WARNING! LOTS OF SPOILERS AHEAD!
Release Date: September 1987
Title: Kill the Kilg%re!
Writer: Mike Baron
Penciller: Jackson Guice
Inker: Larry Mahlstedt
Guest Stars: Tina McGee, Cyborg
Bad Guys: The Kilg%re
Cover: Jackson Guice
"Kill the Kilg%re". Flash runs towards us, pursued by an enormous robotic snake, mouth wide open and filled with pointy metal teeth. I note that, although Flash is wearing a tight spandex suit that shows off every rippling muscle, he appears to have no genitalia at all. Not even a bump. Maybe it's detachable. Oh, and down in the corner of the cover, in the box that probably had a bar code in the newsstand editions: "Who Watches the Watchmen?" If you haven't read Watchmen go do it now. It's good.
The comic
On the way to the meeting with National Security, Wally muses on the fact the Professor Schmitz' finger, removed by the Kilg%re last issue, has mysteriously grown back.
They arrive at the meeting, which is attended teleconference style by the President. After Ronnie is reassured that it isn't all a Russian plot, they discuss ways of dealing with the threat. Flash argues that the best way of dealing with it is to shut down all power - turn everything off. At this stage they are interrupted when Kilg%re attacks. The President is replaced on the screen by the face of Kilg%re (a swarthy, unshaven man wearing Jughead's hat) and wires and machinery around the room join up to form a big robot that starts smashing things and killing people. Flash saves Tina, then fights it, trying to remove all its connections to the wiring in the walls, but more connections are made as soon as he removes them. Eventually, some sort of fuse blows, and all is dark.
When Tina and Flash get outside, they find that the power has gone across the country. After a quick talk to the guy from National Security, Flash decides to go see Cyborg, from the Titans. Tina tells him to be careful, and they have a big kiss before he heads off. He runs to Titans Tower in New York, passing through the chaos in the city caused by the lack of electricity. Cyborg is waiting for him in the tower, and they decide that the best way to deal with Kilg%re is to get every country in the world to shut everything down, chasing Kilg%re out of the power grid. While they talk, the lights start coming back on in the city, showing that Kilg%re is repairing the damage and is growing more comfortable in the grid. Cyborg gets on the phone to get everything under way while Wally has a nap.
The next morning, Cyborg and Flash head back to the S.T.A.R. lab at Utah, where a way has been found into the dome that Kilg%re left outside the lab. The dome is impenetrable, but is simply resting on the ground and can easily be lifted up. Flash and Cyborg go inside, and find what looks like cloning equipment, confirming Wally's suspicion that Professor Schmitz has been replaced by a clone grown by Kilg%re from Schmitz' finger. They speculate that Kilg%re is keeping Schmitz as a fallback, to retreat to if it needs to. They decide not to reveal what they know, but to keep an eye on Schmitz.
Flash, Cyborg and the S.T.A.R. lab staff retreat into the desert, where they will coordinate (via satellite) the shutting down of the world's power. As soon as it begins, Schmitz makes a run for it, gets into a car and starts driving toward Salt Lake City. Flash intercepts him, but then sees a huge metallic snake making its way toward him - it is Kilg%re, making itself an extension cord from Salt Lake City to Schmitz, and if it can make contact with Schmitz it will be able to survive by staying in Schmitz until power is restored. Flash picks up Schmitz and runs. Schmitz struggles and attempts to hinder Flash's progress. Flash retracts his protective aura around Schmitz, burning away the flesh covering Schmitz' metallic frame, and drags Schmitz in the dirt to try and gum up his works, but Schmitz still survives. Just as Flash is about to collapse from exhaustion he throws Schmitz as far as he can, and is able to get a few more vital metres just as Kilg%re collapses, finally out of power.
Once all the excitement is over, Wally talks to Tina. The study in Utah has been disrupted, but she still has a grant to study Flash's metabolism. Wally asks her to come back to New York with him, and she says she would like to, but she has some stuff to talk about with her husband first.
Good Stuff
Kilg%re's image on the conference screen is oddly menacing, despite wearing a hat just like Jughead's. Gotta give credit for that.
Implausible Stuff
It takes a good two days for the people trying to find a way into Kilg%re's dome to work out you can just lift it up.
Actually, pretty much anything to do with the Kilg%re is pretty implausible, but that's comics, I guess.
Flashometer
Flash's current top speed is just under the speed of sound.
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