This cover has been homaged multiple times but this story has a huge amount of significance in the history of comics, the forming of the multiverse, and a significant change for the Flash himself…or themselves. “Flash Of Two Worlds”, the story from The Flash #123 (DC Comics; September, 1961) reintroduced the original Flash, Jay Garrick, to continuity in a way that reshaped the comic book universe.
The following video by Owen Likes Comics focuses on the creation of the idea of the multiverse, or at least how it’s used in stories today. The concept, according to Wikipedia, arguably goes back to ancient Greece, with William James coining the term in 1895. The actual multiverse concept as we use it today however, multiple universes similar to our own, would come after that, but the idea is hotly debated and is at best theoretical. As much as other writers outside of comics like to put them down, it was the first use of a recurring science fiction trope and sci-fi writer Michael Morecock a few years after the comic came out would be the first to combine the theory and trope with term we know it by today.
So watch Owen explain how the writer and artist came up with this story and how it formed the multiverse as we sci-fi superhero fans know it by today…and then let me point out a few other things that aren’t necessarily multiversal but still fascinating.
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Here’s a thought: why not just make Jay Garrick a hero from another time instead of another universe. He was one of the heroes of World War II, protecting the homefront so our boys could beat up the Axis powers without fear of the country being attacked. So just make him a retired hero returning to action for one last mission or coming out of retirement altogether to teach Flash and Kid Flash a few of the old moves to combine with the new? Well, not every past DC hero had disappeared. Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman had continued into the Silver Age and that would take some explaining. The post-Crisis DCU didn’t have to worry about that. Neither Superman nor Batman had joined the Justice Society and they explained that Wonder Woman’s mother took part in World War II in this new continuity. Pre-Crisis on the other hand couldn’t pull that off as cleanly so you get the multiverse.
The idea that Jay’s world is fictional in Barry’s but a real existence has also been a trope, explained by certain writers having some instinctual knowledge of alternate universes, which was done in an episode of Justice League. Alternately you could cheat and have a device that “sees” into a parallel world, like in an episode of Darkwing Duck where he finds his way into a human world where he’s a fictional character. Still others just have the writers manipulating the fake world and the characters panice when they find out. I’m not a fan of that last one unless you can get good comedy out of it, like the old sprite comic Bob & George and a number of comics that followed his lead. (I would have converted the gag to metatext had Tales From The Spriteverse been allowed to get that far. I did an Art Soundoff about what I mean and why that didn’t happen.) So that’s something else that this comic either created or started making popular.
That all said, there’s one other important detail of Barry’s life that started here and sadly was tossed aside by DiDio’s Darker DC and Geoff Johns. Notice how in the original backstory for Barry becoming the Flash it was the tales of Jay Garrick that inspired him to become a forensic scientist and superhero, later retconned to be historic fiction that still inspired young Barry. That means that Barry was inspired by comics and a fictional/historical superhero to become a superhero after gaining similar powers. Then Flashpoint happened and now Barry’s mom, who used to be alive, is dead and his dad falsely accused. This is the new inciting incident because the people who make comics apparently can’t believe their media of choice could ever inspire people to be better and help others. It’s another example of today’s creators having a low opinion of their own media and what they do for a living. See also the nerdy Peter vision from the infamous Spider-Man story “One More Day”. It’s kind of pathetic really and another reason today’s DC and Marvel are failing; they don’t believe in their own work.
So this is a rather important comic in comic history and in sci-fi history. I hope I get to read it someday.
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