Jay Garrick
Jay Garrick is a male comic superhero who features in DC Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Pre-Crisis
Jay Garrick
Flash came upon honest officer Mike Moran arresting crooks Butch and Bully, but shockingly their personalities had been reversed. Mike refused to rat on the crooks, and Butch and Bully insisted on turning themselves in. Flash took them all to jail for their own good until he could get to the bottom of the mystery. He found that his new friends were the Three Dimwits had unwittingly invented a Personality Ray. Flash was amazed by their invention, but worried about the implications of its use. He watched them use it on a husband and wife, and a socialite and chauffer, and decided that he had no right to interfere in other people’s decisions to alter their personalities, but the Personality Ray still did not sit right with him. Underworld figures Big Louie and Trigger Tom suddenly regretted turning down the Three Dimwits as hired help, and tried to recruit them. Flash sent them scurrying, and warned the Dimwits to stop getting mixed up in criminal enterprises. He sent them on a lecture tour at Columbine University, NYC to keep them occupied. Their lecture was interrupted by their clients, all of whom had decided that the grass was not greener. Louie and Tom took thew opportunity of the distraction to steal the Personality Ray. Flash, caught them, but worried he’d have to keep watching over the Dimwits his entire life, so he had his civilian identity’s girlfriend Joan Williams lend him her social case Red Grant, who operated the Personality Ray to give the Dimwit’s a bit of Flash’s bravery, morals and courage. Unfortunately, he didn’t know what he was doing, and a full personality switch took place. Louie and Tom stole the Ray again, and switched D.A. Belmonts’ personality with Louies’. They then switched the entire Keystone police forces’ personalities with the crooks in lockup, and set them loose on the city. Red helped switch Flash and the Dimwits back to their proper personalities, and Flash recruited the criminals of Keystone jails to jail the police that had their personalities. The Dimwits acquired a measure of bravado, and helped the Flash in his heroics. The Flash used the Personality Ray to switch everyone back to normal, and then smashed it so it could never be used for nefarious purposes again. Winky wanted to reinvent it, so the other Dimwits clobbered him, telling him it was too much of a headache. (All-Flash v1 #6)
One day, Jay was out with Joan who was shopping for dress when he noticed several notorious members of a gang. Deciding to follow them, he changed into his Flash costume and confronted them as they were robbing a safe. Using his superspeed, he apprehended them and left them at the police station after which he returned to Joan before she noticed he was missing. Meanwhile, the Three Dimwits at a junk shop came to encounter a man made of wood. This Wooden Man was carved from the sarcophagus of the Egyptian Pharaoh Ra-Amen-Thos. After being brought to America, it came into the possession of Caswell Marlin, whose wife accidentally had it thrown out. The garbage collector and his grandson who took it built it into its wooden doll shape. At that point, the goddess Isis after the many centuries had felt vibrations from the re-grouping of the parts of the mummy case. Given life, the Wooden Man was tasked with seeking out those who had need and provide them assistance. At the time, the Wooden Man was helping the owners of a junkshop before it innocently agreed to help a group of thieves on their careers of crime. While fighting with the Flash, the hero disassembled the wooden man so he became inert once more, and Marlin agreed to seal the pieces in a vault so it would never be animated and taken advantage of again. (All-Flash v1 #19)
Jay Garrick, accompanied by Joan, traveled to the Barnacle Beach Summer Resort to run chemical tests on the seawater, and they ran into the Three Dimwits, who’d opened up a hot dog stand. They admitted business was poor because of how far away from the beach they were located, and they’d foolishly chosen their location so they wouldn’t have to compete with vendors on the beach. Jay mentioned that seawater contained gold, and the Dimwits decided to become prospectors, bringing pans to the seashore. Noddy fell in the water and landed on a chest full of gold, but he wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings because he was panicked, so when he surfaced he assumed his pan was full of gold from the seawater. He showed his discovery to Jay, who recognized the gold pieces as belonging to a collection heisted by criminal Spots Cordon years ago. Spots had been released from prison, and planned on collecting his underwater stash, but was furious seeing Noddy with some of his coins. He threatened Noddy, but Jay went into action as the Flash. Flash fought off the crooks while the Three Dimwits fled, but the scarlet speedster slipped on a rock and cracked his head. Spots and his gang found the Dimwits hiding on their rowboat and tied them up, before boarding their scow to recover the loot. Flash recovered and sped to the scow, and when the crooks jumped overboard Flash showed them he could swim as fast as he could run and quickly knocked them all out with a few well placed punches. (Flash Comics v1 #70)
Post-Crisis
Following the Crisis of Infinite Earths, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events. Jay Garrick
