The Last Flash Story

As with Hawkman, the Flash’s final golden age appearance was in ALL-STAR COMICS #57 in 1950 as part of the Justice Society of America. But we’re talking about the Scarlet Speedster’s solo exploits here. And by that metric, Jay Garrick’s final run in his winged helmet took place in the final issue of FLASH COMICS, #104, at the tail end of 1948.

There are a couple of things that are noteworthy about this last Flash story. The first is that, for the first time possibly since 1941, Jay Garrick’s origin is recounted in detail. So his first story and his final story both revolved around the character’s beginnings. (The same thing is true of the Human Torch, whose exploits coincidentally began and ended almost simultaneously with the Flash’s.)

The second is that this final story was written by John Broome and drawn by Carmine Infantino, while being edited by Julie Schwartz. This was the same creative and editorial team that would revive the character in a new form half a decade later and carry him into being the first real success of what has become known as the Silver Age of Comics.

DC has reprinted this final Flash story a couple of times over the years, firstly in FLASH #211 in 1971. Consequently, Geoff Johns later brought The Rival back as a villain to oppose Jay in some issues of JSA in the early 2000s.

This wasn’t intended to be the final solo Flash adventure. Editor Julie Schwartz was working well ahead, and had material on all of his series in production up through at least FLASH COMICS #112. In fact, a notation on the splash page of this story reveals that it had been commissioned to run in FLASH COMICS #110, an issue that would never come. Years later, some of those unpublished Flash stories (as well as an Atom story or two) would be printed in assorted DC books once the character had been revived. But the point is that the decision to terminate FLASH COMICS must have come quickly and relatively unexpectedly.

Looks like some lettering was taken out of the first balloon in Panel 5 and the remainder reflowed to fill the space. Wonder what it originally said.

Doctor Clariss must be one of the dimmest men alive to not have connected the Flash to Jay Garrick. But it was a necessity in order to preserve the Flash’s secret identity and his status quo.