Judy Garrick (Prime Earth)

On Judy's thirteenth birthday in 1962, Jay left her alone in his lab while he went to fight a fire in downtown Keystone City. A pipe suddenly exploded above her and doused her in hard water. The fumes she inhaled activated her latent Metagene and granted her superhuman speed, similar to the accident that gaver her father his powers. Unbeknownst to either of them the "accident" had in fact been engineered by her father's arch-enemy Doctor Elemental, to determine if there was a genetic component to the Flash's powers. Judy used her speed to become her father's sidekick.^[2]

Shortly after gaining her speed, Judy accidentally travelled back in time to one of her father's earliest adventures in 1940. When the day was saved, Judy revealed her real identity to Jay before returning to the "present". She would regularly visit her father in the past and help him against his early villains, and also befriended the Tortoise, the son of the Turtle. On one of her time-travel adventures, she helped her father and the JSA fight Doctor Elemental for the first time in 1941. She stopped visiting her father in the past after she was born in 1949.^[3]^[4]

In 1963, Judy's mother Joan Garrick was kidnapped by Doctor Elemental. They tracked her to an abandoned water treatment plant on the outskirts of Keystone City and raced over to save her. In order to reach the plant they needed to cross a dam which had been rigged with explosives. Jay told Judy to hang back but instead she ran over the dam and triggered the bombs, forcing Jay to stay outside and disarm them. When she got inside she confronted Doctor Elemental, and during the fight his mask fell off and she recognised his face. She was forced to let him go to rescue Joan, but as soon as she had saved her mother she disappeared and all memory of her was erased. Somehow, Doctor Elemental remembered her when no-one else did.^[5]

The Thirteen

Judy was one of thirteen heroes and villains who were erased from history when Barry Allen and Doctor Manhattan altered the timeline. All memory of her was erased, to the point that Jay and Joan believed they had never had children.^[6] During the Dark Crisis Linda Park-West pulled together a makeshift costume resembling Judy's to help the Flash Family fight off supervillain attacks around the world. Seeing her caused Jay to momentarily remember Judy, only to suddenly forget her again.^[7]

The Time Masters preserved Judy and the others by placing them in stasis pods in the Time Lab.^[3]^[8] Per Degaton's meddling in the timeline caused the pods to fail and they were reintegrated back into history before the timeline was fully restored.^[9]

The Lost Children

Emiko Queen Prime Earth 003 — Judy and Emiko Queen at Orphan Island

A "time scavenger" known as The Childminder captured Judy and many other forgotten sidekicks of Golden Age heroes before they could be fully restored to their proper place in history. They were imprisoned on Orphan Island, an uncharted island in the Pacific Ocean outside the normal flow of time.^[3]^[10]

One day Red Arrow, who Judy initially mistook for Speedy, was brought to the Childminder's fortress and placed in the cell next to Judy.^[11] With the arrival of Red Arrow and her partner Stargirl, the Childminder had all the children she needed and so painfully siphoned off Judy's Speed Force energy to open a portal to the 853rd Century and bring her employer, Hourman, to the island.^[8]

Red Arrow told Judy that the Flashes from her time were able to phase through walls by vibrating their molecules and to try and do the same to escape. Judy was able to vibrate but, rather than phase through her bonds she matched their resonant frequency and caused them to break apart. She used this to break through the wall into Emiko's cell and then to free them and the other imprisoned sidekicks. They attempted to fight their way out while Stargirl and a band of sidekicks who had escaped the Childminder broke into the Fortress to free them. The two sides joined up and squared off against the Childminder and Hourman, but Hourman was able to put all the lost children, including Judy, into temporal stasis.^[12]

Corky Baxter, a member of the Time Masters who had come to the island, ostensibly to help them, broke Hourman's focus by throwing his raccoon Crockett at him, freeing the sidekicks. They fought Hourman and Childminder while Corky went to shut down the time portal Hourman had used to reach the island before it destabilised and created a time storm. However, to everyone's shock an adult version of Corky came through the portal, revealing that he was behind Childminder and had reprogrammed Hourman to serve him. The adult Corky revealed that his younger self's mission was actually to only save one of them: Wing, and return him to his original point in time where he would sacrifice himself to stop Nebula Man and prevent the world being destroyed. The older Corky attacked them, but Judy and Quiz Kid were able to undo Hourman's reprogramming and he blasted the adult Corky back through the portal. This destabilised the portal further and the time storm began to erupt from it. The younger Corky attempted to throw Wing through the portal and Judy and all the other children grabbed Wing to stop him going through the portal, but Wing asked them to let him go, so he could fulfill his destiny and save the world.

