tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85764346513827360872024-03-12T23:03:04.239-06:00The Bart Allen (Impulse) BlogReviewing every appearance of the DC Comics character Bart Allen.Dallinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12077214646519366484noreply@blogger.comBlogger782125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576434651382736087.post-21348741922539962892024-02-23T00:53:00.000-07:002024-02-23T00:53:48.099-07:00Year in Review: 2023<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOYhiCFT_jDEELvM_ZOucU5HgRsUDVWB0Vh70vU_IymOWzJNodvGgv3UFG1Sig878O1_Yq75wgZm_l1GvZFXeEzy1fPeik8tw-hc9ZBI-baMySDlCU0C1wFWZf-kJJn7jcweFKpYzZan64Sym0YYL2f26SWl0Nhi1gww7JhQWAfvqVH9Cycl-vDe9xF-E/s2320/IMG_5666.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1504" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOYhiCFT_jDEELvM_ZOucU5HgRsUDVWB0Vh70vU_IymOWzJNodvGgv3UFG1Sig878O1_Yq75wgZm_l1GvZFXeEzy1fPeik8tw-hc9ZBI-baMySDlCU0C1wFWZf-kJJn7jcweFKpYzZan64Sym0YYL2f26SWl0Nhi1gww7JhQWAfvqVH9Cycl-vDe9xF-E/s320/IMG_5666.jpeg" width="207" /></a></div><br /><div>Another year has already come and gone. Superhero fatigue may be setting in, but that didn't stop the film studios. Marvel produced four films: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, The Marvels and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. All of them were fairly decent, but Spider-Verse was by far the best. DC countered with four films of their own (the most they've ever produced in a single year): Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, Blue Beetle and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. The Shazam sequel and Blue Beetle were nice, little movies, but The Flash was offensively bad. I don't think I've ever been angrier with a superhero film. (I still haven't seen the Aquaman sequel yet, so I'll reserve judgment on that.) As I said earlier, a little bit of superhero fatigue may have set in with general audiences. Only Guardians and Spider-Verse appeared on the top 10 box office list (Barbie was No. 1).</div><div><br /></div><div>But what about Bart? Well, thanks to Jeremy Adams, we actually got a bit more Bart than I was expecting. Impulse was a part of the One-Minute War, which lasted quite a while. Unfortunately, Bart didn't have too much to do after that. New Flash writer Si Spurrier has used Bart ... a tiny bit. And he's made a couple of quick cameos in the Beast World event, but that's it. Yet another quiet year for our guy, which is a shame since this is the 30th year of Bart Allen stories.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Best Story: <a href="https://bartallenimpulse.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-flash-800.html" target="_blank">The Flash #800</a></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Spurrier's run has just begun, and it's quite intriguing, but Impulse's involvement in it has been quite minimal. Beast World is really fun, but Bart's role in it is even smaller. So that leaves us with Adams' run. One-Minute War started strong and had some memorable moments. But the longer it went, the worse it became, ultimately falling apart for a unsatisfying, inconsequential ending. The brightest spot of the year came with a short story in the anniversary issue. It was a delightful blast from the past, reminding the world of how wonderful Impulse stories can be.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Best Writer: Mark Waid</b></div><div><br /></div><div>For the first time since 1997, and the fifth time overall, Impulse's creator is the best writer of the year. And it was all for one small, silly story. But the story had heart and was true to Bart's character — something Spurrier hasn't been able to grasp yet. Adams' story was too clunky and frustrating, but he did have a few gems scattered throughout — especially Bart and Max running off into the sunset. But at the end of the day, you just can't beat the best, and when it comes to Impulse stories, no one is better than Waid.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Best Artist: Todd Nauck</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Nauck claims this award for the second year in a row and the sixth time total. And once again, he wins for doing very little work. But what can I say? He's my favorite artist! I always wanted him on a solo Impulse run, and this short story gave me a tiny taste of what that could have looked like. Roger Cruz did some solid work on the One-Minute War, especially when compared to those horrible covers by Taurin Clarke. But nothing could beat Nauck's wonderful trip of nostalgia.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Best Supporting Character: Kid Flash</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Bart did some nice moments with Max — both under Adams and Spurrier — but those moments were few and far between. Their beautiful run into the sunset would have been the perfect ending for both of them. But then they were denied that, and Max was promptly trapped in a hellish nightmare realm, while Bart was busy playing with sticks in the park. Seriously. Still, though, those were meaningful moments and I feel a little guilty about passing on Max this year. But that's because Bart's relationship with Wallace West was so unexpectedly entertaining. The two made the perfect pair with Bart getting to act like a big brother for the first time in his life. It was so natural and successful, I'm a little stunned that when Wallace got his own series (Speed Force) he was paired with Avery Ho instead of Bart. Maybe nobody realized Spurrier was bringing Bart back. Oh well. Just one more missed opportunity for my boy!</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Best Villain: The Fraction</b></div><div><br /></div><div>I feel like I'm cheating a little bit by naming an entire group of villains instead of an individual. But I really didn't have any other options here. Spurrier's story is still going, so I couldn't even tell you exactly who or what is responsible for Max's latest disappearance. So that leaves me with the Fraction. I guess I could single out Miss Murder, who seemed to be the perfect antagonist for Impulse to defeat. But Bart didn't really beat her, and she ultimately didn't do that much, despite hanging around for most of the One-Minute War. The Fraction was a really neat concept — an invading alien force that used their connection to the Speed Force to conquer an entire planet in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately, Adams couldn't come up with any unique members within the Fraction besides Miss Murder (which is why he kept using her throughout the story). Everyone else was bland and completely indistinguishable from the rest, and yes, that does include that one guy who was secretly a speedster. Such a waste of potential. However, the Fraction were quite a formidable force and even an embarrassingly large team of speedsters and time-travelers weren't enough to actually beat them. The best our heroes could manage was to redirect the Fraction to another planet, where their reign of dominance presumably remains unchecked.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>So that wraps up 30 years of Impulse stories! Considering all the nonsense poor Bart has been through — aging up, aging down, "dying" and being brought back, and disappearing from all media for months at a time — I'm actually a little surprised that he's still around. Just when I think DC is finally going to say, "No more Bart Allen!" someone brings him back for a cute little supporting role. And as long as that keeps happening, I'll keep this blog going.</div><div><br /></div><div>Next time, we'll return to Spurrier's mysterious story with The Flash #5.</div>Dallinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12077214646519366484noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576434651382736087.post-18194213929190924592024-02-15T14:21:00.000-07:002024-02-15T14:21:14.009-07:00Titans: Beast World #3<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr91MeA83rGrD1HCD-OHsR1eRD8OKxW_5muHxa8Or3F2NjfwBHoMUKhqiax7-Gd-NclHb6Q8gDzbFKAN77Nievk2WJrXPKVhl4cTq4OQCI7SiuSk2J_kpRkFoPrXgiGzZh2gK14WdcVWW3MhRMmG-C9oQy2mnrCEAx6mTZ_1MMvRFRWyc8G8pxZ3EBTVU/s2320/IMG_5630.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1509" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr91MeA83rGrD1HCD-OHsR1eRD8OKxW_5muHxa8Or3F2NjfwBHoMUKhqiax7-Gd-NclHb6Q8gDzbFKAN77Nievk2WJrXPKVhl4cTq4OQCI7SiuSk2J_kpRkFoPrXgiGzZh2gK14WdcVWW3MhRMmG-C9oQy2mnrCEAx6mTZ_1MMvRFRWyc8G8pxZ3EBTVU/s320/IMG_5630.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div>Part 3</div><div><br /></div><div>Tom Taylor Writer</div><div>Lucas Meyer Artist</div><div>Romulo Fajardo Jr. - Colorist</div><div>Wes Abbott - Letterer</div><div>Ivan Reis, Danny Miki & Brad Anderson - Cover</div><div>Björn Barends, Mirka Andolfo, Clayton Henry & Marcelo Maiolo Variant Covers</div><div>Chris Rosa - Associate Editor</div><div>Brittany Holzherr - Editor</div><div>Paul Kaminski - Group Editor</div><div>Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.</div><div>By Special Arrangement with the Jerry Siegel Family.</div><div><br /></div><div>Our cover shows Amanda Waller preparing to unchain the Wolf Batman. It's well done, and it's an intriguing idea. But that doesn't happen in this issue. There are a couple of nice variant covers, but they don't feature Impulse, so let's skip ahead to the very brief role Bart plays here.</div><div><br /></div><div>Even though this story takes place before the Central City tie-in, it came out after. So, sometime before Bart was turned into a lizard and then a bee, he was in Kahndaq with Wally, helping to rescue bystanders from the ferocious rampage of the Lion Black Adam battling Starfire and Donna Troy. At one point, Starfire destroys hundreds of the Beast Boy Starro spores, prompting Bart to say, "Hey, it's raining burning horrors." Donna warns the speedsters about the spores, but Wally says they can't catch them. Bart confidently adds, "That's <b>not</b> gonna happen." And then Impulse and Flash race off the pages of this issue.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGssWpyjPO9ZlOErE04Auu8kobH-pkoBKmB5xiXfPHOyC_69qIkY1UyRXHDo1vt74oK5WZoVMigX7y6WqLSslY7eRWur5T90gk1mdPeJNlsVsmxOn7ZkHaX07nUGJc_5FYF6EyxELBPL7ChaeDUz0glGcxD-NbvkUS2O4a6_aWA680KV14kwkgbZA8Nkk/s1416/IMG_5631.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="603" data-original-width="1416" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGssWpyjPO9ZlOErE04Auu8kobH-pkoBKmB5xiXfPHOyC_69qIkY1UyRXHDo1vt74oK5WZoVMigX7y6WqLSslY7eRWur5T90gk1mdPeJNlsVsmxOn7ZkHaX07nUGJc_5FYF6EyxELBPL7ChaeDUz0glGcxD-NbvkUS2O4a6_aWA680KV14kwkgbZA8Nkk/s320/IMG_5631.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div>Wally and Bart are absolutely right. There's no legitimate reason they should ever be infected by the spores. Not only are they too fast for them, but they could easily vibrate through, if needed. As fun as it was to see Bart as a lizard, it didn't make much sense — especially in the context of this issue. Why would Bart randomly leave Wally's side to race back to Central City? This is a really fun event — I just wish there was better coordination between all the titles.</div><div><br /></div><div>Well, that's it for 2023! Next time, I'll hand out some rewards before seeing what Bart will get up to in 2024.</div>Dallinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12077214646519366484noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576434651382736087.post-11730996210589791792024-02-01T21:43:00.000-07:002024-02-01T21:43:25.849-07:00Titans: Beast World – Tour: Central City #1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid67LLDwqJjNU8gt1jQSA71Gs6AqaBO4WoT_QAf8E2w7_Cm78me6Tjc8v-N08lAsATh_MAOPGb0zdKFpU519RW0d2PqX9QF1YFzEYzkWHpYnP-XxsyyD_U9Xls_8QlD8HqWUd-ylBa0CIxsUmvc-_cI1xEJjwXd_QzfkoKzmGBz8XB0bs36EIBJSiXDEM/s2320/IMG_5610.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1502" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid67LLDwqJjNU8gt1jQSA71Gs6AqaBO4WoT_QAf8E2w7_Cm78me6Tjc8v-N08lAsATh_MAOPGb0zdKFpU519RW0d2PqX9QF1YFzEYzkWHpYnP-XxsyyD_U9Xls_8QlD8HqWUd-ylBa0CIxsUmvc-_cI1xEJjwXd_QzfkoKzmGBz8XB0bs36EIBJSiXDEM/s320/IMG_5610.jpeg" width="207" /></a></div><br /><div>Cover by: Mikel Janin</div><div>Variant Covers by: Taurin Clarke and Cully Hamner</div><div>Editor: Chris Rosa</div><div>Group Editor: Paul Kaminski</div><div><br /></div><div>Man, DC really loves creating the most awkward titles possible. Regardless, Beast World is a very interesting event. It began with Beast Boy transforming into a Starro to defeat a similar creature known as the Necrostar. But before he could back, a villain known as Doctor Hate took control of his mind, causing the Starro-Beast Boy to flood the Earth with spores that turn people into mindless animal/human hybrids. Impulse can be seen in the background of the first issue of this event, but he doesn't say or do anything, so I decided to skip it. He does, however play a slightly larger role in this tie-in issue, so here we are.</div><div><br /></div><div>Our cover shows Wally, Irey and Irey's friend, Maxine, battling a bunch of animal/humans. Maxine is Animal Man's daughter, so it's only natural that she'd play a big role in a story like this. However, I would prefer to see more members of the Flash family out here. It's a perfectly serviceable cover, but not very exciting. And, as usual, none of the variant covers feature Impulse, so let's dive in.</div><div><br /></div><div>Written by: Si Spurrier</div><div>Art by: Scott Koblish</div><div>Colors by: Hi-Fi</div><div>Letters by: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou</div><div><br /></div><div>The untitled main story bookends several separate stories by different creative teams. We open with Barry trying to have a romantic evening with Iris, but he's still suffering from the debilitating headaches that have plagued him ever since that strange rainbow phenomenon showed up above his statue. Irey suddenly bursts through the door, telling Barry what's happening in the city. Barry initially refuses to help, until he learns that one of his old foes, Godspeed, has turned into a man-sized hornet with super speed. After a quick pep talk from Iris, Barry dons his costume and races off with Irey to contact the rest of the Flash family. (This begins the side stories, but we only care about one of them.)</div><div><br /></div><div>Invitation to the Speedster Ball</div><div><br /></div><div>Starring: Julien "Jules" Jourdain as Circuit Breaker, Hartley Rathaway as Pied Piper & Bart Allen aka Impulse as ... ?</div><div>By Al Kaplan</div><div>Lettering Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou</div><div>Edits Andrea Shea & Chris Rosa</div><div><br /></div><div>Circuit Breaker (a new hero connected to the Still Force) and the Pied Piper have figured out how to combine their powers to pull Beast Boy's spores out of infected people and destroy them. Their efforts are abruptly interrupted by the arrival of Impulse, who has been turned into a very large frilled-neck lizard.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM4IncmN3nixBY-_JsKa-bhdHbAumZAVXMVHhm_lHAiGYF9BpdDLq9CquJVkFhjk5-LhEj_7Y4ntYGBwJ3Q-F3DLQqFik6y88Mzv9ZuCmbclCVLCzgJ2LhhuZ9c661A-CDt1C0OVGIpb3W4hfQvbHAta390_AwMxyIG18OhmM6T1CHVkE91_jLnyKMT-0/s2320/IMG_5611.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1567" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM4IncmN3nixBY-_JsKa-bhdHbAumZAVXMVHhm_lHAiGYF9BpdDLq9CquJVkFhjk5-LhEj_7Y4ntYGBwJ3Q-F3DLQqFik6y88Mzv9ZuCmbclCVLCzgJ2LhhuZ9c661A-CDt1C0OVGIpb3W4hfQvbHAta390_AwMxyIG18OhmM6T1CHVkE91_jLnyKMT-0/s320/IMG_5611.jpeg" width="216" /></a></div><br /><div>Circuit Breaker creates an "energy lasso" of sorts to wrap around Impulse's neck and ride him like a small horse. The Pied Piper, however, can't use his sound waves to lure the spore out like the others, to which he remarks, "That kid could never hold a steady beat." The Impulse lizard goes wild and tries to buck off Circuit Breaker, but the self-proclaimed "rodeo queen" manages to hang on.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Pied Piper then receives word that the Flash family is meeting up at Iron Heights, so he suggests they forget about trying to extract the spore from Impulse and focus on "herding" him back to the rest of the speedsters.</div><div><br /></div><div>We then return to the main story, where Animal Girl decides to experiment on the Lizard Impulse by trying to turn him into an ostrich. The process would have worked — had Impulse been able to stay still long enough. Poor Bart is grotesquely split between the two animals before being reverted back to lizard form.</div><div><br /></div><div>Jay, Wallace, Avery, Irey and Jai are all present, but Wally has apparently chosen to work with the Titans during this crisis. And Barry is struggling to contain the Hornet Godspeed, who can move fast enough to essentially turn himself into a swarm. For some reason, Irey believes the best way to stop Godspeed would be for Animal Girl to turn them all into wolves with Barry as the alpha to lead the pack. Everyone points out how stupid that idea is, so Jai offers an alternative — bees.</div><div><br /></div><div>And for reasons I'll never understand, everyone agrees with this plan and willingly ingests Beast Boys spores. Animal Girl turns Barry, Jay, Bart, Wallace, Ace, Hartley and Jules into giant bees, but leaves Jai and Irey as humans just because. The bees quickly close in on Godspeed and vibrate to create heat, which burns away the spore inside him. Animal Girl then gives Iris the powers of a queen bee so she can control all our bee heroes and direct them to rescue the infected civilians and slowly burn out their spores one by one.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>This may be a fun event, but this tie-in issue didn't quite do it for me. Mainly because the ending was so forced and unnecessary. Turning everybody into bees accomplishes nothing! These heroes are much stronger in their normal human form! If they were already infected, and there was no possible way to remove the spores, then that'd justify this silly ending. But, no — they all had to willingly infect themselves. Well, all except for Impulse, that is. Don't ask me how he became infected — I had assumed that speedsters would have been too fast and/or able to vibrate through the spores. Bart just gets to be special, I guess.</div><div><br /></div><div>His design as a frilled-neck lizard was pretty neat, I'll admit. I just wish they did something more with him. I also was a bit confused by his size. Bart must have been over 10 feet long in that lizard body. I'd say that's an inconsistency with this event, but this issue in particular didn't have much consistency. Some of the animal hybrids still had more or less human bodies with the heads and arms/legs of animals. Others, like Captain Cold's polar bear, completely changed into an exact copy of an animal. Some of the infected people got smaller. Some got bigger. Nobody really seemed to iron out exactly how these Beast Boy/Starro spores affect people.</div><div><br /></div><div>The inconsistencies didn't stop there. In one story in this issue, Jai looked about four or five years older than he did elsewhere in this issue, and his muscles didn't inflate when he used his powers, like they did just a few pages later, when a different artist was drawing him. Look, I get not wanting to be the "bad guy" and tell the artist to redraw a couple of pages, but in cases like this, I think any good editor would have to make that call.</div><div><br /></div><div>Next time, we'll continue this event with Titans: Beast World #3, which technically takes place <i>before</i> this Central City tie-in, but wasn't published until <i>after</i> it came out (speaking of editorial annoyances).</div>Dallinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12077214646519366484noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576434651382736087.post-30977090388396643212024-01-25T13:48:00.001-07:002024-01-25T13:48:20.026-07:00The Flash #3 (legacy #803)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGPnR0pJkT1-DWZgaaMkDpabPJazkTim2odqupHyUz8bCsRGZoO58ZNIV0Djrxf8SYkBo-6u0herQuq5NaX9I8LuXweGh9w2Dr45KhyphenhyphenIbjQM0LgR4I8L8nxZRHBqW0kaU3uFtiwXeV4yLNt3gxLEDjDzQRMM1_Hdwk4QMBF38brTXhwiDghwLPodht64U/s2320/IMG_5560.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1505" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGPnR0pJkT1-DWZgaaMkDpabPJazkTim2odqupHyUz8bCsRGZoO58ZNIV0Djrxf8SYkBo-6u0herQuq5NaX9I8LuXweGh9w2Dr45KhyphenhyphenIbjQM0LgR4I8L8nxZRHBqW0kaU3uFtiwXeV4yLNt3gxLEDjDzQRMM1_Hdwk4QMBF38brTXhwiDghwLPodht64U/s320/IMG_5560.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div>"Angles"</div><div><br /></div><div>Writer: Si Spurrier</div><div>Artist: Mike Deodato Jr.</div><div>Colorist: Trish Mulvihill</div><div>Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhrou</div><div>Cover by: Mike Deodato Jr. & Trish Mulvihill</div><div>Variant Covers by: Mike Deodato Jr. & Trish Mulvihill, Ramón Pérez, Christian Ward, Matt Taylor</div><div>Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.</div><div>By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.</div><div>Editor: Chris Rosa</div><div>Group Editor: Paul Kaminski</div><div><br /></div><div>Our cover shows the Flash being unraveled by a nearly-forgotten villain — the Folded Man. It's creepy and mystical, which is a perfect representation of Spurrier's story. Of course, the real question is just how much the Folded Man is involved in all this, or is he merely a red herring? Anyway, as usual, none of the variant covers feature Impulse, so let's get to the story.</div><div><br /></div><div>We open with the Flash and Mr. Terrific examining an odd rainbow light that appeared over a statue of Barry Allen. They're completely stumped, so Wally calls in Max Mercury, revealing that he's been occasionally becoming "unstuck" from reality. Max matches the resonance of Wally's aura and becomes "unstuck" with him, theorizing that they haven't entered an alternate reality, but are merely viewing their universe from a different angle. Suddenly, a violent explosion begins heading right toward them. Wally guesses (correctly) that this is someone running. Max helps Wally relax and take them back to normal reality, where they find the runner was our lovable Impulse, announcing world-shattering news: pumpkin spice pickles.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvpWteaUAtr0uN6oBRdQHQ-NJVWy8QWAFe0pFmPxZr-3GCG9g1WJnjx_-a-lTFG2p9_HP7ISSCHSXVgxcmSe-RRQsfXDqG8wFSO5FOYt4CzzkzW8shex1OqNjeweA9VZ90x15D0LHbHKiVupOUB6TCArYHFU0KrAkPv7lxXlV-_qzeyDwW0mGjnSj50g0/s1383/IMG_5559.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1383" data-original-width="746" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvpWteaUAtr0uN6oBRdQHQ-NJVWy8QWAFe0pFmPxZr-3GCG9g1WJnjx_-a-lTFG2p9_HP7ISSCHSXVgxcmSe-RRQsfXDqG8wFSO5FOYt4CzzkzW8shex1OqNjeweA9VZ90x15D0LHbHKiVupOUB6TCArYHFU0KrAkPv7lxXlV-_qzeyDwW0mGjnSj50g0/s320/IMG_5559.jpeg" width="173" /></a></div><br /><div>From Bart's point of view, Wally and Max suddenly appeared out of nowhere. But he's immediately distracted by the rainbow light and vows to poke it with a stick — despite Max's objections. Wally and Max discuss how much damage Bart caused to the other plane, merely by running up to them, which causes Max to worry about the consequences of using their powers. Wally says he recently met a group of god-like aliens that mentioned The Stillness, which Max has never heard of before. Max also tells Wally about his vision of a wounded bison, which he interpreted as the Speed Force being in distress.