Today we’ll explore the comic book origin of Fastest man alive “Jay Garrick”, otherwise referred as the flash. Like most comic book characters, there are often re-imagining and different versions of a character’s past. We have chosen to primarily follow the story line that unfolded in the 1940’s flash comics No.1, which was then expanded upon in 1961. The flash No. 123, “flash of two worlds”, a superhero whose mantle has been passed down to five different heroes, over the years. We have decided to focus on the origin of the flash of golden age, Jay Garrick.
Jay Garrick was once a student at Midwestern university in his hometown of keystone city. Smitten by a girl named Joan Williams, he was dismissed for not being the star of the school’s football team. Nevertheless, he was a brilliant lab student, double majoring in chemistry and physics, who experimented on hard water in an attempt to separate its elements. One night while working in the lab, he accidentally leaned against a chemical flask causing the hard water to crash on the floor. Overpowered by the noxious fumes, he passed out before eventually being found and sent to the hospital.
Awakening weeks later, he discovered that he had developed a strong appetite and rapid metabolism. His doctor then speculated that the hard water might have made Jay the fastest man on earth due to the element, speeding up his reflexes. Sure enough. Jay had become a freak of science as he could walk, talk, run, and think faster than any other human end out, run a speeding bullet. Jay soon escaped the hospital to meet up with Joan Williams. On witnessing his superpower, she asked him to use it to help the school win the state football game, which made him into the school’s hero.
This celebration was interrupted by a drive by assassination attempt on Joan’s life. Rescuing her, Jay learned that it had been a part of a scheme to force her kidnapped father to reveal the location of a secret atomic research base. This prompted Jay to act, taking up a costume identity appropriately modelled on mercury “The messenger of the gods”. This consisted of attaching wings to his father’s world war I helmet and shoes while wearing a red pullover inspired by his football uniform. But with the lightning bolt insignia across the chest. Unlike other superheroes he had read about, Jay didn’t cover his face, instead opting to vibrate his face to blur it from witnesses.
As the flash, he tracked down the kidnappers, a gang called the faultless four. Using his super speed, he saved Jones’ father and dodged the gang’s attacks, prompting them to cause their own deaths haphazardly. In the years that followed, the flash uses powers to become a hero of World War II, founded the society of America, became a prominent scientist and married his high school girlfriend. Following these events, DC comics introduced readers to a second flash named Barry Allen in the 1960s.
This police scientist had likewise been transformed by chemicals and grew up idolizing the comic book heroics of the golden age flash, who was presented as a fictional comic book character. As it turned out, Jay Gar was in fact from another dimension called earth two and his adventures had miraculously been printed as comic book fodder for earth One. The flashes finally met when Barry vibrated into earth two’s frequency range and discovered Keystone city there.
He sought out Jay and they United to save the town from a trio of villains called the Fiddler, the shade and the thinker. Afterwards golden age flash decided to retire once and for all. However, he would return to aid Barry and his various other successors when needed. The flash continues to appear in various media with each iteration of the character possessing variations of the iconic abilities that made him a fan favourite in the DC multi-verse. He also became a prominent member of the justice league working alongside the likes of Superman, Batman, wonder woman and the green lantern.
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