The Flash's Stargirl Crossover Needs To Confirm If Jay Garrick Is Dead - Screen Rant

The upcoming Arrowverse crossover between Stargirl and The Flash will have to answer Jay Garrick's whereabouts in the present time. While there isn't a traditional crossover between The CW's DC TV shows in 2021, a smaller (but important) one is happening in the summer. Stargirl may not be set on the same Earth as the other Arrowverse shows, but Crisis on Infinite Earths did establish its place in the Multiverse. After the original Earth-2 got destroyed, Oliver Queen rebooted the Multiverse as the Spectre and reimagined that universe. Post-Crisis, it's now the home of Courtney Whitmore and the Justice Society of America.

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Stargirl season 1 focused on Courtney's superhero origin story while also starting the next generation for the JSA. But the upcoming season will spotlight the Golden Age JSA, at least in their ninth episode. John Wesley Shipp will be paying Stargirl a visit as his character Jay Garrick, who has been a recurring player since The Flash season 2. Originally, Jay came from Earth-3, which was destroyed in Crisis and while he'll be back, this Flash will have a different history compared to the last time fans saw him. For the crossover, Jay will be established as having always been the Golden Age Flash on Earth-2 and a member of the JSA.

One of the big mysteries in Stargirl season 1, however, is how ambiguous the show was about the status of some of the original heroes. The pilot establishes that the original Justice Society was defeated by the Injustice Society. While Jay never appears in the flesh, his iconic helmet is seen with ice on it, alluding that the villain Icicle may have taken him down. But it hasn't so far been actually clarified if Jay is truly dead or if he's alive and hiding after the JSA/ISA showdown. A golden rule with comic book/superhero stories is that unless a body is seen, a character isn't necessarily out of the picture yet. The only detail that exists about Shipp's episode is that he'll be part of a pivotal flashback story for the JSA.

But Jay's actual status in the present is the one question the Stargirl/Flash crossover has to answer once and for all. Even though this would be Shipp's first episode on Stargirl, he has a long legacy in the Arrowverse that should be noted. Beyond playing Jay, Shipp has also portrayed Barry Allen's father, Henry, in the first two seasons of The Flash. But Shipp's history with DC doesn't stop there since he also portrayed Barry in his own The Flash TV show in the '90s that became connected to the Arrowverse through Crisis on Infinite Earths. The idea that Stargirl would bring in Shipp's Jay Garrick to be Earth-2's Flash only to reveal that he's dead is a wasted opportunity.

Shipp has even said that fans should be expecting to see Jay in The Flash season 7 in some capacity. It's possible that at the time, Shipp's Stargirl guest spot hadn't been decided or even proposed. By the time Stargirl season 2 premieres, The Flash will either have finished airing its season or be close to reaching their remaining episodes. Assuming there are no big hiatuses, Jay may have already revealed his fate if he visits Earth-Prime, thus revealing to them that the Multiverse still exists. If he doesn't, it will be up to Stargirl to officially clarify if the Golden Age Flash still lives or not in their crossover with The Flash.

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Andy Behbakht (585 Articles Published)

Andy has covered the world of entertainment journalism since 2010, mostly superheroes and comic book media. In addition to his work as a reporter, Andy co-hosts The Flash Podcast, Titans Podcast while running the entire DC TV Podcasts network. He is also the founder/editor-in-chief of The Marvel Report since Fall 2015.