In the mid-1940s, the Flash the JSA and Scarab came to Sandy's rescue when the lad was kidnapped by Johnny Sorrow. Sorrow opened a gateway to the Subtle Realms and unleashed the King of Tears on Earth, then disappeared. The Spectre devoured the King then cried him out into a vial created by Green Lantern I, trapping the King's essence. (JSA v1 #18)
At the end of World War II, the Flash and the Justice Society visited Auschwitz and learned the full extent of the Nazi's genocide. Spectre raged, and wanted to destroy every German in sight, but the Justice Society talked him down, telling him he had to rely on the justice of the Nuremberg war trials. (Spectre v3 #20)
He was out with Wally West when the pair confronted Abra Kadabra who had recently escaped from Iron Heights after regaining his powers. Citizen Abra then conducted a stage show in Metropolis where his powers overwhelmed the two speedsters with Superman entering into the fray as they were in Metropolis. During this time, Abra Kadabra infected Wally West with a 'curse' forcing him to run where he was slowly being aged to death. This forced Jay and Superman to participate in a race to catch up with him to save his life. In the race, Jay ended up leeching off Superman's speed in order to catch up with Wally and to transfer the 'curse' to himself as he felt the Flash was needed to stop Abra Kadabra. However, this was all part of Abra Kadabra's scheme as he then magnified the lightning field of the speedster to transport all of them to the 64th century where the villain intended to acquire new high-tech implants for himself that helped him simulate his magic. (DC First: Flash/Superman v1 #1)
Unknown to anyone, the Brotherhood of Evil through some means came to acquire DNA samples of Jay Garrick. These were used by the Brain to create a clone of him called Velocity who was then sold to the Malinese dictator Ratu Bennin to operate as a his superhuman soldier. The brainwashed clone appeared as a younger version of the original and possessed Jay Garrick's super-speed, but none of his memories or expertise. However, Velocity suffered from clone degeneration that was slowly killing him. The Outsiders came to encounter Velocity where despite his superspeed he was defeat and taken in by Checkmate. (Outsiders v3 #40)
Post-Flashpoint
Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events.
In 1938, Jay was a student at Midwestern University. He got good grades and played for the football team, but he was a mediocre player and had little social life, being too nervous to approach girls. He was dissatisfied with his life, always trying to achieve greatness but never quite making it. Professor Hughes, a professor at the college, asked Jay to help him with his research and Jay eagerly agreed, excited that Hughes apparently saw something in him. For the next three years they worked together on formulas to make men faster and stronger. They made significant progress, particularly when Jay came up with the idea of using hard water as a catalyst. Jay's self-esteem improved as their research progressed, giving him the confidence he needed to ask out Joan Williams and they started dating. One night, Professor Hughes tasked Jay with separating the elements from a formula and left, promising to return in a few hours. Jay completed the task and then lit up a cigarette, leaning on the lab bench. Suddenly it collapsed and the equipment fell on him, shattering and releasing the gases from the formula. Jay passed out from the fumes and was unconscious for three hours until Professor Hughes came back in. Jay believed this was an accident, but in fact Hughes had engineered the whole thing in an attempt to create a superhuman. Jay was rushed to hospital but quickly made a full recovery and discovered that he had gained superhuman speed as a result of the "accident". After graduation, Jay became the costumed adventurer The Flash. He and Joan also got married. (Jay Garrick: The Flash v1 #4)
During World War II, he aided in the war effort where the President of the U.S. where he was later recruited alongside the Ray Happy Terrill for a mission into the Philippines to recover the Spear of Destiny. Whilst in the field, they came to be captured by Nazi agents headed by an operative name Parsifal who had the ability to shutdown another person's powers. This saw Garrick and Terrill being captured and interrogated where Happy believed that the pair of them would die. It was then that a bolt of lightning struck Jay Garrck where he came to be inhabited by the mind of Wally West from the future. He helped the Ray escape captivity where they continued their mission in stopping Adolf Hitler from acquiring the Spear of Destiny but had discovered that the Fuhrer had become empowered by the lightning with superpowers as well. Working together, they came to defeat Hitler and stop the Spear from falling into Nazi hands where the Ray saved the Flash from an explosion with Garrick's mind being returned to his body. (The Flash v1 #770)
Overview
Personality and attributes
Powers and abilities
Similar to other speedsters, he was able to steal the momentum of another person and compounding their kinetic energy with his own thus giving him a speed boost. A result of this process meant that the other person slowed down as their speed was taken away from them. (DC First: Flash/Superman v1 #1)
Notes
- The Jay Garrick Flash was created by Gardner Fox and Harry Lampert where he made his first appearance in Flash Comics v1 #1 (January, 1940).
