(Flash Comics #85) - Joan called up Flash, asking him to come to the Royal Theatre. When he arrived he saw a ballet performance interrupted by a masked man in the audience firing on the stage and knocked him out with a punch. Joan told Flash she’d written a ballet called Crime Wave, and the man in the audience was an actor firing blanks. She just wanted to see Flash’s reaction to see how convincing the scene would appear. Jay attended the opening night performance with Joan and when the masked man showed up and opened fire Jay congratulated him on his performance. Jay and Joan realized the man was not the actor, who was tied up backstage, and he’d fired off live rounds, killing two of the ballet dancers. Joan realized she’d be forced to close her show, and introduced Jay to theatre critic Schuyler Van Wert, who’s taken an interest in her work. He suggested she change her ballet to an ice capades show. The show was a success, but the show’s producer Torg seemed terrified of another attack and suffered a fatal heart attack. Jay saw some goons in the audience who were startled, saying Torg wasn’t supposed to die. Jay changed into Flash and investigated Torg’s backstage room, finding a letter from the Impresario, who demanded protection money or else he’d kill Torg. Flash realized Impresario and his gang were running a protection racket on local theatre companies and decided to tail the goons. They lost him in the theatre’s basement where they shot pipes full of freezing chlorine gas, disabling Flash. Flash came up with a plan; if a show protected by the Impresario had something happen to ruin it the producers would stop paying and Impresario would be forced to make a move. Flash created gale force winds by spinning around outside a theatre company, keeping anyone from entering. The producers were so infuriated that they didn’t have a single customer that they refused payment to Impresario’s men. Impresario realized Flash was responsible and told his men they’d have to kill the hero. They ambushed Flash and Joan outside another theatre and tied them up. Impresario revealed himself as Van Wert, and told the story of how his acting career was ruined by a case of stage fright, forcing him to destroy the theatre. Flash called him a failure as an actor, hoping to goad him into a mistake. Impresario said he’d give a demonstration of his abilities, and after changing costumes he began performing Macbeth. Flash taunted him until he lept at the hero with a knife. Flash dodged, and the knife cut his bonds. Flash easily defeated Impresario and his gang, saying he’d have a starring role as a prisoner for the rest of his life.

(Flash Comics #86) - Jay and Joan investigated a meteor crash site, and after taking some meteor fragments they discovered a dinosaur footprint and made a plaster cast of it. Shockingly they were attacked by a dinosaur that tried to eat them, and after freeing themselves from its’ jaws they fell to the ground and were knocked out. They woke inside a natural history museum next to a dinosaur skeleton and a meteor display. The display case was cracked open and Jay had possession of the display’s meteor. Museum guards detained them and brought them to curator Professor Lang. Jay sometimes worked as a consultant with the museum, and when he told Lang his story Lang said he must have cracked from the strain of his work. Jay was arrested, but determined to get to the bottom of things he put a dummy in his cell and exited as Flash. He returned to the museum to encounter crooks stealing the meteorite display. Flash foiled them, and had to change back into Jay when Lang visited him in jail to authenticate the fragments. Lang handed the fragments to museum security who drove off with them, but Jay followed them as the Flash and witnessed the guards, who he recognized as the robbers that targeted the museum, handing over the fragments to wealthy collector Mr. Sleek. Flash realized Lang was selling off the museum’s collection and replacing the museum displays with replicas. Lang held Flash and Joan at gunpoint, brought them backed to the museum, and wrapped them up in bandages and putting them in an Egyptian sarcophagus that he was putting up for auction. Flash escaped and pursued Lang to the basement where he was confronted with the dinosaur he’d been attacked by earlier. Flash created a gust of wind by running around the dinosaur, knocking it over and revealing it to be a robot. Flash realized Lang had sent the dinosaur after him and Joan to frame him for stealing from the museum.