</div><div><br /></div><div>Bart interrupts his stick-hunting to explain his real reason for coming here. While visiting Grandma Iris for her brownies, Iris told him that Barry has fallen into a deep depression and won't even leave his bed. Bart tried to talk to him, but Barry just yelled through the door that Max and Wally were at the statue. Max suggests they become "unstuck" from reality again, ordering Bart to stand watch and not poke anything.</div><div><br /></div><div>This time, Max and Wally go to a different place, apparently inhabited by dead creatures. They're abducted by the Folded Man, who takes them to a place where several other speedsters seem to be trapped. They warn Wally and Max to leave before their vibrations are frozen, and the whole group is spooked by the arrival of three red, spiky aliens called the Uncoiled. Max and Wally try to run, but they can feel their connection to the Speed Force fading. So Max transfers all his energy to Wally, telling him to send help and let Bart know he's proud of him.</div><div><br /></div><div>Max's boost sends Wally to a blank, white world with just the Folded Man to talk to. He tells Wally there's nowhere left for him to go, but to his amazement, Wally simply walks away to a new plane of existence. This one is a beautiful garden full of statues of Wally's friends and family. Wally is so overwhelmed by the tranquility of the place that he doesn't notice the statues are moving. In fact, he actually begins to lose his memories. As he sits down to enjoy the peace, the Impulse statue picks up a stick.</div><div><br /></div><div>A real stick pokes Wally's cheek, catapulting him back into the real world. Bart hastily apologizes for poking the rainbow light, even claiming it was an accident. He then realizes Max is missing. Wally can't bring himself to say anything. Bart puts his face in his hands, while Mr. Terrific consoles him.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Poor Bart just can't catch a break. He was denied his peaceful run into the sunset. And now he has been separated from Max once again. It's just not fair!</div><div><br /></div><div>It's also not entirely fair with how Bart's been portrayed in this series. He's acting too young and idiotic. It would have been nice had he intentionally put his stick in the rainbow because he could feel something was wrong. It also would have been great to have seen his interaction with Barry. Oh well. I guess there's still time for Bart to do something interesting. The art and story are still engaging and unique. I just hope this mystery actually goes somewhere and doesn't peter off.</div><div><br /></div><div>Next time, we'll begin the Beast World crossover.</div>Dallinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12077214646519366484noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576434651382736087.post-85008038717585384262023-11-22T11:12:00.003-07:002023-11-22T11:12:47.955-07:00The Flash #1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj1pN3niYsS5bZxXZL217hSABbQuIiyzEq_NCS9nmgE5sYCRhxtsxuTNTuabWcZS90gx6SNtww_8MryWphWvSklx488rFuOPpYUrCyL9TQnHgv1cQg1dUladB0FF0Ci0lN3Of0vqoQmz3u0TzGIL0jweXyM0VvEf5xdFltod5iiKfa5oZ5LEx17NF_4UU/s2320/IMG_5497.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1509" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj1pN3niYsS5bZxXZL217hSABbQuIiyzEq_NCS9nmgE5sYCRhxtsxuTNTuabWcZS90gx6SNtww_8MryWphWvSklx488rFuOPpYUrCyL9TQnHgv1cQg1dUladB0FF0Ci0lN3Of0vqoQmz3u0TzGIL0jweXyM0VvEf5xdFltod5iiKfa5oZ5LEx17NF_4UU/s320/IMG_5497.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div>“Strange Attractor”</div><div><br /></div><div>Writer: Si Spurrier</div><div>Artist: Mike Deodato Jr.</div><div>Colorist: Trish Mulvihill</div><div>Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou</div><div>Cover by: Mike Deodato Jr. & Trish Mulvihill</div><div>Variant covers by: Mike Deodato Jr. & Trish Mulvihill, Dan Mora, Rose Besch, Riley Rossmo, James Harren, Matt Taylor, Rahzzah</div><div>Assistant Editor: Rebecca Bohanan</div><div>Editor: Chris Rosa</div><div>Group Editor: Paul Kaminski</div><div><br /></div><div>So here we go again. Right after DC restored the original numbering of The Flash series, they’ve reset it back to issue #1 and with a new creative team. But don’t let these changes fool you — the continuity has not changed. I don’t think we can even call this a soft reboot. Just an arbitrary renumbering. The first cover our new team has given us attempts to be dynamic, but came out just a bit too messy for my liking. And I’m very distracted by Wally’s teeth. There are quite a few variant covers for this issue, but none of them feature Impulse. However, much to my surprise, Impulse does appear in this story (and not just in a photograph like in the new Jay Garrick series).</div><div><br /></div><div>Our story opens with Max Mercury and Bart Allen right where we left them last time: out in the desert, attempting to run into the Speed Force. Apparently the two of them have been practicing, and now they are ready to not break the barrier, but embrace it and breathe the lightning.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKdVU7aNJlg0N36y2bxqD7mqq0CJ86-PwSLMRcL4S4xJFu1RIeKumPuOpjQD-sESX8IfnCP84mCw4UAXryUbeF4PXidH-3Gvw4mTYmRbvksYwQ2DjO8uh-oAIshnA7grdjPSihwWoagj9XUxrysXZ0fIJN94yTsDVGeNQql7I_o7lZ5VCW7WXqtoE7-Yo/s1334/IMG_5647.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="348" data-original-width="1334" height="83" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKdVU7aNJlg0N36y2bxqD7mqq0CJ86-PwSLMRcL4S4xJFu1RIeKumPuOpjQD-sESX8IfnCP84mCw4UAXryUbeF4PXidH-3Gvw4mTYmRbvksYwQ2DjO8uh-oAIshnA7grdjPSihwWoagj9XUxrysXZ0fIJN94yTsDVGeNQql7I_o7lZ5VCW7WXqtoE7-Yo/s320/IMG_5647.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>But as they begin to run, Max sees a startling image of a massive buffalo wounded by hunters. Max and Bart are both abruptly expelled from the Speed Force, landing hard on the dirt. Bart weakly asks if transcending time and space always feels like head-butting a planet. Max says something went wrong and asks if Bart saw anything, but he didn’t. So Max describes his vision and hypothesizes that it was the Speed Force’s way of attempting to communicate with him — trying to tell him that it hurts and needs help.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>That’s all we get of Impulse in this issue. The story focuses on Wally’s struggles with the fluctuating Speed Force. Linda has given birth to a son, named Wade, and now she no longer has super speed. Irey has become friends with Animal Man’s daughter, but Jai is concealing a dark secret.</div><div><br /></div><div>It is an interesting story — and surprisingly scary — but since Bart isn’t involved, I won’t get too bogged down in it here. I think Spurrier made Bart act just a tad too stupid in his brief appearance, but I really appreciate how he slammed the door on Jeremy Adams’ plan to send Bart away. Deodato’s art and layouts are quite unique, which works for the horror theme. And Otsmane-Elhaou provided the most innovative lettering I’ve seen in a long time. Perhaps ever. It takes some getting used to, but I like the direction of attempting something new and different.</div><div><br /></div><div>Bart doesn’t appear in issue #2, either, but I’ll be keeping track of it (and the Jay Garrick series, as well). Whenever and wherever our lovable Impulse returns, I’ll be there!</div>Dallinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12077214646519366484noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576434651382736087.post-24919202852513830762023-07-14T15:04:00.000-06:002023-07-14T15:04:04.946-06:00The Flash #800<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGKe9wwnHpj4PH4r_q57RZ7iFHTDUoP7U2MQix9PPLZgjFxmcBnC0jbJE85t2ZVQpmKJ103WAUNIpodLzbCUiHtPHbJetfFuLveFuhit5dF_bOYVzvhYrWw2hYajOeXwatk9ctiCC3zPDmvIgcfuya9HZrLXa0E07UNfTUCjmn7db6XYPty_d0t33DMlE/s2320/IMG_5164.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1503" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGKe9wwnHpj4PH4r_q57RZ7iFHTDUoP7U2MQix9PPLZgjFxmcBnC0jbJE85t2ZVQpmKJ103WAUNIpodLzbCUiHtPHbJetfFuLveFuhit5dF_bOYVzvhYrWw2hYajOeXwatk9ctiCC3zPDmvIgcfuya9HZrLXa0E07UNfTUCjmn7db6XYPty_d0t33DMlE/s320/IMG_5164.jpeg" width="207" /></a></div><br /><div>The Max in the Mirror</div><div><br /></div><div>Writer: Mark Waid</div><div>Pencils & Inks: Todd Nauck</div><div>Colors: Matt Herms</div><div>Letters: Rob Leigh</div><div>Editor: Chris Rosa</div><div>Group Editor: Paul Kaminski</div><div><br /></div><div>Our cover by Taurin Clarke shows Wally triumphantly running in front of some random images of his past. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of this one. And it’s not just because Impulse was neglected. I don’t like that orange. It’s an off-putting shade. Anyway, as you might expect, there are a bunch of variant covers for this issue, but none of them feature Impulse. Additionally, four of the five stories in this issue don’t include Impulse, aside from one extremely minor cameo that’s not even worth mentioning. Luckily for me, Christmas came early this year, and I did get one Impulse story. Not only that, it comes from both my favorite writer and favorite artist!</div><div><br /></div><div>Our story takes place between <a href="https://bartallenimpulse.blogspot.com/2014/08/impulse-6.html" target="_blank">Impulse #6</a> and <a href="https://bartallenimpulse.blogspot.com/2014/08/impulse-7.html" target="_blank">Impulse #7</a>, which means Bart is still pretty new to his life in good ol’ Manchester, Alabama, with Max Mercury. One morning, Bart wakes up, worried that Max will make him watch paint dry again. But to Bart’s surprise, Max is stuck inside his bathroom mirror.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwWDYYuNuHhSZkkH9Nb8_x0DPfHxZ-B16nQS-Mj3G3up-eT5kfHluklGiXDHMZp4PZK2vF-5yFxoMJgs7G17zKQvQCOxcg--61mNL4fkPeu7rGEFGRsy3ZF-8c1XVHj3MVwZLNV3jCDHWYEqNjZEOUag4_red9HgXdrILQmqNOaRtTM8B1Hdxo6jfJW2c/s2320/IMG_5165.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1507" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwWDYYuNuHhSZkkH9Nb8_x0DPfHxZ-B16nQS-Mj3G3up-eT5kfHluklGiXDHMZp4PZK2vF-5yFxoMJgs7G17zKQvQCOxcg--61mNL4fkPeu7rGEFGRsy3ZF-8c1XVHj3MVwZLNV3jCDHWYEqNjZEOUag4_red9HgXdrILQmqNOaRtTM8B1Hdxo6jfJW2c/s320/IMG_5165.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div>Turns out, Max was helping Wally battle the Mirror Master in Keystone City that morning, and now both of them are trapped in a temporary mirror dimension that’s slowly fading away. Max tries to slowly and carefully explain the situation to Bart, but Wally panics and blurts out that Mirror Master is still on the loose in Keystone. Before he can finish his sentence, though, Bart throws on his Impulse uniform and knocks out the villain. Wally screams at Bart, saying he needed to make Mirror Master free himself and Max, to which Bart matter-of-factly says Wally left that last part out.</div><div><br /></div><div>When Wally complains, Max points out that Bart is Wally’s cousin. Wally (correctly) states that Bart is once removed, which, in his opinion, isn’t removed enough. Max calmly explains that Bart is actually quite bright, but you have to give him very specific instructions in a sequential order, just like a Mars rover. Max asks Bart to look for a reverse switch on Mirror Master’s gun, but the weapon was unfortunately damaged in Impulse’s quick attack.</div><div><br /></div><div>Bart casually asks if they have any glue at home, then abruptly takes off. Wally calls out to him to go get Steel to try to fix it, but Max warns Wally that Bart has the attention span of a toaster. Bart either didn’t hear Wally or chose to ignore him, instead going to the Keystone City Public Library and reading every book on mirrors, light and electronics. He returns to Max and Wally, who is panicking even more now, since they’re fading away fast. Bart quickly repairs Mirror Master’s gun, while we’re treated to one of his classic thought bubbles of old: a crying Flash with a diaper and bottle.</div><div><br /></div><div>Unfortunately, the repaired mirror gun won’t work. Wally tells Bart to fix the gun again, but Bart insists it is fixed, but has no power. He asks what powers the gun, but Wally doesn’t know, saying that’s what Steel was supposed to figure out. Max asks Bart to look for an indication on the gun of how it’s fueled. Bart sees the letters “MPS” over a gauge of lights, and immediately takes off again. Wally worries that his last words are going to be, “Kill the boy.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Bart races a few times around the city, and when he returns, a very faint Max tells him it’s now or never. Bart pulls the trigger, and this time it works, successfully pulling Max and Wally back into the real world. He explains that he was charging the gun, since “MPS” stood for “Miles Per Second” and Bart suspected Mirror Master was powering his weapon by tapping into the Flash’s super speed. Max praises Bart for his quick thinking and urges Wally to give a begrudging thank you. Wally suggests the three of them go out for breakfast, and Bart takes off once again, not knowing where he’s going. Max says that basically happens 12 times an hour, and Wally realizes he admires Max more every day.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Oh, that was over too fast! What a beautiful blast from the past — a real treat for people like me, who are now parents and get to explain to our kids how fun the comics of our youth were. This story fits perfectly in the Mark Waid/Humberto Ramos run of Impulse, and I loved every moment of it. True, it would have been fun to see Ramos come back and draw this one, but I always liked Todd Nauck’s style better — it’s clean, consistent, cartoony and carries a certain charm that few other artists can capture. And, of course, you know how much I love Waid, the creator of Impulse. He’s back at DC now, writing amazing stories in World’s Finest and Shazam. But I’m still going to hold out hope that he’ll be the one to revive the Impulse title. Hey, I can dream, can’t I?</div><div><br /></div><div>So once again, I end a post with no idea when I’ll return. Impulse (mercifully) wasn’t featured in the disastrous live-action Flash movie, so I don’t have to review that. I’ll just keep watching and waiting for somebody to do something — anything — with my favorite comic book character of all time.</div>Dallinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12077214646519366484noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576434651382736087.post-11939800274171034932023-05-11T01:33:00.003-06:002023-05-11T01:33:30.650-06:00The Flash #796<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaxAh46wg0v5N7jf32mYPJV-eZv_zWQsygTGTJSle3UOvQ-w90MpMKsanQrWs3s9B0DzsGYbRS4u9AliK5PQy7Oo_kRwRMl2WENvBfnkEQVnPzTmv_XIccwM7EJ51Chzuwldk_4z9JIcuU0bo3yg2arWr49ZtR9rWLDnLwU-8l4-6fFB-sWVmrH2xO/s2320/IMG_5041.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1503" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaxAh46wg0v5N7jf32mYPJV-eZv_zWQsygTGTJSle3UOvQ-w90MpMKsanQrWs3s9B0DzsGYbRS4u9AliK5PQy7Oo_kRwRMl2WENvBfnkEQVnPzTmv_XIccwM7EJ51Chzuwldk_4z9JIcuU0bo3yg2arWr49ZtR9rWLDnLwU-8l4-6fFB-sWVmrH2xO/s320/IMG_5041.jpeg" width="207" /></a></div><br /><div>The One-Minute War – Finale: One More Minute</div><div><br /></div><div>Script: Jeremy Adams</div><div>Pencils: Roger Cruz, George Kambadais & Fernando Pasarin</div><div>Inks: Wellington Dias, George Kambadais & Oclair Albert</div><div>Colors: Luis Guerrero, Matt Herms & Pete Pantazis</div><div>Letters: Rob Leigh</div><div>Cover: Taurin Clarke</div><div>Variant Covers: Daniele Di Nicuolo, Yasmin Flore Montañez, Lee Garrett, & Taurin Clarke</div><div>Editor: Chris Rosa</div><div>Group Editor: Paul Kaminski</div><div><br /></div><div>Our cover puts Jay Garrick front and center, leading the final charge against the Fraction. That would have been a neat story, but that’s not what happened in this issue. That said, I don’t mind this cover too much, even if Taurin Clarke has no idea how to draw torn clothing. I am a little baffled, though, as to why Clarke didn’t just include the last two speedsters in this group — Max and Irey. I guess I should be grateful Impulse made it — he really looks like a last-minute addition. And, no, Bart does not go joy-riding on a Fraction vehicle in this issue, either, even though that would have been a good story, too. Wait … is Taurin Clarke a better storyteller than Jeremy Adams? I mean, it makes much more sense to keep Jesse Quick in her traditional outfit rather than arbitrarily make her Liberty Belle. And it’s only natural for the actual World War II veteran to be the leader in this war. Just something to think about.</div><div><br /></div><div>We pick up right where we left off, with Gold Beetle conveniently explaining everything to Wally. Apparently when Wally was supercharged with Speed Force energy by the Fraction, the Speed Force’s defensive mechanism kicked in and sent him outside of space and time, which is an area this team has dubbed Planet Flash. Gold Beetle also reveals that way back when Wally was trapped in Bart’s body and he whispered something mysterious to her, he was actually giving her detailed instructions on how to save everyone he accidentally killed during Heroes in Crisis. </div><div><br /></div><div>Using 35th-century cloning technology, Gold Beetle created duplicates of all of Wally’s victims — except for Roy Harper, as he had previously already been saved by something or somebody else. Gold Beetle replaced all the potential victims with their clones, which Wally killed, while she took them all to Planet Flash to wait for Wally and help him defeat the Fraction. Gold Beetle also visited the future to work with a grown-up Jai on some Speed Force conduits for her army. Unfortunately, these harnesses will only work for one minute, so they hope they can use that limited time wisely in creating a large enough distraction for the Flash family.</div><div><br /></div><div>And … yeah. They do just that. The sudden arrival of Wally and his misfits enables the rest of the Flash family to sneak into the core of the Spire. Max delivers one final speech of encouragement, telling everyone that they were all meant to be right here right now to save the world — why he was unable to ascend to the Speed Force, why Jay has lived so long, why the still unnamed boy was rescued, and why Bart randomly came back in time. They all begin racing around the core to supercharge it, while Wally battles the Admiral.</div><div><br /></div><div>Turns out the Admiral is an “organic conduit,” too, thanks to the experiments of the Fraction way back when. This only matters because it enables Wally to give him what I call the Inertia Treatment. He shoves the Admiral in a big battery — like the one our nameless boy was in — and explains that once the Spire is supercharged, everything will be reset to like it was before, except for natural speedsters. This means that when the Fraction returns to space, the Admiral will still be stuck inside the battery. And for some reason, Wally assumes the Fraction won’t think to check on that battery for the next thousand years, thereby condemning this man to a fate almost as bad as poor Inertia’s. Seems like a rather extreme punishment for a guy that didn’t seem that much worse than his fellow Fraction soldiers.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, time resets to one minute ago, and the Fraction is approaching Earth. From their perspective, the Admiral has suddenly vanished. Bizarrely believing this to be some sort of planetary defense mechanism, the Fraction decides to change course and not return to Earth until they find the Admiral.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Flash family suddenly find themselves standing in the middle of a bridge, signifying that everything is back to normal. Barry races back to his date with Iris, telling her he wants to grow old and have kids with her (but he doesn’t actually say the word “marriage”). Gold Beetle takes her misfits back to their own timelines, including the nameless boy, who finally reveals his name: Wade. He said his parents named him after a cool relative, and Linda says Wally also has an uncle named Wade, which was news to me. Our story then ends with everyone else crashing the West family barbecue.</div><div><br /></div><div>Epilogue.</div><div><br /></div><div>Max watches the sun set over the desert, preparing to make one more attempt. Suddenly, he’s joined by Bart, who said he’d figured with the war over, Max would try to “cross over … or go forward … or whatever.” Max admits this to be true, so Bart says, “Great. Let’s go.” When Max protests, Bart says, “We’re <b>family</b>. Where <b>you</b> go, <b>I</b> go. Come on, let’s see what’s next. It should be fun.” Max concedes, and the two of them race off into the sunset.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHmF2pVsOe2cCeQQpwXyvqLdli64WEOKHSmUYKQS6T4Yt7Zcn59HyS9YGcyRqBb-heXhdfPOZRIMJzF1Kq1TvHt71ydXDGRENZ_01enFkG--_1q8yPugZcp9jJWScewfe2L2_82XeEnHG-5hpNSGpeMM9owg9xC4IRv7wl3l0d7_Ww1UXDqHLL-x2s/s2360/IMG_5042.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="849" data-original-width="2360" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHmF2pVsOe2cCeQQpwXyvqLdli64WEOKHSmUYKQS6T4Yt7Zcn59HyS9YGcyRqBb-heXhdfPOZRIMJzF1Kq1TvHt71ydXDGRENZ_01enFkG--_1q8yPugZcp9jJWScewfe2L2_82XeEnHG-5hpNSGpeMM9owg9xC4IRv7wl3l0d7_Ww1UXDqHLL-x2s/s320/IMG_5042.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div>I’ll admit I got a little choked up at that end. Partly because of the pitch-perfect sentimentality between Bart and Max. But mostly because this feels like the last we’ll see of Impulse for a long, long time. DC clearly has no plans for Bart. Young Justice won’t be revived — as a comic or TV show — anytime soon. Tim and Kon each got their own solo series again, but not Bart. He is being shelved indefinitely. But the good part is this time he wasn’t unceremoniously forgotten. Racing off into the sunset alongside Max is a truly fitting sendoff. As were his final words. A really bittersweet moment for me.</div><div><br /></div><div>In other news, it looks like DC has finally, completely and thoroughly erased all the harm done by Heroes in Crisis. All thanks to little miss Deus Ex Machina, aka Gold Beetle. Look, I get it. Everybody hated that story. Tom King had an idea, but editorial got in the way and everything fell apart. But I hate the idea of undoing unpleasant stories by simply waving a magic wand and fixing everything off panel. Joshua Williamson’s retcon was sloppy, but this feels even worse. And was this even the right time to do this? I thought this was supposed to be the One-Minute War, showcasing the might of our 10 separate speedsters! Why cut into that limited space with several pages of Gold Beetle delivering exposition? Maybe it was because Adams found out he’s being kicked off the book after issue #800, so he had to cram in every last idea before the end.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the end, I was not pleased with the conclusion of this story. Mostly because our heroes didn’t actually save the day. They just redirected a nearly unstoppable army toward another innocent planet. How come no one thought about that? It seems to me the obvious thing to do would have been to sever the Fraction’s connection to the Speed Force, rather than merely send them back in time. Don’t tell me that Jeremy Adams wants the Fraction to reappear in future comics. Ugh.</div><div><br /></div><div>I’m also annoyed that it took us so long to learn that random boy was named after Mark Waid, just like Bart’s old movie-making friend, Wade, and, apparently, a random uncle of Wally’s. Yes, there’s no disputing that Waid is the greatest Flash writer of all time, and he definitely deserves every shoutout he can get, but can we please honor him in a less clumsy way?