DC's Flash is back in live action, and it isn't Barry Allen — Jay Garrick turns up in The Big Bang Theory spin-off
Episode 9 of Stuart Fails to Save the Universe traps the gang in a comic, where they need the Cosmic Treadmill and get the Golden Age Flash instead.
If you thought you'd seen the last of The Flash popping up on telly, think again. But don't expect big-budget superhero drama or yet another run around the Arrowverse. Instead, our beloved Scarlet Speedster has just made a live-action comeback—wait for it—in an episode of Stuart Fails to Save the Universe. Not exactly where you'd expect DC's finest to make his next dash, is it?
The Golden Age version of The Flash appears, not Barry Allen, but Jay Garrick himself, catching both fans and characters off guard.
It's episode 9, and for reasons best described as "trapped in a comic with extra steps," Stuart and his gang are whisked straight into a full-on comic book world. That is, quite literally, where our story kicks off: the crew frozen mid-pose on a comic's front cover, before one of them (Bert, naturally) falls straight to page two. By the time the setting turns tangible, Stuart's already clocked Wayne Tower and Arkham Asylum. Yep, they've landed slap-bang in Gotham City, and Stuart's comic obsession finally proves useful.
Running Through the Pages
Here's the setup. Stuart's convinced their best shot at returning home isn't Gotham's own bat-themed millionaire or even Superman. No, the solution's a bit more obscure—the Cosmic Treadmill, which only the Flash can use to zip between universes. Meanwhile, in the so-called 'real world', Kyle and Trevor are doing their own genre-typical bungling. The two are specifically told not to sell the comic, but Trevor can't see any harm in reading it instead. Naturally, this is an omen of disaster: as soon as he flips through, he can track Stuart's path to Central City. Bad news—The Adversary knows what they're up to, zaps Trevor with an energy blast, and yanks Mr. Freeze into the comic's world to give Stuart and friends hell.
A Speedster with a Twist
The real curveball comes when the Flash finally shows up. Stuart, a proper DC die-hard, expects Barry Allen but instead finds himself face-to-face with Jay Garrick—the wing-helmeted OG from the Golden Age, honestly the sort of deep cut most shows wouldn't dare touch. This, of course, muddies the waters as to which bit of DC continuity they're actually in, which feels about right for anything multiverse-adjacent.
The episode doesn't waste much time: Mr. Freeze turns up and does what he does best—attempting to ice our heroes, Jay Garrick included. But Jay is no slouch, escaping his frozen prison and improvising a tornado so fierce it chucks Freeze out into space (he survives, obviously, and returns for round two later on—villains never stay gone for long).
- Stuart realises they're invisible to the story at first, but become major players after Mr. Freeze targets them, essentially "unlocking" the Flash's involvement.
Jay Garrick's surprise appearance as The Flash is a rare Golden Age nod for modern telly.
So, while Barry Allen and CW drama fans might've been left waiting, Jay Garrick's cameo in a show as odd as Stuart Fails to Save the Universe proves you never really know where the next superhero sighting will turn up.