Flash’s Fearsome Fourth-Dimensional Foes

The Fastest Men Alive faced many fearsome foes in their own reality. However, due to the nature of their superhuman speed, they were able to pierce dimensional barriers where they met larger-than-life adversaries… quite literally? Among these were the giants of other reality’s worlds.

Barry Allen pursued his missing girlfriend Iris West, who had piloted an experimental aircraft that ended up in a fourth dimensional land, where Lilliputians giants planned to conquer her home world. Barry as the Flash was able to outlast the mammoth menaces and stave off their invasion, while returning to Earth-One with Iris.

Something similar happened when Jay Garrick’s “Dimwit” friends Winky, Blinky and Noddy… who previously accessed the fourth dimension… opened the pathway to enter Fairyland. Within that realm, Jay as the Flash battled resident giants and eventually retrieved Joan and the Three Dimwits, returning all of them to Earth-Two.

These weren't the only hidden civilizations which the Flash of Two Worlds encountered during their many adventures. Barry-Flash met the inhabitants of Gorilla City on several occasions, as well as an underground society of humanoid birds, whom Gorilla Grodd had mentally controlled. The Earth-Two version of Gorilla City was once visited by Zatara, while that world's Feithera with its bird-people were a frequent destination of Hawkman and Hawkgirl.

And then there was the Secret City of Earth-Two, secluded within jungle foliage, populated by a self-replicating society led by an ego-centric leader whom Jay-Flash battled. His Earth-One counterpart, Multiplex, was a recurring adversary of Firestorm.

As the fourth dimension is a manifestation of time, this was something each Flash would traverse repeatedly throughout the years. They even developed technology, in Barry’s Cosmic Treadmill and Jay’s Time Vortex, which they utilized in future adventures. But those are tales for another, well, time!

Twice-Told-Tales: Damsels Deliriously Dangerous Dreams

Sometimes a dream can be so real, it blurs the line between fantasy and reality. Particularly within the DC Multiverse, certain dreams can perceive the veil between the everyday lives of its citizens during the daytime, and the Dream Dimension at night. Such was the case for the lady loves of the Fastest Men Alive, which caused the Flash of Two Earths to race to save their delirious damsels in distress.

Iris was pulled into relentless nightmares, leaving her bedridden in a hospital. Using his deductive mind, police scientist Barry Allen was able to ascertain her tenuous connection to a dream reality which he previously perceived while super-speeding while in his costumed identity. As the Flash, Barry vibrated into this Dream Dimension, battling an unknown entity which seemingly used Iris as bait to lure the Scarlet Speedster into his realm. Using his high velocity metabolism, Flash was able to project bolts of light which caused this entity to cease to exist, freeing Iris from its grip.

Joan was pulled into persistent nightmares, involving seeing herself in a dangerous scenario. In fact, she is seeing events experience by her former classmate Rita, which prompts her boyfriend Jay Garrick in his Flash identity to track the criminals down. Upon capturing these crooks, Flash frees Rita, who reveals her using of mental telepathy to project her thoughts into Joan's mind. A later occurrence of Joan being pulled into a Limbo Dimension mirroring the Dream Dimension by it's Lord was an attempt to draw in both Barry and Jay into his realm, with the goal of using the speedsters to free him from that alternate reality. Instead, it was Joan who was liberated from limbo along with husband Jay and Barry.

Twice-Told-Tales: Flash Forward Futures

Barry Allen and Jay Garrick, as the Fastest Men Alive of their respective parallel planets, were able to breach the barrier of time itself! While capable of doing this unaided, Barry developed the Cosmic Treadmill to help him pinpoint locations in time and space. Based on this technology, Jay would later refine this device and create the Time Vortex.

After marrying Iris West, Barry discovered that she had in fact been born in 2945. When nuclear war became evident between Earth-East and Earth-West, scientist Eric Russell and his wife sent their daughter Iris back in time to the 20th century using a Time-Vibrator. In that era, she would be raised by Professor Ira and Nadine West, without knowledge of her true origins. At age 25, finding a locket sent back with her when she was a baby, she unearthed the truth, and the shock caused her internal vibrations to destabilize, returning her to 2970. There she reunited with her birth parents.

Decades earlier, Jay as the Flash brought two young friends Ted and Sue Bell of his to the Smithsonian Institute in Washingon D.C. As the kids expressed curiousity as to what a musuem in the future would look like. Using his superspeed powers, Flash retrieved a few vessels from the year 2948, then brought all three of them to that time. There, he learned that Earth-Two had been split in half when a cosmic bomb was unleashed due to a war between two sides of the planet.

Barry as the Flash traveled to Iris' native century, he discovered a similiar conflict brewing, as the eastern half of Earth-One's City-Rotunda was being invaded, led by Sirik the Supreme. His goal was to claim Iris as his bride, which the Flash was able to thwart after defeating Sirik's army and then their leader himself. Likewise, Jay was able to overcome Folda Rithel of the barren half of Earth-Two, who led his forces to the city of Astra in order to use the museum's weapons while slaying its curators who knew of these deadly devices. 