</div><div><br /></div><div>Speaking of Mark Waid, he is back at DC now and might be able to revive Impulse. If he wanted to. Or, of course, the new Flash creative team after Adams leaves. But truthfully, there just isn’t room for Bart in DC anymore. And this story demonstrated that. As fun as it was having Bart mess around with Ace, there wasn’t anything he did that Ace couldn’t have done by himself. So they might as well just stash Bart away until something drastic changes. </div><div><br /></div><div>I just can’t shake this sinking feeling in my gut that this was the last meaningful Impulse story we’ll get for a long, long time. I genuinely don’t know when my next review will be on this blog. Maybe the CW Flash will trot Impulse out one last time for the series finale. Maybe he’ll make an unexpected cameo in one of his friends’ books. So until then, I’ll leave you with Bart’s final words:</div><div><br /></div><div>“Let’s see what’s next. It should be fun.”</div>Dallinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12077214646519366484noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576434651382736087.post-24869317536902359922023-05-03T11:01:00.002-06:002024-02-19T22:24:02.048-07:00The Flash #795<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcdhoNcw4x31FJq3kyeXWndlCJnznlLPdhQSh5kfc6RHX1zitrrGQCa-_tB3AwgIVIzHo90vDVcYlG7LgsSMfRamldTBO1y9_lLAtNQYbUTLiiXNKS1iD67Y8li6qGcWlqJ_b7PejjpJzHYij6MAoSNrR7_uB35JcVPNSvHWQCJW5pGzuvsaK1p-RJ/s2320/IMG_5038.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1501" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcdhoNcw4x31FJq3kyeXWndlCJnznlLPdhQSh5kfc6RHX1zitrrGQCa-_tB3AwgIVIzHo90vDVcYlG7LgsSMfRamldTBO1y9_lLAtNQYbUTLiiXNKS1iD67Y8li6qGcWlqJ_b7PejjpJzHYij6MAoSNrR7_uB35JcVPNSvHWQCJW5pGzuvsaK1p-RJ/s320/IMG_5038.jpeg" width="207" /></a></div><br /><div>The One-Minute War – Part Six: Give Me Liberty</div><div><br /></div><div>Script: Jeremy Adams</div><div>Pencils: Roger Cruz, George Kambadais, & Fernando Pasarin</div><div>Inks: Wellington Dias, George Kambadais, & Oclair Albert</div><div>Colors: Luis Guerrero & Matt Herms</div><div>Letters: Rob Leigh</div><div>Cover: Taurin Clarke</div><div>Variant Covers: Taurin Clarke, Marco D’Alfonso, George Kambadais, Eleonora Carlini</div><div>Shazam! Fury of the Gods Variant Cover by Jerry Ordway & Alex Sinclair</div><div>Editor: Chris Rosa</div><div>Group Editor: Paul Kaminski</div><div><br /></div><div>Our cover shows a rather thick Barry mournfully holding Iris’ wedding ring, while Wally and Linda weep from a distance. Even though, you know, we’re supposed to believe that Wally’s dead right now. This cover actually isn’t too bad, by Clarke’s standards. But the word casualties does make me wish there were some actual casualties in this war. I mean, can you even call it a war if nobody dies? Last issue already revealed the plan to undo this whole thing with time travel, so there’s not a lot of suspense anymore.</div><div><br /></div><div>Our story begins with Jesse Quick randomly deciding to stop honoring her father, Johnny Quick, and instead put on a new costume based on her mother, Liberty Belle. I guess Adams decided it’s time for some more unique costumes on this team of 10 (yes, TEN!) speedsters. Irey is also wearing the new costume we saw on last cover, and Linda has the costume we saw on this cover. And depending on who the artist is, this costume does an excellent job of concealing her pregnancy bump. Anyway, I know I said 10 speedsters, but right now we only have eight of them posing dramatically over the city, as Jay has been captured and Wally is “dead.”</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Xpwgn8HOrxrgkxNOTCPIsfupIZc6AVI9Muck65hRX1Vg8UGtyyRvM17pG_WznpUaQ9Hw-vG8hnu9SkxQtqI6fs8OBYxW2gn6b0P5gv05bEGv3uSU8tE3FoaD8pwcuUqwKRmENrQ73k8AauOceF8O1UlqGvE_SlziFp28wvpvU-h8WU32exkxaB9N/s2320/IMG_5039.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1507" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Xpwgn8HOrxrgkxNOTCPIsfupIZc6AVI9Muck65hRX1Vg8UGtyyRvM17pG_WznpUaQ9Hw-vG8hnu9SkxQtqI6fs8OBYxW2gn6b0P5gv05bEGv3uSU8tE3FoaD8pwcuUqwKRmENrQ73k8AauOceF8O1UlqGvE_SlziFp28wvpvU-h8WU32exkxaB9N/s320/IMG_5039.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div>Some dialogue among the Fraction tells us that 70% of Earth’s resources have been drained and many more metahumans have been kidnapped. I sure would have liked to have <i>seen</i> some of this happen, but I guess beggars can’t be choosers. Anyway, the Fraction quickly spots our heroes standing out in the open like that, but the Admiral advises they wait for the speedsters to make the first move.</div><div><br /></div><div>We cut back to earlier, when Barry began presenting his plan to the team. The still nameless boy that Bart rescued continues to advise they abandon the planet, but everyone’s intent on staying and fighting, especially Irey, who yearns to “break in” her new costume. Bart loves the new look, and Ace coldly says, “You would,” possibly because he knows Bart doesn’t want two Impulses running around.</div><div><br /></div><div>Barry explains that he believes the Speed Force is currently dissipated throughout the globe like a cloud, which is preventing them from accessing their top speed. He even reveals that he’d considered traveling back in time himself, but found he couldn’t. But Barry believes that if they stick close together, they can concentrate their Speed Force and not only boost their speed, but also their friction cushion to block anything that comes at them. Bart warns everyone that he has swallowed a bug while running, but Ace just says that only happened because Bart can never keep his mouth shut.</div><div><br /></div><div>Bart brings up the bug again as they begin their assault on the wall. Ace bemoans Bart’s bug obsession, and it turns out it didn’t matter at all. Barry’s plan worked perfectly, and Jesse used her super strength to burst through the wall.</div><div><br /></div><div>In another flashback, Barry explains that he doesn’t want to destroy the Spire, but supercharge it. Awestruck, Bart says, “They say I’m out there …” But the unnamed boy actually thinks this plan is genius. He starts to explain what happens when objects approach the speed of light, and Bart interjects, saying he knows those objects will go back in time. Irey is thrilled at the possibility of her dad coming back, but Linda pulls Barry aside privately to ask if that will really happen. Barry confesses that his plan will send the Fraction away, but it won’t bring back Wally. He says that speedsters can remember their universe being rebooted countless times because they’re separate from regular continuity. Linda chooses to not share this information with Irey.</div><div><br /></div><div>Our heroes easily break into the Spire and are quickly reunited with Jay. Barry stupidly cries out, “Flash family, forward!” Bart and Ace take out a guard, hitting him high and low. And Barry takes on the Admiral himself.</div><div><br /></div><div>Elsewhere, Wally wakes up at the feet of the random caveman, whose body he possessed way back when Adams began his run. Gold Beetle is there, too, introducing him to what once was called Timepoint but has now been rebranded as Planet Flash. And they’re not alone. Joining them is all the D-list heroes that Wally accidentally killed in Heroes in Crisis, including Kid Devil and Lagoon Boy.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Much like Roger Cruz, I’ve run out of steam on this story. He can call in backup artists, but I can’t call in backup readers. Well, I guess I could, but that’d be ridiculous. Anyway, I think Adams robbed this story of all tension by tipping his hand too early. We know everything’s going to be set right at the end, so why bother going through all these motions? Oh, I know. We still need to give Jesse her big moment. Let’s see … she can … put on a Liberty Belle costume … for reasons? And then she’ll … smash a wall, I guess? OK, good enough. Let’s move on!</div><div><br /></div><div>It also turns out that Bart’s repeated mentions of swallowing a bug were just a boring joke he wouldn’t stop telling. I thought for sure that something was going to happen — like a stray bullet would sneak through their force field and hit … I don’t know … Ace, maybe? You know what I mean? Why bother setting something up if there’s no payoff for it? I’m also really let down by the generic Fraction forces. The only unique soldier they have is Miss Murder. And she can’t be a compelling threat anymore, because we’ve already fought and defeated her twice before. I’m just really underwhelmed by the lack of creativity here.</div><div><br /></div><div>The One-Minute War concludes next issue!</div>Dallinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12077214646519366484noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576434651382736087.post-45465493939542169312023-04-12T11:26:00.003-06:002023-04-12T11:26:50.430-06:00The Flash #794<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD2H08rpSe_eoIvc8svWwgcPaMP5eHozcqXKcdTuVskPOI7WTQNwxuhf3T1TMRUJZBZ3EjcdTqCwuHbs-LsJ_RicqQdu1n_2unPFtPQZLyZwgXhhgzLEYg0WGk1WSZM3brRCu6lncjVzeu-UA-GaW-Rk4Obv0CligNS_uUMOLnoLdG4cAp4Sc_XfsS/s2320/03D4CB41-3EB6-40F6-A203-45162CB61514.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1507" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD2H08rpSe_eoIvc8svWwgcPaMP5eHozcqXKcdTuVskPOI7WTQNwxuhf3T1TMRUJZBZ3EjcdTqCwuHbs-LsJ_RicqQdu1n_2unPFtPQZLyZwgXhhgzLEYg0WGk1WSZM3brRCu6lncjVzeu-UA-GaW-Rk4Obv0CligNS_uUMOLnoLdG4cAp4Sc_XfsS/s320/03D4CB41-3EB6-40F6-A203-45162CB61514.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div>The One-Minute War – Part Five: Thunder in Her Heart</div><div><br /></div><div>Script: Jeremy Adams</div><div>Pencils: Roger Cruz</div><div>Inks: Wellington Dias & Roger Cruz</div><div>Colors: Luis Guerrero</div><div>Letters: Rob Leigh</div><div>Cover: Taurin Clarke</div><div>Variant Covers: Taurin Clarke, Marco D’Alfonso, George Kambadais, Eleonora Carlini</div><div>Shazam! Fury of the Gods Variant Cover by Jerry Ordway & Alex Sinclair</div><div>Editor: Chris Rosa</div><div>Group Editor: Paul Kaminski</div><div>Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.</div><div>By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.</div><div><br /></div><div>Once again, our cover doesn’t quite fit with the story as well as it could. Yes, Irey is the main focus of this issue, and she does explore the idea of forging her own identity rather than merely being the female Impulse. But she doesn’t get this new costume here. I hope she does get this costume soon, though. I never liked the idea of her being Impulse. Mainly because Irey never really had anything to do with Bart.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6npDovm7W0I6w4FGdNdUQXJoIech_rP_ln_JjQ3nQhWq0qZx3Rw7GlMADmxcYkmAZZ2CRv0Qbrtn8RZKFMZVdkLaxNph2vvlsvcxWx4OjfZVgkKkMhpwyeSGJ6FIkgl_Gc1pwk-yd2Xr_K-Wdn_pfS2gSPCRoRa56-Gq8Fk-r2ILarwsZOJH6b0LY/s3056/5EB5645D-4CD9-4981-8A50-2EB335759637.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3056" data-original-width="1987" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6npDovm7W0I6w4FGdNdUQXJoIech_rP_ln_JjQ3nQhWq0qZx3Rw7GlMADmxcYkmAZZ2CRv0Qbrtn8RZKFMZVdkLaxNph2vvlsvcxWx4OjfZVgkKkMhpwyeSGJ6FIkgl_Gc1pwk-yd2Xr_K-Wdn_pfS2gSPCRoRa56-Gq8Fk-r2ILarwsZOJH6b0LY/s320/5EB5645D-4CD9-4981-8A50-2EB335759637.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div>For the first time in this storyline, Impulse appears on a variant cover. This rather unique image by George Kambadais does a good job of capturing the frenzy of the One-Minute War, while taking a novel approach to visualizing characters running at super speed. I don’t think I like it, but I’m happy to see someone use a variant cover to experiment.</div><div><br /></div><div>Our story picks up with Miss Murder attacking Irey at Mr. Terrific’s lab. Unfortunately, Bart and Ace didn’t tell anybody that Miss Murder can’t track you if you clear your mind. Fortunately, Irey has the ability to sling around her super-strong and still-frozen brother, Jai, as if he were a wrecking ball attached to an invisible chain. Also, Superman manages to twitch his fingers fast enough to grab Miss Murder’s dogs. The injured villain hastily retreats, and Irey recklessly decides to leave behind all the frozen people to regroup with her family.</div><div><br /></div><div>Irey blasts up to Jay, Max, Bart, Ace and Barry, somehow causing a large shockwave that knocked down most of the Fraction troops. She randomly announces her new hero name will now by Thunderheart, causing Bart and Ace to idiotically shout out “Coooool!” like a couple of 11-year-olds.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixwfKHtoqGfHfSRjMxjRPGqayMV-hk4D4AnhgrQPOoUJyZtmdk4Efcpizck78rxvnxuW9ZHlbxpXAbqcnk4RRUx8GAwxWNexAbNq1DIAcmH2X_3Sgv7fHet3xKw7LG9IUhUFGxGdHKoiwtPN064xKs-GToU5ppjaFkQD_O8yLjcEzg1b8y52bAm861/s1643/28D7605E-441C-4154-8475-0405AC94361A.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1643" data-original-width="1640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixwfKHtoqGfHfSRjMxjRPGqayMV-hk4D4AnhgrQPOoUJyZtmdk4Efcpizck78rxvnxuW9ZHlbxpXAbqcnk4RRUx8GAwxWNexAbNq1DIAcmH2X_3Sgv7fHet3xKw7LG9IUhUFGxGdHKoiwtPN064xKs-GToU5ppjaFkQD_O8yLjcEzg1b8y52bAm861/s320/28D7605E-441C-4154-8475-0405AC94361A.jpeg" width="319" /></a></div><br />On the other side of the wall, Jesse and Linda are captured and loaded up into a transport, which conveniently is being driven by the young man Bart and Ace rescued. That’s right, the still-unnamed interdimensional corrections officer somehow snuck behind enemy lines, disguised himself as a Fraction soldier and commandeered a vehicle.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, Irey’s sudden arrival did help the rest of our heroes, but not enough to prevent the Fraction’s admiral from carrying away the injured Jay and sealing the wall behind him. Jesse and Linda soon arrive to drive everybody back to Barry’s lab, which is an especially odd choice, seeing as how Jesse pointed out how the Fraction now knows where Mr. Terrific’s lab is and who’s in it. But I guess everybody was too busy mourning the apparent death of Wally to think too rationally right there. Barry, however, gets a crazy idea to not only win the war, but make it so that it never happened in the first place.</div><div><br /></div><div>Jay is tortured for a little bit and taken to an operating table to be studied before being placed in a battery. Luckily, Jay manages to break the surgeon’s Speed Force processor and engineer a violent escape.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>There’s always a fine line writers have to balance when using characters as comedic relief. You want them to be funny, but not too stupid. Or immature. Adams slipped into that realm in this issue with Bart and Ace. And he’s also unfortunately fallen into the trope of having two comedic reliefs constantly speak in unison. I call it the Weasley Twins Effect. I get that Bart’s big moment is already done for this story, but I’m really sad to see him be reduced to this.</div><div><br /></div><div>I’m also worrying that the story is starting to unravel. It made no sense for Bart and Ace to learn Miss Murder’s weakness and not tell anybody about it. They should have defeated her for good, and Adams should have sent a different villain to battle Irey — ideally someone tailored to her unique skill set and position in life. And I’m very worried about Barry’s plan to travel back in time. If that was always the end goal, then why not go a little bigger with the destruction and mayhem? Have another couple of speedsters be killed — you’ve got plenty. And don’t make Wally’s apparent death so ambiguous. Do you know how many times Wally has disappeared in a flash of light?</div><div><br /></div><div>I don’t know. I was having a lot of fun with this story, but this issue is giving me second thoughts. We’ve got a couple of issues left of One-Minute War … hopefully Adams can stick the landing. Especially as this is literally the only Impulse content I have this year.</div><div><br /></div><div>To be continued …</div>Dallinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12077214646519366484noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576434651382736087.post-61310525313069792552023-04-10T14:44:00.000-06:002023-04-10T14:44:01.559-06:00The Flash #793<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDsbO2rFvfFVdFDaCUtJcdwzzyUpdgTVRvjto62j5bLB4lLeyqHXn4XLIuOf8U9QfLmA0EfJCLoD2FP_JfshFFWncUax9suY27Uwpyd7ecTilUhCA90DYEoKIYSRvc6uGXP5L7OiJ61c8veP25skXscfqwqlBmS--YitCTem2v7_sNBvi2TUDRDlQf/s2320/2CE78FD3-337E-445C-B57E-D8B4BD0525F5.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1505" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDsbO2rFvfFVdFDaCUtJcdwzzyUpdgTVRvjto62j5bLB4lLeyqHXn4XLIuOf8U9QfLmA0EfJCLoD2FP_JfshFFWncUax9suY27Uwpyd7ecTilUhCA90DYEoKIYSRvc6uGXP5L7OiJ61c8veP25skXscfqwqlBmS--YitCTem2v7_sNBvi2TUDRDlQf/s320/2CE78FD3-337E-445C-B57E-D8B4BD0525F5.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div>The One-Minute War – Part Four: Thunder in Your Heart</div><div><br /></div><div>Script: Jeremy Adams</div><div>Pencils: Roger Cruz</div><div>Inks: Wellington Dias</div><div>Colors: Luis Guerrero</div><div>Letters: Rob Leigh</div><div>Cover: Taurin Clarke</div><div>Variant Covers: Daniel Bayliss, Marco D’Alfonso, Scott Holins, Taurin Clarke</div><div>Editor: Chris Rosa</div><div>Group Editor: Paul Kaminski</div><div>Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.</div><div>By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.</div><div><br /></div><div>For the first time in this storyline, Impulse is not on the cover. But, considering how weak these covers are, I’m not too sad by that. Jesse, Wally and Jay are examining a random hologram, and I think we’re supposed to believe Wally’s been a bit beat up. But those “holes” in his uniform look more like paint splotches — almost a hastily added effect at the last minute. The variant covers are all better than this, but once again, no Impulse.</div><div><br /></div><div>Our story picks up with our heroes bringing Superman, Captain Atom and Gorilla Grodd into Mr. Terrific’s lab. Superman, the fastest non-speedster on the world, can almost keep up with the Flash family. But, as Impulse notes, it’s going to take him a whole day to say anything.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM5dtOxezD4yPeDtM1F1k5ByTKR5IUM6ATVTX_OiLr5M7L9UF0cA7dgcB-fDvDa4EPXp9EJq0DLhl_7aGB-H6ttA-q26KSW_bD6raHaCs0pIaY_X57avoZvL_nLbpPCTeUFcbqYLrdZifbwRRYdvinzg5yE9SQDIebIYL1O38Iyct3ouK3sV8aSwx7/s2320/902F31F5-2E81-4B1B-9818-E393FE07CC29.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1503" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM5dtOxezD4yPeDtM1F1k5ByTKR5IUM6ATVTX_OiLr5M7L9UF0cA7dgcB-fDvDa4EPXp9EJq0DLhl_7aGB-H6ttA-q26KSW_bD6raHaCs0pIaY_X57avoZvL_nLbpPCTeUFcbqYLrdZifbwRRYdvinzg5yE9SQDIebIYL1O38Iyct3ouK3sV8aSwx7/s320/902F31F5-2E81-4B1B-9818-E393FE07CC29.jpeg" width="207" /></a></div><br /><div>So they decide to leave Superman where he is and interrogate the young man Impulse and Kid Flash rescued. The boy — who’s never given a name in this issue — explains that he was an interdimensional corrections officer who was captured by the Fraction. They dubbed him an “organic conduit” and used him as an engine to propel their ship through the Speed Force. The boy explains that all the Fraction soldiers wear glowing discs on their chest that allow them to artificially process the Speed Force. He says that since the Fraction is pulling so much Speed Force into one location at a time that it saturates the planet, causing all speedsters to go from “zero to super-fast,” unable to slow down until the Fraction leaves.</div><div><br /></div><div>Jay and Barry note that they’re still a little faster than the Fraction because they conduct the Speed Force organically. The young man warns them that he can calculate probabilities faster than anyone, and their only option is to leave the world now before the Fraction captures them and becomes even more powerful. But everybody insists on staying and fighting for their home. They speculate that the Spire may be acting as an antenna that sends the Speed Force to all the Fraction’s forces.</div><div><br /></div><div>So they all go to what I assume was once Barry’s lab but has now been turned into Wally’s garage, where he’s been working on a car described by Bart as a “hunk of junk.” Wally plans to place a Fraction engine inside his car, which he’ll use to drive straight into the Spire like a bomb. Ace thinks this is suicide, but Wally believes he’ll be protected by the same friction barrier that protects speedsters from being killed by bugs while running. Bart says he’s accidentally swallowed a bug once while running, but Ace claims that’s impossible. Bart replies that it’s merely impossible for Ace, so he says he could swallow a bug if he really wanted to. Bart urges him to prove it, but Barry gets them back on topic.</div><div><br /></div><div>Ace warns Barry and Wally about how heavily guarded the Spire is, and Bart mentions Miss Murder. Both Bart and Ace shudder at the name, but neither of them provide the helpful information of how to defeat her. Wally insists he’ll be fine because he’ll be the only one driving to the Spire. Barry warns him to phase out of the car before he hits or, as Bart and Ace add, he’ll go “kablooey.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Bart and Ace help Wally and Barry set up the car, while Jay and Max scout out the wall and Jesse and Irey destroy a couple of tanks. They all meet back together to plan the assault, leaving Irey behind to guard the frozen people. Barry and Wally have a quick heart-to-heart, where Barry admits he was about to marry Iris. Ace asks Bart if he knows if this mission will succeed, since he’s from the future, but Bart says he doesn’t even pay attention to the present, much less the past.</div><div><br /></div><div>Our heroes hide out near the wall and as soon as it opens, Bart and Ace ambush the tank that comes out. Barry destroys it with a massive laser gun that I assume he took from the Fraction, while Max, Jay, Ace and Bart prop open the wall with some girders. But our heroes are quickly met by the Fraction’s forces, and Jay is electrocuted by the Fraction admiral. Luckily, this was only a diversion, as Jesse and Linda were simultaneously holding open the other side of the wall. (I guess they both have super strength now.)</div><div><br /></div><div>Wally drives the car toward the Spire as planned, but the admiral orders the emitter to overpower him. Wally tries to phase out of the car, but can’t, and seems to disappear in a flash of pink light. Meanwhile, Miss Murder has broken into Mr. Terrific’s lab, and Jay is down for the count, while Bart, Max and Ace are surrounded.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>So that’s a nice cliffhanger to what has still been a really nice Flash family story. Yeah, the pacing is a bit rough in places, most likely due to the large number of characters involved. And I still think it’s ridiculous that we’re supposed to believe that Iris is dead when time is still essentially frozen. But I’m loving every little bit of Bart I get here. I hope Jeremy Adams doesn’t forget him after all this is over.</div><div><br /></div><div>Before I leave, here’s a funny little thing that showed up on my app. I guess DC is experimenting with “instant” trade paperbacks that are only three issues long. Here’s the cover of their collection of The Flash #790-#792.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8EqCA6KI08o_4bmUMtz03gXM16ocwQFJ9YVAEw_XZEjq1v4BVOyZw015uJuTsXeKDBVATQjKzb5o5wJrVphQNS5LLiz_Gv9wnEq0CTOjs1IKTL0UkPCfo8MzxEZhgh43paI44m4IdBeLsCbrV2yRikfE7MIgcDzfDwQUbuCZ6tGR5TiANHbaxrXHf/s1150/248031F9-C7FA-4199-87B3-ECC80398C118.