In the 1940s, Jay Garrick and his Justice Society colleagues find out what super (mad) scientist Dr Elemental can do.
Today, Jay and daughter Judy wonder whatever happened to the bad guy, who vanished from the public memory along with Judy when she was stolen and hidden away in an insidious limbo. She’s only just been freed.
The Flash and The Boom have a nagging feeling they’ve not seen the last of Dr Elemental – but if he showed up would they recognise him, with memories still fuzzy? If only Mr Terrific knew a couple of kid heroes who might help.
Quiz Kid, like The Boom, is a continuity insert, the recently revealed sidekick of the original Mr Terrific. Fairplay is the recently revealed son of the current Mr Terrific. Raghu and Jeffrey are lost boys to Judy’s lost girl. I wonder if Jay Garrick writer Jeremy Adams knew Geoff Johns was about to add Quiz Kid to DC’s Golden Age history when he came up with Fairplay for The Flash #799? If not, what a great coincidence – where there was no Mr Terrific sidekick, we now have two. Here they’re pretty simpatico but I’d not be surprised were wee Jeff to start showing some rough edges – he was abducted to Apokolips as a babe in the womb and set to work by Granny Goodness, for goodness’ sake!
It’s the little moments of personality that make an Adams superhero saga so special. There’s a lovely conversation between Judy and pal Stargirl about how hard it is settling into the 21st century (while she vanished from the Forties, she was actually visiting from her Sixties home time).
Another great moment sees Stargirl and Mr Terrific observe a father/daughter chat.
What a brilliant description! Adams is great at giving us likeable, fun kid heroes so I hope a Young Justice Society book by him is announced soon – we’ve already seen a logo over in Johns’ Justice Society of America series.
The ongoing Dr Elemental business has finally clicked with me – I couldn’t figure out why Jay and Judy reckoned he’d be around and after them, but the reemergence of his Ro-Bear pal last issue is a pretty big pointer.
One of the great things about limited runs (pun intended) is that you almost always get a stable creative team and that’s proving the case here, with Diego Olortegui back drawing for a third issue. His energetic layouts are perfect for this series, and he’s a whiz at getting humanity into his characters. Kudos to Olortegui if he came up with the FairPlay suit, it works as a combo of Jeffrey’s Granny garb from the aforementioned Flash issue and Mr Terrific stylings – just look at that daft great ‘F’ on his cute little head, echoed in his head sock.
Luis Guerrero is our master of colours and he keeps things popping without bringing on headaches, while the nattily neat lettering comes from veteran Steve Wands.
The cover is again by Jorge Corona and Sarah Stern and it’s eye catching, though not in the best way – Judy looks rather wonky. I do wish our interior artists were advertising their own work.
DC recently announced that the Green Arrow limited series has been promoted to ongoing. Would it be too much to hope Jay Garrick: The Flash might follow suit?
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 
Issue #2 felt like filler issue, but #3 has the book back on track. Fun story, great art and a nice surprise appearance by Fair Play and Quiz Kid. I hope Jeremy Adams gets to write another ongoing Flash series at some point. If this doesn’t get extended into a regular series, maybe they’ll let him do a second Flash book with Wally or maybe some kind of Flash-team book.
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I’m so with you, it’s funny that he’s soon to launch another Flash book… Flash Gordon.
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Yes, this book is awesome. I loved Fair Play and Quiz Kid though I could have done with Mister Terrific showing jut a smidge of emotion. Maybe the doppelganger of his wife could visit and tease it out of him?
Judy is a pretty amazing new character. It says a lot that Adams could see the potential in her when she was just one of a cast of thousands and not nearly this cool there.
Minor quibbles:
A) GA Hawkman did not have the Wolverine Lite characterization ever. All GA heroes killed easily at some point but Carter was never bloodthirsty or easily prone to anger. With that wonderful Hawkman series establishing Carter and Shiera could exist without having to be forced into Katar and Shayera roles, there’s no reason Carter should act like Hawkman never did before Johns.
2) Doctor Fate and Hawkman should be controlled by the Nazis if in Axis controlled territory. No explanation in either issue as to why they’re not.
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Good quibbles. Does Hawkman count as musical hero. I thought Ninth Metal was science that had fallen into ancient Egypt… I can’t keep this stuff straight!
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I was thinking of his being a reincarnated pharaoh and being aware of that fact. Someone will have to check the original appearance of the spear of destiny to see if he was afflicted or not. Doctor Fate certainly should have been.
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Fun issue! One more quibble from me, of continuity of a more recent variety: Where is Aleea Strange? Wasn’t she in Mister Terrific’s custody at the end of the Strange Adventures series? Then again, that’s likely not in continuity, or if so, on the very fringes of it. I liked the idea of him raising her for a while — but that was before two more kids showed up in his life.
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Hmm, that’s over my head, I gave up on Adam Strange. Hopefully that Tom King book was instantly Mopeed away and Aleea is happily on Rann with her parents.
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We’re never gonna agree on King, are we? I thought it was terrific, but I definitely don’t need most of the events of the story in regular continuity.
As I said, I liked the idea of Mister Terrific raising a foster kid, but now that he suddenly has two others, there’s no real need for Aleea to stay in the picture. Having 3 kids to raise (honestly, even two) changes the balance of his life too fundamentally for him to be the same a character. With one kid, it’s “Can the smartest man in the world raise a child without losing a step?” With three, the focus becomes “Can this harried parent still manage to be the smartest man in the world? Or even get a decent night’s sleep?”
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I’d love to see that but imagine Mr Terrific would simply hand over the child-rearing duties to a pack of T-spheres.
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Nice post
Have a wonderful night
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And you!
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I really hope this gets extended. I like this so much better than the recent Flash comic, no offense to Wally.
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I was a big fan of Adams’ Flash run, may I have both, please DC?
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