Wing returned to the past and the time storm began to consume the island. As they could not be returned to their proper places in time, Hourman transported the lost children to the present. Judy ran to JSA Headquarters; where the Justice Society were discussing what to do about The Huntress, and reunited with her father who was now almost a hundred years old.^[13]^[14] As soon as he saw her, Jay remembered Judy and she ran up and hugged him. When they touched, they sent a ripple through the Speed Force that reintegrated her back into history and restored the world's memories of her. After catching up at super-speed, having hours worth of conversations in mere seconds, they left to return home.^[15]

Reunion

Jay took Judy home to reunite with her mother, but Judy found that her parents were now old enough to be her grandparents and the world had changed beyond recognition, with almost a dozen active "speedsters" who had become Jay and Joan's surrogate family. She asked for some time alone to process everything that had happened, and while she was brooding in her room, she heard a news report that Keystone Bank was being robbed. She raced out to stop the robbery and found the criminals in a shootout with the police. She caught their bullets out of the air and told them to stand down, when Jay ran in and quickly disarmed and tied them up. Jay took her home and told her that she couldn't run off alone, as the world was a much more dangerous place than the one she remembered. Judy said that nothing could be as dangerous as Doctor Elemental, and her parents both suddenly remembered him. They told her that Doctor Elemental had disappeared when she did and had never been seen again, with all memory of him being erased just like her.^[5]

Jay became increasingly overprotective, afraid of losing her again. Stargirl took Judy to Keystone City Mall to update her wardrobe, where she was awed by the size of the building and the huge range of stores and food available. Suddenly they were charged by a cyborg bear and Jay swooped in to pull them to safety, revealing that he had been following them; much to Judy's displeasure. They fought and overpowered the bear, when suddenly Jay realised he recognised it from an adventure in World War II. The bear warned the Garricks that "he" was coming for them and teleported away.^[16]

Jay told Judy that he recognised Ro-Bear from their first fight with Doctor Elemental in 1941, which meant that Doctor Elemental was back. Stargirl realised that he had likely come back after so long because he was after Judy. Judy told them that she had seen Doctor Elemental's face just before she was pulled out of the timeline but couldn't remember what he looked like. Mister Terrific took them to Terrifictech where they reunited with Quiz Kid and Mister Terrific's son Fairplay. The two of them had invented a machine that allowed them to display memories on screen, and show Doctor Elemental's face. They successfully pulled the image from her mind and Jay recognised him as his old college mentor, Professor Hughes.^[4]

Mister Terrific traced Professor Hughes' last place of employment to S.T.A.R. Labs in Detroit. Jay and Judy ran there to look for clues but Garrison Slate, the head of S.T.A.R., was already waiting for them. He told them that Professor Hughes was his silent partner and the funder of S.T.A.R. Labs. Garrison showed them an old diary of Hughes' which revealed that he had been trying to unlock the secrets of the Metagene since 1938 and had engineered the accidents that gave them both their powers. Before Slate could tell them where Doctor Elemental was the receptionist burst in and fired at them.^[2]

Jay and Judy dove behind Slate's desk for cover, managing to avoid the bullets with their speed, but Slate was hit. He died in Judy's arms as she watched in tears, helpless to save him. Just before he died he warned Judy that Doctor Elemental wanted her as the catalyst for his final experiment. Jay ran at the receptionist, who was revealed to be a robot, and was able to break it to pieces. Doctor Elemental spoke to them through the robot, and told Judy that her "sacrifice" would save all of humanity. The receptionist self-destructed and blew up the building, but Jay and Judy were able to evacuate the building in seconds.