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1150" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8EqCA6KI08o_4bmUMtz03gXM16ocwQFJ9YVAEw_XZEjq1v4BVOyZw015uJuTsXeKDBVATQjKzb5o5wJrVphQNS5LLiz_Gv9wnEq0CTOjs1IKTL0UkPCfo8MzxEZhgh43paI44m4IdBeLsCbrV2yRikfE7MIgcDzfDwQUbuCZ6tGR5TiANHbaxrXHf/s320/248031F9-C7FA-4199-87B3-ECC80398C118.jpeg" width="209" /></a></div><br /><div>The image is from an inside page by Roger Cruz, which is significantly better than anything Taurin Clarke has done. I don’t know why DC didn’t wait until the entire One-Minute War was done. Maybe this will be a good antidote for the people who are loathe to buy two smaller comics each month. But that means nothing to people like me who have the Infinite app and get all the comics a month later. Oh well. I can’t complain about making more covers with Impulse on them.</div><div><br /></div><div>To be continued …</div>Dallinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12077214646519366484noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576434651382736087.post-21254212119387871062023-04-07T08:56:00.002-06:002024-02-19T22:28:44.624-07:00The Flash #792<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpCxaBvBGbHNHneFYimEPIoq6G_0C5x7qw_BDkvpcJ1JG0wpScBAy43IYdcCXI8gKknPZW8SWpvpFAXozMCRw0t5AGCpLZifb1tM09-slfHegFwNQOJWQH2j1s6Kh-nvXWtSS7wA1KwtjMsrwJ8cw6o9GuduExnBPEEBjWDhRO3Vmr2ycz68UrSebL/s1148/A52A0D07-FB39-4616-8B5E-CE7F1864EDD4.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1148" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpCxaBvBGbHNHneFYimEPIoq6G_0C5x7qw_BDkvpcJ1JG0wpScBAy43IYdcCXI8gKknPZW8SWpvpFAXozMCRw0t5AGCpLZifb1tM09-slfHegFwNQOJWQH2j1s6Kh-nvXWtSS7wA1KwtjMsrwJ8cw6o9GuduExnBPEEBjWDhRO3Vmr2ycz68UrSebL/s320/A52A0D07-FB39-4616-8B5E-CE7F1864EDD4.jpeg" width="209" /></a></div><br /><div>The One-Minute War – Part Three: Impulse Buy</div><div><br /></div><div>Script: Jeremy Adams</div><div>Pencils: Roger Cruz</div><div>Inks: Wellington Dias</div><div>Colors: Luis Guerrero</div><div>Letters: Rob Leigh</div><div>Cover: Taurin Clarke</div><div>Variant Covers: Serg Acuña, Daniel Baylis, Scott Kolins, Taurin Clarke, Mateus Manhanini</div><div>Editor: Chris Rosa</div><div>Group Editor: Paul Kaminski</div><div>Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.</div><div>By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.</div><div><br /></div><div>I am so happy that Impulse remains a major presence on these covers. I think DC wisely realized the inclusion of Bart would be a major selling point of this story. Unfortunately, I just cannot stand Clarke’s style. And a few things don’t make any sense here. This is a futuristic car, which, as you can easily guess, belongs to the Fraction. So why is it full of junk food and a random Flash doll? I guess we’re just trying to be funny and not worrying about continuity. Also to my dismay, none of the variant covers include Impulse, so let’s dive into the story.</div><div><br /></div><div>After laying the presumably dead Iris in Wally’s bed, Barry joins a strategy meeting with Wally, Linda, Jay, Jesse, Max, Wallace and Bart. Jay explains that the Fraction have set up a perimeter a mile across with an impenetrable wall that only opens to let out tanks and fliers. Jay doesn’t know what the fliers are doing, but he’s noticed the tanks are moving in an organized search pattern, which will be reaching the West home before too long. Wallace asks why they’re all stuck at top speed, and Bart asks why the Fraction is also moving so fast. Wally’s best guess is they’ve figured out a way to harness the power of the Speed Force and apply it to their vehicles. </div><div><br /></div><div>Barry says he’d like to study one of those vehicles, at which Bart immediately zooms away. The only person who seemed to care that Bart abruptly left is Wallace, who hastily chases after him. Bart tells Wallace not to worry about what he’s doing, but Wallace can’t help it, saying whenever Bart decides to run off, everything goes “kablooey.” Bart calls that an overstatement, but eventually agrees that Wallace is not wrong. He contends, however, that things are never boring around him, then resumes his quest to find a Fraction car for Barry. Fearing Bart will be killed on this reckless mission, Wallace decides to join him.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOAIwz_hidmCUdR_9G3FqizSf0CHz416zf3Jlb_rxFX-Y4CiYvGV6Vs6mzhmaS2bYGl93vWk9urLX83DwsdNhOR5iANmGGi75fgo4xTsSbxaVgDSSlJjnZPaK9BrBTPuw1kyScuir_XIZ16asCMaKiDDohfL2nU3gDq9dHzjoXjN8jDKpmpHtlWBfI/s750/B0CEC629-7E49-4B1B-B48D-907E5EF5C9E6.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="698" data-original-width="750" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOAIwz_hidmCUdR_9G3FqizSf0CHz416zf3Jlb_rxFX-Y4CiYvGV6Vs6mzhmaS2bYGl93vWk9urLX83DwsdNhOR5iANmGGi75fgo4xTsSbxaVgDSSlJjnZPaK9BrBTPuw1kyScuir_XIZ16asCMaKiDDohfL2nU3gDq9dHzjoXjN8jDKpmpHtlWBfI/s320/B0CEC629-7E49-4B1B-B48D-907E5EF5C9E6.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div>Bart decides to show Wallace why he’s called Impulse, by impulsively deciding to hide under one of the Fraction’s tanks. Wallace reluctantly follows, while Miss Murder surreptitiously picks up on the boys’ trail. The rest of the Flash family, meanwhile, has decided to make Mr. Terrific’s secure lab their new base of operations. It’s only after they get set up in the lab when Max realizes that Bart is missing. And Linda notes that “Ace” is gone, too. (I’ve been away too long. Everybody has new nicknames and powers.)</div><div><br /></div><div>Conveniently, the tank Bart and Ace are hiding on returns to the Spire. Ace asks why they didn’t just take this tank back, but Bart says they couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a peek behind the wall. Once inside, Impulse and Kid Flash carefully avoid some Fraction henchmen, who are under a lot of pressure to capture Earth’s speedsters. Bart finds a secret compartment below them, which contains a strange red rectangular box. Ace observes a lot of electricity pouring from it, so Bart speculates it may be a battery and suggests they take it. Ace is horrified by this idea, but goes along with it anyway, as usual. Also as usual, Bart’s instincts prove right, as the box is apparently the energy source for the entire ship.</div><div><br /></div><div>Unfortunately, the box proves too big and heavy for just one of our boys to carry it. So they awkwardly struggle with their burden, promptly attracting the attention of several Fraction guards. But at Impulse’s order, our heroes wield the box as a shield and ram the two guards, knocking them out cold. This attack also broke open the box, revealing a teenage boy sleeping inside it. Noting how this place keeps getting weirder and weirder, Bart and Ace help the groggy boy up, but are suddenly ambushed by Miss Murder and her two monster dogs.</div><div><br /></div><div>The boy warns his rescuers to run, but the dogs expertly cut them off, whichever direction they move. Ace complains that it seems like the dogs can read their minds, and the boy explains that Miss Murder doesn’t hunt by sight or sound, but by thoughts. Impulse realizes this is the perfect villain for him to battle, since he’s so good at not thinking. He leads Kid Flash and the boy on a reckless charge directly at Miss Murder, but she doesn’t sense them, allowing the trio to run right past her. They encounter a few more guards, but Kid Flash perfectly follows Impulse’s lead and helps direct the guard’s gunfire right at Miss Murder and her dogs.</div><div><br /></div><div>Our heroes quickly find a car, but Ace doubts Bart’s ability to drive it. However, the mysterious boy explains that Bart is a “conduit,” and all he has to do is grab the wheel and the vehicle will respond. Miss Murder suddenly jumps on the roof of the car, but the boy shows Ace how to man the laser guns to knock her off. The Fraction’s admiral orders his troops to follow and kill the boys, but they manage to safely deliver the vehicle to Wally and Max before they’re caught.</div><div><br /></div><div>The boy is so shocked to see Wally, he can only stammer when asked his name. Max lectures Bart for being so foolish, but Ace comes to his defense, saying he also thought it was a good idea, adding that Bart’s “quick not-thinking” enabled them to escape. Bart gives Wallace an appreciative smile, while Wally opens up the back of the van. To everyone’s surprise, the vehicle was transporting Captain Atom, Superman and Gorilla Grodd.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Well, I think it’s safe to say that was Bart’s major contribution of this story. And it was pretty nice. He stole a vehicle and the Fraction’s power source (which turned out to be a kid) and he rescued Superman himself. Not bad for a kid that nobody pays attention to. Seriously, how did it take everyone so long to realize that not one, but two of their teammates were missing? Especially after they had all the talk about the importance of staying together during this war! And do we really need to be adding even more characters to this already bloated cast? Regardless, I did have lots of fun with Impulse and Kid Flash once again. And I thought it was neat that Bart got to fight a villain tailor-made for his personality. Yeah, I have a few minor complaints, but this is still a fun, engaging story.</div><div><br /></div><div>To be continued …</div>Dallinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12077214646519366484noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576434651382736087.post-41080813990849146862023-03-31T11:19:00.002-06:002023-03-31T11:19:26.758-06:00The Flash #791<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1UvBSG6GuKabZ2C0t6ZtVLjGJ4W3kkJTsyNxPyHwOA7_KG9bTuQSHYTOQVnzBJpeQLnCSzoWfQV1KTjG2xYzs6rUoxUdZWBCkq_YF6mJXHwL9Bohkn9dHmYd7LPZ3XPx821HTLbO7eLXReVa4E5DvILQEZWXhxpK7xQ7HHnFgHbV5wk8Q6OIFYf3F/s1155/BF7F96B2-82A4-4CD1-8536-F276C69A449F.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1155" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1UvBSG6GuKabZ2C0t6ZtVLjGJ4W3kkJTsyNxPyHwOA7_KG9bTuQSHYTOQVnzBJpeQLnCSzoWfQV1KTjG2xYzs6rUoxUdZWBCkq_YF6mJXHwL9Bohkn9dHmYd7LPZ3XPx821HTLbO7eLXReVa4E5DvILQEZWXhxpK7xQ7HHnFgHbV5wk8Q6OIFYf3F/s320/BF7F96B2-82A4-4CD1-8536-F276C69A449F.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div>The One-Minute War – Part Two: A Ten-Second Week</div><div><br /></div><div>Script: Jeremy Adams</div><div>Pencils: Roger Cruz</div><div>Inks: Wellington Dias</div><div>Colors: Luis Guerrero</div><div>Letters: Rob Leigh</div><div>Cover: Taurin Clarke</div><div>Variant Covers: Daniel Baylis, Marco D’Alfonso, Kim Jacinto, Taurin Clarke</div><div>Editor: Chris Rosa</div><div>Group Editor: Paul Kaminski</div><div><br /></div><div>Once again, we’re stuck with a terribly bland, generic cover. Bart, Wallace and Wally are pinned down behind a brick wall, hiding from the painfully generic Miss Murder, who, by the way, doesn’t show up until the last page of this issue. It really bugs me that a story with so much potential is laden down with these subpar covers that look like they were thrown together in one of those AI generators. And once again, none of the variant covers show Impulse, so let’s get to the story.</div><div><br /></div><div>We pick up with the West family, where time is frozen for everyone except Wally, Irey and Linda (who has powers now because of course she does). Slightly surprising is the freezing of Jai, who somehow managed to pull down a large tree to protect the barbecue party from the worst of the blast. Last issue clearly showed that time froze before the Fraction’s spire hit the ground, but whatever.</div><div><br /></div><div>Speaking of the spire, the first speedsters to investigate it are Kid Flash and Impulse, who have found a massive wall around the structure. Wallace tried to run up the side of the wall, but found it to be frictionless. He suggests turning their attention to finding out why they can’t slow down, but Bart insists on finding out what’s on the other side of the wall. He assures Wallace that he’s learned a few tricks through his time as a superhero, namely how to vibrate through things. But when Bart tries to show off this skill, he crashes right into the wall. Wallace admits he’d laugh if this situation wasn’t so serious. Suddenly, the wall begins to split open, releasing a seemingly endless supply of alien tanks and aircraft. Jay Garrick arrives out of nowhere and pulls Wallace and Bart behind a wall. Wallace says this is an invasion, but Jay darkly says, “No, boys … this is war.” I always thought an invasion was just a part of war, but what do I know?</div><div><br /></div><div>Wally begins investigating the wreckage and quickly comes across Barry cradling Iris’ body. The two are promptly attacked by a Fraction fighter jet, but Wally quickly destroys it by throwing a rebar through it. Bart, Wallace and Jay, meanwhile have drawn fire from the Fraction’s forces, mainly because Bart revealed their position by waving at the aliens. Bart explains that he thought they might have been friendly aliens, but Wallace angrily points out that they have tanks. Jay suggests they retreat, but Wallace worries they won’t be able to outrun the aliens, since they seem to be moving just as fast as them.</div><div><br /></div><div>Jay pulls the boys down just as a particularly large blast takes out the wall they were hiding behind. Coming face-to-face with a tank and dozens of ground troops, Bart wishes he just stayed in the future. Jay immediately prepares for a fight to the death, urging Wallace and Bart to be brave and proud and go down like men. Bart asks if there’s a second option, and right on cue, Jesse Quick arrives, saying there’s always a second option. I’m not exactly sure how, but she seems to flip the tank over on top of the ground troops, removing the immediate threat from our heroes. She also conveniently explains that she and Max recently encountered the Fraction on another planet and witnessed the destruction they left behind.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Fraction, meanwhile, has begun to strip Earth of its resources, including any metahumans they can find. They are, however, surprised to learn that at least five people on Earth can keep up with their speed, so they decide to capture them all alive. One of the Fraction scouts is captured by Max, but rather than answer any of Max’s questions, he presses a button on his chest that electrocutes him. So Max decides to regroup with the others.</div><div><br /></div><div>Jay, Jesse, Bart and Wallace all make their way to the West house, where Linda and Irey are carefully pulling their frozen barbecue guests inside. Bart asks where Wally is, and when Linda says he went into the city, both Bart and Wallace decide to go help him. But Jay says the worst thing they can do is split up right now. Max, who suddenly arrives, agrees with Jay.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc-OIewkLzY7m55vUJDLpYNNnpCaUttuNT_kXxzAoWk0hdQxE2b-nZAoEkIU9kT4UbYsMUvXuPqlOGddHp4UmMwc5Vd8VIKBfTNp4DTJmldt4wtS5CnO6ST5_TrhLEmJyKXaPXzpkrF1PjYuiNf-Sw1KP1DuqTYyh4J51jxxCFQq0_yaUTArzSYkL5/s760/1EFBD3D4-A26E-4DBB-81F2-0E66D428D17A.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="760" data-original-width="418" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc-OIewkLzY7m55vUJDLpYNNnpCaUttuNT_kXxzAoWk0hdQxE2b-nZAoEkIU9kT4UbYsMUvXuPqlOGddHp4UmMwc5Vd8VIKBfTNp4DTJmldt4wtS5CnO6ST5_TrhLEmJyKXaPXzpkrF1PjYuiNf-Sw1KP1DuqTYyh4J51jxxCFQq0_yaUTArzSYkL5/s320/1EFBD3D4-A26E-4DBB-81F2-0E66D428D17A.jpeg" width="176" /></a></div><br /><div>Bart gives Max a big hug, making me wonder just how long it’s been since they’ve actually spent any time together. Bart jokes about having to babysit Kid Flash, and then he either senses or merely suspects that Max was recently trying to run into the Speed Force again. Max admits this is true, saying his attempt will have to wait until after they sort out this mess. Wally and Barry arrive before too long, with Barry still dramatically carrying Iris’ body. And the issue ends with the Fraction releasing the over-the-top Miss Murder, whom they apparently captured from another world.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>This is still a fun story, even if it may not be written as tightly as I’d like. And despite the incredibly boring prospect of this Miss Murder person, I am still interested in seeing what’s going to happen with the Fraction and all this. Mostly, though, I am having a lot of fun with Bart and Wallace. They’re the comic relief this story needs and Adams has so far avoided the common mistake of making the comic reliefs completely inept.</div><div><br /></div><div>The next issue in this story is The Flash: One-Minute War Special #1. Bart doesn’t appear in it, but he does show up on the incredibly beautiful cover by Serg Acuña.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb-copjHSaxU71s_8wplsGFwrVSeOhzvbS1AgYmrgpI8L2y8XY29RS4eXyA25sXFk4i15huAIopo4ffFzpvs-8f-71Ypss0QTdnCm8YTiXVHmJWx0YWdIBi3BJ0SGLjf3ua8xwsmRLjMwW1TZMLect3teIMz6grImBPvQyfm_C5z6OjqJDqYq6c5as/s1146/5587E339-0B4E-48CF-9439-7777C03D2F43.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1146" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb-copjHSaxU71s_8wplsGFwrVSeOhzvbS1AgYmrgpI8L2y8XY29RS4eXyA25sXFk4i15huAIopo4ffFzpvs-8f-71Ypss0QTdnCm8YTiXVHmJWx0YWdIBi3BJ0SGLjf3ua8xwsmRLjMwW1TZMLect3teIMz6grImBPvQyfm_C5z6OjqJDqYq6c5as/s320/5587E339-0B4E-48CF-9439-7777C03D2F43.jpeg" width="209" /></a></div><br /><div>This should have been the cover of last issue. I imagine it’ll be the cover for the trade paperback of this story. I also wish Acuña had drawn all these covers. I want my comics to look like this, not the computer-generated schlock Taurin Clarke is giving us. Oh well. At least Roger Cruz is turning out decent work on the interior pages, even if he can never remember what Impulse’s gloves are supposed to look like.</div><div><br /></div><div>Next time, we’ll continue this One-Minute War in The Flash #792.</div>Dallinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12077214646519366484noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576434651382736087.post-89908505234784456602023-03-30T10:33:00.001-06:002023-03-30T10:33:39.171-06:00The Flash #790<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvBRydArMXu_zNHMILhFphb3lbn6VyZlQ3m13aP4cZB7gG3FOHh2rDL-UeE6TttKp5CMoOWmuVNJ78lP7fHjTMlS2rvqsStcmPCpB6WoT1gi4tY5yYsSd0Tf5C22_YTshJI6CAm7YuGJ43aDvVtZ0bF7BEPHlMEHEOBCHhxde0WaLVpP9p74sHqxoS/s2320/8907DB32-5CD5-4A00-A473-6CEF3F3062D6.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1507" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvBRydArMXu_zNHMILhFphb3lbn6VyZlQ3m13aP4cZB7gG3FOHh2rDL-UeE6TttKp5CMoOWmuVNJ78lP7fHjTMlS2rvqsStcmPCpB6WoT1gi4tY5yYsSd0Tf5C22_YTshJI6CAm7YuGJ43aDvVtZ0bF7BEPHlMEHEOBCHhxde0WaLVpP9p74sHqxoS/s320/8907DB32-5CD5-4A00-A473-6CEF3F3062D6.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div>The One-Minute War – Part One: Zero Point</div><div><br /></div><div>Script: Jeremy Adams</div><div>Pencils: Roger Cruz</div><div>Inks: Matt Banning & Wellington Dias</div><div>Colors: Luis Guerrero</div><div>Letters: Rob Leigh</div><div>Cover: Taurin Clarke</div><div>Variant Covers: Daniel Bayless, Ibrahim Moustafa, Taurin Clarke</div><div>Editor: Chris Rosa</div><div>Group Editor: Paul Kaminski</div><div><br /></div><div>Much to my surprise, Impulse is prominently featured front and center on our cover. He, Jay and Wally are trying to escape the fiery blast of a vague, alien-looking fighter jet. Unfortunately, I don’t like this cover. It looks too computery and bland. And that’s a major shame, since this is the beginning of a rather exciting story involving the entire Flash family, but this cover does not convey that at all. It’s just a generic computer-generated explosion without any context or drama. I really wish Roger Cruz could have drawn the cover, because he has an exciting, dynamic style that would have been a whole lot better here. None of the variant covers feature Bart, so we’ll just head straight into the story.</div><div><br /></div><div>We open with a race of aliens called the Fraction approaching Earth in a ship that’s shaped like a gigantic arrow. We know they’re working for an empress and they are being guided by an invisible force toward what they call a “tributary.” We also know that they pride themselves in being able to conquer worlds before the inhabitants have a chance to fight back.</div><div><br /></div><div>We then check in on the West family. Linda is pregnant again and Jai and Irey are happily running around the backyard as Wally hosts a barbecue for some of his non-speedster friends. But the party is interrupted by a strange sound and the feeling of static electricity on the wind. Elsewhere, Max Mercury is attempting once again to run into the Speed Force. He didn’t tell anyone he was going to do this, rationalizing that Bart will understand. Max even speculates that if he fails, and merely jumps in the future again, he’ll probably end up seeing Bart anyway. Fortunately, Max aborts his attempt at the sight of the gigantic arrow poking down through the clouds.</div><div><br /></div><div>Jesse Quick, meanwhile, is fighting a random lion-person with Hourman when time suddenly freezes for everyone except her. Kid Flash is also busy fighting crime, just about to beat up some low-level smugglers, when Impulse interrupts the operation by zooming across the river, saying, “Hey, guys! Miss me?” Yes, Bart. We <i>did</i> miss you. Anyway, Bart promptly takes out all the criminals before Wallace has a chance to react.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6gm4DHWRtkDRxwCGJTfeAFW6x4RJLgtmtav26ieQHi6UVFNiFB7aceZVhYm3o-GA2Bur-Xp3HstCAUciBdBzVNhQbqpm0ioc4A1bwnn9HrZBpr38lsyeFcQq8aU1SY4-X_9E-4QNvsidGZO6nsQ00cZ_tIt1rxSSvWF1uzHF101E0yFfn61OnuDh1/s1204/68A76226-AAA3-4F11-9238-5FF0DDD5C002.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1204" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6gm4DHWRtkDRxwCGJTfeAFW6x4RJLgtmtav26ieQHi6UVFNiFB7aceZVhYm3o-GA2Bur-Xp3HstCAUciBdBzVNhQbqpm0ioc4A1bwnn9HrZBpr38lsyeFcQq8aU1SY4-X_9E-4QNvsidGZO6nsQ00cZ_tIt1rxSSvWF1uzHF101E0yFfn61OnuDh1/s320/68A76226-AAA3-4F11-9238-5FF0DDD5C002.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div>Wallace complains that this was his bust, and Bart pretends he didn’t see him there. As Wallace keeps whining, Bart jokingly confirms that these were actually bad guys, saying, “You can only capture innocent groups so many times.” But Wallace won’t let the matter drop, accusing Bart of intentionally showing him up, perhaps because he’s mad that he’s not Kid Flash anymore. Bart tells Wallace not to flatter himself, pointing out he’s already been Kid Flash and has decided that the color yellow doesn’t work with his complexion. Wallace insists that Bart’s jealous, but Bart says Wallace is the only one here who’s jealous. Bart’s playful teasing is then interrupted by the sight of the gigantic arrow descending on the city.</div><div><br /></div><div>We then cut to Jay Garrick, who’s drinking alone in a bar, lamenting the death of some of his old friends. And we finally catch up with Barry Allen, who’s having a fancy dinner with Iris, who seems like she’s about to propose to him. Time freezes for everyone except Barry, followed shortly by the arrow hitting the city and causing a huge explosion. And I do mean huge. This arrow/ship/tower thing is as large as half the city. And the blast from its impact knocks down all our speedsters, regardless of where they are. When Barry pulls himself out of the rubble, he is horrified to see Iris is seemingly dead. I mean, with time frozen, Barry can’t really check her pulse or anything, but it still looks pretty bad.