Becoming one of the most famous superheroes in the world is like being struck by lightning, which is also how two out of three of the original Flashes have gotten their powers. The stories of Barry Allen and Wally West - the second and third Flash respectively - are well known by pretty much everyone, but until recently, the man that started it all had been forgotten by the DC Universe.
With his recent return, Jay Garrick - the Golden Age Flash - has already stepped up to the plate and helped save the world a few times. His life is one of great heroics and shocking tragedies. He is one of the only remaining heroes who saw the world defeat the Nazis, the Anti-Monitor, and Ragnarok. He even did it all with a winged helmet on his head.
10 Smoke Break
College student Jay Garrick was up late working in the school lab on an experiment dealing with hard water when things went horribly wrong. Jay took a break to light a cigarette in the lab and accidentally knocked over the beaker full of hard water. As he cleaned up his mess, Jay breathed in the hard water fumes and passed out.
When he woke up in the hospital, Jay found that he now had superspeed. Like any college student might, Jay's first move was to use his new power to become a football star for Keystone City's Midwestern University just to impress Joan Williams, the girl of his dreams.
9 All For Joan
Jay likely would have just used his powers for personal gain if a group called the Faultless Four wasn't trying to find out the location of a secret military base that Joan Williams' father worked at. When the Faultless Four tried to kill Joan in a drive-by shooting to send a message, Jay went into action and caught every bullet. The move impressed Joan, but Jay decided that he didn't want the world to know about his powers, so he donned a costume and became Flash, the Fastest Man Alive.
While heroes like Batman wore a mask, Jay used his powers to hide his true identity, constantly vibrating his face to make it look blurry. Now wearing a red shirt with a large yellow lightning bolt on it, Flash would become one of the most important heroes on Earth. With World War II just around the corner of the DC Universe, heroes were needed more than ever before.
8 Founder
When Hitler planned to use the Spear of Destiny to invade the United States with a squadron of mythical Valkyries, Flash teamed up with a number of other superheroes to stop the Nazi leader. Fighting alongside the Atom, Superman, Batman, Hawkman, Sandman, and Green Lantern on the White House lawn, Flash helped save President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the United States.
Under orders by President Roosevelt, the seven heroes would come together as the Justice Society of America. While they couldn't enter the European front because of the power of the Spear of Destiny, the heroes could keep the Axis out of the US while the war was fought.
7 The Crossover
Not long after World War II Jay Garrick put his Flash identity into semi-retirement, only coming out when needed. He married Joan Williams and started his own company, a chemistry lab. In 1961, Jay Garrick learned something that would change reality forever when a Flash from another Earth arrived in Keystone City. Learning that his adventures existed as a comic book in another reality and that those comics inspired Barry Allen to become a hero, Jay came out of retirement. Over the years he, and the rest of the JSA, would team up with the Justice League of America and their counterparts on Earth-One.
6 Forced Retirement
When the Batman of Earth-Two died, he left behind a diary to be published by the Daily Star, the newspaper run by Clark Kent. The diary claimed that the JSA were actually double agents who were working for the Nazis during World War II. Called before Congress to stand trial, the JSA peacefully turned themselves in. In time, the JSA was able to prove their innocence, connected the diary to their old time-traveling foe Per Degaton.
Still, Congress and the people of the United States had become uncomfortable with the JSA. When the JSA was ordered to reveal their true identities to the world, they chose instead to retire from super-heroics. It would take a threat against the Multiverse for them to return to action.
5 The Crisis
The Multiverse was dying at the hands of the Anti-Monitor and the only hope to save reality was for all the heroes from the remaining Earths to come together. This included Jay and his JSA teammates from Earth-Two. Alongside the Justice League, the Marvel Family, and countless other heroes, Flash helped save the day, but not before a number of worlds and heroes, including Supergirl and the second Flash, died. When the fighting stopped, the Multiverse was gone and history was rewritten so that there was but one Earth. The JSA existed on this Earth, though some of their members - like Batman and Superman - never were members now.
4 Forever Saving The World
With the Crisis on Infinite Earths behind them, but still remembering the past that had once existed, the JSA came together one last time to mourn their fallen allies. As the team planned to go their separate ways and return to retirement, they learned that using the Crisis as a way to change his own fate, Hitler had taken power from the Spectre and added it to the Spear of Destiny, and in 1945, he was going to use that power to change reality and win the war.
The JSA traveled not only back in time, but into Asgard to stop the coming of Ragnarok and foil Hitler's plans. Knowing that the Norse giant Surtur must never reach Earth, Doctor Fate closed the portal to Asgard, trapping the JSA in Ragnarok.
3 Helping The New Kids
After what seemed like hundreds of years to them, but was just a few years for the rest of the DC Universe, the JSA was freed from Ragnarok and returned to Earth. What they found was a world very different from the one they had left. The Justice League had been keeping the universe safe, and the Teen Titans was a small but well put together group of young heroes, but there were so many heroes with no direction and no one offering to help them.
Alongside Green Lantern and Wildcat, Jay Garrick reformed the JSA as a team for the next generation of heroes to train under. The size of the team quickly grew to include Stargirl, Black Canary, Jakeem Thunder, Hawkgirl, Mister Terrific, and a number of other up and coming heroes.
2 Forgotten
When Barry Allen went back in time to stop the murder of his mother, he created a new universe known as Flashpoint. When he reset things and returned to the proper time, the universe had changed. What no one knew was that Doctor Manhattan had come to the DC Universe and used his power to change the course of history, ensuring that Jay Garrick and his fellow JSA members never became superheroes.
The first time the heroes of the DC Universe realized that things had changed was when Wally West - the third Flash - reappeared and told them that everything was wrong. It became more clear when the Justice League went back in time and met the Justice Society. While the JSA knew the Justice League, the League didn't know who the JSA were.
1 Remembered
Inspired by Superman, Doctor Manhattan decided to reset the many changes he made to the universe. Jay Garrick, along with the rest of the JSA and the Legion of Super-Heroes, returned to the current day. While there are still many questions about what happened to Jay, that didn't stop him from joining up with the Flash Family to battle the Legion of Zoom or to lend a helping hand during Dark Nights: Death Metal. What the future holds for the first Flash is unknown, but it's sure to be filled with exciting adventures.