Like many Golden Age superheroes, Jay Garrick gained superpowers through apparent dumb luck. The young scientist survived a near-lethal lab accident, which transformed him into the Fastest Man Alive. Jay Garrick’s history as The Flash has gone largely unchanged in the decades since he first broke the sound barrier. However, his current solo mini-series reveals the startling secret of how Jay gained his powers.
Jay Garrick: The Flash #4 by Jeremy Adams and Diego Olortegui finds Jay and his daughter Judy researching a mad scientist called Doctor Elemental. The villain was apparently erased from time, forgotten by the superhero community along with Judy Garrick. This disturbed Judy deeply, as she recalled Doctor Elemental being the greatest enemy of The Flash in the original timeline.
Eventually, Jay and Judy determined that Doctor Elemental was Jay’s former academic advisor Professor Hughes. The search for the professor led them to STAR Labs and a journal Hughes had left behind. This journal revealed much of Professor Hughes’ research and the role he played in creating The Flash.
It Wasn’t no Accident Jay Garrick Became The Flash
After the first public appearance of Alan Scott as Green Lantern, Professor Hughes became obsessed with gaining superpowers. He devised a treatment he thought might enhance a man physically, but elected to test it on someone else. He chose aspiring college athlete Jay Garrick as the perfect test subject and faked an accident to expose Jay to his chemical formula. This led to Jay gaining superspeed and becoming The Flash.
Despite his apparent success, Hughes was dismayed to discover that the formula didn’t work on him or any of his other test subjects. The search for answers led him to begin selling his science to the highest bidder as Doctor Elemental. It also led him to discover the metagene, after encountering a time-displaced Judy Garrick and theorizing that her powers were inherited from The Flash. Unfortunately, Hughes continued his life of crime, too obsessed with his failure to gain superpowers to exploit his discoveries to his own benefit.
Jay Garrick: The Flash #4 is now available in comic shops everywhere.
