Warning: major spoilers ahead for The Flash #770!
DC rewrites history in a new issue of The Flash. The Flash #770 is bringing former stories into full continuity by presenting them in new ways. Wally West is going back in time, inhabiting an older Flash’s body to take on a temporal threat to the Speed Force. However, in doing so, DC is retelling a story that was previously sped through.
Jay Garrick was the first Flash. Introduced in The Flash #1 from 1940, he was the Golden Age Flash. He was replaced by Barry Allen in 1956, though continuity was later shifted to allow both to exist and interact in parallel universes. This issue brings back the original Flash, but it does so in a way that shows exactly how Infinite Frontier is making subtle changes to continuity.
The Flash #770 – created by Jeremy Adams, Jack Herbert, Brandon Peterson, Kevin MaGuire, Michael Atiyeh, and Steve Wands – places Wally West into Jay Garrick’s body back in the World War II era. Wally has to track down a Speed Force affected Hitler who is in possession of the Spear of Destiny. He has the help of Happy Terrill – a superhero known as The Ray. This isn’t the first time DC has told this story – though it IS the best way so far.
In the Elseworlds comic JSA: The Golden Age #1 (1993) – written by James Robinson and Paul Smith – there is a page with text that mentions Hitler having the Spear of Destiny, Parsifal, and Jay Garrick working with the Ray. Parsifal works with the Axis. He has the ability to negate superheroes’ abilities so they couldn’t use them near him or his partners. In this story, he worked with Hitler. That was his only appearance until now. The Flash #770 has taken this Elseworlds story that was barely given attention in its original comic and fleshed it out in a way that is much more satisfying and intriguing. In JSA: The Golden Age, Jay is also never seen punching Hitler in the Elseworlds comic, despite that being his only memory in the latest Flash issue. By using the Speed Force as a means of moving Wally through different moments in time, DC opens up the potential to retell stories that weren’t as strong as they could have been – or stories that weren’t ready to be told just yet.
Following the events of Dark Nights: Death Metal, DC was able to reset continuity in the best way so far, through Infinite Frontier. This new approach to continuity says that every story that has been told happened and it matters. In theory, the broader DC universe was reset and it was said that changes would be coming. So far characters that were dead have been resurrected and memories that were lost are slowly being regained. However, Barry Allen was supposed to explore the Multiverse to note changes – a task that Wally West is unknowingly taking on. Jay Garrick typically lives on Earth-2, though he has come to Prime Earth or New Earth when necessary.
This story is possible thanks to the changes made by Infinite Frontier. Jay shouldn’t remember anything about this event – which he mostly doesn’t since Wally was in his body instead of him – and it also wouldn’t have been in the memory of this iteration of the character. This event happened to an Elseworlds version of Jay. If Wally hasn’t traveled to a different universe or Earth in this issue, then this shows how continuity is beginning to combine – and this is just the beginning of the new continuity approach. Many more stories can be retold and fleshed out, thanks to DC’s reset – including for Golden and Silver Age heroes of yesterday like the original Flash.
