This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at the early adventures of the original Flash, Jay Garrick.
FLASH COMICS Vol 1 #1 (Jan 1940)
Title: Origin of the Flash
Villains: The Faultless Four
Synopsis: College senior Jay Garrick foolishly smokes while conducting atomic experiments with hard water/ heavy water. This exposes him to fumes which put him in a coma for a time. After regaining consciousness, Jay gradually becomes aware that he now has powers related to super-speed.
He graduates from Midwestern University and at age 21 starts work as an assistant professor at New York City’s Coleman University. He adopts the costumed identity of the Flash to fight the forces of evil, starting with a protection racket.
Jay’s love interest Joan Williams asks him to find her father, who has been abducted by enemy spies called the Faultless Four and led by the French Sir Satan. The Frenchman and his British, Russian and Slavic colleagues want her retired major father to reveal the secrets of America’s new Atomic Bombarder.
Joan learns that Jay Garrick is secretly the Flash as he rounds up the Faultless Four and frees her father. Continue reading
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