CBR's exclusive announcement: Jay Garrick returns in Flash #22

[Frontier]

It's him! Jay !!!

That is an awesome redesign. There's obviously some modern touches here or there, but it's still recognizable as Jay's classic look. Hopefully this is a sign for what we can expect from the rest of the JSA as far as looks are concerned .

As far as Jay's age...if we take what Johnny said at face-value, he had the Thunderbolt take the JSA into stasis at the end of WWII. Now there's a possibility that time progressed slower wherever the Thunderbolt took them, so that once they get out they'll still be fairly older then the current generation but still have enough vitality to be active as heroes.

Of course it's also possible that the JSA haven't aged since the Thunderbolt took them away, though I prefer the former idea to the latter, personally.

Looks like we're officially starting on the road to the return of the Justice Society of America to the DCU...

[Jadeb]

Any chance they de-age him just a little bit? I still have no interest in the JSA as geriatrics. 50s is enough of a generational gap. Or make them all time travelers or something.

I'm guessing he's young. Under 40, and maybe under 30. I'd rather he be senior to the current heroes, but by that I mean mid-40s, maybe. Not 70.

I'm assuming the connection to World War II has been severed, or the characters are out of time, so there's no reason they need to be elderly. If we're getting the whole JSA, that solves the issue of how the regular mortals managed to live so long. Why bring them back and reboot their origin if they're already at the brink of death?

I would love it if he's from a parallel Earth and it turned out to be the original Earth in the multiverse.

[Frontier]

I'm guessing he's young. Under 40, and maybe under 30. I'd rather he be senior to the current heroes, but by that I mean mid-40s, maybe. Not 70.

I'm assuming the connection to World War II has been severed, or the characters are out of time, so there's no reason they need to be elderly. If we're getting the whole JSA, that solves the issue of how the regular mortals managed to live so long. Why bring them back and reboot their origin if they're already at the brink of death?

I would love it if he's from a parallel Earth and it turned out to be the original Earth in the multiverse.

I think the Rebirth special already confirmed they were a WWII secret super-team, and Thunderbolt likely took them out-of-time to protect them from the government cracking down on Superheroes.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

Any chance they de-age him just a little bit? I still have no interest in the JSA as geriatrics. 50s is enough of a generational gap. Or make them all time travelers or something.

Isn't the whole point of the JSA that they were active during WWII? If we remove that, we remove one of the reasons they were even important in the DCU, as representing that first generation of superheroes (the Golden Age). Maintaining their WWII roots would mean they'd have to be well over 50 and I think what we saw of Johnny Thunder would seem to suggest that. I mean, they're superhumans. Just explain that their aging is retarded by their powers.

[Jadeb]

Isn't the whole point of the JSA that they were active during WWII? If we remove that, we remove one of the reasons they were even important in the DCU, as representing that first generation of superheroes (the Golden Age). Maintaining their WWII roots would mean they'd have to be well over 50 and I think what we saw of Johnny Thunder would seem to suggest that. I mean, they're superhumans. Just explain that their aging is retarded by their powers.

Not all of them have powers, like my favorites, Wes Dodds and Dr. Mid-Nite. And there's no reason they need to age while in limbo.

[Jadeb]

I think the Rebirth special already confirmed they were a WWII secret super-team, and Thunderbolt likely took them out-of-time to protect them from the government cracking down on Superheroes.

I'm assuming that will be the case, but the modernized costume throws me for a loop. It doesn't remotely suggest WWII. I expect they'll be from that time but there will be more to the story.

[NeathBlue]

Isn't the whole point of the JSA that they were active during WWII? If we remove that, we remove one of the reasons they were even important in the DCU, as representing that first generation of superheroes (the Golden Age). Maintaining their WWII roots would mean they'd have to be well over 50 and I think what we saw of Johnny Thunder would seem to suggest that. I mean, they're superhumans. Just explain that their aging is retarded by their powers.

If they were taken out of time in 1951 when they would have been in their early 30's, then it's quite possible that when they do reappear they will have jumped from 1951 to present day in the blink of an eye, therefore they won't have aged at all.

