Jay Garrick


Jason Peter "Jay" Garrick is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He is the first character known as the Flash. The character first appeared in Flash Comics #1, created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert.
In the original Golden Age comics, Jay Garrick gained his speed-enhancing abilities by inhaling hard water vapor during a lab experiment. This accident granted him superhuman speed and agility, allowing him to become the Flash and fight crime.
Jay Garrick has made numerous appearances in other media. For television series on The CW, John Wesley Shipp portrayed the character as a recurring character in The Flash and in a guest capacity in Stargirl. Additionally, Billy Mitchell played the character's live-action debut as a cameo in Smallville, with a cameo appearance in The Flash portrayed via CGI and modeled after editor Jason Ballantine.

Creation

The character of Jay Garrick was created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert. In an interview, Lampert commented on the character's creation. "The idea of the Flash was Gardner Fox's idea...it was supposed to be based upon the god Mercury… I went into the dictionary and there's the most beautiful rendition of Mercury and then I took my Flash and superimposed and they were almost identical, the pose is the same except a few doodads, and as I did it, I kept it as close as possible to that graceful attitude."

Publication history

Jay Garrick first appeared in Flash Comics #1, which was published in 1940 by All-American Publications. He was soon featured in All-Star Comics as part of the Justice Society of America. In 1941, he received a solo comic book series, All-Flash.
After World War II, superheroes declined in popularity, causing many of the Flash's comic book series to be canceled. All-Flash was canceled in 1948 after 32 issues. Flash Comics was canceled in 1949 after 104 issues. All-Star Comics was canceled in 1951 after 57 issues, marking Garrick's last Golden Age appearance. The character did not appear again for ten years and would not have another solo series until the 2023 series "The New Golden Age".
In 1956, DC Comics reinvented the Flash character, giving him a new costume, name, and background. This new Flash, named Barry Allen, was completely unrelated to Jay Garrick, with the latter becoming a fictional character in-universe.
Jay Garrick made a guest appearance in Flash #123, "Flash of Two Worlds". In this issue, Garrick was treated as residing in a parallel universe, which allowed the character to exist without any continuity conflicts with Barry Allen, yet allowed him to make guest appearances in Silver Age books. For most of the 60s and 70s, Garrick made guest appearances. However, starting in 1976, Garrick became a regular character in the revived All-Star Comics, partaking in adventures with the Justice Society in stories set in modern times. In 1981, he and the Justice Society appeared in All-Star Squadron in stories set during World War II.
In 1985, DC Comics merged all of its fictional characters into a single shared universe. Jay Garrick now shares the same world as the New Flash. DC wrote the character out of continuity in the one-shot Last Days of the Justice Society but brought the character back in the 1990s due to fan interest. Unlike characters such as Batman or Superman, DC decided not to update Garrick as a young hero, portraying him as a veteran of World War II with a magically prolonged lifespan. Garrick became a regular character in the JSA and Justice Society of America.

Fictional character biography

Origin

Jason Peter Garrick is a college student. Prior to 1940 while working for his academic advisor Professor Hughes, Jay accidentally inhaled hard water vapors after taking a smoke break in his laboratory where he had been working. As a result, he finds that he can run at superhuman speed and has similarly fast reflexes. Retcons imply that the inhalation simply activated a latent metagene.
After a brief career as a college football star, he dons a red shirt with a lightning bolt and a stylized metal helmet with wings. He then begins to fight crime as the Flash. The helmet belonged to his father Joseph who fought during World War I. He sometimes uses the helmet as a weapon or a type of shield, as seen in Infinite Crisis. He has also used it to direct a beam of light at Eclipso. In The Flash: Rebirth, he used it to destabilize the Reverse Flash.
In the early stories, Jay's identity appears to be public knowledge. Later stories would show him as having his identity secret, and that he maintains it without the use of a mask by constantly "vibrating" his face, making him difficult to recognize or clearly photograph. Garrick ultimately revealed his identity as the Flash to the world.
During his career, he would often find himself embroiled in semi-comic situations inadvertently initiated by Winky, Blinky, and Noddy, a trio of tramps known as the Three Dimwits, who tried their hand at one job after another, never successfully.
His first case involves battling the Faultless Four, a group of blackmailers, who plot to steal an atomic bombarder and sell it. It is later revealed that a professor named Edward Clariss found the last container of heavy water vapor and used it to gain super-speed, becoming the Rival. He briefly takes away Jay's speed after capturing him, making him super slow, but Jay uses the gases again, allowing him to regain his super speed and defeat the Rival.
Like the Flashes who followed him, Garrick became a close friend of Green Lantern Alan Scott, whom he met through the Justice Society of America.

