DC Comics Presents #38

Superman and the Flash team up to try to figure out why everyone and everything has decelerated to a much slower rate and look as if frozen in time in "Stop the World-I Want to Go Home!"

Stop the World--I Want to Get Off! Go Home!

Jimmy Olsen is run off the road, and over a cliff. As Superman swoops in to rescue him, he discovers that Olsen's car is frozen in mid-air. With all his strength, Superman cannot move Olsen's car. At that same moment, in Central City, the Flash is closing in on some bank robbers. Vibrating his molecules to near intangibility to avoid their gunfire, the Flash notices their bullets are at a dead stop, in mid-air. The bank robbers, too, are still as statues. Superman picks up the distinctive sound of Jimmy Olsen's signal watch, but the ultra sonic frequency is slowed down to normal audible levels. A quick scan with his x-ray vision reveals that Olsen's heart is beating, but at a rate of one-hundredth of a beat per minute. The Flash realizes that everything around him has slowed to a dead stop. He also notices that the gunman's bullets are primed to cut down his neighbor, Fiona Webb, should time resume it's normal speed. Both Superman and the Flash investigate the matter further, finding that the entire country seems to be affected by the slow motion phenomena. As the two heroes converge on the Wonderland amusement park, an alien craft transports down a being who is an exact double for the the Flash. Catching Superman's eyes, this "Flash" takes credit for the phenomena, than taunts Superman into catching him. After escaping from Superman, the alien adopts the Man of Steel's appearance.

Greeting the Flash at the opposite end of the amusement park, "Superman" takes credit for the phenomena, then taunts the Flash into catching him. The alien leads the Flash towards the real Superman, before turning and punching the Flash into near unconsciousness. As the Flash recovers, he finds the real Superman closing on him. The Flash fans his arms at super-speed, generating a wall of super-compressed air, that the Man of Steel slams into, knocking him to the ground. From a prone position, Superman hurries the Flash into the roller coaster. The Flash races along the tracks, with Superman in hot pursuit. Suddenly, the Flash loops around and attacks, pummeling the Man of Steel's face with a series of super-speed blows. As the two men grapple in mid-air, the slow realization that they've been duped dawns on them. Suddenly, the alien craft appears before them. An alien, called "Klaanu", tosses an energy net over the two heroes. Though the net resists Superman's super-strength, the Flash is able to cast it off, by whirling about at super-speed. Superman's super-breath topples Klaanu from the ship's parapet. Suddenly, horrific alien monsters surround Superman and the Flash, an illusion cast by the alien's leader, Syryna. With Superman and the Flash distracted fighting phantoms, a third alien, Minaar, sneaks up behind them and fells the two heroes with a stun blade. Superman and the Flash awaken onboard the alien ship, lashed to a device that keeps them moving at super-speed.

Syryna is the alien dictator of the the extra dimensional world, Elykaar. An attack from a rebel faction, propelled her flying fortress across the dimensional plane, to Earth. Breaching the dimensional barrier between Earth and Elykaar caused a disruption in the space-time continuum, resulting in the slowed time phenomena. As both the Flash and Superman were traveling at super-speed at the exact moment of the breach, they were unaffected. Syryna tricked the two heroes into fighting, so that she could siphon off enough of their super-speed energy to power the flying fortress back through the barrier. With her ruse revealed, she has now decided to steal their super-speed energy directly, with the added intent of keeping them onboard her ship, forever, as living batteries. Observing the flashing gem on Syryna's headdress, Superman realizes that the manacles holding him, and the Flash, are illusory. The two heroes step free of their chains, only to face a horde of Minaars, also illusions. The Flash quickly susses out which is the real Minaar. After Superman disarms Minaar, the Flash beats the alien into unconsciousness. Superman and the Flash complete the journey to Elykarr, and turn Syryna over to her people. Upon returning to Earth, however, they find that the slow motion time phenomena is still in effect. The two heroes rendezvous back at Wonderland, where they realize that the mere presence of Klaanu, who had accidentally been left behind, is maintaining the time distortion. With Klaanu returned to Elykarr, Superman and the Flash return to Earth in time to save Olsen and Webb.

Whatever Happened to... the Crimson Avenger!

Stricken by an unknown malady, Lee Travis has been given one week left to live. As he stares out the window of his hospital room, Travis reflects on his life as the masked vigilante, the Crimson Avenger. Travis had served as a member of the Seven Soldiers of Victory, until a battle with the Nebula Man had left him stranded in time. Rescued by the combined efforts of the Justice League of America and the Justice Society of America, Travis returned to a present that had largely forgotten him, and in truth, with the advent of super powered heroes, no longer needed him. Still staring out the window, Travis' eyes are drawn to the running lights of a passing tanker. Recognizing the pattern as Morse code, and a cry of distress, Travis once more assumes the mantle of the Crimson Avenger. En route to the river, the Crimson Avenger takes time to rescue a child, fallen from his tenement window, Catching a ride with a passing helicopter, the Crimson Avenger reaches the tanker, to find it commandeered by terrorists. Flooding the room with his crimson mist, the Crimson Avenger storms the bridge, and beats down the terrorists. Unfortunately, a stray hand grenade sets the ship on fire. The tanker is hauling extremely dangerous and volatile chemicals, that the terrorists had planned to use to blow up the city. The Crimson Avenger gets the ship's crews to the life boats. Taking the wheel, the Crimson Avenger pilots the tanker out of the harbor, and out to open waters. Travis takes solace in the knowledge that his final moments were spent saving lives, rather than dying in some hospital bed. The tanker explodes, taking the life of the Crimson Avenger. Though the ship's crew never got a good enough look at the Crimson Avenger, under cover of all the smoke, to know who it was that saved the city, the fallen child's mother makes it a point of never forgetting her son's rescuer. Thus the legend of the Crimson Avenger will never be forgotten.

Notes:

• "Stop the World--I Want to Get Off! Go Home!" written by Martin Pasko, penciled and inked by Don Heck, colored by Gene D'Angelo and lettered by John Costanza.
• "From the First 36 Issues... DC Comics Presents Superman and His Co-Stars!" penciled and inked by George Perez. Inexplicably, George Perez forgot to include Aquaman and the Red Tornado in the pin-up.
• "Whatever Happened to... the Crimson Avenger?" written by Len Wein, penciled by Alex Saviuk, inked by Dennis Jensen, colored by Gene D'Angelo and lettered by John Costanza.
• This issue contains the Hostess Superhero Ad, Batman in "Lights... Camera... Crime!".