Impulse #83

Double Visions Part 2

Todd Dezago Writer
Carlo Barberi Penciller
Juan Vlasco Inker
Janice Chiang Letterer
Tom McCraw Colorist
Digital Chameleon Separator
Joey Cavalieri Editor
Impulse created by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo

This issue's cover: A new marketing technique demonstrated by Carlo Barberi and Wayne Faucher! We have Impulse in a comic shop, decorated with a few pieces of JLA merchandise, including a poster of Batman, Superman and the Flash. Every single comic in the shop is a replication of this cover, which is a pretty neat effect (although it would have been cooler and a lot harder if some of the comics were other DC titles that came out this month). I think it was really fun to have Impulse breaking the fourth wall in the background, slowly realizing that he's standing behind this issue's villain. I do feel, however, that Shanela is showing a bit too much skin here, especially since she's only supposed to be in the 10th grade.

Our story begins with Impulse already locked in a battle with Shanela. He believes he's wrapped in chains as a horde of monsters is swarming around him, but he's actually standing in an empty high school hallway.

We then cut back to yesterday, when Impulse once again was called to Manchester High to investigate another case of reported hallucinations. Once again, Bart's search comes up empty. Recognizing he doesn't possess any detective skills, Bart considers calling in Robin to help him. But then he remembers that both he and Robin are no longer members of Young Justice, which means, according to his 14-year-old boy logic, he and Robin can't help each other anymore. So Bart runs home to try to get Max to help him out again. But Max is on the phone with Jay Garrick, and he sternly tells Bart he can't help him because he's busy investigating an anomaly in the Speed Force.

As Bart dejectedly leaves Max's office, Helen tells him to take Dox for a walk, pointing out that the dog is Bart's responsibility, but she and Max are usually the ones who end up taking care of him. So Bart acts responsible and takes out his dog. As he ponders over the case of the hallucinating high schoolers, he theorizes that Dox might be able to smell something at the scene of the crime. So Bart leads Dox to the high school, hoping to make him the next Rex the Wonder Dog or Scooby Doo.

On his way, Bart meets Shantay, who asks if she can pet Dox. She says she wishes she could have a dog of her own, but her sister is allergic. Shantay also recognizes Bart as a junior high student, and Bart says he can't wait to get to high school, since it feels like he's been stuck in middle school for years. After Shantay leaves, Bart remembers her always being near the scenes of commotion at the high school, so he decides to follow her, hiding behind cars and telephone poles all the way back to Shantay's house.

Since Bart didn't see anything suspicious, he begins to consider his search a waste of time. But Shanela comes walking by, and Dox suddenly begins barking at her. She shouts at Bart and threatens to call the dog warden to take Dox away. And once again, Bart confuses Shanela with her twin sister, wondering how she suddenly appeared outside after just having walked into her house.

The next day, Shanela tries to be friendly to a group of boys she recently terrorized. She knows that Ashley, the girl she made believe had become a monster, won't be coming back to school for a while, so Shanela asks Ashley's boyfriend, Brandon, if he'd be interested in going out with her. Brandon immediately turns her down, and his friends heap on some more insults for good measure. Shanela quickly grows angry, her eyes glow green, and all the boys believe a giant demon has erupted from the basketball court.

Shantay sees this and comes running. Her eyes glow blue, causing a large cartoon fox to appear and smash the demon with a hammer. All the boys's terror changes to confusion, and they decide to walk away, leaving the twin sisters to yell at each other. But Shanela isn't interested in listening to Shantay's lecture, so she storms off, threatening her sister if she gets in her way again.

Meanwhile, back at the house, Max has begun probing the Speed Force once more. He feels a bit guilty about not telling Jay and Wally the whole story, but he figures it's best to confirm that one of the Speed Force's most devious inhabitants actually has gone missing before he sounds the alarm. As Max becomes intangible and vulnerable, a voice greets him, saying he's been waiting a while, and was beginning to think Max wasn't going to come.

