WARNING! LOTS OF SPOILERS AHEAD!

Release Date: June 1988
Title: Savage Vandalism
Writer: Mike Baron
Penciller: Mike Collins
Inker: Larry Mahlstedt
Guest Stars: Mary West, Tina McGee
Bad Guys: Vandal Savage

The Cover: Mike Collins

"Savage Vandalsim..." Flash is running away from us, looking over his shoulder in fear. But that means he's not watching where he's running – look out Flash! He's about to run into Vandal Savage, who's standing with his hands on his hips looking very butch and menacing, an evil grin adorning his face.

The Comic

The story so far

There have been a spate of super-speed robberies, carried out by people hooked on Velocity 9, the latest drug on the streets that gives users super speed but wastes and emaciates them when they start to go into withdrawal. Wally's neighbour, mob boss Nick Bassaglia, has been on the receiving end of the robberies, and asks Flash for help in getting rid of the man behind Velocity 9, who we discover to be none other than immortal supervillain Vandal Savage.

Now on with the story!

Vandal Savage is with two of his Velocity 9 junkie lackeys, and gives them their reward for beating and robbing Anatole of the Kapitalist Kouriers. The junkies shoot up, and revert from their wasted states to normal. Savage then gives them their next job. They are to bring him a part of Wally West. Not all of him, just the legs.

Meanwhile, at a party at the house of mob boss Nick Bassaglia, Flash is enjoying a drink or two while he flirts with Bassaglia's "niece" Trudy. They are interrupted briefly by some slime who makes a clumsy pass at Trudy, but Wally takes care of him with a little high-speed de-pantsing. Trudy and Wally then go somewhere private, flirt a little more, and are about to get into some smooching when they hear a scream back in the main party room. Wally suits up, zips back into the party room and starts beating up the two thugs who are manacing the guests with their super-speed antics. Flash knocks out one thug and throws the other through a window, allowing the thug to run off. Bassaglia wants Flash to chase after the thug, but Flash has apparently had a drink too many, and just isn't up to it.

Bassaglia has his men take the knocked-out thug down to the basement, to hold him until the police arrive, he says. He then declares the party over and heads down to the basement with Flash. There Flash discovers that Bassaglia actually intends to question the guy himself without troubling the police about the matter. Flash isn't too sure about this, but it becomes a moot point as the thug has just died. Searching his body they discover that he wasn't your usual thug; he was a broker for Merrill Lynch, and has a wallet full of cash and a gold Amex card. They also find a card asking for volunteers for a trial for altering moods chemically, to combat Rubenstein-Barre syndrome.

Wally asks Bassaglia not to do anything without him and heads home to rest up. Of course, there's no honour amongst theives, or at least between a mafia boss and a superhero. Bassaglia sends a few of his boys out to the address they found on the card. Vandal Savage, however, is ready and waiting, and as the mafia gunmen approach Savage's hideout, a few super-speed junkies zip out, inject them with Velocity 9, and take them in to meet Vandal Savage.

Savage tells the mafia henchmen that they are now addicted to the drug, and they will soon feel intense cravings for it. He tells them that they work for him now, and he instructs them to bring Bassaglia to him. The mafia goons race off to get Bassaglia, although only two out of the four make it, the other two failing to control their new-found speed and meeting untimely ends.

Bassaglia is with his "niece" Trudy in the bedroom, either about to or just finishing getting busy. They are talking about how Trudy's seduction of Flash is going, and whether blue movies featuring the Flash would do well in foreign markets, when Bassaglia's men speed in. They grab Bassaglia and whisk him back to Savage. Savage explains to Bassaglia that he works for Savage now, and expounds on his plan to use addicted yuppies to take over the city.

That morning, Wally's mother wakes him up to tell him that Trudy from next door is there to see him. Trudy is very upset, and tells Wally that they've taken her Uncle Nick. Wally suits up and speeds off, heading for a confrontation with Vandal Savage.

Good Stuff

Vandal Savage wants a piece of Wally West: "I would like you to bring me a part of him. Not all of him, just a part, and although he would probably miss something else even more, I will settle for his legs."

Vandal Savage realises the need to be careful of what he says.
Vandal Savage: "The addiction is so powerful that I have but to suggest the stockbroker kill the lawyer and it is done." The stockbroker kills the lawyer.
Vandal Savage (to the stockbroker): "Tsk... I was speaking rhetorically, you see..."

Stuff that proves (yet again) that Wally West is no Barry Allen

After a Velocity 9 junkie dies while being questioned by the mafia, with Wally looking on:
Bassaglia: "For all we know it was your blow to the head that killed him."
Flash: "I can live with that."

Also, Wally almost screws his attractive young neighbour, has so many drinks he can't pursue the fleeing Velocity 9 junkie, then goes back home to his girlfriend.

Flashometer

Flash's current top speed is just under the speed of sound.

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