(Flash Comics #87) - Joan went on a vacation, visiting Bayou Town. She heard bells ring out and an Clara Craig, an old woman rushing into the woods. Her brother Mark explained that the bells came from a house that burned down 50 years previously, and once the phantom bells started ringing it marked one of the Craigs for death. The whole town was frightened of the bells, but Joan shamed them, saying she’d go rescue Clara herself if no one was willing to help. The townsfolk joined Joan on her search, and they found Clara desperately looking for the source of the bells in the burned down house to no avail. Joan returned to Keystone City, and told Jay about the situation. Jay said he’d scientifically prove there was no phantom bell, and went to the burned down house, using detector devices that proved no metal was present. Two masked men didn’t want them snooping around and dropped a boulder on Jay, who changed to Flash to confront them. They threw Joan down towards some jagged ruins and he flung them off using a tree branch and rescued Joan. Jay and Joan visited the Craigs and Clara told the story of how her brothers left for the South Seas to be pearl divers twenty years ago. She barely recognized them when they returned, but shortly thereafter the bell rang for the first time and Jack disappeared, seemingly swallowed by quicksand. The bells rang out again and Mark left a note saying he was going to sacrifice himself to save Clara. Jay left Joan behind with Clara and changed into Flash to investigate. He found Mark’s hat in a pool of quicksand, but was suspicious because of footprints leading away from the pool. He found “Mark” and “Jack” in their sailor ship. They were sailors who’d killed the Craig brothers and impersonated them, creating the story of the bells so that when they killed Clara there would be no suspicion on them and they’d claim her fortune. They hit Flash with an anchor, tied him up, and set the ship on fire. Flash escaped and prevented them from killing Clara and Joan. The phantom bell turned out to be a bell set in a suit of knight’s armor in Clara’s house, and Flash debunked the death curse. Clara was saddened by the loss of her brothers, but happy that she no longer needed to fear the phantom bell.

(Flash Comics #88) - Jay Garrick attended the annual Science Research Society, surprised that his friend chemist Homer Brown was absent, because he’d told Jay he had a startling discovery to announce. A messenger from the post office had a latter for Jay, and goons tried to steal it, but Jay changed into the Flash to get his letter back. Brown, who’d gone missing a month before, reiterated that he had a startling discovery to announce. Flash decided to investigate Brown’s boarding house, and Professor Garant, the head of the Research Society, asked to accompany him. As Flash checked Brown’s room Garant shot Flash with a light gun. Flash found himself back as Jay Garrick, discussing chemical prices with Joan as they prepared to restock his lab for the year. Jay realized he’d been thrown back in time a year, back to 1946, and theorized that Homer Brown had befallen the same plight. Flash found Brown, who didn’t yet know what discovery he was going to make because of the effects of time travel. Flash grabbed him and ran faster than the speed of light to return to 1947. Brown remembered that he’d worked with Professor Garant, helping him create his light gun that seemingly disintegrated matter, and feared he’d use it for destructive purposes. The mayor of Keystone City announced that Mr. X was in charge of the city, and Flash learned that X was really Garant, having used a light gun to apparently disintegrate an entire city block, demanding control of the city. Flash and Brown broke into Mr. X’s lab as he had his light gun at Washington, D.C. planning to disintegrate it and take control of the entire United States. Flash apprehended him, exposing the true nature of the light gun. Flash told Brown that within the year the missing Keystone block would reappear, and suggested they investigate beneficial uses for Garant’s discovery.

(Flash Comics #89) - Flash got a call at the police station from debuting criminal Thorn, who warned him she was going to rob Mid-Town Bank. Flash dismissed it as a crank call until a report of the robbery came up over the police wire. Flash rushed across town to the bank, and beat up Thorn’s gang. Thorn, appearing in a whirlwind of thorns that slashed Flash, said she just wanted to meet him and prove to herself that she was his master. The whirlwind dissipated, and Flash met Thorn’s supposed sister, Rose. She claimed that her sister had been turned evil by being pricked by a jungle rose during their time as scientific assistants in Tashmi, and she just wanted to help her. Flash brought Rose to his girlfriend Joan William’s house, promising to help Thorn. Thorn was actually rose’s split-personality, and she left Joan’s place to plan her next big heist. There was a diamond shipment coming in, and Thorn eavesdropped on Flash’s discussion of the shipment’s security measures with the chief of police. A sand barge was bringing in the diamonds, and Thorn flew in on a plane, bombing it and hitting Flash with an explosive thorn. She made her getaway on a speedboat, but Flash caught up to her and she hitched a ride on an ocean liner. She threw another explosive thorn at Flash, and the blast caused her to fall into the water. The rest of her explosive thorns went off, and Flash believed she died in the ensuing blast. Flash and Joan broke the news of Thorn’s “demise” to Rose, who sobbed and said it might be for the best.