Back at the high school, Shanela is spreading the rumor that all the hallucinating students were on drugs. Shantay again tries to confront her sister, and Impulse suddenly arrives, having heard about the basketball court incident via Wade's sister. Impulse runs into Shantay, not noticing Shanela right around the corner. He talks to Shantay a bit, trying to sound a more confident in his investigation than he really is. Shanela can't hold back for long, though, and she jumps out around the corner, angrily saying all her victims deserved what they got because they were a bunch of conceited jerks. Before Bart can get over the shock of learning Shantay has a twin, Shanela attacks Impulse, giving him the hallucination of monsters and chains we saw at the beginning of this issue.

Shantay shoots "acid" on Impulse's "chains," telling him that the monsters are just illusions. Impulse confirms this by running through a couple of monsters, but as the twins ramp up their psychic battle, Bart can't tells which twin is good and which one is evil. He eventually remembers that the nasty one was afraid of Dox, so he quickly runs home to grab his dog.

Dox immediately plays the hero, charging straight at Shanela. She screams out in terror, begging her sister to take away the dog illusion. But Shantay confesses that is a real dog barking at her. To add to the effect, Impulse brings in seven more dogs  to surround Shanela, who falls to her knees, begging for help. Impulse says he'll take the dogs away if Shanela promises to stop creating illusions at school and making everybody go crazy. Shanela agrees, and Impulse gets rid of the dogs, reminding the teenage girl that he can come back with even more, bigger dogs at any time, and he also has lots of powerful friends.

With the day saved, Bart runs home to tell Max and Helen all about his latest victory. To his surprise, though, Bart finds Helen waiting for him, with tears streaming down her face. She tells him she saw a horrible sight — Max being sucked into the Speed Force. Bart tries to calm her, suggesting this kind of stuff happens to Max all the time. But Helen insists this time was different. This time, Max was screaming.


Now that was an ending. Dezago's been teasing this for quite a while now, and still is withholding a lot of information — a bit too much if you ask me. Sadly, I know how this turns out, and I can say that's going to be the last we see of Max Mercury for a long time. It's also sad to say that this side story was much more interesting and significant than the main story of this issue.

The main story felt like something straight from William Messner-Loebs. An underdeveloped nameless villain defeated in an indirect, inconsequential way. It was nice watching Bart try his hand at being a detective somewhat. But the "villain" he battled barely qualifies as a villain. And she frustratingly didn't face any consequences for her actions. Look at it: Shanela traumatized dozens of her classmates, sent several to the hospital, damaged property ... and all she got was a few dogs barking at her. I much rather would have cut that story in half to give more pages to Max's mission. How about establishing a credible threat so we understand why Max has to attempt this dangerous undertaking?

Impulsive Reactions begins with SNW21 praising Impulse for its creative team and for the quick recaps at the beginning of each issue that are helpful for new readers. SNW21 is also enjoying the subplot of Roland and Evil Eye slowly figuring out that Bart is Impulse, as well as the maturity Bart showed in listening to Mike Ringer talk about his dad.

Havk thinks Bart's return to Impulse was rushed, saying the woman with the heart attack wasn't a strong enough reason. Havk is also tentative with the Roland and Evil Eye stories, saying they're cool, but again feels like they're rushed.

Brentac liked Impulse #80 mainly for Mike's transformed view of his father.

Kolbster1 predicts that Carol will come back at some point, but acknowledges that since she and Bart are still in junior high, their relationship can't really advance past where it already is.

BartAllen12 points out that Bart is young enough to develop crushes on a lot more girls.

NeoSharks predicts that Carol will return as soon as Bart is able to move on and possibly find a new girlfriend.

R3X29YZ4A wonders what happened to all the talk of Bart preparing to become the next Flash.

Tobias Christopher says this may have been Mark Waid's original plan back in 1994, but Impulse has since been passed through too many creators to guarantee that. Referencing Kingdom Come, Tobias says it looks like the next Flash will be Wally West's daughter, and that Bart will merely become an older, more mature Impulse. Now for the new ads:

The quest begins now. Galidor: Defenders of the Outer Dimension.

Where would you go? The Time Machine.

Super Mario World 2 for Game Boy Advance.

Next time, we'll begin May 2002 with a quick cameo in JSA #34.