Tonight is the premier of The Flash television show on The CW, this being his first live-action show in almost twenty years. Because of this, today's topic is DC Comic's two main universes: Earth-Prime and Earth 2. I decided to go over this topic because its important to both The Flash's history and comic books in general. For those not well versed science fiction, there is a theory that there are multiple versions of Earth, each different from the last. Within comic books, multiple Earths open possibilities for different takes on popular heroes. In fact, the current version of The Flash isn't actually the original conception! The two versions of The Flash we'll be focusing on are Jay Garrick of the Golden Age and Barry Allen of the Silver Age.
The Flash on the right is Jay Garrick, a college student of the 1940's who passed out after breathing in hard water vapors in a school lab. The vapors triggered a latent metagene and gave him the power to move at super speeds. He donned a red shirt and his signature cap (based on the Greek God, Mercury) and became a popular hero during the Golden Age of Comic books. In 1956-during the Silver Age of Comics-Barry Allen was introduced as a forensics scientist. Barry was struck by a lightning bolt while mixing chemicals. And in the world of comics, chemicals are never just chemicals. Barry discovered the accident gave him superpowers. These powers would give Barry access to a universal energy called The Speed Force, which would allow him to travel through time and space. As I mentioned, both versions of the Flash come from different Earths. In the issue of The Flash I placed above, Jay travels to Earth-Prime and meets Barry Allen. Apparently on Earth-Prime, Jay Garrick is a comic book character that Barry used to read about when he was a child. When Barry got his powers he based his superhero identity off of Jay Garrick, thus leading to second Flash. After Jay went back to his own world, Barry went to the writer of Jay's book and gave him a new story idea.
In DC comics, it is often shown that alternate Earths exist in comic books which are read by existing heroes like Barry Allen. As time went on more crossover adventures between both Earths would come about and eventually lead to the creation of one unified DC Comic universe. Looking at this idea from the outside it is easy to see why people are confused by comic books, but I believe having different versions of heroes give readers a better understanding of what the hero stands for. And frankly, this might be the simplest feature of The Flash's lore. The human brain can only tolerate so many time travel stories. Be sure to check out The Flash's new TV show, hopefully it won't be as confusing as the comics.
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