Johnny Quick
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Johnny Quick is the name of two DC Comics characters, each with the power of superhuman speed. The first was a superhero who appeared mostly in More Fun Comics during the Golden Age. The other was a supervillain, an evil version of The Flash from Earth-Three, appearing mostly during the Silver Age.
Superhero
Johnny Quick's secret identity was Johnny Chambers, a newsreel photographer. He invoked his power by reciting a mathematical formula ("3X2(9YZ)4A") taught to him by his childhood guardian, Professor Gill, who had in turn derived it from inscriptions found in a Pharaoh's tomb.
Johnny Quick was an important member of the World War Two era team known as the All-Star Squadron, written by Roy Thomas. It was in the pages of All-Star Squadron (written during the 1980s) that Johnny Quick met and began a relationship with the costumed heroine known as Liberty Belle.
In modern appearances, Johnny's speed formula is explained as a mental focus to channel the energy of the Speed Force; Johnny himself disbelieved the existence of this semi-mystical extradimensional energy source until his final battle with Savitar, in which he finally felt the presence of the Speed Force and merged with it.
His modern-day successor was his daughter Jesse Quick, a one-time member of the Titans, who had inherited super-strength from her mother Liberty Belle and had learned the Speed Formula from her father.
Supervillain
Johnny Quick was a supervillain on the alternate Earth designated as Earth-Three, but rather than being a counterpart of the Earth-Two Johnny Quick, he was a version of the Flash. He and the other members of the Crime Syndicate of America (all of whom were villainous counterparts of Justice League of America members) were Earth-Three's only superpowered beings, and had never been defeated by Earth-Three's only hero, Luthor (a heroic counterpart to Superman's nemesis Lex Luthor). Like the rest of the Crime Syndicate, he perished during the Crisis at the hands of the Anti-Monitor.
The character was revived in the 1990s as a villain from the "Anti-Matter Universe", rather than being from Earth-Three.
External links
- The original Johnny Quick (http://www.hyperborea.org/flash/johnny.html)
- Information on the Golden Age Johnny Quick stories (http://members.aol.com/MG4273/quick.htm)
- Johnny Quick in the Toonopedia (http://www.toonopedia.com/johnny-q.htm)
- The Earth-3 Johnny Quick (http://www.hyperborea.org/flash/jq-csa1.html)