Name: Flash
Universe: Earth-2
Alter Ego: Jay Garrick
Occupation: Research Scientist, Director of Keystone Research Laboratories, Inc.
Marital Status: Married
Group Affiliation: Justice Society of America, All-Star Squadron
Base of Operations: Keystone City
Known Relatives: Joan (wife), Major Williams (father-in-law, presumably now deceased)
Height: 5 ft. 11 in.
Weight: 179 lbs.
Hair Color: Brown w/white temples
Eye Color: Blue
First Appearance: Flash Comics #1

History:
Jay Garrick and his future wife, Joan Williams, were students at Midwestern University. One day while there, Garrick accidentally tipped over a beaker full of an experimental form of "hard water" he had been studying. The spilled liquid gave off fumes that rendered Garrick unconscious, and he lay inhaling the fumes all night. Afterward he discovered that the fumes had given him the power to move at superhuman speed. He became the costumed crimefighter known as the Flash. At first only Joan Williams knew that the Flash was really Jay Garrick. (Although Garrick wore no mask as the Flash, he maintained waves of vibrations over his face while he was in costume, thereby preventing anyone from clearly seeing his features.) The Flash became a founding and the first chairman of the Justice Society of America and was also a member of the wartime All-Star Squadron.

Garrick retired as the Flash in 1951 as a result of his refusal to reveal his true identity to a congressional committee. Eventually, he married Joan Williams. Years later Garrick resumed his career as the Flash as a result of meeting the Flash of a parallel world, and in order to battle his three old foes the Fiddler, Shade, and Thinker. The original Flash also returned to service with the reactivated Justice Society, and in recent years has publicly revealed his true identity.

Powers:
The Flash possesses the power to move at superhuman speed, and can attain velocities equal to that of the speed of light (186,000 miles per second). His superhuman endurance enables him to run great distances without tiring. The Flash’s endurance has diminished somewhat with age, although, due to the effects of the temporal energy he absorbed from the villainous Ian Karkull, he retains far more physical vitality than he otherwise would.

The Flash possesses an aura of unknown energy that protects him from friction heat and the other adverse effects of movement at super-speed.

The Flash also has absolute mental control of his body’s atoms and molecules. He most often uses this power to vibrate his atoms at such high speeds that they can slip past atoms of solid object, enabling the Flash to pass through such objects without damaging them. He can also travel to other dimensions through varying the vibratory rate of his atoms. The Flash can also vibrate his clothing and even another human he is holding through a solid object or into another dimension with him.