Flash #179

Flash #179 (On Sale: March 5, 1968) has a Ross Andru and Mike Esposito cover.

"The Flash -- Fact or Fiction?" by Cary Bates, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito is a Bates classic. " Flash encounters a hurricane-like creature known as a Nok which feeds off Flash's aura. The Nok follows the Flash, who is unable to find a way to stop the creature. An alien hunter appears and tells Flash that he is responsible for bringing the Nok to Earth, but the Flash must recapture it before his ship leaves.

While fighting the Nok, Flash is thrown into a parallel universe. He soon discovers that super-heroes only exist as comic book characters in this reality (This it the first story to take place on Earth-Prime, a parallel universe in which the Flash and other super-heroes only exist as comic book characters. It is not the real Earth and would later develop two super-heroes of its own, Ultraa and Superboy.). He is unable to cross the dimensional barrier to return home, so he looks up the one person who will believe that he is a super-hero, DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz.

At the DC offices, Flash meets Julie and proves that he has super speed. Julie then gathers parts for the Flash to build a cosmic treadmill. The treadmill enables him to return to Earth-1. Once, he is back in his own universe, Flash is able to stop the Nok using a chemical that mimics his aura. The alien hunter then takes the Nok away from Earth.Reprinted in Greatest Flash Stories Ever Told HC, Greatest Flash Stories Ever Told TPB and Flash: The Greatest Stories Ever Told TPB.

Edited by Julius Schwartz.