Sovereign Seven #10

There Is No Sun in Gotham

By Chris Claremont & Dwayne Turner
Chris Ivy Inker
Richard Starkings and Comicraft Letters
Gloria Vasquez Colorist
Rob Schwager Separator
Chris Eades Ass't Editor
Rob Simpson Editor
Claremont & Turner Creators

This issue's cover pencilled and inked by Dwayne Turner, colored by Gloria Vasquez, separated by Kiko Taganashi, and cover-edited by Curtis King and John Wren. I'm not sure why two people are needed to edit a cover, but whatever. I also need to point out that even though we see the Bat signal here, Batman himself does not appear in this issue. A little misleading, if you ask me, but again, whatever.

So now we enter another lackluster DC project from the '90s. Chris Claremont was/is a legendary X-Men writer, but for a couple of years, he decided to try his hand at creating a new superhero team for DC. The result was Sovereign Seven — a group of seven superheroes descending from royalty. It never really took off, but did last 36 issues.

Our story begins in Massachusetts, in particular, the town of Crossroads, which is the headquarters of the Sovereign Seven. Our lovable hero, Impulse, passes through the town. To his astonishment, he is spotted by the huge guy on the cover.

The big guy's name is Reflex, and although he can't move as fast as Impulse, he can heighten his reflexes enough to keep up with him. Reflex chastises Impulse for running so fast through the town, saying he might hit somebody. Impulse insists that would never happen, and tries to touch Reflex, but he keeps dodging him. Reflex then pokes Impulse in the nose, causing him to bounce between a couple of cars on the street and go "spludge" in a snow bank.

Impulse takes this all in good humor, then realizes it's 8 o'clock and he's late for school. So he takes off, with Reflex inviting him to come visit Crossroads again. Once Impulse is out of sight, the exhausted huge man collapses on the snow bank, melting it with his enormous body heat. It took all he had to keep up with Impulse during that brief encounter.

And that's all the Impulse we get here. He was only brought in to help show off Reflex's powers, and I'm fine with that. Generally, I enjoyed the way Dwayne Turner drew Bart, but he did tend to veer toward the young side. It wasn't too long ago that everybody drew Impulse too old, but now it seems most guest artists can't draw him old enough. I guess 14 is a tough age to illustrate.

The Sovereign Seven, meanwhile, head out to Gotham City, which is under the threat of a deadly plague. They're also attacked by some thugs who have dedicated themselves to Neron, of Underworld Unleashed fame. Impulse will meet up Reflex again, but not for a while.

None of the letters to the editor mention Impulse, naturally, although I do find it odd that DC sponsored a contest for letter writers to win Sovereign Seven posters and hats. I guess they weren't getting very many letters. Now for the ads:

How do you defeat a god who won't stay dead? New Gods. The triumphant return of Darkseid! Rachel Pollack and Stefano Raffaele.

An army of villains. A deadly new enemy. Batman: Shadow of the Bat. Written by Alan Grant. Featuring artwork by Norm Breyfogle, Bret Blevins, Vince Giarrano, Barry Kitson, and Dave Taylor.

Freefall. Acceleration: 32 feet per second squared. Impact: imminent. Escape: impossible. So, why is this man smiling? Mister Miracle. By Dooley, Crespo, and Morais.

Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom on PC CD-ROM.

That's it for April 1996. The Flash dealt with the post-Dead Heat slump by bringing in a guest artist. But Impulse was simply delayed a month. So we'll pick up with Impulse #13 in May 1996.