One thing about being a Flash Fan that is always contentious is the question of WHICH Flash one is a fan of. Silver Agers will tout the crew cut nerdery of Barry Allen, while those who fondly remember post-Crisis 90s Wally West have a lot of options to call the best story ever. Your One True Flash says a lot about you as a person. Do you like the elder statesman team player? The young maverick learning the speed ropes? Or the staid professional who calmly uses science and logic to his ends? For me the answer is simple, as Jay Garrick managed to be cool in a doughboy helmet and dad jeans for seven decades or so, even teaching new waves of speedsters, without losing his calm 1940s “We can do it” demeanor, leading to today’s Speed Force query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) would like to point out that Barry Allen AND Wally West had the advantage of two of the sleekest, coolest costumes ever in the history of super-suits, while Jay made a long john shirt and dungarees with a hubcap on his head look good, asking: Which speedster, in your opinion, is The One True Flash?
5 Comments
While I like that DC has been putting out more of the Wally stuff recently, my answer is Jay Garrick. Between Justice Society, All-Star Squadron, and more I think he’s the one I’ve read the most of. I’m also just a sucker for the elder statesmen characters. Plus he has the easiest Flash costume to cosplay.
Not sure about one true, but I prefer Jay by far.
I’ve always thought of Jay a the one true Flash as he was the very first.But Barry, and Crisis changed my mind. Barry’s story has always been great and his legacy lived on in Wally and Barry’s descendants. So I’m voting Barry.
I’m a child of the Silver Age, despite having been born into the Bronze Age. Super Friends helped to cement for me what superheroes were, so I’ll always love the Silver Age characters. It’s Barry Allen for me all the way, and I love the simple, cheerful heroism that he embodied, adventuring, not to avenge some wrong or because of some terrible trauma, but just because it was the right thing to do…and because it was FUN!
I came to my (true) Flash fandom via the Justice League cartoon. Eeven if he was often played just for comic relief, his moment in the finale vs Luthor/Braniac was amazing, and cemented the Flash as one of my favorites.
Jay Garrick was the original, and Barry Allen might be the definitive, but Wally West is my fav.