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Well, it’s taken a few years, but someone has finally found a place for Bart in this bloated and ever-expanding Flash family: obnoxious big brother to Wallace. And I love it! Bart has never had a little brother and it’s great to see him have someone to playfully tease. Of course, I’m always going to be wondering about Bart’s civilian life — I really hoped he’d go back to Manchester, Alabama, with Max. But I really did like the little bit of Bart we got here. And the Fraction is an interesting concept. Generic name, and generic designs of the aliens, but a nice idea of using super speed to conquer an entire world in under a minute. So I’m cautiously optimistic about this story.</div><div><br /></div><div>To be continued …</div>Dallinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12077214646519366484noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576434651382736087.post-76885648934682681782023-03-16T16:13:00.002-06:002023-03-16T16:13:15.118-06:00Year in Review: 2022<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAFA3E8qlA1bnt5Sual8nSXlsGh9ysQUAvy--1M7aR7kiuAavxW0e6ALV8dvfqDhvrYqGicjRjE97ZBDTKQeYGF44tDh3N494iEO7KQ7wiXnV7lhnZslqI4m22TlRn-HGwonYtduXM0YhBB4iX5aauD-2KKQgLDKPkAI7XwscFjbb67DlD0_IMZa9W/s2320/0C5762B2-FE3C-4FCF-A81B-F19B8226CB1F.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1505" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAFA3E8qlA1bnt5Sual8nSXlsGh9ysQUAvy--1M7aR7kiuAavxW0e6ALV8dvfqDhvrYqGicjRjE97ZBDTKQeYGF44tDh3N494iEO7KQ7wiXnV7lhnZslqI4m22TlRn-HGwonYtduXM0YhBB4iX5aauD-2KKQgLDKPkAI7XwscFjbb67DlD0_IMZa9W/s320/0C5762B2-FE3C-4FCF-A81B-F19B8226CB1F.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div>The year 2022 saw an almost complete end of the two-year pandemic, which meant people went back to the theaters. Unfortunately, most of the movies they saw were either sequels or reboots. In fact, nine of the 10 highest grossing films of the year were sequels and the other one, The Batman, was a reboot. The king of the game was the long-awaited Avatar sequel, pulling in more than $2 billion. Marvel’s sequels for Doctor Strange, Black Panther and Thor all earned more than $760 million. And poor little DC could only muster one hit this year with The Batman. Black Adam and Super Pets were both pretty ugly, disappointing films.</div><div><br /></div><div>It’s rather strange for me to be reviewing a year that ended less than three months ago, but that’s the joy I have with being nearly caught up to real time. And I would be completely caught up if I didn’t take a few months off after the birth of my second son. But now he’s nearly a year old and his older brother is about to turn 3, which makes things a little easier for me to write these little posts. And most of them are quite little these days, as Bart is almost always merely a side character wherever he shows up. There are a couple of exceptions, though.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Best Story: <a href="http://bartallenimpulse.blogspot.com/2022/06/earth-prime-flash-5.html" target="_blank">Earth-Prime: The Flash #5</a></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Impulse made a few appearances in Young Justice: Phantoms this year, along with a smattering of episodes on The Flash, a couple of random comics and, most of all, the disastrous Dark Crisis: Young Justice miniseries. But only one story made me genuinely happy. Earth-Prime: The Flash #5 was an honest-to-goodness classic Impulse story — the first we’ve had in 20 years. Even though it took place in the awful CW continuity, this issue captured everything that was fun and delightful about Impulse’s solo series from so long ago. I’m really sad I couldn’t put one of the Dark Crisis issues here, especially since those tried so hard to make Bart smart and powerful. But they were just too painful to read for a whole host of reasons.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Best Writers: Jess Carson and Emily Palizzi</b></div><div><br /></div><div>For the first time, this award goes to two writers. That’s not because there’s a tie or anything, but just because the two of them wrote the best story of the year. Unlike Meghan Fitzmartin, Carson and Palizzi clearly did their research. They know exactly who Impulse is and what makes him great. Heck, they even brought back Evil Eye! I really hope the two of them get to write more Impulse stories soon.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Best Artist: Todd Nauck</b></div><div><br /></div><div>My favorite artist claims this award for the fifth time, purely for the work of two variant covers. It might not be entirely fair, but nobody else really grabbed my attention. Well, Laura Braga did, but for all the wrong reasons. Nauck’s covers, however, were gorgeous, exciting and wonderfully nostalgic. He somehow managed to fit every single major Young Justice character on those covers without making them feel cramped or crowded. And most of all, Nauck told a story with those covers that I really wish Fitzmartin and Braga would have told.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Best Supporting Characters: Chameleon Boy and Saturn Girl</b></div><div><br /></div><div>In another first, I’m giving this award to two characters. That’s because — as far as Bart was concerned — Chameleon Boy and Saturn Girl were essentially one person. They were always together with Bart, doing the exact same thing. And they did have a pretty fun adventure in space together. Granted, most of their interactions took place off screen, but they did spend several months together, working in secret to try to save the universe and the future. Yes, Dark Crisis did reunite Bart with his oldest and best friends, but they were all pretty big jerks to Bart that whole story. And none of them really apologized to him. But he somehow had to apologize to Cassie? I don’t know. It was a big mess. Another strong contender for this award was Bart’s CW sister, Nora. She was constantly by his side both on the show and in the comics, but usually as the bossy big sister, constantly lecturing Bart to be less impulsive. I guess I ultimately place more value in watching Chameleon Boy and Saturn Girl strategically seek out Bart because of his expertise in time travel, opposed to XS babysitting her brother because she has to.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Best Villain: Mickey Mxyzptlk </b></div><div><br /></div><div>Yes, yes, I know, Dark Crisis: Young Justice was a hot mess. And the original Mr. Mxyzptlk would have been a much better choice than inventing a son for him. But Mickey was a truly formidable foe, who impacted Bart much more than Evil Eye or Magog or even Lor-Zod. Mickey sent Bart to an alternate dimension, forcing him to reach deeper into his power set than we’ve ever seen before to not only escape, but also ensnare his captor. But mostly I liked how Mickey accurately tapped into the pain of old Young Justice fans like me, who have seen our favorite characters constantly get pushed aside by the company that produces them. Yeah, Fitzmartin could have written Mickey better, but he truly was the biggest obstacle for Impulse in the year 2022.</div><div><br /></div><div>Next time, we’ll dive into our current year of 2023, which gives us the triumphant return of Impulse to the Flash books! Sure, he’s still just a minor character, easily lost in the shuffle of the ever-growing Flash family, but at least he’s there! I don’t know what will happen after the One-Minute War, but I’ll try to keep covering it as it happens.</div>Dallinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12077214646519366484noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576434651382736087.post-55051572010777897232023-03-13T12:35:00.002-06:002023-03-13T12:35:48.404-06:00Dark Crisis: Young Justice #6<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz9aLy4QmnFhQtRzMAx-H_6GZnvveIgpCJ0-h5qdPLvWhNQVFR2LUCTey_41SykZgLMzVC_OO8fq3I7z1_SOdg-Jl1TGk88FJjUhaFXrwMRMOE1UPYh8PG0dV3AFlWALmjlky4-1xct6dwShL2_zp8IESpeQudAxwEcpyh_VVG0dL_-froJwj-5IUH/s2320/E88ECA6F-3395-496D-A947-C6A244BE84D9.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1509" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz9aLy4QmnFhQtRzMAx-H_6GZnvveIgpCJ0-h5qdPLvWhNQVFR2LUCTey_41SykZgLMzVC_OO8fq3I7z1_SOdg-Jl1TGk88FJjUhaFXrwMRMOE1UPYh8PG0dV3AFlWALmjlky4-1xct6dwShL2_zp8IESpeQudAxwEcpyh_VVG0dL_-froJwj-5IUH/s320/E88ECA6F-3395-496D-A947-C6A244BE84D9.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div>Youth Ends</div><div><br /></div><div>Meghan Fitzmartin Writer</div><div>Laura Braga Artist</div><div>Luis Guerrero Colors</div><div>Pat Brosseau Letters</div><div>Max Dunbar & Luis Guerrero Cover</div><div>Jorge Corona & Sarah Stern Variant Cover</div><div>Dave Wielgosz Editor</div><div>Ben Abernathy Group Editor</div><div>Superboy created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.</div><div>By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.</div><div><br /></div><div>Our cover is a supremely disappointing way to wrap up an absolute mess of a miniseries. It honestly feels like Dunbar just phoned this one in. Every single character looks bored, uninterested, ugly and all around … off. And putting them in front of the Hall of Justice implies that Young Justice will actually participate in the Dark Crisis event. Spoiler alert: They will not. Not in this issue or any of the Dark Crisis issues. Deep sigh. This has been a very frustrating experience.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYXaBbAH7Pfs6v2SN0zea6d6-8CWYyiWuwC2kmoSYDxE3neelG1flo1WL3GymtH2TtYG1Sr3Aa9aSw1ye98bNSeDpKwxpyfXrWpkfsIwg38L5DpmUrkmSFqheOLHXLmfCM8HVPUCwwB6Bwq5XCyFqsvxl9oInYrK3zbgCcMX72RET3SReY7UmeYtDq/s1920/06B69F27-7761-4BA2-890A-98E64BE21E79.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1248" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYXaBbAH7Pfs6v2SN0zea6d6-8CWYyiWuwC2kmoSYDxE3neelG1flo1WL3GymtH2TtYG1Sr3Aa9aSw1ye98bNSeDpKwxpyfXrWpkfsIwg38L5DpmUrkmSFqheOLHXLmfCM8HVPUCwwB6Bwq5XCyFqsvxl9oInYrK3zbgCcMX72RET3SReY7UmeYtDq/s320/06B69F27-7761-4BA2-890A-98E64BE21E79.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div>Contrary to the credits, this variant cover is actually by Todd Nauck. (It is fitting that we’d get one more editorial mistake before the end.) I absolutely love this cover. And it almost breaks my heart by showing me what I wished this series would have been — a story that brought back Secret and Empress and Slobo and Fite ‘n Maad and Cissie’s mom and Riproar and Harm and Dante and Dis and the exploding Mount Rushmore and everything that made the Peter David/Todd Nauck series so rich and wonderful. Well, this series may have let me down, but at least it did give me some great variant covers.</div><div><br /></div><div>Our story picks up in Happy Harbor, Rhode Island, where Red Tornado, Impulse, Wonder Girl, Robin, Superboy and Cissie King-Jones are shocked to see that Mickey Mxyzptlk has followed them back to the real world. Cassie is our narrator once again, and she vows to not lose her friends again after working so hard to get them back. She uses an unprintable swear word to describe Mickey, saying she doesn’t care how powerful he is. Oddly, though, she tells her team they can’t let Mickey escape … even though he just followed them there and has made no indication that he wants to leave. But Robin agrees with Wonder Girl, saying the amount of damage Mickey could cause to the world is too great to risk. He starts barking out orders, while Bart quietly whispers something to Cassie.</div><div><br /></div><div>Suddenly, Robin loses the ability to speak as his mouth seemingly disappears. So instead of attacking Mickey, everybody stands around watching, while Cassie lectures him. She calls him a child, who remakes worlds in his image because he doesn’t like free will. Mickey doesn’t deny this, explaining that he saw how Pariah faked the deaths of the Justice Leauge so they could live out their fantasies. Mickey then “siphoned” off some of Pariah’s power (I guess?) to give his favorite heroes the world they deserve. This information about Pariah and the Justice League is news to our heroes, since this miniseries hasn’t dealt with the Dark Crisis event at all.</div><div><br /></div><div>Right on cue, Red Tornado reports an S.O.S. call from the Hall of Justice, but Cassie insists on staying put and battling the “hateful, spiteful brat.” She wildly says Young Justice is just as strong as Mickey, but Cissie reasonably points out that they’re little more than a ragtag group of misfits. Conner reminds her that the only way anyone’s defeated Mr. Mxyzptlk was to get him to say his name backward (thank you for remembering to say <i>backward</i>!), but they don’t think Mickey will fall for that trick. Mickey tells Conner not to bother reasoning with Cassie since she’s just a girl and she’s only ever brought them down.</div><div><br /></div><div>We then get a flashback to just seconds earlier, when Bart was whispering to Cassie. Turns out he lent her some of his speed to slow things down for just the two of them. Bart tells Cassie he has a plan, but he needs her to distract Mickey. And Bart wisely picked Cassie for this job because he’s picked up on Mickey’s misogyny. He asks Cassie to make fun of Mickey and challenge him, while promising her that he actually does have a plan despite his goofy reputation. Cassie tells Bart he was always smarter than they gave him credit for and she’s glad that he’s stepping up, since he makes a good leader. </div><div><br /></div><div>Bart, however, rejects the compliment, saying this experience has shown him that he and the others didn’t always treat Cassie great. He says he was initially scared a new girl would change them and get in the way of a good thing. So he — and Conner and Tim — treated her like a third wheel. But Bart now tells Cassie that she’s more than the three of them put together. He sadly says he hopes this isn’t the end of Young Justice, because <i>she</i> makes a great leader. (And once again, I have no idea where Fitzmartin is coming up with this revisionist history.)</div><div><br /></div><div>We cut back to the present, with Cassie openly mocking Mickey, suggesting he lives in an interdimensional basement. Cissie wisely warns against antagonizing an omnipotent foe, while Red Tornado and Superboy stupidly say they need to abandon this fight to help everyone else out at the Hall of Justice. Mickey makes fun of Red Tornado and Superboy, pointing out that even if they do go and help defeat the villain of Dark Crisis, they won’t be appreciated and won’t be called on until the next universe-breaking villain. He (rather accurately) prophesies that Young Justice will be forgotten again after Dark Crisis ends. Superboy then says, “Great. He’s growing.” And Wonder Girl says, “Finally ate his veggies.” But the artwork doesn’t show or suggest Mickey turning into a giant or anything like that.</div><div><br /></div><div>Cassie says she’s willing to risk being forgotten again if it means being nothing like Mickey. She adds that he’ll never be anything like his heroes, so Mickey decides to go full-villain mode with the dark line, “So be it.” Cissie is turned into stone (except for her head, for whatever reason), the mouthless Robin has now become green (whatever that does), Superboy says he’s become invisible (even though he’s just transparent) and Red Tornado is now human. Mickey tells Cassie that she made him do this, to which she responds with a “Now, Impulse!”</div><div><br /></div><div>Impulse suddenly appears, issuing a lame, “Not so fast, Mickey!” He says even a child knows that no one <i>makes</i> anyone do anything. Between Bart’s hands is a bit of taffy-like energy in the shape of an infinity sign, and I’d guess it’s rather difficult for him to hold it, but the art isn’t helping too much. Cassie says, “Get ’im, Bart” as he tries to push the infinity symbol on Mickey, dropping another lame line about giving the villain a time out. Mickey recognizes this piece of energy as a quantum entanglement trap, designed to keep him in a quantum echo chamber between atoms.</div><div><br /></div><div>Unfortunately, Bart tells Cassie that he’s not strong enough to hold the trap together and they need more people. Mickey destroys the trap with a simple kick, saying he never bothered taking away Bart’s powers because, despite what his friends say, he’s nothing. Mickey vows to break them all one by one, prompting Wonder Girl to order Red Tornado and Impulse to protect the immobile Cissie and Robin, while she looks for Superboy. Robin is now fused to a stone, or something, and covered with vines. Impulse advises Red Tornado to stay out of the line of fire since he’s human now, but he still insists on shielding Cissie from Mickey.</div><div><br /></div><div>Superboy realizes that nobody can see him or hear him (even though we never saw him attempt to communicate with his friends), and his powers are also gone, too. Conner can only watch helplessly as Cassie attacks Mickey with her … heat vision?! When did she get <i>that</i> power?! Oh, and Cissie suddenly isn’t a statue anymore and starts shooting arrows at Mickey. Anyway, Conner remembers how small and helpless Cassie seemed when he first met her, but she quickly proved she didn’t need his help. In fact, Conner realizes, Cassie didn’t need any of them, but she chose them all the same. And now he feels like they let her down. I have no idea how or why they let her down, but that’s what Bart and Conner are feeling right now.</div><div><br /></div><div>Mickey knocks Wonder Girl out of the sky, but Superboy actually catches her. He apologizes to her and promises to never hurt her again. And even though Superboy thought nobody could hear him, Cassie does hear him, but she still can’t see him. Conner tells Cassie she deserved a better first love than him, as Mickey transforms into a giant snake, causing Bart to yell out, “I hate snakes!” Cassie quotes Game of Thrones by saying you don’t get to choose who you love and for better or worse, Conner played a part in making her the woman she is today.</div><div><br /></div><div>Cissie is suddenly a statue again, and she cries out for help when the ground starts shaking. Red Tornado helps her again and Impulse saves the plant-like Robin once more, complaining that he can’t leave him alone for one minute. Mickey then finally turns himself into a giant, gloating that Young Justice can’t win. Cassie says he doesn’t really believe that. Even though everyone else takes them for granted, Cassie says Mickey knows more than anyone what they’re capable of, which is why he split them up. She says that he wouldn’t be able to defeat them if they were together and had their powers. Mickey says he’s not afraid of these barely primitive beings, so Bart challenges him to bring them all back to full power. Mickey actually agrees, saying he’ll prove just how weak they really are. With a snap of his fingers, everyone is back to normal.</div><div><br /></div><div>Bart cries out, “Young Justice, grab the symbol!” Suddenly, everyone is “holding” the quantum entanglement trap, which is now much larger and centered directly on Mickey. The imp says he destroyed the trap, but Bart simply says energy can’t be created or destroyed, even by someone like Mickey. Bart explains that once he knew he needed the strength of others, he hid the trap in the Speed Force and waited until Mickey was cocky enough to give everyone back their powers. Bart reasoned that Mickey may be too smart to say his name backward, but he can’t escape physics. The trap is an atom split in two, responding to itself like an echo chamber, which Bart felt was most appropriate for Mickey. Suddenly, the imp is … I don’t know … sucked into the split atom? Well, whatever happened, he’s gone now.</div><div><br /></div><div>Conner asks if they basically sent Mickey to the Phantom Zone, and Bart says this trap is even more finite and infinitesimal. He starts to reference an article he read about string theory and splitting a laser beam, but Conner cuts him off, saying all he cares is that Mickey is trapped. Red Tornado says they should now hurry off to join the fight at the Hall of Justice and Bart triumphantly says, “Young Justice prevails!” But Tim realizes he hasn’t apologized to Cassie yet. He says he’s sorry for hooking up with her after Conner died, explaining that he didn’t understand what he was feeling at the time. Cassie says some things get clearer with age and they aren’t the same kids they were back then. Of course, she admits they probably weren’t ever really kids, but she vows to make sure the next generation doesn’t go through what they did. And with that, they rush off to allegedly join the big final battle of Dark Crisis.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsjSyrcqxdkBt3V9LfUD24ewvfmxJiisQJ1DDKEhiLJNy1u5t6ZT8Qcr7U2DUF-4Xja4P4im50w7fHagAWxhnYTLDqZsgCjNOCB99rRKJdulkJG3g2j9uop4-HFNOMOaSYpuNpiyHKUksimBTwxh_v0zjAI1Nub7492QMKMBncDw32Eb0hsPu2sa1y/s2320/603E32A3-1180-4EC1-9E40-9304A08EE42E.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1506" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsjSyrcqxdkBt3V9LfUD24ewvfmxJiisQJ1DDKEhiLJNy1u5t6ZT8Qcr7U2DUF-4Xja4P4im50w7fHagAWxhnYTLDqZsgCjNOCB99rRKJdulkJG3g2j9uop4-HFNOMOaSYpuNpiyHKUksimBTwxh_v0zjAI1Nub7492QMKMBncDw32Eb0hsPu2sa1y/s320/603E32A3-1180-4EC1-9E40-9304A08EE42E.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div>This story technically is concluded in Dark Crisis #7, but I won’t be covering it. Young Justice only shows up in the background after all the fighting has finished and Superboy literally asks what they missed. Their lack of involvement in that massive event was even worse than what Mickey predicted. Not like this miniseries actually cared about Dark Crisis. Or the Brian Michael Bendis run. Or the Peter David run. Or general cohesion and logical sense.</div><div><br /></div><div>I think I’ll start there. This story — especially this issue — was a disjointed mess. I have never seen artwork this disconnected from the story. The most glaring example of this was the page where Cassie was still a stone statue at the top of the page, but then was totally fine at the bottom and firing off arrows like normal. And then two pages later, she was a statue again. Did Laura Braga just not know what Meghan Fitzmartin was doing or what? Because apart from being lazy, rushed and uninspiring, this art made the story more difficult to understand. And there was so much to be confused by.</div><div><br /></div><div>The most confusing thing of this issue was how Bart, Conner and Tim were all tripping over each other to apologize to Cassie. And I have no idea why. They dropped some empty words about treating her like a third wheel, but that never really happened. Bart said he was worried about having a girl crash their boys club, even though one of the very first things Young Justice did was rescue a girl named Secret. Did Fitzmartin merely glance at that early cover of Young Justice where the boys were hiding behind a “No girls allowed” sign and extrapolate a whole history of abuse and neglect slung at Wonder Girl. Meghan, if you’d actually read the issues, you’d know that cover was a joke! Cassie was never mistreated by the boys! They helped her gain confidence, find her voice and even become leader of the team!</div><div><br /></div><div>And was it so bad that Tim hooked up with Cassie after Conner died? Tim didn’t force himself on her. She willingly and knowingly agreed to go out with him. And, by the way, Meghan, this was another topic that was thoroughly dealt with in past issues. We didn’t need to rehash all that drama or present a Superboy that had mysteriously forgotten all that. It’s almost like Fitzmartin was desperate to make a scathing commentary on the past but couldn’t find any strong examples to work with. So she manufactured some. All for this moment where the three boys would sorrowfully come to Cassie on their knees and she would bravely say the trauma she endured under their neglect has only made her stronger. If you ask me, she should at least apologize for acting like a jerk to them in the first issue and wishing they were dead. But that’s just me.