It seems that these were alternate futures of Earths One and Two, as the main-timeline 30th century on the former was protected by the Legion of Super-Heroes while being more civilized and stable, while the latter was likewise protected by the Space Legion and was a whole world. 

These alternate futures later merged with the Legions’, as seen by Barry and Iris’ twins Don and Dawn aka the Tornado Twins, and the appearance of these future security guards such as Cyclone who aided the Justice Society during their Bomb Defense Formula case.

While Barry perished while saving the Multiverse before his children were born, thereby never meeting them, Jay’s trip to the future allowed him to see his possible future descendant. The man whom Jay spoke to, leading Astra’s protectives forces, bore a resemblance to the Flash. And as he dressed similar to Cyclone, this was probably one-and-the-same man.

Scarlet Speedsters’ Spouses Seeking Scoops

From the start, Barry Allen and Jay Garrick were attached to the love of their lives, who helped them both in their civilian and costumed careers. These two ladies, Iris West and Joan Garrick, didn’t appear on the surface like counterparts. But like their lives, the Flash of two worlds, they also had striking similarities.

One superficial example is that Iris is a brunette while Joan is a blond, although Iris’s boyfriend Barry is blond and Joan’s boyfriend Jay is brunette. A more substantial difference was that Jay trusted Joan with his secret identity since the beginning of life as the Flash. whereas even when married Barry still kept his alter ego a secret from Iris until their first anniversary!

Iris was born in the 30th century, sent to the 20th century by her birth parents to live with adopted parents in order to protect her from a savage future.   Joan was part of a large family, with her father Major Williams being in the military, along with having several notable cousins. Iris was raised along with her adopted siblings by her step-parents Professor Ira West and his wife Nadine, while also having a nephew in Wally "Kid Flash" West. Despite these large families, the closest to each of these ladies was their husbands, whom they stuck with through thick and thin.

Joan dabbled in journalism, when she wasn't purchasing near worthless public utility companies, prior to her marriage to Jay. Iris was well known as a relentless reporter of Central City's Picture News, even after she and Barry wed.

Both women suffered multiple attacks from foes of the Flashs, although for Iris it was mainly from her recurring stalker in Eobard Thawne aka Professor Zoom. Although Joan and Jay hid Iris during one such encounter, shortly thereafter Zoom had seemingly slain Iris for spurning his demented love, although 30th century science restored her and reunited her with Barry. Joan was nearly trapped in dimensional Limbo by the Lord of Limbo, until Jay and Barry teamed up to retrieve her and vanquish the malevolent monarch.

Through the years, despite being separated by their home universes, Iris and Joan formed a last long distance bond, no doubt strengthened by the weighty responsibility they shared... as the wives of the Flash!

Flash of Two Worlds: Wherefore Art Thou Wives Part 6

The final Flash of Two Worlds teamup picked up on a recurring theme from a previous meeting between the pair of Scarlet Speedsters, the loss of one of their wives. Only whereas previously it was Iris West Allen that was the damsel in distress, typically at the hands of the Professor Zoom, in this instance it was Joan Williams Garrick who was in need of a rescue. As with Iris, Joan would be plucked from the 20th century, taken far across time and space due to the mad revenge of an unorthodox Flash rogue. Only instead of Zoom's Reverse Flash alter ego, it was the machinations originating from the Lord of Limbo that drew the Fastest Men of twin Earths to his domain. One may ask, with what sinister motive lay behind the Lord's actions, and would such actions lead to a fatal finale for Mrs. Garrick? Not if her husband and his counterpart had anything to say about it!

It began when Barry-Flash had a strange dream, wherein he envisioned Joan falling off a cliff yet being retrieved by aliens whom he recognized from a previous adventure. As it turned out, when Barry last faced Zoom after the apparent death of his wife Iris, he left his foe adrift amidst the timestream while seeking away back to his native era. Instead, Barry-Flash arrived in the Lord of Limbo's dimension, and successfully escaped it leaving behind an angry adversary. Hence, the Lord learned that the way to escape his own realm was through his foe's superspeed abilities.

After heading to Earth-Two, Barry-Flash accompanied Jay-Flash in his search for his wife, thinking the culprits behind her capture were the Ravager gang. When, thanks to information from Jay's ally Doctor Fate, it turned out to be Fate's longtime foe the Lord of Limbo, the Scarlet Speedsters ventured to the Lord's land and saved not only Joan but his alien captives as well. As a result, in the end each Flash reunited with his wife, proving that no obstacle could be formed to separate their true love!

Flash of Two Worlds: Wherefore Art Thou Wives Part 4

Traveling 1000 years into the future, the Flash of Earth-One... Barry Allen... was finally able to locate his wife Iris. Having been negatively charged with radiation that would react to the Flash's superspeed aura in a dire way to their universe, Iris had been kept from her husband first by first being transported to Earth-Two where that Flash... Jay Garrick... and his ally Doctor Fate tried to cure her. Failing in that, Iris ended up in her parent's era of the 30th century, still plagued with the toxic energy implanted in her by Professor Zoom... the Reverse-Flash. Zoom's ploy was to end up marrying Iris in another time... however his arch-foe Barry- Flash succeeded in finding the means to rectify the situation. Nevertheless, Zoom would not stop in his schemes to obtain Iris.

