Category: Who's This?
Last article published: 9 September 2023
This is the 316th post under this label
316th post?! That's a lot more character profiles than I though I'd done! I could just continue stripping Who's Who in order with Elastic Lad here, but let's leave that to Saturday (as scheduled) and instead look at a character from another source: Ambush Bug #3! So we ask...
Who's This? The guy who made the Flash.
The facts: Mopee claims to be integral to Flash's origin in Flash #167 (Feb 1967, see below) and then is not heard from again until Ambush Bug blows the lid on one of the worst ideas of the Silver Age in the third issue of his first mini-series (where Mopee cops to a lot more). The Crisis Compendium goes so far as to say this happened on Earth-32 (where stories DC would rather de-canonize go to die). In The Life Story of the Flash, "Mopee" was the street name of the hallucinogenic (natch) Monoglycetic Peptide Enzyme (so that explains that). Mopee did appear in the most recent Super-Friends comic series, so when we're being silly, he's fair game. That would be DC Super Friends #11 and #29.
How you could have heard of him: He scored a big cameo in The Flash #771 (August 2021) - a splash page where he threatened Barry Allen with erasure from continuity.
Example story: Flash #167 (February 1967) "The Real Origin of the Flash!" by Gardner Fox, Carmine Infantino and Sid Greene
There's only really one story, so let's go. The cover promises the scoop of the year - the REAL origin of the Flash! - and Barry Allen wants answers when his protective aura fails while he's fighting crooks and his uniform catches fire. Flash doesn't have a kryptonite, he doesn't even have a magical imp to cause him this kind of trouble. Unless, wait, he does!
Or a card-carrying "heavenly helpmate", as it were. He claims his elders gave him the task of selecting an Earth man to receive the gift of super-speed. Barry Allen seemed a good choice, but his superiors disagreed!
Not on the choice per se, but their by-laws clearly state that any object used in the gifting of powers must belong to the giftee. However, those chemicals didn't belong to Barry but by the State, and so those powers must now be rescinded. Would you believe Barry actually looks forward to living a normal life? It would sure make things easier for him and Iris who hasn't yet been told her husband is the Flash. Then again, what about all those Rogues running around Central City? Yeah, naw, can't give it up just for personal reasons. Isn't there a loop hole, Mopee, old chum?
If the Flash buys the required chemicals, then Mopee can just recast his spell, but what is this hogwash about him having to earn the money AS the Flash? Isn't it BARRY who is gifted with speed (since the Flash ALREADY has it)? Scarlet Speedster needs a lawyer. He's only got 24 hours to boot. Barry does know his chemicals though, because he "estimates" that at current prices, he needs $94.36. That's, uhm, pretty exact. So the Flash puts an ad offering his services in the paper, but Mopee doesn't think it's much of a seller so he tweaks it a bit (adds the wife bit). It's amazingly successful.
More rules from Mopee, but I think he just wants to play (à la Bat-Mite). Isn't there a reward for doing something for a community somewhere? Mopee decides to make the Flash go corporate and sell himself as a courier. Barry only accepts the exact amount he needs and criss-crosses the country, Mopee breathing hard to keep up, but he's required to sustain the protective aura. It fails at the finish line and the last package burns up revealing that the jewel thieves from before hid their stolen diamonds in a plastic doo-dad. So the Flash has the opportunity to catch those guys after all (I mean, their address was on the package) and after a quick stop at the chemical store, Mopee can restore our hero to his permanent glory. There are, however, glaring questions:
So it DOESN'T make sense, but then, as the Ambush Bug entry makes plain, a lot of superhero origins don't make sense. Or at least are predicated on amazing coincidences. The chances of Barry Allen gaining powers from a freak accident involving lightning coming through a window and blasting a shelf of chemicals without killing him, and then it happening AGAIN to someone he's intimately connected with must be astronomical.
Do we ignore Mopee? Or at least relegate him to the pre-Crisis DCU? It helps that he never appeared again (unlike other 5th-dimensional pests), but in a way, his spirit is still around. What do you think they mean when they say the Flashes were CHOSEN by the Speed Force?
Who's Next? Superman's flexible pal.
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