</div><div><br /></div><div>I really wish we would have spent more time exploring Mickey’s point of view. He’s a lot like Superboy-Prime, but more focused on this specific problem of DC unceremoniously dumping off certain characters and replacing them with hot, new, shiny ones. I think it’s a perfectly valid complaint that deserved more room to discuss. Obviously, Mickey’s homophobic and misogynistic views are what prevents him from being a fully sympathetic character. But we could have had a real fun time talking about the power of nostalgia and the dangers of indulging too much in it. Instead, we engaged in repetitive arguments and apologies fueled by revisionist history.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now let’s talk about Bart. I like how he was the most serious and most clever hero in this miniseries. And he even got to sort of act like the leader of the team. All that is great stuff. In fact, it feels long overdue. But did Fitzmartin accidentally make him too powerful? The new abilities he displayed in this miniseries rival the overpowered time-traveling scouts he had back in the day. Bart now has the ability to locate specific individuals based on their unique “vibrations” and send messages to them, even if they’re in another dimension. He can also casually freeze time for at least one other person with him, and he can create impossible-to-explain “quantum traps.” And yes, that didn’t make at all. And it made even less sense when Bart’s non-speedster friends were also able to hold that trap and add power to it. I guess Fitzmartin just REALLY wanted to banish that internet troll to an echo chamber, no matter what.</div><div><br /></div><div>Well, I should probably stop ranting now. No sense in beating a dead horse. As much as I hated this miniseries, I actually hope DC will quickly build off this. Revive the Young Justice series. Make Impulse the leader. Answer some basic continuity questions. And keep this creative team far away from it. No offense, Fitzmartin and Braga. I’m sure you’re perfectly lovely people. But I don’t want you working on my favorite characters anymore.</div><div><br /></div><div>And so that wraps up the turbulent year of 2022. Next time will be the Year in Review before heading into 2023 and Jeremy Adams’ One-Minute War.</div>Dallinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12077214646519366484noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576434651382736087.post-86108357740470118032023-03-03T12:18:00.000-07:002023-03-03T12:18:02.118-07:00Young Justice: Targets #6<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzhWM7gwogepv8jOlV-c_OXsFbSv1fV33RcZKP7aaQWfTl6fsqAiV_NybxQK_sgtKEeb847s9pUX7EUIs_csuaj2Wdp5f_Tnm7U1g1-HZIKmAIOcISjrQ0a93UJ9BSW9uthy0YcmFdNW-djxUtP6QA8FHmw0PVo2NBGlLzOmUakWkcQ5aFPClfBgDK/s2320/7163A2A7-D9AC-4E45-8E2C-11CD33D11DDC.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzhWM7gwogepv8jOlV-c_OXsFbSv1fV33RcZKP7aaQWfTl6fsqAiV_NybxQK_sgtKEeb847s9pUX7EUIs_csuaj2Wdp5f_Tnm7U1g1-HZIKmAIOcISjrQ0a93UJ9BSW9uthy0YcmFdNW-djxUtP6QA8FHmw0PVo2NBGlLzOmUakWkcQ5aFPClfBgDK/s320/7163A2A7-D9AC-4E45-8E2C-11CD33D11DDC.jpeg" width="207" /></a></div><br /><div>Yesterday’s Children: Memory Six</div><div><br /></div><div>Writer: Greg Weisman</div><div>Artist: Christopher Jones</div><div>Colorist: Jason Wright</div><div>Letterer: Wes Abbott</div><div>Editor: Ben Meares</div><div><br /></div><div>Our cover by Christopher Jones and Jason Wright is once again extraordinarily bland. Heroes posing like action figures in front of a void of shiny lights. Comics like this don’t have to be so boring and generic. They really could have done something deep and interesting and artistically engaging with this series. But they took the easy route and this is why we can’t have nice things.</div><div><br /></div><div>The main story wraps up as predictably as one would expect, with absolutely no help from Kid Flash. You can barely see him as a tiny whirlwind fighting Lex-bots in one panel. I almost would have skipped reviewing this issue entirely if it weren’t for the backup story, which includes a flashback to Wally West’s funeral.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-VCY5TtIbCHzFtaEF2DCSxbJ2s7seBAieo7fhtmF0qWYYb6dFTNKvdQjY1CycJdhv6lxPABpGNYq68szIlseOupoSQjwWFVISY8w1d2TA24G2nVirSm9GPav4tm40By69S8i93tieef_dpXxysQq_AYsC5xeTdrAszSdS49Eum97YjWcxinhxCfp3/s2073/87FF3066-EB12-4C9F-BF0E-4816786D30E9.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="976" data-original-width="2073" height="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-VCY5TtIbCHzFtaEF2DCSxbJ2s7seBAieo7fhtmF0qWYYb6dFTNKvdQjY1CycJdhv6lxPABpGNYq68szIlseOupoSQjwWFVISY8w1d2TA24G2nVirSm9GPav4tm40By69S8i93tieef_dpXxysQq_AYsC5xeTdrAszSdS49Eum97YjWcxinhxCfp3/s320/87FF3066-EB12-4C9F-BF0E-4816786D30E9.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div>We can see Bart in the front row, far left. He’s next to a very pregnant Iris, accompanied by Barry and the Garricks. Bart doesn’t do or say anything here, but I appreciated seeing this moment that the show neglected. I also like how nobody’s wearing their superhero costumes. I always think that’s a bit tacky at funerals.</div><div><br /></div><div>So that wraps up my very brief coverage of the extremely underwhelming Young Justice: Targets miniseries. Next time, I’ll conclude the much more complicated Dark Crisis: Young Justice.</div>Dallinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12077214646519366484noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576434651382736087.post-10972891082480346982023-03-02T16:55:00.003-07:002023-03-02T16:55:57.992-07:00Dark Crisis: Young Justice #5<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFViunF6Ik26QC_-BR5nWCimcKxVdyIFBSTojrzFjtfI-oJg3B2jPZuoiS420O-rMuKOZVpcICsNZFeB5mpe9X3lTeMwdMY86Wjp8OBpAttsEoT2J8w1GEZQL-Dd76YxeP28hps4XSplZ4g_wai93X2fUAzd8DmjBY55olGKoOFX4jqP_Jvy_Vf4zV/s2320/B144A74F-80FA-4DFE-94D7-F09089068570.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1503" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFViunF6Ik26QC_-BR5nWCimcKxVdyIFBSTojrzFjtfI-oJg3B2jPZuoiS420O-rMuKOZVpcICsNZFeB5mpe9X3lTeMwdMY86Wjp8OBpAttsEoT2J8w1GEZQL-Dd76YxeP28hps4XSplZ4g_wai93X2fUAzd8DmjBY55olGKoOFX4jqP_Jvy_Vf4zV/s320/B144A74F-80FA-4DFE-94D7-F09089068570.jpeg" width="207" /></a></div><br /><div>Don’t Meet Your Heroes</div><div><br /></div><div>Meghan Fitzmartin Writer</div><div>Laura Braga Artist</div><div>Luis Guerrero Colorist</div><div>Josh Reed Letters</div><div>Max Dunbar & Luis Guerrero Cover</div><div>Belén Ortega & Tomeu Morley Variant Cover</div><div>Dave Wielgosz Editor</div><div>Ben Abernathy Group Editor</div><div>Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.</div><div>Superboy created by Jerry Siegel.</div><div>By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.</div><div><br /></div><div>Our cover prominently displays the main villain of this miniseries. Like any good villain, he thinks he’s the hero. He looks decent enough, but our heroes … not so much. Especially Superboy. Why can’t Dunbar draw him well? It’s such a downer on all his covers. The variant, as usual, is much better. But it only focuses on Robin and doesn’t include Impulse on it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Our story picks up with Mickey introducing himself to Superboy, Robin and Impulse. He explains that he’s created the perfect world for his favorite heroes, complete with their best girl, Wonder Girl. Mickey says he considered bringing the real Cassie, but she’s gotten older and isn’t fun anymore. Impulse tells Mickey he doesn’t have the right to mess with them like this, and he tries to charge at the imp, but the ground opens up beneath him, revealing another horde of zombies. Mickey tells Bart that it’s okay to just be the comic relief — and for all of them to be the way they were when they were younger.</div><div><br /></div><div>As a pair of zombie hands wrap themselves around Robin’s neck, as Mickey asks his favorite heroes if they don’t miss the old glory days. Conner tries to help his friends, but he oddly begins crying out, “Where is my hand?!” Even though it is clearly still attached to his wrist and looks completely normal. Tim is choking and Bart is being dragged down to the center of the Earth. And Mickey is droning on and on about how the glory days were robbed from them. He conjures images of Flash, Batman and Superman, saying these were the people who brought them up and promised them the world, but then left them to rot, replacing them with new protégés. Mickey then brings up Wallace West, Damian Wayne and Jon Kent, asking how Bart, Tim and Conner are supposed to compete with them, especially seeing as how two of them are literally their mentors’ sons.</div><div><br /></div><div>Bart speculates that Mickey is doing all this because his dad, the real Mxyzptlk, didn’t give him enough love. Conner points out that Tim is dying, but Mickey ignores him, explaining that his dad had promised to grant him control of the fifth dimension once this generation of heroes took over. But sadly, Mickey says, their generation wasn’t set up for success and were repeatedly brought down. He brings up Deathstroke, Lex Luthor and Captain Boomerang, saying he presented them to his heroes as a gift — a chance to take out the people who caused the most damage in their lives. Mickey says their mentors never gave them that — they just said suck it up and move on.</div><div><br /></div><div>Conner tells Mickey that he’s on the verge of killing two of his childhood heroes, so Mickey reluctantly releases Bart and Tim. As usual, Conner is more concerned with Tim than Bart, who asks how they can send this “toddler” back home to his daddy. Mickey angrily says he’s the only one who’s trying to help the Young Justice founders. He says their generation has been replaced by people he believes don’t have any right to be there. Mickey conjures images of all the prominent LGBTQ heroes in the DC Universe, including Tim’s new boyfriend, Bernard. He says he doesn’t care about these heroes, going on adventures and telling stories he didn’t ask for. Mickey even calls these new heroes ingrates, who haven’t had to work as hard as his childhood favorites, who have constantly been killed, removed from the timeline or simply forgotten about. And Mickey says he’s sick of never seeing his favorites again.</div><div><br /></div><div>Our heroes are stunned by this … well, slightly homophobic rant. Bart asks if that’s what Mickey thinks of them, and Tim even swears. Conner tries to reason with Mickey, saying they were never about … that. Bart admits they’ve had a rough go, but he says those other heroes have, too, and they’re not any less important than heroes who’ve been around longer. Tim angrily says that you don’t get to tell people they don’t belong or shouldn’t exist. He insists they all make the world better. Mickey darkly responds with, “Never meet your heroes,” and ominously snaps his fingers.</div><div><br /></div><div>It’s hard to tell what, exactly, happens next. There’s a lot of shwooms and fwooms and … I don’t know, fire? Energy? Lightning? Well, whatever it is, it’s more than enough to spook Superboy, who, for the first time in four issues, asks how to get out of this fake world. Bart says they probably can’t leave, but he helps guide his teammates past the … uh … dangerous stuff? Anyway, Mickey keeps insisting he’s right, saying his heroes have shown him who he needs to be. Robin, in desperation, decides to throw a small bomb — not at Mickey — but at the fake Wonder Girl, who has done absolutely nothing this issue. We’re then treated to three very boring black panels that only say boom, crash and zip.</div><div><br /></div><div>When the lights go back on, the fake Wonder Girl has a suction-cup arrow stuck to her forehead. That arrow was fired by none other than Cissie King-Jones, who apparently still has trick arrows despite being retired. Cissie is naturally joined by Cassie, Red Tornado and Wonder Woman’s invisible jet. The boys slowly pull themselves off the ground and Bart says, “Finally.” He explains that when the sound waves were messed up (for a very brief, inconsequential amount of time last issue), he decided to try messing with sound waves himself by vibrate a sign to Cassie. Inexplicably, Bart claims that every person has their own frequency, and he’s spent enough time with Cassie to know what that frequency is. Alrighty then.</div><div><br /></div><div>Cassie apologizes for taking so long to get to Mickey’s world because it took her a while to recognize Bart’s message. She adds that they needed an explosion to actually take them to the fake world, which conveniently happened when Robin threw his small bat bomb. OK. Whatever. Mickey is naturally upset by all this, but mostly because Impulse didn’t act like the dumb goofball. For the first time this miniseries, Tim finally comes to the defense of his friend … by … oddly saying that Bart knew his teammates, which means he knew one of them would try an explosion, which implies that Bart knew all along that an explosion was necessary to reach this interdimensional world. Yeah … sure. Anyway, Robin says Impulse is more than a sidekick and Superboy adds that he’d make a pretty smart leader. Bart sheepishly says, “Maybe one day…” </div><div><br /></div><div>The fake Wonder Girl abruptly charges at Cassie, who just … claps her hands and … maybe strikes the fake one with lightning? Again, the art is of absolutely no help here. And when the fake Wonder Girl fades away, the sound effect literally says the word “fade” — which isn’t much more help. Suffice it to say the fake Wonder Girl is gone and Cassie calls her friends “dweebs” for believing it was real. Instead of arguing that they’ve known she was fake for quite some time now, Bart, Tim and Conner merely apologize to Cassie. Luckily, she’s more glad to finally have them back than to be mad. At the moment.</div><div><br /></div><div>Cissie asks who the kid in the bad hat is, so Tim asks Mickey to say his name. Mickey, however, refuses to say his name, saying he can’t be easily tricked like his moron of a father. He then darkly says that none of them will get out of here alive, to which Robin confidently says they will because they’re Young Justice. Everyone begins to battle bland glowing orbs of goo, while Robin thinks to himself that the only way to defeat Mxyzptlk is to get him to say his name. Backwards. Robin (and Meghan Fitzmartin) forgot to add the backwards part to it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Bart, meanwhile, is thinking about a more productive topic: escape. He reasons that since he was able to send a message out to Cassie and she was able to inexplicably enter the world, then they must be able to leave. Bart decides to try escaping through the Speed Force, but to his astonishment, Mickey’s glow blobs are somehow eating the Speed Force.</div><div><br /></div><div>Meanwhile, Cissie finds herself enjoying shooting exploding arrows into the glow blobs. She admits that she missed her old friends, but regrets that she can’t tell that to Cassie. She oddly says it was too much before — being close to death and almost killing friends. Once again, I have no idea what she’s talking about, which is probably just another indicator that Fitzmartin never learned why Cissie quit being Arrowette.</div><div><br /></div><div>Superboy reports that Robin has somehow become trapped inside a glow blob — although we never saw that happen. Luckily, Conner’s able to free him with his tactile telekinesis and one of Cissie’s arrows. Superboy then notices that Impulse is seemingly frozen in place. Cassie is able to snap Bart out of his Speed Force trance and she asks him if he could get them out of there if he had a little more power, seemingly implying that she had the ability to grant him more power. Bart says, “I’ve been looking, but I can’t find an opening to take us through —” In the very next panel, literally, Cassie says, “How about you take us through the Speed Force?” Even though she said the <i>exact same thing </i>Bart was saying, Bart agrees that this plan might be possible.</div><div><br /></div><div>So Red Tornado and Superboy somehow give Impulse the boost he needs (don’t ask me how), while the others protect them from Mickey. A purple bubble surrounds our team, but I have no idea who created it or how or why. Anyway, Bart suddenly tells everyone to jump, and they leap through a yellow portal, landing back in the real world. Cassie says Hippolyta is going to kill her for leaving the invisible jet behind, and I am compelled to remind everyone that this miniseries began with Cassie mourning the death of Hippolyta and never once saying anything about her coming back to life.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, our heroes find themselves in the ruins of their former cave at Happy Harbor. I still don’t know what happened to it, since it seemed perfectly fine when Brian Michael Bendis ended his Young Justice run, but whatever. Cassie says they need to hurry back to the Hall of Justice, because everyone was getting ready for something big happening, and I’m wondering how she knew that since she’s spent the past day traveling to Themyscira and through space. But it’s a moot point, anyway, because Mickey Mxyzptlk suddenly arrives behind them.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy1BBwGhaibtnrxMFDqmlPQDC97JET3zeOOo5FUo131oc5r6oAZq5e6vUTQ7q7n-CCO-ViWYPmlhnLb5YVTfQBtMR75rWf2HjKIsbvtCKMIx20HEQHgtkW1C_o010Wt3YfaVl240wnzvJkaC_po5opsE2AZriY8vP2R1xlklgSTOfAdqU_tmdeaqzV/s2320/DCF13BC7-B75A-473F-8CFC-822F54741408.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1506" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy1BBwGhaibtnrxMFDqmlPQDC97JET3zeOOo5FUo131oc5r6oAZq5e6vUTQ7q7n-CCO-ViWYPmlhnLb5YVTfQBtMR75rWf2HjKIsbvtCKMIx20HEQHgtkW1C_o010Wt3YfaVl240wnzvJkaC_po5opsE2AZriY8vP2R1xlklgSTOfAdqU_tmdeaqzV/s320/DCF13BC7-B75A-473F-8CFC-822F54741408.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div>Well, we certainly have a lot to unpack here. Let’s begin with my complaints of general sloppiness. Braga’s art has become steadily worse throughout this miniseries, suggesting a rushed job to me. Bland, empty backgrounds. Stiff, repetitive poses and expressions that were likely copied and pasted. Incomprehensible action sequences. And a general lack of cohesion with the story. For example, if Superboy’s hand was supposed to disappear, then actually make it disappear!</div><div><br /></div><div>Fitzmartin’s writing also suffers from many of the same problems. Repetitive, bland and not cohesive with any sense of established history or just plain logic. Lots of things just happen in this issue. Without any rhyme or reason. How can Red Tornado’s whirlwinds and Superboy’s tactile telekinesis help Impulse open a portal to escape from an interdimensional world? Who cares? We’re going right through the Speed Force, even though we just barely said — one panel ago — that it was impossible to go through the Speed Force! I feel like I’m going crazy here.</div><div><br /></div><div>Bart’s talk of personal frequencies also bothered me. Yes, I did like how the previous issue set up that he was doing something sneaky and important. But this just didn’t make any sense. Especially since we didn’t get to see the exact nature of Bart’s message to Cassie. And being able to connect to other people’s frequencies is as nonsensical as it is creepy. I much would have preferred a true blast from the past and had Bart create an energy scout that could escape Mickey’s world. Bonus points if you show Bart talking about the inherent risks of creating a scout beforehand!</div><div><br /></div><div>But that’s not what this story is about. Fitzmartin isn’t concerned with the technical details of characters using their powers in a consistent manner. What she really wants to do is tell a story about the most toxic of fans who use nostalgia to cover up their bigotry. And that’s actually an interesting story to tell. I wish this story were a bit more refined, and I wish we got to this point earlier, rather than wasting time by clumsily trying to present old Young Justice stories as problematic. But we’re here now, and I actually kind of enjoy it.</div><div><br /></div><div>The beauty of this is that a lot of the things Mickey says are absolutely true. Bart and Conner were killed, then erased from reality, then — worst of all — were just forgotten about. Technically in continuity, but never appearing in any comics or even being mentioned. And Tim didn’t have it much easier, either, going through an awkward Red Robin phase, following an even more awkward (but mercifully brief) phase as Drake. But that’s what happens when new characters make the old ones redundant. And it genuinely hurts to see favorite characters get shoved aside. Of course, it’s a bit more complicated than that.</div><div><br /></div><div>This miniseries has talked a lot about becoming the next generation of heroes. But what does that actually look like? Dick Grayson, DC’s original sidekick, spent decades as Robin before becoming Nightwing, then had to wait a couple decades more before he finally became Batman. But that didn’t last very long. Wally West had a nice long run as the Flash, but once Barry Allen returned, he became redundant and had to suffer through years of his own personal limbo. Geoff Johns did try to grow up Young Justice. He put them on the Teen Titans with … mixed results. DC did let Bart Allen be the Flash, but they gave that series to the wrong creators and it was hastily aborted after just a year. So what I’m saying is it’s very rare and often fleeting for a sidekick to take the mantle of their mentor.</div><div><br /></div><div>Truthfully, I don’t think many fans of Conner, Tim and Bart ever wanted them to be Superman, Batman and the Flash. We just want more stories of them. So the whole argument that this series has been making over and over again has never had any weight to it. But Mickey’s lament of Young Justice being forgotten <i>does</i> strike a chord. It’s completely understandable to feel like Mickey from time to time. However, Mickey went too far by insisting the newer characters don’t deserve to exist. And he went <i>way too far </i>by specifically targeting the LGBTQ heroes.</div><div><br /></div><div>No, I don’t think Meghan Fitzmartin is arguing that <i>every</i> fan of Young Justice is a bigot like Mickey. But the worst, most toxic corners of the internet are full of people just like him. People who consistently only seem to complain about non-white, non-straight characters. People who won’t let themselves enjoy the incredible new stories being told about Jon Kent, Yara Flor, Nubia and all the rest. As much as I love and miss Impulse, I haven’t punished myself by taking on the attitude that everything new is awful. And all characters who don’t look like me don’t deserve to be printed. Some people are incapable of accepting that mindset. And that’s who Mickey represents.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is a rather interesting topic that deserves a lot of room to explore. Unfortunately, Fitzmartin waited until issue 5 of a 6-issue series to introduce it. This should have come up in the second issue, giving us plenty of time to discuss and debate complex ideas that actually resonate with the audience, rather than wasting time by repeating the same hollow arguments over and over again.</div><div><br /></div><div>Next time, we’ll take the quickest of quick looks at the finale of Young Justice: Targets.