Flash (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 (January 1940), 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 (2023) portrayed via CGI and modeled after editor Jason Ballantine.

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 [them together] 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."

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 (Earth-Two), which allowed the character to exist without any continuity conflicts with Barry Allen (who existed on Earth-One), 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.