Just as the case of Iris Allen's disappearance had wrapped up, another threat occurred to Jay-Flash's wife Joan Garrick. His old opponent, the Thorn, had attempted to use Joan as a hostage to lure the Scarlet Speedster into a trap. Like Zoom, the Thorn possessed both cunning and superspeed in the form of a spinning technique. However, also like Zoom, she was easily vanquished by the Fastest Man Alive on her Earth. Nevertheless, a greater danger laid ahead for Joan as well.

Leading Ladies of Living Legends: Girlfriends of Good Guys

1. You have your Hawkmen and Hawkgirls, Supermen and Lois Lanes, Batmen and Catwomen. Virtual mirror images of one another, marital matches of magnificent marvels. Then there are these heroes comrades of the Justice League and Society of America... how had their love life mirrors their cosmic twins a universe away?  

• Remarkably similar, actually, as both Barry "Flash" Allen and Jay "Flash" Garrick immediately found their true loves even before their superhero careers began. However, only Jay trusted his girl enough to divulge his dual identity... something Barry would hesitate doing even up to a year after they were married. 

• Then there was Ray "Atom" Palmer and his years-long fiancee Jean Loring, the two have a tumultuous relationship such as when Ray's lab assistant Enrichetta Negrini's presence instilled jealously in her heart, and when Jean becomes a supervillain gaining vast mental powers before they finally wed... though sadly they later divorce. Then there is Ray's twin Al "Atom" Pratt who parted from his childhood love Mary James for a few years, dated Marion Thayer... before eventually returning to then marrying Mary afterwards.

• Finally, there was the eternal angst between the competitive Hal "Green Lantern" Jordan and his boss Carol Ferris, similar to the professionally driven Alan "Green Lantern" Scott and his secretary Molly Mayne... keeping these two couples apart longer than necessary. Even when Carol and Molly became supervillainesses, there was still romantic tension with the objects of their desire. Sure, other women entered into the mix for the guys' affection, such as Olivia Reynolds and Irene Miller. In the end, however, both former femme fatales got their men.

• Then there were the romances that never were... on Earth-One Black Canary ended up with Green Arrow while on Earth-Two Canary’s mom settled for detective Larry Lance instead leaving that Earth’s Arrow a bachelor. Or Aquaman meeting his maiden Mera on Earth-One while on Earth-Two his doppleganger continued to swim the seven seas solo. Considering that these two lady-less legends debuted in More Fun Comics, one wonders was it more fun for them as single guys?

Cookie Cutter Counterparts: The Flash

While most counterparts of Earths One and Two are distinct, a few are like twins, either identical or fraternal twins. A prime example is the first we are made aware of, Jay Garrick aka the golden age Flash and Barry Allen aka the silver age Flash. Each gained the ability to become the Fastest Man Alive on their respective worlds thanks to an accident directly related to their scientific research.

For a period of time, each man was employed at their mid-western city's police department as their resident scientist. Years later, Jay would start his own business of  Earth-Two's Garrick Laboratories, a void that was filled on Earth-One by Star Laboratories. Both heroes were 5 feet 11 inches in height with a weight of 179 lbs. The fleeted footed friends were considered slow by their girlfriends, Iris West and Joan Williams, as the men always seemed late for appointments except when lives were on the line! Yet they won the gals' hearts and their hands in marriage! The lasses would become the faithful comrades of their husbands during their various costumed cases throughout the years.

Very early in their careers, Barry and Jay became founding members of their Earths' premier superhero teams, the Justice League and Society of America. And as such, they quickly gained close friends among their membership including the Green Lanterns. They even were eventually aided by another duo of speedsters, Barry's nephew Wally and Jay's friend Johnny, who would become Kid Flash and Johnny Quick. Each bridged the gap between their Earth and the counterpart's.

Perhaps one of the most defining attributes of each Flash is the legendary rogues gallery that they assembled during their careers. Several memorable menaces repeatedly plagued the lives of the scarlet speedsters, many of whom themselves were direct counterparts such as the Pied Piper and the Fiddler, Turtle-Man and the Turtle, Rainbow Raider and the Shade, Reverse Flash and the Rival, and several others we will later consider. There was almost a psychotic fixation these super-criminals had towards their fast foes, yet despite ingenious gimmicks they never stymied these heroic careers.

Indeed, their own cities, Central City and Keystone City, were synonymous for the exploits of this intrepid pair. For several years, these men persisted in protecting those residents of these mid-western burgs even when they themselves faced tragedy. Barry, for instance, lost his wife Iris when she was murdered by his arch-foe Professor Zoom. Jay nearly lost his own wife Joan when she was kidnapped by Dr. Fate and Barry's old foe, the Lord of Limbo. Thankfully, each was reunited with his bride after some time traveling exploits. However, Barry ultimately sacrificed his life to save the Multiverse during its initial Crisis, while Jay continued to carry the torch along with Wally of the name... Flash!