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The Streak
Group Affiliation: Justice Guild of America
Voiced by: David Naughton
See Also: Flash (DCAU), Flash (B:BATB)

Tom Turbine! Green Guardsman! The Streak! Catman! Black Siren! The heroes of the Justice Guild of America protected their world from their headquarters in Seaboard City until a nuclear war wiped out civilization in the 1960s. The heroes died to protect their world.

Legends live on, however. A survivor of the holocaust, Ray Thompson, horribly mutated, gained incredible reality-altering powers of illusion. He used his powers to recreate the Seaboard City of his childhood and relive the exploits of the Justice Guild and their enemies. He gave himself the appearance of a normal teenage boy, who became the Guild’s mascot. Other survivors were forced to play roles in his fantasy, reliving it over and over for decades.

The Justice Guild

Crossover

Forty years later, several members of the Justice League found themselves in Seaboard City. At first the Guild mistook them for villains, but when the Flash rescued Roy from falling debris, the Streak—the Guild’s super-speedster and leader—realized they were visiting heroes. To confuse matters more, Green Lantern recognized them from the comic books he read as a child. J’onn J’onnz theorized that the writers in the League’s world had subconsciously been tuning in on events in the Guild’s world.

Something was unsettling about the city, something more than the old-fashioned lifestyle and attitudes (sexism and subtle racism, in particular). Whenever they tried to investigate, something would distract them, and the two teams found themselves working together to battle a quartet of villains. J’onn J’onnz kept getting telepathic flashes of devastation, but it was Hawkgirl who found the main clue: the graves of the Justice Guild.

Further investigation revealed the truth, and Ray lashed out, battling the League. The Guild came to the League’s defense, reasoning that even if defeating Ray meant giving up their lives, they’d sacrificed themselves before. With Ray’s apparent death, the illusion dissolved. The beautiful city became ruins, the Guild faded from existence, and the city’s ragged population was finally free. The League returned to their own world using one of Tom Turbine’s devices.

Text by Kelson Vibber. Do not copy without permission.

Art

  • Streak - Justice League episode: “Legends”
  • Justice Guild - Justice League episode: “Legends”

TV Appearances

  • Justice League episode: “Legends, Part 1” (April 21, 2002)
  • Justice League episode: “Legends, Part 2” (April 28, 2002)

Notes

The Justice Guild was originally intended to be the actual Justice Society, featuring the Golden Age Flash, Green Lantern, Black Canary, Atom, and Wildcat. DC rejected the idea, since they had a JSA comic book at the time and didn’t want to portray the characters as relics. It turned out that using analogues of the characters gave them more freedom to deal with the old-fashioned values and attitudes.

The Streak, like Jay Garrick, wears a helmet as part of his costume. Instead of a classic Mercury-style helmet, it's a practical crash helmet.