[Frontier]

I don't want to see a "younger and fresher" JSA again, so I'm down with the idea that time may have progressed slower in whatever limbo Thunderbolt threw them into, so they can be older then the current heroes but not as super-old as they used to be.

[Jadeb]

Yeah, I'd be happiest if they're not super old, but the New 52 made them too young. Jay should be a seasoned hero, not a slacker college student.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

I think the Rebirth special already confirmed they were a WWII secret super-team, and Thunderbolt likely took them out-of-time to protect them from the government cracking down on Superheroes.

Did Thunderbolt take them out of time? Was that established? Or were they just the collateral of Manhattan messing with the time stream? I'd hope we got the JSA that still had the legacy aspect to it, that trained up characters like Cyclone, Jack Knight, Courtney Whitmore, etc. It'd be a shame if those characters no longer had their ties to the JSA.

Hopefully, they'll do what they did with Wally and when Jay touches Courtney, she'll suddenly remember she was a member of the JSA.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

Not all of them have powers, like my favorites, Wes Dodds and Dr. Mid-Nite. And there's no reason they need to age while in limbo.

Yeah but the whole point of the JSA was that they were seasoned heroes. As in, they're the guys who've been superheroes since WWII. I don't want them to have spent their whole time in limbo. The whole point of them was that they were the team of old heroes who took new ones under their wing. I mean, them being in limbo since the fifties means that none of the legacy characters associated with the JSA, Jack Knight, Courtney Whitmore, Mikaal Tomas, Thomas Bronson, Maxine Hunkel, etc., ever existed. IMO, that would be a real shame. Plus, at least two of those characters have made appearances post-Flashpoint.

[ThomasBlake]

Did Thunderbolt take them out of time? Was that established? Or were they just the collateral of Manhattan messing with the time stream? I'd hope we got the JSA that still had the legacy aspect to it, that trained up characters like Cyclone, Jack Knight, Courtney Whitmore, etc. It'd be a shame if those characters no longer had their ties to the JSA.

Hopefully, they'll do what they did with Wally and when Jay touches Courtney, she'll suddenly remember she was a member of the JSA.

Johnny Thunder said in DC Universe Rebirth that he didn't mean to "throw them away" implying that he had something to do with the JSA disappearing sometime after McCarthy tried to get them to reveal their identities in 1951. Also, Wally West specifically asked him to bring back the Justice Society. So there appears to be a connection at least.

[BatmanJones]

Williamson has been giving us the best Flash since Geoff Johns wrote the title, I have no doubts his Jay Garrick arc will be better than the terrible Flash season 2 story.

I'm liking Williamson fine but I think there have been two contemporary takes on The Flash that have been outstanding (by contemporary I mean post-Crisis/post-Cary Bates) and those have been by Johns and Waid. I'm not on the verge of dropping The Flash or anything; I like it. But I don't understand why people would earmark Williamson's run as something special. To me, it's just been okay which is more than fine with me. I didn't expect anyone to outdo or match Johns or Waid.

[Jadeb]

Yeah but the whole point of the JSA was that they were seasoned heroes. As in, they're the guys who've been superheroes since WWII. I don't want them to have spent their whole time in limbo. They whole point of them was that they were the team of old heroes who took new ones under their wing.

Yeah, I don't think your bolded point is going to happen. At best, some of their time operating will have been stolen. But I don't think there's any chance they'll have been operating for 70+ years or have a huge cast of legacy characters. I'm guessing they'll be out of time, and that doesn't really open the door to them having young protégés.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

Johnny Thunder said in DC Universe Rebirth that he didn't mean to "throw them away" implying that he had something to do with the JSA disappearing sometime after McCarthy tried to get them to reveal their identities in 1951. Also, Wally West specifically asked him to bring back the Justice Society. So there appears to be a connection at least.

Hm. Then how would Wally remember them? He presumably wasn't a hero for 50 years. Maybe Johnny "got rid" of them in the modern era, after they'd been heroes for a long time.