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Jay Garrick: The Flash Vol 1 4

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"The Waiting Game": Mister Terrific determines that Professor Hughes' last known place of employment was S.T.A.R. Labs in Detroit, and so Jay and Judy run there to see if they can find out where he is now. When they arrive the receptionist says that Garrison Slate, the head of S.T.A.R., is alrea

Quote1 Nice to meet you, Professor Hughes. What sort of experiments are you up to? Quote2
— Jay Garrick

Jay Garrick: The Flash #4 is an issue of the series Jay Garrick: The Flash (Volume 1) with a cover date of March, 2024. It was published on January 16, 2024.

Synopsis for "The Waiting Game"

Mister Terrific determines that Professor Hughes' last known place of employment was S.T.A.R. Labs in Detroit, and so Jay and Judy run there to see if they can find out where he is now. When they arrive the receptionist says that Garrison Slate, the head of S.T.A.R., is already expecting them. They go into his office and he tells them that he already knows they are looking for Hughes and has been expecting someone, most likely a Flash, to come looking for Hughes for a while. He reveals that Hughes is his silent partner and the man who gave him the initial seed money to set up S.T.A.R., and hands them Hughes' old diary.

Hughes' diary reveals that he became obsessed with evolving humanity to its full potential when he first saw Green Lantern in 1938. His initial experiments with rats all failed, killing the test animals, and he instead decides to jump straight to human testing. He goes through student files to find the ideal subject and eventually decides on Jay Garrick: someone smart and bold enough to be useful, but an underachiever dissatisfied with his lot in life. He approaches Jay, presenting himself as a kindly mentor figure, and asks him to help with his research, which Jay eagerly accepts. Over the next three years they work on formulas to make men faster and stronger; they make a leap forwards when Jay comes up with the idea of using hard water as a catalyst, which Hughes maintains he would have thought of himself given time.

One night, Hughes sets Jay to ostensibly study the gases rising off hard water. He then secretly triggers an accident which knocks over the equipment and exposes Jay to the gas. He falls unconscious and Hughes leaves him to breathe it in for three hours before going back in to check on him. He draws some blood in case Jay dies and then starts calling for help. Jay recovers quickly and his doctor tells Hughes that Jay's physiology has been accelerated, making him the fastest man alive. Hughes murders him to prevent his research being revealed and taken over by the government.

Jay graduates, marries his girlfriend Joan Williams and becomes the costumed hero known as the Flash. Meanwhile over the next few years Hughes tries to perfect the formula that gave Jay his powers but repeatedly fails, killing dozens of test subjects. He is eventually approached by a Nazi agent who blackmails him into working for the Axis with proof of his multiple murders. Hughes adopts a costumed identity as "Doctor Elemental" and creates many powerful weapons for the Nazis as well as a suit of armour that lets him control the elements. He also keeps trying to create another speedster, every time the test subject is killed.

In 1941 the JSA find his lab in Germany. Doctor Elemental plans to kill the others and capture Jay for further experiments, but the Boom appears from nowhere and stops him. When he hears her call Jay "dad" he realises she is from the future, meaning that the Garricks would have the power to travel through time. He escapes and retreats to a hidden fortress in the Alps.

Over the next two decades, he comes to believe that the chemicals didn't give Jay his powers, but instead activated a latent metagene. After Judy Garrick is born, Hughes decides to test his theory by doing the same thing to her that he did to Jay. He finally gets his chance on Judy's thirteenth birthday in 1962. When Jay leaves her alone in his lab while he goes to fight a fire, Hughes fakes a burst pipe that douses Judy in the hard water formula, giving her superspeed of her own.

Having determined that the metagene is the source of Jay and Judy's powers, Doctor Elemental then tries to find a way to alter someone on a genetic level and give them the metagene. In 1963 he kidnaps Joan Garrick and tries to test the process on her, but he is foiled by Judy. Suddenly, she disappears and when Jay runs in both he and Joan have forgotten that she ever existed. To progress his work on the metagene, Hughes decides to found S.T.A.R. so metahumans will willingly come to him to be studied.

In the present, Slate tells them that Doctor Elemental is in the Atlantic, but before he can give them the exact location, the receptionist bursts in and shoots at them.

Appearing in "The Waiting Game"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

Locations:

Items:

  • Doctor Elemental's Armor (Flashback only)
  • Hawkman's Mace (Flashback only)
  • Helmet of Fate (Flashback only)
  • Hermes' Helmet (Flashback and main story)
  • Professor Hughes' Diary (First appearance)
  • Nth Metal (Flashback only)
  • Starheart (Flashback only)

Vehicles:

  • Doctor Elemental's Rocket (Flashback only)

Concepts:

Notes

  • This issue features the Post-Flashpoint origin of Jay Garrick and reveals the circumstances behind the creation of S.T.A.R. Labs.
    • Although it is not actually shown in the story, it is implied that Professor Hughes is also responsible for Edward Clariss' powers.

Trivia

  • The television advertising Alan Scott as Green Lantern references the cover of Action Comics #1.
  • The teaser for the next issue reads: "The doctor is in for Joel Ciclone". Joel Ciclone is the real name of the first Flash in Brazilian adaptations of the character.


See Also


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