Alternate Versions
- In JSA: The Unholy Three v1 #2 (2003) an alternate version of Jay Garrick appeared in the Unholy Terror reality that was designated as Earth-40 in the Multiverse. After getting the ability to move at superhuman speeds, Jay Garrick became Mercury and served the American government along with other masked heroes during the Second World War. Garrick was undercover in Russia under the alias Jakob when The Bat summons all available covert agents to attack Dru-Zod. Following the end of the conflict, it is unknown what happened to Jay.
- In Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost v1 #3 (2011), an alternate version of Jay Garrick appeared in the Flashpoint that was an alternate timeline in the Multiverse. Jay Garrick was a scientist that was almost gifted superhuman speed that, in some timelines, would make him the Flash. The chemicals that would grant him his speed, instead, ended up killing him. Madame Xanadu would explain to Traci Thirteen that the superhero group the Justice Society failed because they did not have Jay to help them.
- In Earth 2 v1 #1 (2012), an alternate version of Jay Garrick appeared in the reborn Earth-2 as part of the new Multiverse. Jay Garrick dated a woman named Joan during college, but when they graduated she dumped him. She had a lucrative job offer from Tyler-Chem on the west coast, and said their time together was fun, but she was destined for big things and he was aimless, a screw-up and without a future. Jay felt wounded, but admitted to himself that she was right. That night he was drinking beers in a field when the Roman god Mercury crashed to earth nearby and told Jay that the world was in great peril and needed a hero. Mercury had aided the Wonders of the World during the Darkseid War, but was later captured by the new threat to Earth 2, and it took most of his power and lifeforce to escape. Mercury got annoyed that Jay kept peppering him questions and asking if he needed to be taken to the hospital. Mercury curtly told him that he was dying and the world would need new Wonders to rise up and save the planet. Jay tried to persuade him that he was a loser and a nobody, and he should pick someone else to be a hero, but Mercury was having none of it. Mercury passed off the last of his power to Jay before dying, transforming him into the Flash. The World Police flew overhead in a helicopter and demanded Flash surrender to them, so the new hero ran, making himself into a wanted man. He wandered around Michigan testing his new powers, saving a couple from Apokorats left behind after the Darkseid War. Afterwards Flash ran so fast, that after he brought himself to a halt he found himself in Poland. World Army metahuman Hawkgirl was waiting for him there and leveled a a hybrid crossbow/firearm at him. Flash asked Hawkgirl if she was an angel because she had wings, and she thought him quite naive. She was impressed with his power, but wanted to see if he could fight as well, and tested him in combat. Flash was still unfamiliar with his powers, and had no combat training, so she easily defeated him. She promised that she did not mean him harm, she just needed to test him, but Flash was sceptical. Hawkgirl was taken aback when the forest around them started withering and dying.
In other media
Television
- In The Flash, Jay Garrick did not appear in the 1990 live-action television series but was alluded to in the setting. This version was the older brother of Barry Allen who was named Jay Allen where he was portrayed by actor Tim Thomerson. After Jay was murdered, Barry came to be inspired to become a superhero leading to him adopting the masked identity as the Flash.
