WARNING! LOTS OF SPOILERS AHEAD!
Release Date: January 1988
Title: Purple Haze
Writer: Mike Baron
Penciller: Jackson Guice
Inker: Larry Mahlstedt
Guest Stars: Tina McGee, Red Trinity, more DC heroes than you can poke a stick at, with Black Canary, Blue Beetle and Superman getting speaking parts
Bad Guys: Blue Trinity, Rudolph West
The Cover: Jackson Guice
"Purple Haze!" Against a purple background, Flash reels as he is pummelled by a flurry of white fists. Sadly, there is no sign of Jimi Hendrix.
The Comic
It's a stand-off on the Finnish side of the Russian border. Blue Trinity (brandishing their big guns) confront Flash, Red Trinity, Tina McGee, Dr Bortz and Dr Orloff. Blue Trinity tell us in their backward-letter faux Russian that they are: Boleslaw Uminski, able to run at nearly 700 mph; Gregor Gregorovich, the first human designed to live comfortably at 700 mph; and Christina, the sum of all that has gone before.
Christina takes a shot at Flash, who dodges and then zips past Blue Trinity, taking their guns off them. Super-speed fisticuffs ensue, and although they're fairly evenly matched, Blue Trinity high-tail it out of there when the Finnish border patrol arrive. They bring with them a message for Flash from Green Lantern Citadel – his services are required to help with some kind of world threat (that's right – it's crossover time)! Flash then passes out, the poor little lamb, exhausted from his exertions.
While he's unconscious he is spirited away by the Titans jet. Watching him go, Dr Bortz and Dr Orloff discuss Jerry McGee, and Orloff reveals that he has brought with him a drug that reverses the effects of steroids, so he may be able to save Jerry.
Wally wakes up in Green Lantern Citadel, with Black Canary waiting by his bed (not a bad way to wake up). She fills him in on a few details then they go to a big super-hero meeting where a Guardian and a Zamoran fill everyone in on the rest of the story. Apparently, the next immortals will be from Earth, and the Guardians and Zamorans have chosen 10 Earth people to be bumped up to the next step on the evolutionary ladder. The manhunters (the predecessors of the Green Lanterns, androids built by the Guardians but who went bad and were stripped of their power, only to disappear and plot against the Guardians) know all this, however, and want to kill the ten Chosen. Earth's heroes must protect the Chosen from the manhunters.
Flash heads home (although I'm not sure why, in the middle of a battle for the humanity's immortal destiny, Wally needs to go home; maybe he left his wallet there or something) and finds his dad waiting for him, wanting to have a talk. Wally tries to blow him off, but Rudy pulls his trump card in the attention-getting game by telling Wally that he's a manhunter agent, and has been since before Wally was born. Oh, and he's killed Wally's mum. Wally is understandably shaken, and they argue for a little before Rudy calls in the help he's acquired for this little father-son meeting. Blue Trinity burst in the door and start pounding on Wally, and he is immediately subdued.
As Blue Trinity are arguing over whether Wally should be taken back to Russia or to the manhunters, Red Trinity come to the rescue. A dazed Wally watches the super-speed fight, in which Red Trinity manage to chase off their blue counterparts, and Wally is saved.
Later, as Wally and Red Trinity chow down to regain some energy, a couple of cops arrive to tell Wally that his mum has been trying to contact him. He calls the number they give him, and talks to his mother, who is bandaged in a hospital bed, and tells her son that his father is dead*.
*Except he's not. I don't have the Millennium series, so I can't tell you why or how, but he's alive, alright?
Good Stuff
Doctors Bortz, Orloff and McGee speculate on the future while watching seven speedsters fight.
Dr Orloff: "Remarkable, isn't it... three eminent scientists, watching two groups of super-human soldiers pit their skills in what may well prove a harbinger of wars to come."
Stuff That Demonstrates That Wally is No Barry Allen
Millionaire Wally, musing on the heroes' role in the Millennium crisis on his way back to his Long Island mansion: "And we're supposed to do all this for the greater glory of the human race. But do we get financial assistance? Do we get tax breaks?"
Flashometer
Flash's current top speed is just under the speed of sound.
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