Judy asked if they should try to hide, but Jay told her that they would take the fight to Doctor Elemental. He took her to Brazil where they met up with Doctor Mid-Nite. They went to Doctor Mid-Nite's underground secret lab, which Judy was amazed by, and were immediately attacked by Doctor Elemental's forces lead by Ro-Bear. Jay had expected this, and planned to destroy Doctor Elemental's robot soldiers and then force Ro-Bear to tell them where Doctor Elemental was. He and Doctor Mid-Nite went up to the surface to fight the attackers but he made Judy stay in the lab to prevent Doctor Elemental capturing her. However, Doctor Elemental appeared in the lab once they had left. Judy squared off to fight him but he knocked her out with a tranquiliser dart and dragged her away.^[17]

Doctor Elemental took Judy to his secret base, an uncharted island in the Atlantic Ocean. He strapped her into a machine which painfully charged her with energy from S.T.A.R. Labs facilities around the world. This turned her into a battery for a process which would change all water on Earth into the heavy water formula which gave the Garricks their powers, killing 90% of the world's population and giving superspeed to the survivors. Jay tracked them to the island and easily broke through the defences, but by the time he got there Judy was fully charged and Doctor Elemental activated the second phase, beaming the energy out of her back to the S.T.A.R. buildings. Her father was able to outrun the energy and prevent the global transformation, but Doctor Elemental took the opportunity to escape. Jay returned to the island and freed Judy, but they both collapsed with exhaustion.

They were rescued and taken to hospital where Judy made a swift recovery but Jay remained in a coma, having pushed himself to his limits to stop the transformation. Judy sat beside Jay's bed and tearfully begged him to wake up, saying they had more adventures to go on together. She took his hand, and when she touched him a spark of Speed Force lightning jumped from her to him. Jay woke up and made a full recovery. When they were released from the hospital, Jay and Joan had a party for the Flash Family to introduce them to Judy.^[18]

Judy and the other returned sidekicks formed a new team called the Young Justice Society.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Speed Force Conduit: Judy possesses a connection to the Speed Force, a mysterious cosmic force that pushes time and space itself forward. As a conduit of the Speed Force, all aspects of Judy's physiology are accelerated and enhanced.
- Speed Force Aura: The Speed Force manifests an aura around Judy and whatever she is carrying, protecting her from adverse effects of her speed, such as friction with the air.
  - Superhuman Durability: The Speed Force Aura also protects Judy from kinetic impacts, which in turn, makes her much more durable and resistant to injury than any normal human. She ran through a stone wall and multiple wooden doors without injury.^[12]
- Superhuman Stamina: The Speed Force grants Judy with a great increase of stamina, allowing her to fight or run much longer than the average person. Although a great increase, it is not unlimited.
- Superhuman Speed: The universal factor of being a Speed Force conduit grants Judy with imperceptible amounts of speed. All powers that Judy possesses derives from her speed.^[3] This also confers:
  - Superhuman Agility: Judy's agility, balance, and bodily coordination are enhanced to superhuman levels. This allows her to easily maneuver while moving at superhuman speed.
  - Superhuman Reflexes: In conjunction with her enhanced senses, Judy's reflexes are heightened immeasurably, allowing her to dodge or react faster than normal. Her reflexes are fast enough to allow her to easily dodge or catch bullets.^[8]^[5]
- Superhuman Strength: Judy can use her speed to enhance the force of her blows.^[5]
- Molecular Acceleration: Judy can vibrate her molecules to match the natural resonant frequency of solid objects and cause them to explode with a touch.^[12]
  - Phasing: Judy can tap into the Speed Force to vibrate her molecules in a way to achieve intangibility for short bursts, allowing her to phase through objects. She was able to phase her hands into Hourman's skull and remove his brain.^[13]
- Chronokinesis: Judy is able to travel through time under her own power.^[3] Her energy can also be used to open a portal into the distant future.^[8]
- Electrokinesis: As a conduit of the Speed Force, Judy' body generates large amounts of the electrical energy that she draws from the Speed Force. This Speed Force lightning emanates off of her, especially when moving at superhuman speed.^[12]
- Sound Manipulation: Judy creates sonic booms when she runs.^[12]
- Vortex Creations: Judy is able to create vortices of air by running in circles or rotating her extremities at super-speed. These vortices can be used for a number of effects.^[5]

Abilities

Baseball^[16]
Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic)^[12]

Weaknesses

Hyper-Metabolism: Judy requires vast quantities of calories to fuel her speed.^[16]

Trivia

Judy's birthday has been given as February 14, 1949^[3] or May 28, 1949.^[15]
Supposedly, Judy first appeared in Flash Comics #10, but does not appear in said issue.
While The New Golden Age #1 contains Judy's first appearance, her name is first mentioned in Stargirl Spring Break Special #1.

Judy Garrick (Prime Earth)

Contents

History

Early Life