FLASH series being developed for The CW

Jay would be awesome, but I don't see them doing it. What good is the character if he wasn't the first Flash? I think Shipp playing Henry Allen, Barry's incarcerated father, seems the more likely option.

 

Ooh, good idea. I agree with you, I don't see the value of using Jay Garrick beyond fanboy nostalgia. Easter eggs can be fun, but good storytelling is more important, so a character shouldn't be used unless there's a meaningful story reason. Barry's father has significance to the story in a way that a non-powered Jay Garrick would not.

 

JWS! Respect has been paid!

 

Well, the Arrow universe was pretty grounded in the first season, and superpowers are being treated as something fairly new and anomalous. If there had been a superpowered Jay Garrick in the past, he couldn't have been openly famous as the Flash -- and then what would be the point of his character?

 

I think The Seeker means that Jay Garrick might be the Flash from an alternate dimension, whether it's called Earth 2 or something else, who comes over into Barry Allen's dimension. That way you could have Jay Garrick as a super-powered Flash without him being a figure from the past of the Arrow timeline.

 

I think alternate dimensions is another level of the fantastic that they won't want to open from the start. That type of stuff usually gets saved for season 3 or so.

 

Right. I don't want the grounded nature of the Arrowverse to be tossed out the window altogether.

And again -- it would be wrong to force Jay Garrick into the story just because he was prominent in the comics. This needs to work as its own independent narrative, and characters should be chosen because they serve a purpose to this story. Barry's father seems to be a more relevant character here.

 

Because that's a shallow and mercenary way to tell a story. A story needs to be driven by its own internal logic and character dynamics. Shoehorning things in just because it'll give a bunch of fanboys a thrill of recognition is a crappy way to write. If you can incorporate it in a way that's actually relevant and meaningful to the story you have to tell, then yes, fine, absolutely, do it. But the internal integrity of the story needs to be the higher priority.

 

We're saying that the way things have been setup so far pretty much any introduction of Jay with superpowers would be shoehorning.

 

I'm not "automatically dismissing" anything. I'm just cautioning against "automatically" assuming it would be the best option. I'm trying to balance the discussion by providing counterarguments so that both sides of the question can be considered.

 

Most writers are awful.

There's only been 12 truly great authors in the history of the world.

The rest are a bunch of fricking hacks.

 

I gotta say that while Jay is cool and I would like him to come in at some point (preferably season 2 don't forget Barry didn't meet Jay until after a year into Barry's Career as the FLASH.) I think it would be counter-productive to make him appear too soon in the new series. My favorite idea is the Barry's father role. In fact, we could use this pic of JWS and Amanda Pays and say it's Barry's parents from before his mom was killed

I thought of some other Easter eggs we could throw in.
1. Say Barry had an Uncle named Jay who was a motorcycle cop killed by a biker gang.
2. Have Iris West be confused by name for a pioneer artist in the Computer Graphics Industry
3. Have names in the Police files at Central city PD include the names Julio Mendez, Warren Garfield, Officer's Murphy and Bellows, Chief Cooper, and even Meghan Lockhart (true Meghan was a PI not a cop but she could be listed under sources)
4. Have a PA message at barry's hospital addressed to Dr. Desmond Powell
5. Have Dick Miller do a cameo as Fosnight

Of course all these would be spread out over the course of the season as easter eggs not all thrown into the same episode.

 

Plus, they've already set up the "blur" that killed Barry's mother (how many years ago?) as either someone with powers or someone with advanced technology, so I don't think parallel dimensions or a powered Jay Garrick is going too far out for the Arrowverse...

 

I agree. There is no reason that a Jay Garrick from Earth 2 could enter the picture at some point--maybe introducing us to the original Black Canary? Jay Garrick has had several incarnations, any one of whom could be introduced. Even the Earth 2 Jay has a couple of incarnations at this point--and we have already learned that the writers seem to be introducing more contemporary elements of the Flash's origin.

 

deadline.com

 

^ I've seen her in stuff. I like her.