</div>Dallinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12077214646519366484noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576434651382736087.post-82089154652891358392023-02-27T10:09:00.000-07:002023-02-27T10:09:28.123-07:00Young Justice: Targets #5<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwKpWyfl0LsZE99WUtF5ijEEjOkQOpZqOt_0YJAUVuML7WsYAvqoqBy_--AL3dVxR2kwMeIsRDFcGlIWrWscPo4qYGc9tMoT1YV6lbZdxCP1wN2b2Dd7BwzOnX2XDhpRP4N0qManoM58Tk8-o_h_3dJ-z0y4IKBt6iL5DfXfh3WiWGFrhgef38LtLK/s2320/F9EB07BB-26A7-4C7E-8DA7-F87507A65848.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1505" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwKpWyfl0LsZE99WUtF5ijEEjOkQOpZqOt_0YJAUVuML7WsYAvqoqBy_--AL3dVxR2kwMeIsRDFcGlIWrWscPo4qYGc9tMoT1YV6lbZdxCP1wN2b2Dd7BwzOnX2XDhpRP4N0qManoM58Tk8-o_h_3dJ-z0y4IKBt6iL5DfXfh3WiWGFrhgef38LtLK/s320/F9EB07BB-26A7-4C7E-8DA7-F87507A65848.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div>“Metallic Aftertaste”</div><div><br /></div><div>Writer: Greg Weisman</div><div>Artist: Christopher Jones</div><div>Colorist: Jason Wright</div><div>Letterer: Wes Abbott</div><div>Cover: Jones & Wright</div><div>Variant Cover: Meghan Hetrick</div><div>Editor: Ben Meares</div><div>Senior Editor: Katie Kubert</div><div>Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster</div><div>Superboy created by Jerry Siegel</div><div>By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family</div><div><br /></div><div>Our cover is a rather bland and boring image of Superboy fighting Metallo. I’m a little disappointed that Weisman is focusing so much on Superboy right after Young Justice: Phantoms featured him so prominently. I’d prefer to see some love thrown to some of the other characters who are often overlooked in this bloated universe. But that’s just me. Also, to no one’s surprise, Kid Flash is not included on the variant cover, so I’ll skip it.</div><div><br /></div><div>We pick up with Kid Flash at Madinat Altharwati on November 11 at 22:42 UTC+2, in the tenth year since the formation of the Team. Static is apparently the leader of Mongoose Squad, which is tasked with the boring job of battling an endless army of Lex-bots, while Gorilla Squad does all the interesting stuff. Kid Flash tied up some robots with a whirlwind, but then he inexplicably took a hit from behind.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5bNBYeaOhu5O2BRTKAzCPg4eeQ5LL14zs0XObfKv7bG4i1zrU3O6yEHB41VoURG1WKbeZIk_mUReOoSD23wKzyAvaaW6uejBqvzorMteSYp8ti7Tf3H9wPXQs1DijrcYD-F-aacTKFteEiadO7CiteGPRPMSqKe09rP1PQ5AV6FBU0_Eyu6-YWlEy/s2078/97991766-52DE-4500-9561-06A67168A34C.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="2078" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5bNBYeaOhu5O2BRTKAzCPg4eeQ5LL14zs0XObfKv7bG4i1zrU3O6yEHB41VoURG1WKbeZIk_mUReOoSD23wKzyAvaaW6uejBqvzorMteSYp8ti7Tf3H9wPXQs1DijrcYD-F-aacTKFteEiadO7CiteGPRPMSqKe09rP1PQ5AV6FBU0_Eyu6-YWlEy/s320/97991766-52DE-4500-9561-06A67168A34C.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div>And that’s all we see of him this issue. As I mentioned previously, I consider this series to be a huge missed opportunity for Weisman. He created a massive, sprawling world with dozens of characters. But instead of exploring some of those untold stories, he stuck with the same old, same old.</div><div><br /></div><div>Next time, we’ll return to Dark Crisis: Young Justice #5.</div>Dallinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12077214646519366484noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576434651382736087.post-9713282180237608462023-02-24T09:58:00.000-07:002023-02-24T09:58:00.692-07:00Dark Crisis: Young Justice #4<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtfK86Fs9SY6W2TewnN44lE6Nv3OAvzPwwaKL_LF7a1qZgcfw-blBKTyktx_aRsjor3Tpgs63FdVvqhIq-gOiX54PkKDaaB_dA7oZvcOLFnvP6YxEvH9amVoRqESA0U14UqUwODzCEXuNh5M3VU3HHUW38Sz3C2iYCF6qT1CgNMsJ6KS3HvxEk5a-f/s2320/6B28FAD8-CA2F-4074-B916-46F518281777.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1507" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtfK86Fs9SY6W2TewnN44lE6Nv3OAvzPwwaKL_LF7a1qZgcfw-blBKTyktx_aRsjor3Tpgs63FdVvqhIq-gOiX54PkKDaaB_dA7oZvcOLFnvP6YxEvH9amVoRqESA0U14UqUwODzCEXuNh5M3VU3HHUW38Sz3C2iYCF6qT1CgNMsJ6KS3HvxEk5a-f/s320/6B28FAD8-CA2F-4074-B916-46F518281777.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div>Listen Up!</div><div><br /></div><div>Meghan Fitzmartin Writer</div><div>Laura Braga Artist</div><div>Luis Guerrero & Hi-Fi Colors</div><div>Pat Brosseau Letters</div><div>Max Dunbar & Luis Guerrero Cover</div><div>Serg Acuña Variant Cover</div><div>Dave Wielgosz Editor</div><div>Ben Abernathy Group Editor</div><div>Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.</div><div>Superboy created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.</div><div>By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.</div><div><br /></div><div>Our cover makes a pretty decent attempt at showing Young Justice fighting E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E. We have the full roster of the late-’90s JLA, plus several members of the Titans and Lobo for good measure. Lobo, of course, was briefly a member of Young Justice, not that I’d expect any of these creators to realize that. Anyway, I find this to be a rather mediocre cover. Dunbar gives everyone a stretched, squished face. At least he gives Impulse fingerless gloves — something that Braga failed to do.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-lmFoUAJPgzx05W7YqaO1mvw26KUnmej-tG2Yfqsn1YW5oOXm0sRRAZZaV1PblsB7oe3ORjniXQGlwXgiUhUJlsld_0zRKVd2ZUxv4iH2HSaXURdYOY0uiiBNWq8wuXNczTLjDMa3rlbjkoUEkuf5gE1UPsDpADPq7sSHiDpDC6YxhCKVGz1oSOFU/s1920/DAFE4150-8E36-4642-BFED-E790F658BCF7.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1248" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-lmFoUAJPgzx05W7YqaO1mvw26KUnmej-tG2Yfqsn1YW5oOXm0sRRAZZaV1PblsB7oe3ORjniXQGlwXgiUhUJlsld_0zRKVd2ZUxv4iH2HSaXURdYOY0uiiBNWq8wuXNczTLjDMa3rlbjkoUEkuf5gE1UPsDpADPq7sSHiDpDC6YxhCKVGz1oSOFU/s320/DAFE4150-8E36-4642-BFED-E790F658BCF7.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div>The variant cover is much better. I’m not the biggest fan of the angry Wonder Girl flying right toward us, but I really enjoy the background images. It reminded me of how exciting Patrick Gleason’s art was when the Young Justice series was first revived.</div><div><br /></div><div>Superboy is the narrator for this issue, beginning by referring to Impulse and Robin as his “frustrating best friends.” He wonders exactly why they’re fighting the JLA and Titans right now, but he’s confident that whoever’s behind this is no match for him. Robin tries to say something, but Superboy suddenly can’t hear him. Bizarrely, he reasons that this world is just as frustrated with Robin as he is. Robin’s voice eventually does come through, though, and he says that something is messing with the sound waves.</div><div><br /></div><div>Robin tries to get his teammates to regroup, while Impulse calls this his nightmare. Superboy, meanwhile, laments that his friends don’t remember that this was the time when they were at their best — kings of the era. He tells Robin and Impulse that they can’t win this fight, so they should just stop fighting and accept this world. Superboy reasons that they were beaten, bruised and battered in the real world, but they can make a new start here. Impulse reports that Superboy’s tantrum somehow fixed the sound waves, but Robin simply wonders if Superboy’s lost his mind.</div><div><br /></div><div>We then return to the real world, where Cassie, Cissie and Red Tornado have arrived at the abandoned Titans Tower in San Francisco, where Cassie hopes they can find some sort of transport to outer space. Cissie asks why they don’t go to Happy Harbor, but Cassie coldly says it was destroyed while Cissie was away. (This is news to me, because Brian Michael Bendis’ run ended with the entire team hanging out at Happy Harbor.) Luckily, our heroes have no troubles entering the base, but they oddly decide to visit the hall of fallen heroes, which oddly still has statues of some who have since come back to life, like Donna Troy and Conner. (Bart and Conner originally had massive golden statues in front of the tower, which they both gleefully destroyed after coming back to life. Apparently Conner had a second smaller one below.)</div><div><br /></div><div>Cassie darkly says this room always felt like an inevitability, and Cissie stupidly asks why Cassie never told her about any of this. Cassie’s reaction is pretty appropriate. She tried to talk to Cissie — a bunch of times — but Cissie refused her. Cassie says that Cissie thought she was just shutting out the boys, but she was also shutting her out. Even though Cassie tried to respect Cissie’s request for distance, she couldn’t help but feeling like her old friend was treating her as though she were invisible. In her anger, Cassie destroys the Superboy statue, as Red Tornado reports that — unsurprisingly — he was unable to find a spaceship. But Cissie was prompted by the word “invisible” and asks Cassie whatever happened to Wonder Woman’s invisible jet.</div><div><br /></div><div>Twelve hours and a trip to Themyscira later, Cassie, Cissie and Red Tornado are cruising through space in Wonder Woman’s famed jet. Apparently, Hippolyta owed Cassie a favor, even though Cassie acknowledged Hippolyta’s death in the first issue of this very series. In another stroke of convenient luck, Red Tornado just happens to possess “biometric schematics” of Bart, Conner and Tim, and has the jet scanning for their signatures. The android narrow-mindedly assumes the boys must be somewhere in this universe. </div><div><br /></div><div>Cissie awkwardly tries to apologize to Cassie, but is harshly rejected. Cassie says that if she wanted to be friends, she would have reached out earlier. Thankfully, Red Tornado steps in, pointing out that the two of them are friends and have been through too much to not be honest with each other. He begins to lecture Cassie on finding the balance between bottling up her anger and lashing out too much, but he’s interrupted by a swarm of bug-like aliens attacking the jet. Cassie says she’s heard of these space mites before, but she wonders what they’re doing here — as if we the audience were supposed to know where “here” was and where space mites were normally supposed to be.</div><div><br /></div><div>We check back in on the boys, who are still locked in their battle against the JLA. Fortunately, Bart is doing some serious multitasking. The distortion with the sound waves earlier made him wonder if whoever is behind this world is doing it with vibrational frequencies. Superboy is frustrated that Impulse isn’t listening to him, which earns him a coy, “Sucks, doesn’t it?” As Superboy continues his repetitive appeal to his friends about this world being better than reality, Impulse quietly says one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen: “C=\SQRT{\FRAC{K_S}{\RHO}}” It took me a long time to figure this out, but I think Bart is reciting an equation related to the speed of light and letterer Pat Brosseau was trying to type in a fraction underneath a square root. But I think he messed up a little bit of the coding, and it came out as gibberish. I know from my experience of editing at dc.fandom.com that if you miss just one bracket, you mess the whole thing up. I assume Brosseau’s lettering program operates under similar principles. Unfortunately, if this is the mistake I think it is, then it’s a real shame that both editors overlooked what could have been a pretty neat moment of foreshadowing.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, despite Superboy’s plea that they stop fighting, he himself has continued to throw punches at the old JLA. Robin flat out asks Superboy if he’s taken too many hits to the head, saying it should be pretty obvious that this world isn’t better and it’s not even their real past. Impulse, meanwhile, keeps muttering to himself very quickly, talking about vibrating at just the right speed. Superboy ties up Wonder Woman with her own lasso and baselessly accuses Robin of having had a better life after he died. Robin is so stunned by that insane comment, that he freezes on the battlefield and has to be saved by Impulse from being pulverized by Big Barda. </div><div><br /></div><div>Once he recovers, Robin steals a stake of kryptonite from Batman’s utility belt and viciously stabs it through Superman’s heart. (At least, I’m pretty sure it was Superman — he was drawn so skinny, I could have sworn it was another version of Superboy.) Robin opens up about how awful it was after Superboy died, even admitting that he tried to find a way to clone him and changed his costume to honor him. Robin explains that he actually found more inspiration in the hero Superboy grew to become than the hero he was at the beginning of his career. And Robin closes his speech rather profoundly: “We aren’t our past. It’s who become after everything else falls apart. That’s what matters.” </div><div><br /></div><div>Superboy hates to admit that Robin is right, but he doesn’t believe he’s worth of being an inspiring figure anymore. Impulse, meanwhile, stupidly holds the Atom in his hands, repeatedly begging him not to grow. The Atom does grow, but then … does absolutely nothing. I guess Braga got tired of drawing him? Anyway, Superboy asks Robin what he’s supposed to say now, and Robin says he doesn’t need to say anything — just understand that it wasn’t easy when he was gone. </div><div><br /></div><div>Impulse’s frustration finally boils over and he reminds his two friends that Superboy wasn’t the only one who died. He points out that they don’t take him seriously, don’t ask how he’s doing, and don’t listen when he tells them something’s wrong. Impulse recounts how he was initially thrown back in time a thousand years but he didn’t care because Superboy and Robin became his best friends. And they had fun … until they started treated Impulse like a sidekick. </div><div><br /></div><div>At this point in his diatribe, Impulse is randomly choked by Donna Troy, but he easily escapes. Impulse continues his speech, saying he was used to being a sidekick with the Flashes, but not with Superboy and Robin. Bart then quietly says, “Okay, here goes. Hope you’re out there.” A strange little flickering of energy forms around Impulse, as he concludes his remarks by saying Superboy and Robin only care about each other.</div><div><br /></div><div>We then cut back to the real world, where Red Tornado has flown out of the jet to battle the space mites, but there’s too many of them. Since Cassie is the only one who knows how to fly the jet, she sends Cissie out to help Red. Conveniently, Wonder Woman’s invisible jet came equipped with a space suit that fits Cissie. Even more conveniently, Cissie decided to bring her bow and arrows on this mission. However, Cissie doesn’t even get a chance to shoot an arrow, as a space mite immediately severs her line, sending the poor girl drifting off into space. Red Tornado takes off after her, and as soon as he catches Cissie, a mysterious red light suddenly appears right in front of the relieved Cassie still in the jet.</div><div><br /></div><div>Returning to our emotionally distraught boys, Impulse steers the conversation back to the strangeness of this world, and Superboy and Robin actually participate in this discussion. Impulse points out that this place is filled with loads of memories, and Superboy and Robin put together that the memories are different — definitely not theirs. Superboy concedes that this version of the Mighty Endowed felt intentionally sexist. And Robin says he barely even remembered Tora from the first time around. Impulse asks which of their old villains could create a world like this, and we are treated to one of the most bizarre panels of this entire series.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXw10Mv8bcmdYnoq0nw7O0hOtD9nC8L0Vg-G35as85nO_tH8UprYK1wVlDk_nRqQh1AedQBnZN_FD3iyctCC6C8S-eTx0dYk-SBEBVb8VR8im39lyKj78TbaWOnSP-ssyK5NwgdNsDJkbS9yAHYtjHLuxsWr4ShJLUU0wjZROmMjlS5FkwwQBifKdz/s1640/D20752DF-B5CE-4A76-B861-E1D90FE31418.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1138" data-original-width="1640" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXw10Mv8bcmdYnoq0nw7O0hOtD9nC8L0Vg-G35as85nO_tH8UprYK1wVlDk_nRqQh1AedQBnZN_FD3iyctCC6C8S-eTx0dYk-SBEBVb8VR8im39lyKj78TbaWOnSP-ssyK5NwgdNsDJkbS9yAHYtjHLuxsWr4ShJLUU0wjZROmMjlS5FkwwQBifKdz/s320/D20752DF-B5CE-4A76-B861-E1D90FE31418.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div>True Young Justice fans will recognize Fite ‘n Maad, Harm and Empress. And they’ll also know that only Harm is a villain of those four. The large ominous face looming in the background was teased in an earlier issue (and we’ll soon learn who he is). But the man in red, front and center, is quite perplexing. I will freely admit that I had to do a reverse image search to figure out who he is. Turns out he’s Baron Bedlam, an old Outsiders villain. And while he was adapted for the animated Young Justice: Outsiders series, he never appeared in the original Young Justice comics. </div><div><br /></div><div>So what is he doing here? Simple. Fitzmartin told Braga to draw Bedlam. So Braga did a quick Google search and drew the wrong Bedlam. She was supposed to draw the imposing evil purple genie behind World Without Grown-Ups and World Without Young Justice. Not this guy. Sadly, this error got past the colorist and two editors. Not to mention the bizarre inclusion of three genuine heroes in this group. And this one is all on Fitzmartin. I’m now convinced that she only read the first handful of Young Justice issues — you know, the ones with the Mighty Endowed and Tora, and Fite ‘n Maad were slightly antagonistic toward the boys, and Empress was slowly being introduced from the shadows. Fitzmartin probably assumed that Empress was a villain, which led to the strange rant she gave Cissie in issue #2. Anyway, this single panel is a perfect representation of this miniseries. It displays an embarrassing lack of knowledge of Young Justice.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now let’s return to the story. Impulse suddenly claims to know who it is, thinking it’s Mr. Mxyzptlk. (Although Bedlam would have been a good guess. He basically did the exact same thing to heroes. Twice.) Before Bart can elaborate, a young man suddenly appears, wearing orange and purple. He says he’s excited to finally meet our heroes. Conner is shocked to see the mastermind behind this world is a kid their age (how old, exactly are they?). Also, the Watchtower, JLA and Titans have suddenly vanished, leaving our heroes surrounded by strange, swirling colors and ribbons of light. Bart realizes this isn’t actually Mr. Mxyzptlk, and the young man confirms that to be so. He’s actually Mxyzptlk’s son, Mickey. He introduces himself as Young Justice’s biggest fan and says they have to stay here to save their childhood.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbEnLy_pW4qi7oX1OYX815q6cWfqrRy0B30IrznoA_mhAkdBStiXQwNWVmx_rmaJ6BNbiD7lNDPG0T_wwj-LwGL2gbMsAE0kRKaeUdcow6Bb3dk9DXAr53R7JOetRY2pOLPkuawdJ3XWPAS7eOdFg4Iz6RmzqDlZiVjtmVRTGFNdsHsBRc9eVzBHsh/s2320/C92B138C-A5EA-49A5-A08E-E44ED09BB13F.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1507" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbEnLy_pW4qi7oX1OYX815q6cWfqrRy0B30IrznoA_mhAkdBStiXQwNWVmx_rmaJ6BNbiD7lNDPG0T_wwj-LwGL2gbMsAE0kRKaeUdcow6Bb3dk9DXAr53R7JOetRY2pOLPkuawdJ3XWPAS7eOdFg4Iz6RmzqDlZiVjtmVRTGFNdsHsBRc9eVzBHsh/s320/C92B138C-A5EA-49A5-A08E-E44ED09BB13F.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div>I’m not happy that a new villain was created for this miniseries. Forget the fact that this has absolutely nothing to do with the main Dark Crisis storyline. Fitzmartin had the perfect foil right under her nose the whole time — the original Mr. Mxyzptlk! Did she skip the issue where Impulse, Robin and Superboy taught a young Mxy to be the fun-loving goofster he is today? It makes perfect sense to me: Mxy, who has always had a fond spot for the heroes who taught him how to have fun, is horrified at how they’ve been forgotten and neglected by the universe. He tries to create the perfect world for them, but messes it up. It’s a much cleaner and, dare I say, more satisfying story. But one that robs Fitzmartin’s ability to have someone scream, “You’re ruining my childhood!” I’ll save my thoughts on <i>that</i> for later.</div><div><br /></div><div>For an issue that promised a fight between Young Justice and EVERYONE, that fight turned out to be the most boring, inconsequential part of this issue. Our heroes were never in any real danger, and the JLA members never even said a single word — missing an opportunity for some fun psychological warfare. It was just a bland background for our very redundant argument. The boys have literally been saying the exact same things for three issues now. Seriously, how many times does Superboy have to learn the same lesson? And why does he like this fake world, anyway? They keep <i>saying</i> that it’s better because he never died in this world, but they never <i>show</i> what that means.</div><div><br /></div><div>Mostly, I’m just depressed by the overall sloppiness of this comic. There’s the unforgivable Bedlam error and the confusion of Impulse’s equation. But there was also a great deal of inconsequential moments that instantly resolved themselves. Like the sound waves problem at the beginning. Nothing bad happened because of it, but that didn’t matter because it was gone as soon as we acknowledged it. Just like Cissie drifting off into space. In fact, every single thing about the Cassie/Cissie subplot was a ridiculous waste of time. This has been an incredibly frustrating read. I do like how Impulse is the most responsible one here, and the only person actually doing something. But on the whole, I’m quite depressed with how substandard this miniseries is.</div><div><br /></div><div>Next time, we’ll take a very brief look at Young Justice: Targets #5.</div>Dallinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12077214646519366484noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576434651382736087.post-16866531528151481282023-02-22T08:51:00.001-07:002023-02-22T08:51:37.973-07:00Young Justice: Targets #4<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ8Q_TFH2SFZziA4NauLLymua7NQPEQzXb6-P2bOzysdFcScb4ccoyskVa7ztsnb42PZa9rxN_IhNdQdJDAEE9JWHII31kGDNlwf-lkQ4vgmI840qIy6gh7Kh6CIJn3KX5wdHi6Q9-xUjbcF1YAAad0cxmNK2Miw0nXxrD-aW7Tg62_OYQ5ZezLuT8/s2320/A6B21696-0F99-4D4B-A225-42D3EA8DC9CC.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1502" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ8Q_TFH2SFZziA4NauLLymua7NQPEQzXb6-P2bOzysdFcScb4ccoyskVa7ztsnb42PZa9rxN_IhNdQdJDAEE9JWHII31kGDNlwf-lkQ4vgmI840qIy6gh7Kh6CIJn3KX5wdHi6Q9-xUjbcF1YAAad0cxmNK2Miw0nXxrD-aW7Tg62_OYQ5ZezLuT8/s320/A6B21696-0F99-4D4B-A225-42D3EA8DC9CC.jpeg" width="207" /></a></div><br /><div>“Foreign Affairs”</div><div><br /></div><div>Writer: Greg Weisman</div><div>Artist: Christopher Jones</div><div>Colorist: Jason Wright</div><div>Letterer: Wes Abbott</div><div>Cover: Jones & Wright</div><div>Variant Cover: Meghan Hetrick</div><div>Editor: Ben Meares</div><div>Senior Editor: Katie Kubert</div><div>Superboy created by Jerry Siegel</div><div>By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family</div><div><br /></div><div>Our cover is a rather generic image of Wonder Girl, Superboy, Beast Boy, Stargirl and Terra fighting a horde of faceless goons in green armor. It’s … perfectly fine. But rather bland and boring. Much like this series. The variant cover doesn’t have Kid Flash on it, so I won’t worry about it.