the way through the issue.