He hasn’t had his own comic since 1949, and he’s 105 years old. Is the Golden Age Flash actually up to the challenge of a teenage daughter? Your Major Spoilers review of Jay Garrick: The Flash #1 from DC Comics awaits!

JAY GARRICK: THE FLASH #1

Writer: Jeremy Adams
Artist: Diego Olortegui
Colorist: Luis Guerrero
Letterer: Steve Wands
Editor: Andrew Marino
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 17, 2023

Previously in Jay Garrick – The Flash: Jay Garrick is reunited with his long-lost daughter, Judy. After being pulled from the timeline, Judy returns to a world where she and her dad aren’t the only ones that ride the lightning, but is there enough space for her in Jay and Joan’s life?

And can they keep up with their teenage daughter and make up for lost time?

SIXTY YEARS AGO

Our story begins in 1963, as the father/daughter team of The Flash and The Boom seek out Joan Garrick, who has been kidnapped by a villain. Having adventured for nearly a quarter-century at this point, Flash takes the time to disarm the bombs set in their path, while his impulsive daughter races ahead to confront the bad guy. The final device goes off before he can disarm them all, and in the chaos of battle, Judy just disappears. Jay and Joan are reunited, believing that they are unable to have children, and the situation just sort of ends? Cut to the present, where Judy has been returned from the time stream unaged and reunited with her now elderly parents. The Flash and Joan are happy to have her back, but young Boom is uncertain where she fits. After all, the Flash family is now a sprawling affair, and her room has been in use by Impulse (which, honestly, would make anyone unhappy). And when she sets out to deal with a crime, her parents don’t remember that she’s perfectly capable of taking care of herself.

And then, there is another question: What happened to the villain who captured Joan sixty years ago?

TIMES HAVE CHANGED, VILLAINS HAVE NOT

The flashback sequence featuring Doctor Elemental raises a number of questions about the Scarlet Speedster’s last mission with his daughter, which kind of bugs me, given that she JUST returned from a story that was all mystery. The reunited Garrick family is pretty cute together, even with the enormous age gap in play (Jay was 21 when he was empowered in 1939, making his birth year 1918, which means he’s over a century old, with Joan not much younger, while Judy seems to be sixteenish) and the idea of seeing DC’s elder statesman actually being a father instead of standing in as Dad is interesting. Olortegui’s art is quite good throughout the issue, but I’m not quite sold on the proportions of the figure work. With everyone being tall and angular, it’s hard to differentiate the elderly characters from the youth, and the last page splash of Doctor Elemental’s horrifying smile is less intimidating than it is terrifying.

BOTTOM LINE: AN INTERESTING START

Still, as an opening chapter, Jay Garrick: The Flash #1 has its merits, and there are some lovely layouts in these pages, as well as the possibility of something that we haven’t seen in 80 years of Jay Garrick stories, rounding out 3 out of 5 stars overall. Knowing that this is a six-issue series also helps, as DC editorial’s fascination with puzzle box stories should be closed-ended this time.

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