- In Justice League, a homage to Jay Garrick appeared in the setting of the DC Animated Universe television series in the episode "Legends" where he was voiced by actor David Naughton. This version was from an alternate reality where he came to be a speedster superhero called the Streak. He along with the other members of the Justice Guild have died during a missile attack that devastated Seaboard City in 1962. Ray Thompson, a child who idolized the Justice Guild and was turned into a mutant who could mentally create virtual-reality constructs, recreated The Streak as well as the rest of the Justice Guild team while trapping the living citizens of Seaboard City in this virtual-reality recreation for 40 years, preventing them from aging. When the Justice League team appeared from their reality into that which the Justice Guild inhabited, they discovered the truth about the Justice Guild members and exposed it to their recreated selves. When Ray Thompson attacked the Justice League following this exposure, the recreated Streak along with his other team members fought against Ray and incapacitated him, causing himself and his team to vanish and to restore Seaboard City back to its original devastated appearance.
- In Smallville, Jay Garrick as the Flash appeared in the setting of the live-action television series in the two-part episode "Absolute Justice" where he was portrayed by actor Billy Mitchell. This version operated as a superhero, member of the Justice Society of America (JSA), and a research scientist in the 1970s until he was framed for fraud by the government as part of their plot to disable the JSA. Garrick and his teammates falsely confessed to all charges, but were never convicted and forced to retire to due to their secret identities becoming known to law enforcement.
- In Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Jay Garrick appeared in the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Andy Milder. This version was an ally of Batman and member of the Justice Society of America (JSA).
- In Young Justice, Jay Garrick appeared in the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Geoff Pierson. This version was a retired member of the Justice Society of America (JSA) who does not possess his comic book counterpart's decelerated aging process. Throughout the series, Jay and Joan Garrick served as Bart Allen's legal guardians while Jay comes out of retirement to help the Justice League and the Team thwart a Reach invasion. As of the fourth season, Jay has joined the Justice League.
- In The Flash, Jay Garrick appeared in the live-action television series set in the Arrowverse where he was portrayed by actor John Wesley Shipp. This version was the Earth-3 Flash who was also a Multiversal doppelganger of Henry Allen. During his adventures, he encountered the speedster from Earth-2 known as Zoom who abduct Garrick where he made a failed attempt at siphoning the Speed Force from Jay. Unable to do so, he kept the man trapped in a prison and forced to wear a mask to hide his identity. Zolomon would come to assume his identity and appear as the heroic Flash of his world whilst also battling a copy of himself that continued his persona as Zoom. This was until Garrick was eventually freed by Barry Allen and his allies. Garrick returns in the third season, serving as a stern mentor to Barry while helping him defeat Savitar. In the fourth season, Garrick helps Barry and Jesse Quick avert a disaster utilizing "Flashtime", a state in which speedsters move so fast that time appears to be frozen, and announces his retirement. As of the sixth season, Garrick has retired, settled down with Joan Williams, and worked with her to track antimatter signatures across the multiverse before later helping Barry uncover information about an impending "Crisis". After the Crisis, Jay resides on Earth-Prime Keystone City, where Joan helps restore his speed and physique so he can help Team Flash fight Godspeed in the seventh season and the Negative Speed Force in the eighth and ninth seasons.
- In Stargirl, Jay Garrick as the Flash appeared in the setting of the live-action television series where he was initially portrayed by an uncredited actor and later by actor John Wesley Shipp. This version is a member of the Justice Society of America (JSA). A decade prior to the series, the team was attacked and killed by the Injustice Society, with Garrick being apparently killed by Icicle. After making appearances in flashbacks depicted in the second season, Garrick turns up alive 20 years later in the third season finale "Frenemies – Chapter Thirteen: The Reckoning".
Films
- In The Flash, Jay Garrick as the Flash made a cameo appearance in the setting of the 2023 live-action film.
- In Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part One, Jay Garrick was referenced in the setting of the 2024 animated film.
Video games
- In Injustice 2, Jay Garrick appeared as an alternate premier skin for The Flash in the fighting video game where he was voiced by actor Travis Willingham. He appeared in The Flash's ending when completing the story mode for the character.
Appearances
- Flash Comics: (1940)
- The Flash v1:
- The Flash v2:
- JSA v1:
- DC First: Flash/Superman v1:
- Earth-2 v1:
- The Flash v1:
- Jay Garrick: The Flash v1:
External Links
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