Jay Garrick - From Earth 2 to Earth Prime and Back Again
May 14, 2014 21:34:02 GMT
Post by craigwashere on May 14, 2014 21:34:02 GMT
I know some folks on the boards have either only recently (within the last 5 years) gotten in to reading The Flash or are not old enough to remember the days when the original Earth 2 was around (Jay Garrick, Alan Scott and their Justice Society of America counter-parts lived on a parallel Earth which never went beyond the year 1942. Their history later got added in to the "main" DC Universe during Crisis on Infinite Earths back in 1985-86). So I'm not entirely sure how much you might know about the original Flash, Jay Garrick.
Jay Garrick first appeared in Flash Comics #1 back in 1940. He was a college student who accidentally knocked over a beaker of "hard water" which caused him to pass out. He fell into a coma for about 2 weeks and when he woke up he discovered that he has super-speed. Jay originally used his super-speed to help win college football games (to impress a girl, Joan Williams, no less) but then decided that he should do something important with his powers. He decided to become a crime fighter and created a costume for himself. Using his ability to vibrate his molecules at super-speed he was able to blur his facial features so that no one would recognize him (meaning he didn't have to wear a mask to hide his identity). He took on the name "The Flash" and became one of the founding members of the very first super-team in comic books: the Justice Society of America.
I didn't know this when I started reading comic books back in the 1980s. We didn't have the internet back then so I had to learn all this information from Secret Origins #8 (which retold Jay's origin) and from some essays by legendary Flash writer Mark Waid. My first encounter with Jay Garrick (and the idea of Earth 2 and multiple Flashes) was actually in the pages of a comic book called All-Star Squadron which chronicled the adventures of Jay and the other heroes of Earth 2 during the World War 2 era.
I've since been able to read about 3 issues of Jay's original series thanks to the two volumes of "The Greatest Flash Stories Ever Told". Some interesting facts about Jay:
He used to travel through time and other dimensions with a scientist named Dr. Maria Flura and became the first hero to encounter the villainess Star Sapphire (not Carol Ferris, but another version with similar powers).
Jay Garrick is the only Flash to actually have TWO comic book series running at the same time: Flash Comics and All-Flash Quarterly.
Jay was also the first Flash to have a super-speed enemy, Dr. Edward Clariss a.k.a. "The Rival" (as in "The Rival Flash"), who was basically a Reverse-Flash for the 1940s. He only made one Golden Age appearance (The Flash #104, which was the last issue before the series was cancelled before being rebooted with #105 a few years later starring Barry Allen) but was brought back by Geoff Johns in "JSA".
Jay Garrick first appeared in Flash Comics #1 back in 1940. He was a college student who accidentally knocked over a beaker of "hard water" which caused him to pass out. He fell into a coma for about 2 weeks and when he woke up he discovered that he has super-speed. Jay originally used his super-speed to help win college football games (to impress a girl, Joan Williams, no less) but then decided that he should do something important with his powers. He decided to become a crime fighter and created a costume for himself. Using his ability to vibrate his molecules at super-speed he was able to blur his facial features so that no one would recognize him (meaning he didn't have to wear a mask to hide his identity). He took on the name "The Flash" and became one of the founding members of the very first super-team in comic books: the Justice Society of America.
I didn't know this when I started reading comic books back in the 1980s. We didn't have the internet back then so I had to learn all this information from Secret Origins #8 (which retold Jay's origin) and from some essays by legendary Flash writer Mark Waid. My first encounter with Jay Garrick (and the idea of Earth 2 and multiple Flashes) was actually in the pages of a comic book called All-Star Squadron which chronicled the adventures of Jay and the other heroes of Earth 2 during the World War 2 era.
I've since been able to read about 3 issues of Jay's original series thanks to the two volumes of "The Greatest Flash Stories Ever Told". Some interesting facts about Jay:
He used to travel through time and other dimensions with a scientist named Dr. Maria Flura and became the first hero to encounter the villainess Star Sapphire (not Carol Ferris, but another version with similar powers).
Jay Garrick is the only Flash to actually have TWO comic book series running at the same time: Flash Comics and All-Flash Quarterly.
Jay was also the first Flash to have a super-speed enemy, Dr. Edward Clariss a.k.a. "The Rival" (as in "The Rival Flash"), who was basically a Reverse-Flash for the 1940s. He only made one Golden Age appearance (The Flash #104, which was the last issue before the series was cancelled before being rebooted with #105 a few years later starring Barry Allen) but was brought back by Geoff Johns in "JSA".
