The Flash Sends Wally West Through the Speed Force Into Jay Garrick's Body - CBR - Comic Book Resources

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Flash #769, by Jeremy Adams, Brandon Peterson, David Lafuente, Mike Atiyeh, Luis Guerrero and Steve Wands, on sale now.

Life hasn't been particularly kind to Wally West recently, and this doesn't appear to be letting up anytime soon as the DC Universe embarks into the Infinite Frontier era. When he attempted to retire from the superhero business permanently by severing his connection to the Speed Force, Wally instead found himself catapulted through time and space, inhabiting the bodies of various speedsters throughout history.

And after spending time in the far-future in The Flash #769, Wally's latest body swap places him the boots of the original Flash Jay Garrick, a speedster that had been lost to the DCU for years.

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Back in the DCU's relative present, Barry Allen and the rest of the superhero community have managed to establish a communications link to Wally's consciousness as he travels back to the prehistoric era, possessing a caveman before he travels to the 31st century where he inhabits the body of Barry's grandson Bart Allen. Investigating the matter through his Speed Lab, Barry deduces that Wally is literally having an out-of-body experience, with his consciousness now non-corporeal as it searches the Speed Force for a body to ground itself. As Mister Terrific contemplates building Wally an artificial body, presuming his original body lost, Wally jumps back to World War II and discovers, as he regains his senses, that he is now in the body of Jay.

For years, the original Jay Garrick was removed from the fabric of reality coming out of the 2011 crossover event Flashpoint by Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert. Although this initially seemed to be Barry's mistake, it was later revealed to be the fault of Watchmen's Doctor Manhattan. The 2017 maxi-series Doomsday Clock by Johns and Gary Frank expanded on this, with Manhattan changing the entire history of the DCU by erasing the legacy of the Justice Society of America, including Jay. It wasn't until the subsequent DC rebirth era and Manhattan's restoration of the Justice Society at the end of Doomsday Clock that Jay returned, emerging just in time to save the Flash Family from the Reverse-Flash.

Jay's activities in the present-day DCU since the start of the Infinite Frontier era have largely been unknown, with only Alan Scott really making a prominent appearance so far. Wally finds himself inhabiting Jay as the Golden Age Flash and the Ray observe Adolf Hitler claim the mythical Spear of Destiny,a magical weapon that could empower the Axis war machine to take on the Allied Powers across Europe. And with Hitler bragging that the American superheroes have been captured by the Third Reich, Wally's adventures have just leapt out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Up until last year, Jay Garrick was still conspicuously absent from the DCU as part of a stretch that last nearly an entire decade of the majority of DC's Golden Age characters removed from the immediate scene. And Jay is now back just in time to serve as the latest host for Wally West, potentially setting the stage for the Golden Age Scarlet Speedster to make an even greater return during the Infinite Frontier era. The original Flash has returned once again to run during World War II, but this time, a different speedster stuck in the driver seat.

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