(Flash Comics #91) - Jay and Joan read newspaper accounts of a serious of robberies on wealthy socialites. Flash investigated and found that fortuneteller Madame Corinne had her parlor micced, and while she pumped her wealthy clients for information about their assets her partner gangster Big Pete robbed their homes. Flash interrupted Pete’s gang while they robbed Mrs. Gaytree’s husband of his railroad bonds, but Pete escaped by emptying a barrel of tar, causing Flash to temporarily get stuck. Corinne started to despise Pete, who was skimming money and constantly threatening her with violence. She rattled him by predicting his death, saying “The arrow of Sagittarius shall stir the sting of Scorpio.” Flash impersonated wealthy eccentric Thaddeus M. Bensen, telling Corinne he kept all his money at the Tower Club. As Flash he confronted Big Pete at the Tower Club, but the villain took Joan hostage. Pete tied Joan to an airplane and parachuted out. Flash guided the plane to safety, saving Joan, but a stray bolt of lightning struck Pete, killing him. Corinne claimed the arrow of Sagittarius was the lighting and the sting of Scorpio was the shock that killed Pete. Flash knew she was a phony, saying she could twist her prophecy to mean anything she wanted it to.

(Flash Comics #92) - 400 years ago the knight Black Templar claimed land in the New world, founding Buckton City. His descendant put on a suit of knight armor, declared himself the new Black Templar and with a band of knights and the wizard Merlin took over Buckton city, declaring himself the ruler. He cut the city’s communications, cut the power and imprisoned hundreds of citizens underground, making Buckton resemble a medieval city. The Templar then build a wall and moat around the city to keep it isolated. Flash fought the Templar and beat him, but the black Templar threatened to execute the prisoners he held if Flash didn’t leave. Jay and Joan read a newspaper report of an emergency Congressional meeting to decided on bringing in the National Guard to take back the city. Flash decided to make another attempt at defeating the Black Templar, challenging him to a duel. Merlin told the Black Templar Flash was too fast to be seen when he ran at superspeed, so he gave him the magic gem the Flame of Buckton so that he could always see flash’s shadow. During their joust Flash was caught unaware, surprised that the Templar could see him and was struck with the knight’s lance. Joan read of Flash’s defeat in the newspaper and went to Buckton to plead with the Templar, saying his prisoners would die without fresh water and medical treatment. The Templar cared little for his prisoners, and threw Joan in with them. The Templar’s knights lowered the bound Flash into a well with a hungry octopus they figured would finish him off, but Flash escaped. He met Joan in the prisoners’ quarters and drilled into the ground to provide them with fresh water. The Black Templar was prepared to pull a flood control switch to drown the  prisoners, but Flash was too quick, knocking him out and ending the Templar’s reign.

(Flash Comics #93) - Fiddler and his gang committed a robbery, and when Flash showed up he was surprised, saying he thought Fiddler was at the bottom of the river, but Fiddler replied that was exactly what he wanted flash to think. Flash tussled with fiddler’s goons, giving the villain enough time to escape in his violin-mobile, and after Flash dropped the criminals off at the police precinct Fiddler started shadowing him. Flash was late for yet another date with Joan Williams, and she was frustrated that he was always blowing her off, reminding him he wasn’t a one-man police force. She told flash he should consider retiring because it might make him realize the world could get along without him. Flash pursued robbers, and tried to rescue a bricklayer when he was in danger of being run over by them, but the bricklayer said he could handle himself. The bricklayer tossed bricks at the crooks, causing them to crash, and told Flash he wasn’t as fast as he used to be. Flash then came across criminals trying to take little kids hostage, but before he could intervene the kids knocked out the crooks with a few well placed marbles. Flash went after crooks in a motorboat, but their boat crashed into him, knocking him out, and a nearby fisherwoman had to rescue him. Flash wondered if he might actually be slowing down and in need of a vacation. Joan started ignoring Flash’s calls, and when he went to her apartment she said she didn’t want to see him again. Flash made the momentous decision to retire and announced it to the press. With Flash retired Fiddler went on a citywide crimespree, and Joan couldn’t help but feel responsible. She dressed up as the Flash, and using a trick Flash once taught her created an optical illusion using miniature mirrors sewed onto her costume that made it appear as though she had superspeed. She surprised Fiddler in the middle of a railway robbery, but after his initial shock at his foe being back he used the vibrations from his violin to knock her out. Fiddler was surprised at seeing a female Flash and was disappointed his scheme to force Flash to retire had failed. He’d overheard Flash’s argument with Joan and staged phony crimes with the “victims” saving themselves played by members of his gang. He prepared to run the railway car over Joan when the real Flash decided to come out of retirement and saved her. The panicked Fiddler fell from the elevated railway tracks to his apparent death. Joan asked for Flash’s forgiveness and begged him to never retire again.

