The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #2

Lightning in a Bottle Part Two: Origins

Danny Bilson & Paul De Meo Writers
Ken Lashley Penciller
Walden Wong & Jay Leisten Inkers
Phil Balsman Letterer
Carrie Strachan Colorist
Rachel Gluckstern Asst. Editor
Joan Hilty Editor

Our cover by Ken Lashley is once again an incoherent mess that makes our hero look like the villain. Seriously, what's with that sneer? Is this Bart Allen or the Reverse-Flash? Peeking out at Bart from behind the vague exploding rainbow are Griffin Grey, Jay Garrick and Valerie Perez. This cover ... just doesn't look good. There's nothing I like about it.

Our story begins where I wish issue #1 had started — with Bart recapping his life history. He was born to Don and Meloni Allen and rapidly aged due to his inherited super speed. Bart looked like a 3-year-old at age 1, at 2 he looked 10. The Earthgov scientists couldn't slow Bart's metabolism, but they did create a virtual reality for him to grow up in and stay sane.

Bart says that after his parents were killed, his grandma Iris brought him back to the 20th century, where Wally West helped Bart use the Speed Force to shock his system and return his aging to a normal rate. Wally then put Bart in the care of Max Mercury, who (according to Bart) was the first to name him Impulse. Bart says his rookie team was Young Justice, and then the Teen Titans "put him in the big leagues." Deathstroke shot Bart in the kneecap, prompting him to read an entire library and become Kid Flash.

But now Bart blames the Speed Force for taking nearly everyone he's cared about it, and he feels like it's trying to take him, too. After the explosion at the car factory, Jay took Bart's friend, Griffin, to the hospital, while Bart was apparently being electrocuted by the Speed Force. He must have blacked out, because he suddenly wakes up in his bed, lamenting the fact he wasn't fast enough to save Griffin, who is meanwhile waking up in incredible pain at the hospital. After vomiting, Griffin collapses on the floor and is engulfed in green lightning.

Later, Bart is talking to Jay and Joan Garrick, who are chastising him for lying about not being connected to the Speed Force. Bart tries to explain that he's not really able to access the Speed Force anymore, since he feels like it'll blow him apart if he moves too fast. Jay offers to help him learn to control the Speed Force again, and Joan suggests calling Dr. Tina McGee at S.T.A.R. Labs. But Bart darkly says he doesn't want to control the Speed Force anymore, but would like to have S.T.A.R. Labs remove it from him. As Bart leaves to check on Griffin, Jay tells him it's his time to be the Flash with Wally gone. But Bart insists once more that he only wants a normal life.

We see our old terrorist friend, Thatcher, reading a newspaper about S.T.A.R. Labs' plan to provide A.I. for an automated workforce at the car factory. Feeling his first explosion "cut off the arms of the beast," Thatcher now plans to go for the "brains." Meanwhile, Dr. McGee is on the phone with Jay, telling him the piece from Barry's suit arrived this morning and they've begun running tests on it. Jay asks her to reach out to Bart, but she says she can't force him to come in for an exam. Valerie overhears this and suggests Bart might respond better to someone his own age — namely her. But she suddenly gets another unwanted phone call, and this time we find out it's her father on the other line that she doesn't want to talk to.

When Bart visits Griffin at the hospital, his friend has shocked everyone by demanding to be released immediately. Bart runs down a list of Griff's injuries, saying it should take him weeks to heal. When Griff asks how Bart knows that, Bart once again says he read a lot when he was younger. Griffin's doctor is equally baffled by this situation, but he admits that even though Griffin was convulsing on the floor just a few hours ago, he is now completely healed from his injuries. As the doctor leaves, Bart quietly says to himself that he's seen strange things like this more often than he'd like.

Griffin and Bart leave the hospital and agree to meet with detectives Chyre and Morillo at the scene of the accident. A lot of reporters have gathered around the factory, marveling at how these two young men are already back on their feet just 72 hours after being caught in the explosion. The reporters ask the victims some questions as they walk past, and Bart takes the diplomatic approach of refusing to say anything. But Griffin revels in the attention and speculates that whoever was behind this explosion will next target Keystone Motors' CEO.

