After gaining super-speed by breathing the hyperradioactive hard-water formula, college student Jay Garrick became the fastes man alive. Choosing to use his powers to serve law and order, he adopted the Flash and operated during the 1940s, during which time he served as a founding member of the Justice Society of America and of the wartime All-Star Squadron. Along with his fellow JSAers,Garrick was pressuered into retiring from public duty in the early 1950s,only to vanish altogether--along with the entire city of Keystone--thanks to a scheme by his archenemy, The Fiddler. Years later, he and his city were rescued by the new Flash, Barry Allen. Content that his legacy was in good hands, Jay opted to stay in semiretirement, though he still surfaces when he is needed, whether as a hero or as an advisor to newer, younger champions.