(Flash Comics #94) - Dr. Maria Flora was charged with the murder of her associate Prof. Lexon and Joan Williams was irritated with Jay Garrick when he said there was nothing he could do to help their friend because she’d already confessed. Dr. Flura woke up in prison with no recollection of what had happened to land her on death row, and she begged the warden to call Jay to see if the Flash could help her. Jay was happy to help as the Flash, but he was disturbed when he saw Joan had a look of hate in her eyes and tried to stab him. Flash disarmed her, but Joan suddenly disappeared. He ran to the Keystone City jail at superspeed, but Joan was waiting for him there and tried to shoot him. The warden witnessed the whole thing, but flash insisted there had to be an explanation for Joan’s murderous actions and asked that she be kept in a jail cell for her own safety. The D.A. took Flash to the prison’s movie hall and showed him a tape of Flura’s confession, but Flash was determined to prove her innocence. He talked to flora about the last time she’d seen Lexon. A while back Flash and Dr. Flura visited the hidden Secret City, where the natives had perfected an image projection machine to make copies of themselves that seemed real. Flash convinced the ruler of the Secret City to use his technology for good instead of evil, but when Flura told Lexon about the adventure he said they had to find a counter-measure in case the ruler of the Secret City went against his work. Investigating Lexon’s lab Flash found the professor alive. He’d duplicated the image-projector and intended to use it for nefarious purposes. To keel anyone from getting suspicious he used the image-projector to fake his own death and have Flura’s image confess. He knew Jay was friends with the flash so he kidnapped Joan and used the image-projector to create a fake Joan to eliminate him. Flash set Joan free and proved Dr. Flura’s innocence, and Lexon was arrested.

(Flash Comics #95) - Joan convinced Jay that they should go sailing so he could relieve some stress, and came across a freighter whose crew was all dead. The only survivor was a woman hiding in the sea chest, and Jay changed into Flash to rush her to Keystone Center Hospital. Over Joan’s objections Flash returned to the freighter to search for clues about the woman’s identity and what happened to the crew but a bomb that had been planted on the ship exploded, and Flash was lucky to survive, having been hurled underwater by the blast. The woman disappeared form the hospital, and Flash and Joan watched a news broadcast from the Federal Research Lab where scientist Miss Craig, who was a dead ringer for the missing woman, said she’d made an extraordinary discovery in India and knew crooks would be after it so she sent her twin sister aboard a decoy ship to preserve her discovery. Flash and Joan rushed to the research lab, where Vain Vance and his crew, who’d attacked the freighter and killed its’ crew demanded Craig hand over her discovery. Flash made quick work of the crew and grabbed Vance by the belt he’d looted from the freighter, turning both of them to gold. Craig admitted to Joan that she never had a sister or a decoy ship, she’d concocted the story to lure in Vance, who didn’t realize the belt he had, which could turn anything to gold, was the find she made in India. Joan and Craig both wept, and Craig blamed herself for costing Flash his life, saying the belt’s effects couldn’t be reversed. Flash vibrated his molecules until both he and Vance returned to normal, and Joan was overjoyed that he was safe.

(Flash Comics #97) - Joan Garrick told Flash she was convinced she’d killed someone, and wanted to turn herself in to the police, but he insisted she share her story before she made any rash decisions. The night before Joan was looking through an old school yearbook highlighting scientists investigating Joan and her friend Rita Stevens’ claims that they shared an ESP connection and being unable to disprove it. She then fell asleep and dreamed of going down an old road leading to a lighthouse. When she entered the lighthouse a man appeared and drew a gun, threatening to kill her. He chased her to the top of the lighthouse, but Joan pulled a knife and stabbed him, causing him to fall into the sea below. Joan was shaken by the nightmare, and was shocked when she woke up to find a knife in her room. She concluded that she’d murdered while sleepwalking or under the influence of a hypnotist, but Flash remained unconvinced. He told her they’d see her old friend Rita to see if she could shine light on the matter, and Rita’s new place turned out to be the lighthouse Joan had seen in her dream. When they entered they were confronted by the same man Joan had dreamed about, and he had a bandage where she dreamed she stabbed him. The man’s goons got the drop on them and tied Joan and Flash to the lighthouse beacon and set a bomb before speeding away in a boat. Flash spun around fast enough to spin the beacon from its’ axis, flying him and Joan clear of the explosion. They caught up to the crooks and Flash made short work of them, discovering Rita aboard their boat. Rita said the men were smugglers using the lighthouse to store their wares, and when she tumbled upon their scheme the lead smuggler tried to kill her, with the rest of the events playing out as they had in Joan’s dream. The smuggler survived the fall to the sea and took her captive, so she sent an ESP message to Joan’s dream, hoping she could save her. Joan was still puzzled about the knife in her room until she learned that her landlady’s husband had forgetfully left it there while cleaning her apartment.