As Bart and Griffin talk to the detectives, Griffin seems to have a traumatic flashback and is once again engulfed in green lightning. He begins running and crashes into an elevated platform holding a cameraman. Seeing that the cameraman is hanging on for dear life, Bart begins to tap into the Speed Force. But before he can move, Griffin regains his senses and leaps into the air and catches the falling cameraman right in front of all the reporters. They ask him what those sparks were and how he saved that man. Griffin boldly says he's acquired some "new skills" and vows to do some good in Keystone. All Bart can say is, "Oh, man ..."

Perhaps prompted by Griffin's acquisition of superpowers, Bart decides to finally return to S.T.A.R. Labs. He first meets with Valerie and says he hopes he'll be working with her, but she says that's up to Dr. McGee. Bart is then presented with an exact replica of his grandpa Barry's suit. Since the original suit was left in tatters after Infinite Crisis, the lab decided to make a new one for Bart. Dr. McGee says they're willing to help him harness the "new incarnation of the Speed Force," if he's willing. Bart says he's not willing, which Dr. McGee respects. She does say Bart can have the suit if he wants, or they can just keep it in the vault. Bart still doesn't want to wear the suit, but he can't bear leaving it behind, so he sucks it up into a ring.

We then get another odd "Speed Force message" to Bart, this time from Wally. After spending two pages recapping his history as Kid Flash and the Flash, Wally recounts how he and Bart drove Superboy-Prime into the Speed Force. Wally says Bart was the only one who could have returned, and tells him he's right to be afraid because the Speed Force wants to reclaim him. Wally also says that Bart is faster than all of them put together and that he's a lightning rod.

Bart wakes up drenched in sweat at 6:30 in the morning and immediately calls Valerie, begging to come in as soon as possible. Valerie just so happened to be at work at this early hour — even though she's only an intern — and she agrees to meet with Bart. As Bart tells her over the phone how he wants her to take the Speed Force away from him, Thatcher plants a bomb in front of S.T.A.R. Labs. Bart hears the explosion over the phone and instinctively pulls out the Flash suit from his ring and begins running.




Well, nothing's really improved since the first issue, but at least a few questions have been answered. Let's review the changes to Bart's backstory. Initially, I had always believed that Bart's dad was killed before he was born, but now he apparently was around for Bart's birth and much of his hyper-accelerated aging. And now it seems like both Don and Meloni were killed before Bart was brought to the past. So even though Bart did spend time growing up with Max Mercury, I'm wondering if all his adventures with his mom have been wiped out.

Next, this issue alleges that it was Max who named Bart Impulse. Originally, Bart essentially named himself after Wally kept calling him impulsive. And then Bart suddenly started telling everyone that Batman named him Impulse, which never made any sense. Having Max come up with the name is much better than Batman.

Other changes were minor, such as looking like a 10-year-old at 2, instead of a 12-year-old. And omitting Bart's tenure with the New Titans is no big loss. And as fun as it was to quickly relive Bart's past, we had to unfortunately take this journey with Lashley's lackluster art. One pet peeve of mine he committed was drawing Bart wearing a cast over his jeans. First of all, casts over clothing is stupid. Secondly, Bart's knee had fully healed before he started reading the library. But those are minor complaints. I mostly want to know about Bart's trip to the Speed Force. Did he actually spend four years living in some other dimension with Wally and his family? Or did Bart suddenly age four years on his trip home? And what's going on with this "Speed Force visions"?

The story itself is pretty mediocre. I still don't care about Griffin. Valerie is still creeping me out with her obsessiveness of Bart. Thatcher is not a compelling villain. And Bart's motivations for not wanting to be a hero, then suddenly wanting to be a hero again were not properly established. Maybe our writers could have spent more time showing what Bart lost in Infinite Crisis and how it's too awkward for him to return to his friends in Manchester because he's an adult now. Maybe they could have done a better job of showing how painful using the Speed Force is for Bart. And how come Bart was so eager to go back to S.T.A.R. Labs but didn't even suggest that Griffin go there, too? As for the art, I was happy to see we only had two inkers this time, but the art is still letting me down. Now let's check out the new ads:

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Read the movie. Superman Returns: The Complete Shooting Script.

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The DC Nation page features a letter from Dan DiDio giving very specific instructions on how to meet creators at San Diego's Comicon, including to not form a line before the creator arrives at the booth and to only ask for three things to be autographed.

New Wonka Sour! Nerds.

Next issue: Night of the Griffin!