In 1941 Johnny Chambers puts on his scarlet uniform for the first time. He works alone at first and then gains the help of his friend and newsreel assistant Tubby Watts. December of that same year, however, proves a turning point in Johnny's life. While on assignment in Los Angeles, California, he is one of the last people to see the Flash before that mystery-man's kidnapping at the behest of the time-travelling villain Per Degaton. Due to the time paradoxes inherent in Dr. Zee's 1947 technology, the events of that first week of December, any and all which surround the villain's intrusion from the future, become undone to one extent or another when Degaton returns to the future. Though Johnny Chambers loses his memory of the details of that week (along with the other heroes and Degaton himself), in the end he goes from lone mystery-man to member of President Roosevelt's All-Star Squadron.