(Flash Comics #98) - Jay and Joan acted in a play for charity, playing a poor couple that was lifted out of poverty by a good fairy that rained pennies from Heaven on them. Afterwards Jay complained about the unrealistic nature of the story and Joan shushed him. A rich man in a limo spotted them walking to the cast party, and thinking they were poor because of their rags told them he was giving them a million dollars, wondering if they could spend it in one night. Jay wasn’t sure what he was up to, but decided to play along. He drove them to his mansion and fitted them in fine clothes from his niece Louise and brother Michael’s wardrobe, saying he was taking them to the exclusive Mine’s Pit club, but once they got in the limo again Michael and Louise knocked them out and they locked the limo and pushed it off the edge of a pier. Jay recovered, changed into Flash and vibrated out of the car. He created a water spout to lift the car back onto the pier and returned to his lab with Joan to examine the million dollars, suspecting it would give him a clue as to why the trio tried to kill them. After a few phone calls with the Treasury Department he had the case solved, but refused to explain it to Joan, annoying her to no end. Joan and Jay hit the town, giving out $1,000 tips in hopes of drawing out the trio. They went to the Miner’s Pit to spend more money, but the table they were at, a converted elevator lift, went into operation and dropped them in a mine under the club. They were again confronted by the wealthy man, Michael and Louise, who tied them to dynamite that was set to go off if they moved, and fled the mine. Jay again changed into Flash and vibrated them out of the situation before catching up with the trio and apprehending them. They were counterfeiters wanted by the Treasury Department, and hoped to throw them off their trail by killing Joan and Jay and connecting them to a counterfeit million. Flash spotted the forgery because they’d used nylon instead of silk in the bills, and was angered that he and Joan had specifically been targeted because the counterfeiters thought no one would miss two dead people in poverty.

(Flash Comics #99) - At his research lab Jay showed Joan his graph of crime statistics and was puzzled by the fact that there had been no crimes committed in Keystone City for the past week. He wondered if the underworld was up to something big and decided to offer up the Flash as bait. Joan arranged a charity performance by the Flash at the children’s hospital, where he demonstrated a flagpole escape trick. Flash had himself chained up on the flagpole and spun himself around at superspeed. He disappeared and Joan wondered if it was part of the act or if the underworld had taken Flash’s bait. The criminals of Keystone had put together the Tommies, a week long awards ceremony patterned after the Oscars. Bugle Boy Boyler was about to win the Tommy for best abduction when Gadget floyd burst in, bragging that he’d kidnapped the Flash using his suction gun. Flash vibrated off the suction gun, but the crooks started shooting, and when Flash tried to escape by a side door he found it was rigged with shotguns. He managed to avoid getting shot but tripped and knocked himself out against a wall. Boyler and Floyd argued over who should get the award, so the host of the Tommies tasked them with destroying the Keystone police’s fingerprint files to see who was the better crook. Flash recovered and made short work of the crooks present and then sped to the police station where he surprised Floyd and Boylar by hopping out of a cabinet containing the fingerprint files. Flash sped back to the children’s hospital, presenting the captured crooks as the finish to his act.

(Flash Comics #100) - Jay accompanied Joan, who was doing a story for the Keystone City Starabout a captain and his crew who’d found an old treasure ship filled with priceless Spanish doubloons. Mr. Blazo, who owned the revolutionary Blazo’s Television Newsreel, which televised events in real time, offered to boat them out to the treasure ship. As they arrived the ship swiftly sunk beneath the waves. Blazo’s crew rescued the captain and his men, but when Jay changed into the flash and dove underwater he was shocked to find no sign of the treasure ship. After some thinking Flash dove in again and drilled himself into the river bed, finding the treasure sip, which had been sunk into the mud. Blazo and the sea captain had conspired to sink the ship so Blazo would have attention-grabbing footage of the ship sinking and they could keep the doubloons for themselves. Blazo and the captain didn’t want the flash exposing him and attacked, but he made short work of them.