DC’s First Flash Proves Superheroes Should Grow Old
While most fans know The Flash as either Barry Allen or Wally West, the first Flash, Jay Garrick, has one of the most heroic moments for a speedster in DC Comics. And while some of the best comics moments for The Flash take place while the character is in their prime, Jay Garrick proved that the Scarlet Speedster's heroism doesn't fade with age. In fact, Garrick's advanced age made his final stand in DC's Zero Hour event even more impactful.
Originating during the Golden Age of Comics in 1940, Jay Garrick can be best understood as the «old-timey» Flash. As a member of the Justice Society of America and All-Star Squadron, Garrick is from a generation of DC heroes that included the likes of Alan Scott's Green Lantern, Hourman, The Spectre, Dinah Drake's Black Canary, Hawkman, and Doctor Fate. Because of the existence of other Flashes like Barry Allen and Wally West, Garrick has adopted a grandfatherly approach that differentiates him from the younger iterations of the character.
Related: The First Flash Returns To Prove He's Still A Great Hero
Garrick's age leads into one of his best moments as a character in Zero Hour: Crisis in Time #1 by Dan Jurgens and Jerry Ordway. Zero Hour was a crossoverevent from 1994 that dealt directly with the timestream in the DC Universe. Hal Jordan as the villainous Parallax tried to recreate the universe according to his own plan, causing reality to unravel as entire cities across the country began vanishing along with superheroes from the future. To alert his former JSA teammate, the Spectre, of the news, an elderly Garrick ran from New York to Gotham City. He made it just in time to talk to the Spectre before vanishing.
Garrick's journey from New York to Gotham shows how the Flash's
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