Year in Review: 2002

The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about the year 2002 is the Winter Olympics that were held in my own backyard, Salt Lake City. It was an incredibly exciting time to have the entire world focused on my small state for two cold weeks in February. It was so fun to go downtown and see all the exhibits, events, people, concerts, merchandise, etc. Even now, 15 years later, you can still find lots of mementos to that time all throughout Utah. Looking back on it, I'm now a little disappointed that DC didn't do anything for the Olympics. We had that unofficial mention of the "Australia Games" in Young Justice, but you'd think that for the Olympics visiting America, DC (or Marvel) would work out a licensing deal.

The world of film saw an explosion of sequels in 2002. The top four highest-grossing movies, in order, were The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Spider-Man and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. I loved each and every one of these. Still do, as a matter of fact. The one "non-sequel" of that list, Spider-Man, was especially significant. It was the first superhero movie to gross more than $800 million worldwide — a feat that wouldn't be surpassed until Spider-Man 3. And in case you're wondering, Chicago won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Sadly, 2002 was not particularly kind to Impulse. I mean, it can't get much worse than having your own series canceled, right? Bart Allen started the year off during his "sabbatical" away from being a superhero, which put a bit of a damper on his own adventures and kept him away from Young Justice for most of the year. He also completed two consecutive years without appearing in The Flash, but that's more Geoff Johns' fault than anything. Impulse was involved in the three-part SpyBoy/Young Justice crossover and the five-part World Without Young Justice crossover. But none of these events were able to prevent Impulse from suffering the same fate as Superboy and soon to be Young Justice.

Best Issue: Young Justice #45

For the second straight year, this award goes to Young Justice instead of Impulse, which I guess goes to show you the quality of Impulse stories at the end. Todd Dezago struggled to weave a cohesive, compelling narrative around the crossovers, and clearly struggled with some ill-advised editorial mandates. That said, there were a lot of moments I enjoyed — just not one particular issue I could point to as the best. I strongly considered Impulse #87, but it just didn't take enough time to show the fun — and dangers — of the world Bart created. So I went with the conclusion of World Without Young Justice, the event that was the highpoint of the year. I thoroughly enjoyed four of the five issues in the one and only Young Justice/Impulse/Robin/Superboy crossover. Young Justice #45 featured the thrilling and wacky final showdown with Bedlam, complete with the unexpected arrival of the original Red Tornado. And more importantly, it showed Bart pushing himself to the limit and working past his fears that he would die for real this time.

Best Writer: Todd Dezago

This is Dezago's third award, putting him one behind Mark Waid on the all-time list. True, I didn't like everything Dezago did this year, but he did do more with Impulse than Peter David did. That's not to say he won this award by default. I really liked how Bart decided to become Impulse again, as well as his reaction to (inexplicably) being forced to live with the Garricks in Denver. The last four or five issues of Impulse had a lot of interesting material, but Dezago unfortunately had to rush to reach the finish line. In the end, though, it's kind of impressive how many loose ends he was able to wrap up.

Best Artist: Carlo Barberi

One of the many tragedies of losing the Impulse series was missing out on Barberi's art, which developed beautifully in 2002. Even when he went through a carousel of inkers at the end, his pencils still shown through, giving us an incredibly expressive Impulse with appropriately huge hair and feet. Todd Nauck was once again incredibly impressive, not only with his 100-character, 48-page Young Justice #50, but also with the Christmas special flashback that successfully made all the characters look a year or two younger. But Barberi gets the nod for quantity and a very good quality. Heck, I'd almost give him the award just for the cover of Impulse #89. Three-time winner Humberto Ramos was once again eligible this year, but he really let me down with the World Without Young Justice covers.

Best Supporting Character: Max Mercury

Each year, this award seems to come down to a tight race between Max and Carol Bucklen. Carol was technically Bart's girlfriend for most of 2002, but she was largely absent, and when she did officially come back to the present, she essentially broke up with Bart. She did it in a kind, caring way, but still, those two are no longer a couple and we're never going to see Carol again. So, the award goes to the Zen Master of Speed for the fourth time. Max also went missing for an extended stretch, but when he came back, he made it count. He was the only one willing and able to fight to take away Bart's unlimited magic powers, saving the world and Bart's soul. The Phantom Stranger did perform the grunt work of this operation, but Max was able to vibrate out of reality on his own, and it was his love that reached Bart and enabled him to surrender the power of Bedlam.

Best Villain: Bedlam

Bratty Matthew Stuart wins this award for the second time, after reappearing for one last reality-warping attack. This time, he focused most of his revenge on Impulse, abusing Bart and twisting his new power to fulfill his evil scheme. It was also fitting that after Bedlam united Young Justice in the first place, it would be him to reunite the team after Impulse and Robin had left. And even after Matt had been defeated for the final time, the corrupting power of the genie remained for one last hurrah, granting its evil powers to Bart and nearly destroying the universe in the process. I do feel a bit bad for Matt, though, who was mostly a victim of circumstance in this ordeal and ended up in an endless coma because of it. Maybe I can pretend that Matt woke up after the Phantom Stranger permanently locked away the power of Bedlam.

Next time, we'll begin 2003, the 10th year of Impulse's existence. We will see Bart make a few more appearances in The Flash, which is good. But we'll also see Young Justice come to an end, which is bad. But we'll see Bart join a new iteration of the Teen Titans, which is ... well ... it's something, alright. All this begins with a quick cameo in JLA/JSA Secret Files & Origins #1.