Justice Society of America

The Flash soon became one of the best-known of the Golden Age of superheroes. He was a founding member of the Justice Society of America and served as its first chairman. He was originally based in New York City, but this was later retconned to be in the fictional Keystone City. He left the JSA after issue #6 but returned several years later. He had a distinguished career as a crime-fighter during the 1940s.
Garrick's early history was largely the subject of retcons. A story explaining the retirement of the JSA members, including the Flash, explained that, in 1951, the JSA was investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee for possible Communist sympathies and asked to reveal their identities. This was later revealed to be partly caused by Per Degaton. The JSA declined, and Garrick, who recently married his longtime girlfriend, Joan, retired from superhero life. As a trained scientist, he ran an experimental laboratory for several decades.
The All-Star Squadron Annual #3 issue states that the JSA fought a being named Ian Karkull, who imbued them with energy that slowed their aging, allowing Garrick and many others – as well as their girlfriends and sidekicks – to remain active into the late 20th century without infirmity. The 1990s Starman series notes that the Shade prompted Garrick to come out of retirement in the 1950s, but the details of his activities during this time are unclear.

Earth-Two

Garrick emerged from retirement in 1961 to meet the Silver Age Flash, Barry Allen, from a parallel world. The rest of the JSA soon joined the Flash, although their activities during the 1960s were unrecorded, although it is clear that Garrick and Green Lantern were good friends. It is also established that Garrick has become a respected scientist on his Earth.
Garrick was a key member of the JSA's 1970s adventures. Garrick also helped to launch the careers of Infinity, Inc. Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, all the parallel worlds are merged into one, and Keystone City becomes the twin city of Allen's Central City, with the two separated by a river. An updated story suggests that Keystone in this new continuity was rendered invisible and wiped from the memories of the world for many years through the actions of several supervillains.

21st Century

In the early 21st century, many of Garrick's JSA cohorts have retired or died, but Garrick remains active with the latest incarnation of the group. He is physically about 50 years old, thanks to the effects of several accidental anti-aging treatments, but his chronological age is closer to 105. He is one of the few surviving members of the Justice Society of America after Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!. Of the three original JSA members still on the team, Jay takes a fatherly approach toward his teammates and the DC superhero community in general.

''Infinite Crisis'' and ''One Year Later''

Garrick and his wife, Joan, had guardianship of Bart Allen after Max Mercury's disappearance. During the events of Infinite Crisis, Garrick states that the Speed Force is gone after a battle in which many speedsters, living and dead, wrestle Superboy-Prime into the Speed Force and disappear. Garrick is left behind on Earth by the other speedsters when he reaches his speed limit and cannot follow. Bart Allen returns, aged several years, having absorbed the entire Speed Force during his pursuit of the escaped Superboy-Prime. Garrick claims that without the Speed Force, his own power is less than before: like Wally West in the Crisis on Infinite Earths aftermath, he can only run close to the speed of sound. He also states that, as the Speed Force is no longer slowing his aging, his speed is diminishing with time. After Bart leaves Keystone City for Los Angeles, Garrick, once again, is the city's sole guardian. After learning that Bart has been killed by the Rogues, Garrick collapses with grief, consoled by Jesse Chambers.
Garrick continues his work as a member of the reformed Justice Society of America, under the leadership of Power Girl. After the death of Bart Allen, Garrick's full speed returns. Garrick is currently the mayor of Monument Point, where the JSA is now based. He faces problems due to the JSA being based in the Town, but after talking to another official, who says that, as Garrick is not a politician, he does not have to worry about being re-elected, Garrick gains confidence. Soon after this, he holds a funeral for Alan Scott, who is killed defeating the villain D'arken, and tells the Justice Society that they must endure.