Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert, the Flash was among the first of the shtick superheroes.
In two years, Superman, Captain Marvel and their various copycats had already covered the ground of the all-purpose superhero who wielded an array of powers. By 1940, to get ahead, a super being had to have a gimmick.
So the Human Torch burned and the Sub-Mariner swam, Hawkman could fly, Doll Man could shrink, Wonder Woman could be female and the Flash could run really, really fast.
College student Jay Garrick was one of only three characters I can name who became a superhero by smoking, by the way.
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In a chemistry lab, while breaking football training with a cigarette, Jay knocked over some beakers and further polluted his lungs by breathing in the fumes that turned him into the Flash.
As wish fulfillment, speed rated high with kids. Alacrity, fueled by their boundless energy, was after all the one area where children could outdistance the somewhat worn-out adults who talked down to them, punished them and generally looked after them. But just think what you might do with some real speed…
Artistic restriction can often be the parent of creativity, and the decade of the Flash’s initial run gave the writers plenty of time to come up with satisfying variations on the theme of speed. The Flash could run up the sides of buildings and across water. He could catch bullets, create multiple images of himself, become invisible and eventually even vibrate through walls. His one power turned out to make him nearly as omnipotent as Superman’s many.
For me, the early adventures of this seminal superhero are difficult because of the underdeveloped, cartoony art. But by All-Flash 31 (Oct.-Nov. 1947), an artist named Carmine Infantino had arrived to make the Scarlet Speedster’s adventures a pure pleasure. Infantino would carry the character, in his second and even more successful incarnation, right through the 1950s and 1960s.
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