</div><div><br /></div><div>This mini series essentially serves as a fifth season of the Young Justice animated series. We join the story on Nov. 11, almost two months after Superboy’s wedding. Beast Boy still likes to carry his therapy dog around with him everywhere, but he’s finally back doing missions, which is convenient because his ex-girlfriend, Queen Perdita, has just been kidnapped. Believing she’s being held in Bialya, Beast Boy gathers up the group of heroes we see on the cover, bizarrely dubbing them Gorilla Squad. Cyborg is now a member of the Justice League, so he can’t legally enter Bialya, but he sees nothing wrong with opening a boom tube to Madinat Altharwati for the Outsiders.</div><div><br /></div><div>Even though the cover clearly showed that there were people wearing these green armor suits, in the story, these are Lex-Bots that our heroes can brutally rip apart with reckless abandon. However, there are too many of these robots for Terra to handle while the others rush inside a warehouse. So she calls for backup. Led by Kid Flash, the insanely named Mongoose Squad arrives via Boom Tube to help battle the endless swarms of robots.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfKib3G47I3y7pOABHQCbnMky5IkiFB08AbvRtzoOPIw0407BJLZME6sWa5UFyVWZe4vhxlM8wV7nBO-h3exWK2Bq9VBc4jG62HA1TzlNg_uf6H0ne-qwN9FRND7IP4lRS_fqvjXImbRwo1NOu1-ozHTg01IPbBpSuqplu5s2HE6FKxO7ObSVFzBp2/s2077/4032FDE2-B733-48D4-84FD-3A3189D56ABE.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="2077" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfKib3G47I3y7pOABHQCbnMky5IkiFB08AbvRtzoOPIw0407BJLZME6sWa5UFyVWZe4vhxlM8wV7nBO-h3exWK2Bq9VBc4jG62HA1TzlNg_uf6H0ne-qwN9FRND7IP4lRS_fqvjXImbRwo1NOu1-ozHTg01IPbBpSuqplu5s2HE6FKxO7ObSVFzBp2/s320/4032FDE2-B733-48D4-84FD-3A3189D56ABE.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div>And that’s all we see of Kid Flash in this issue. Much like in Young Justice: Phantoms, Bart is merely a background character with nothing interesting to do or say. Oh well. At least he was remembered. There’s also a backup story, but, unsurprisingly, Kid Flash isn’t involved in that, either. I don’t know. There’s nothing terribly wrong with this comic. But it just feels like another forgettable, redundant episode of the show. I don’t think this mini series will improve Weisman’s chances of making a fifth season.</div><div><br /></div><div>Next time, we’ll return to Dark Crisis: Young Justice #4.</div>Dallinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12077214646519366484noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576434651382736087.post-37611505327677689812023-02-20T01:36:00.001-07:002023-02-20T01:36:22.787-07:00Dark Crisis: Young Justice #3<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrWW8h8sFeKplDZAmLykrXon6Job7VQFsRpufrMKeF-adRGDa_aCW5UKzgvUqVJs6yQRWDESeETEJOldPh9nKQLva051z7tU96jGhRtmVgzE1St1JoBY009d5FtvxYbboSf5Y-MsIxhR1UlKlnTxGOX9Da7BxwN1LwTCx_3h-qNRB4DGQ0ljRmNIZd/s2320/56AAC650-B530-43AF-B35B-060FE722CDBC.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1505" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrWW8h8sFeKplDZAmLykrXon6Job7VQFsRpufrMKeF-adRGDa_aCW5UKzgvUqVJs6yQRWDESeETEJOldPh9nKQLva051z7tU96jGhRtmVgzE1St1JoBY009d5FtvxYbboSf5Y-MsIxhR1UlKlnTxGOX9Da7BxwN1LwTCx_3h-qNRB4DGQ0ljRmNIZd/s320/56AAC650-B530-43AF-B35B-060FE722CDBC.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><br /> The Trinity of Trauma</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Meghan Fitzmartin Writer</div><div style="text-align: left;">Laura Braga Artist</div><div style="text-align: left;">Luis Guerrero Colors</div><div style="text-align: left;">Pat Brosseau Letters</div><div style="text-align: left;">Max Dunbar & Luis Guerrero Cover</div><div style="text-align: left;">Jorge Corona & Sarah Stern Variant Cover</div><div style="text-align: left;">Dave Wielgosz Editor</div><div style="text-align: left;">Ben Abernathy Group Editor</div><div style="text-align: left;">Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.</div><div style="text-align: left;">Superboy created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.</div><div style="text-align: left;">By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Our cover is a fairly intimidating image of three massive villains looming over three tiny heroes. And everybody looks pretty decent — except for Superboy, poor kid. And this is good portrayal of what this issue will be about without spoiling anything. We saw all these villains at the end of last issue, so it only made sense that this issue would focus on our heroes fighting them. Unfortunately, Dunbar seems to have made an understandable mistake here. Even though Captain Boomerang is traditionally a Flash villain, he is actually here to fight Robin. Deathstroke is for Impulse. But we’ll get more into that later.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPFHTyGrs-8ZxbnQkxhuDFIX9NN10Ri_Syz8Pd2l-Dtdlt-7ifhWyhVwedNg7KPc35qPcXhw0F6KunYELvgoF23of8LpvLVLB61MeYIfecfFVSDwoQHR-5RDT47Hsv2H5va3MmJoftktc_gpIwVmq5jkL2r0Aj0avsjG4FP7FzVGgnASUhhCF75HUd/s1920/48D10D4C-5F88-4A1B-A1C8-4FE302D61CB7.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1248" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPFHTyGrs-8ZxbnQkxhuDFIX9NN10Ri_Syz8Pd2l-Dtdlt-7ifhWyhVwedNg7KPc35qPcXhw0F6KunYELvgoF23of8LpvLVLB61MeYIfecfFVSDwoQHR-5RDT47Hsv2H5va3MmJoftktc_gpIwVmq5jkL2r0Aj0avsjG4FP7FzVGgnASUhhCF75HUd/s320/48D10D4C-5F88-4A1B-A1C8-4FE302D61CB7.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Our variant cover is one of my favorite homages to Impulse I’ve seen in years. So much so, I actually went out and bought a physical copy of it. It’s bold, brash and in-your-face, perfectly capturing the feeling of fun and excitement I associate with Impulse. The side characters are kind of interesting. On the bottom, we have three of Bart’s biggest villains of all time: Superboy-Prime, Inertia and Deathstroke. Above them, it appears to be three different iterations of Bart through history: him grown up as the Flash, as Kid Flash, and I think that’s supposed to be one of the adult Impulses we’ve seen from time to time, most prominently in Sins of Youth. Anyway, I absolutely love this cover, even if it did give Bart green eyes instead of yellow.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Our story picks right up where last issue left off, with Deathstroke, Captain Boomerang and Lex Luthor standing over the unconscious Wonder Girl in front of the Young Justice cave. The villains taunt our heroes for a bit, and Deathstroke even puts a gun to Wonder Girl’s head to try to provoke a reaction. But Conner, Bart and Tim initially keep their distance behind a large rock. Tim doesn’t remember these three hanging out together and Bart is shocked that Tim’s focusing on that trivial detail. Conner agrees with Bart, saying they need to rush in and save Wonder Girl. But Bart clarifies, saying it feels like these three villains were chosen to hurt each of them specifically.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Bart reminds his friends that Deathstroke blew his kneecap off (actually it was Jericho in Deathstroke’s body, but we’ve already established that these creators only have a tenuous grasp on comics history), Captain Boomerang killed Tim’s dad, and, according to Bart, Conner has never gotten over the fact that he has some of Lex Luthor’s DNA. Superboy, however, just sees this as an opportunity to change how their lives turned out, so he repeats his call to take down the villains. Bart turns to the usually level-headed Tim, but Robin is still worried about Wonder Girl. Bart wisely points out that this whole thing may be a trick to stop them from investigating this strange world, and he admonishes his teammates to stop doing what they always do — react.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Despite all this sound logic and reasoning, Robin says they need to save Wonder Girl first, then promises they’ll investigate afterward. Robin and Superboy charge into battle, with Impulse reluctantly trailing behind. Wonder Girl oddly begins acting like grateful damsel in distress, as Superboy gets in a good punch on Luthor and Robin begins pummeling Boomerang. Impulse becomes this issue’s narrator as he heads for Deathstroke, admitting to himself that this fight does feel rather cathartic. Bart apparently has imagine the moment he got shot in the knee many times and has imagined exactly what he would have done differently to not let himself get hurt like that again or let Deathstroke hurt anyone else.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Impulse easily steals Deathstroke’s gun and darkly points it at his head. Luckily, Bart immediately stops himself, wondering who else knew he always secretly wanted to have another shot at Deathstroke. Creepily, Wonder Girl cheers on Impulse and encourages him to pull the trigger. Stunned, Bart takes a closer look at Wonder Girl and the world around him. By speeding up or slowing down, he can recognize that this world resembles an old computer program, oddly with “tracking lines” that lead straight to Wonder Girl, who is now acting like a ditzy cheerleader. Bart asks aloud if she is the one controlling this place.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Deathstroke mocks Impulse for not being man enough to take his revenge, so Bart throws down the gun and tells the villain he underestimated him, both then and now. Declaring himself not just a speedster or a goofy sidekick, Bart maturely says that even though Deathstroke hurt him, he didn’t destroy him. He then decides that if Robin and Superboy won’t help him, he’ll start the investigation himself. He confronts Wonder Girl, saying he knows she’s part of whatever is controlling this world. Wonder Girl, however, is still shocked that he didn’t kill Deathstroke, saying he could have stopped all of Deathstroke’s actions from here on out.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Superboy noticed what was happening and decides to suspend his battle, too, and join this conversation. But to Bart’s dismay, Conner agrees with Wonder Girl. Bart points out that Wonder Girl’s been egging them on all day, not just in this fight, but against Tora and “Boobs McGee,” as well. Conner says they decided to not investigate this world, so Bart (rather childishly) tells Conner he’s not the leader anymore because he died. Conner responds by pointing out he’s not the only one who died, and he even threatens to “knock some sense” into Bart’s “thick, dumb skull.” </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Bart loses all control and actually lunges at Conner, prompting Wonder Girl to idiotically call out, “Boys, stop! I’m not worth fighting over!” Robin finally notices what’s going on and he suddenly becomes our narrator. (Cassie and Tim each had full issues, but Bart only gets a couple of pages. I see how it is.) Tim wisely realizes he doesn’t have time to keep messing around with Captain Boomerang, but then oddly notes how he’ll have to “process this with Babs later.” (Is he referring to Barbara Gordon? Has Tim <i>ever</i> called her Babs?) Sadly, Tim refers to the act of dispatching of one idiot to stop two other idiots as “a day in the life of Young Justice.” Robin easily pins Captain Boomerang to a large stalactite, and nobody notices how Wonder Girl, Deathstroke and Lex Luthor are just standing around idly, while Superboy and Impulse fight.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Tim steps between Bart and Conner, ordering them to stop fighting. Bart says that Conner started it and Conner (correctly) calls Bart’s comment immature. Suddenly, Robin notices that their three villains have disappeared without a trace. Bart angrily confronts the fake Cassie once more, saying this stupid game isn’t fun. Conner calls Bart a twerp and pulls him away from Wonder Girl. Bart seems like he wants to keep fighting, but he manages to calm down … a little bit. Conner protectively wraps his arms around Wonder Girl, calling Bart a bully. Bart points out he’s just trying to get answers and asks since when does Wonder Girl need to be protected.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Conner appeals to Tim, who concedes that Bart is right that something odd is going on in this world. But Tim insanely refuses to believe Wonder Girl has anything to do with it, saying they need more data. Bart flips out at this comment, saying he’s been trying to tell them what he’s seeing, but they won’t listen to him. Bart sadly says that Tim and Conner will listen to each other, but not to him because they never have. And with that, Bart suddenly zooms away before anyone can say anything else. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Conner tells Tim not to bother with Bart, since he’s just making everything worse. Tim is stunned by this comment, pointing out that Conner is not himself. Conner says he’s just sad about Superman’s recent death, but Tim says this is different. However, Tim struggles to get the words out, so Conner supplies his own. He believes Tim was trying to say that he’s been acting weird since he was alone for years on another planet before anyone decided to try to find him. Tim (accurately) points out that this isn’t fair, since everyone thought he was dead. Tim adds that he and Cassie went through hell without Conner. Wonder Girl finally speaks up, saying Conner doesn’t remember what happened after he died. Not wanting to rehash how he hooked up with Cassie after Conner’s death, Tim abruptly decides to take off, leaving a perplexed Conner to question Wonder Girl.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">We catch up to Bart running aimlessly around the world, with some really depressing thoughts in his head. He tells himself that he doesn’t need Tim and Conner because he knew they always thought he was dumb — like everyone else — despite him surviving an encounter with Deathstroke, despite him saving the world. Bart believes everyone will only ever see him as a useless goof. In his grief, he heads to the Flash Museum, which is oddly in black-and-white. What’s more, the building seemed to be just half-built when Bart approached it at super speed, but everything’s fine when he slows down. Bart’s reminded of the virtual reality program he grew up in, which sometimes took a minute to load everything.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Suddenly, Wonder Girl shows up in the museum (which is still black-and-white, presumably because Bart is still moving at super speed). She tells Bart he has a chance to live in a world where he’s next in line to take over for the Flash and has so many fans. Right on cue, Bart suddenly notices a bunch of people wearing Impulse T-shirts (including one with a nice Todd Nauck image). Bart admits to himself that all he’s ever wanted was for people to notice him and give a crap about him and all the stuff he’s done. Bart justifiably feels a bit under appreciated for all the sacrifices he’s made. However, he knows there’s got to be a cost to living in a world like this. He tells Wonder Girl that whoever’s running this world does know a lot about him, but they’ve underestimated. He refuses to sacrifice whatever they want for this life. Wonder Girl coldly says, “So be it,” and ominously snaps her fingers.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Tim, meanwhile, has somehow reached Gotham City, which he finds nostalgically peaceful. Wonder Girl, naturally, is with him, and Tim admits to her that it’s weird to remember what it felt like to belong. But rather than speaking about his relationship with the Bat family, he voluntarily brings up Conner, saying he had no idea what it was like after he died. And the only one who understood Tim was Cassie. Cassie changes the topic back to Gotham, waxing poetically about the city’s resilience and comparing it to Tim. She tells him he doesn’t have to be so resilient, though, since this is a world where he and his friends are in line for the mantles of the next generation of heroes. She coldly adds that this is a world without Damian Wayne. Tim jumps up at that, telling Wonder Girl he’s got him wrong. He doesn’t always agree with Damian, but he’s still his brother. And even though he doesn’t know what the future holds, he’s not going to give up. Wonder Girl makes one final appeal, saying that in the real world, Tim will never become Batman. Tim asks what if he wants to go back anyway. Wonder Girl responds by snapping her fingers.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">When we return to Conner, he has just been told by Wonder Girl about Tim’s “fling” with Cassie. Even though this topic was thoroughly hashed out in the comics, Wonder Girl explains that Conner lost a lot of memories when he was erased from existence. (I guess that falls in line with Brian Michael Bendis’ work. But it sure seems convenient when it comes to deciding which memories stayed and which were lost.) We see that Conner and Wonder Girl are now suddenly standing on top of the Daily Planet building in Metropolis, and Conner can only stare at Wonder Girl in stunned silence as she tries to explain to him that this world is better because he never died in it. Conner finally realizes that Bart was right and this Wonder Girl is not real. She tells him she was just trying to give him everything he deserves, but Conner says using that word feels a bit too much like Lex Luthor. As he rejects Wonder Girl, she regretfully says, “He’s going to be so mad.” Conner asks who she’s talking about, but instead of answering, Wonder Girl just snaps her fingers.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The boys wake up back on the JLA Watchtower, all complaining of killer headaches. Wonder Girl is standing over them, apologizing for knocking them out, but “he” has been very clear about what will happen if they don’t accept this world. Bart explains to his friends that he’s finally proven this world is a construct that’s constantly building itself like a computer program. But for whatever reason, Tim believes they’re not actually in a computer program — just an alternate world that behaves like one. Wonder Girl interrupts their deducing by telling the boys they had their chance to accept the world on their own terms. But now that they’ve rejected it, the unnamed “he” will make them accept it by force. She then opens the doors to the entire JLA (plus extras) charging in to attack.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpLgZdFG9BjYtufSN-gnuQtTXbAQJeF5MbUfIqUxfNlYMeRgJaYZ7Ref2nbpLxV91uK7jtIEjGxlZrNDFLLI0TqRIS7x0uOnBI3hu5bU9qv2GQ9g49QJBk2IiZTrBcE4zSo-OiEnB9xvb0JkZufNH8vqMJXdI3qvgDOX2eWb0yT0-HRybz8-xgjTLb/s2320/B62AC3CF-D715-4865-B462-407B3E3CCABF.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1505" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpLgZdFG9BjYtufSN-gnuQtTXbAQJeF5MbUfIqUxfNlYMeRgJaYZ7Ref2nbpLxV91uK7jtIEjGxlZrNDFLLI0TqRIS7x0uOnBI3hu5bU9qv2GQ9g49QJBk2IiZTrBcE4zSo-OiEnB9xvb0JkZufNH8vqMJXdI3qvgDOX2eWb0yT0-HRybz8-xgjTLb/s320/B62AC3CF-D715-4865-B462-407B3E3CCABF.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Well, I’m not as mad as last time, so I might actually talk more about the issue. Let’s start with the three villains, who weren’t brought in to challenge our heroes, but just to provide a cathartic release by being easily defeated. They were rather odd choices. For starters, I thought this series was supposed to return us to the days of Young Justice. But Superboy didn’t learn that he had Luthor’s DNA until he became a Teen Titan. Bart wasn’t shot by Jericho (controlling Deathstroke) until after Young Justice had already disbanded. And Captain Boomerang was hired by Jean Loring to kill Jack Drake well after both of those things happened. These villains had nothing to do with the dissolution of Young Justice or the decreased prominence of our heroes in the DC Universe. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And, frankly, none of those villains were <i>that</i> detrimental to our heroes. Superboy learned how to deal with the Luthor inside of him. Tim was adopted by Bruce Wayne and learned how to move on with a new family. And Bart miraculously had an artificial knee installed, which never gave him any problems whatsoever. I honestly can’t find any actual lingering grief from these specific villains. If the purpose of this story was to examine the pain of the original Young Justice series being canceled, then we should have talked about undoing that awful Graduation Day story. Or if we just wanted to pit our heroes against the villains that pushed them into obscurity, then we should have brought in Superboy-Prime and Inertia. This series has spent <i>a lot </i>of time talking about how awful it was that Superboy died (and it mentioned Impulse’s death a little bit, too). Superboy-Prime killed Conner. And Inertia killed Bart. They would have made much more sense than Luthor and Deathstroke here. Sadly, I can’t think of a better villain for Robin off the top of my head, so maybe instead of three tailor-made villains, just pick Prime. He ruined all three of our heroes’ lives more than just about anyone else.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It didn’t feel natural for Impulse to obsess over Deathstroke so much, let alone even consider shooting him. I’m glad he quickly threw the gun down, but pointing it at his head to begin with was way out of character for him. But this series is chock-full of out-of-character moments for our three boys. Robin the detective wouldn’t have needed that long to realize this wasn’t the real Cassie. Superboy had long shed this ridiculous immaturity — he didn’t display even a shred of it during the Bendis run, which, I assume, is still in continuity. Maybe this world itself has been subtly affecting their minds. That might explain Bart’s seemingly involuntary sexist comment from last issue. I just wish we had some dialogue about cloudy minds or maybe some sort of visual cue of purple energy hitting our heroes whenever they do something out-of-character. Because here’s the thing: I don’t know for certain that Meghan Fitzmartin realizes she’s writing these heroes out of character. I desperately need to see some indication from her that she knows they’re telling lies or doing something completely contrary to their nature. Without that, I am forced to conclude that she doesn’t know these characters.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I do really like how Bart has been the most level-headed one of the group. And his feeling of being under appreciated was the most true moment of this issue. Even Laura Braga shined brightest at this part, giving Bart a heartbreakingly sad face as he ran away from his friends and an entire universe that doesn’t care about him. I only wish that Bart had been the sole narrator of this book so we could have spent even more time on these beautifully painful thoughts.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I also must say I’m quite underwhelmed by the “temptations” being presented to our heroes. Much of this was a repeat of last issue. “You’ll get to inherit the mantle of your mentors!” Yeah … and? I mean, Bart WAS the Flash once. Issue #1 even mentioned that. Why would he get excited about taking over for Wally again? All this felt quite repetitive. Even the boys’ arguments were just circular repeats of what had started last issue. So much of this book felt like treading water. And that’s a shame because we didn’t get any updates on the real Cassie’s quest to rescue the boys.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Next time, we’ll take a quick break from this series to look at Young Justice: Targets, the comic book tie-in to the animated series.</div>Dallinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12077214646519366484noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576434651382736087.post-36908931755573979482023-02-17T10:45:00.001-07:002023-02-17T10:45:36.220-07:00Dark Crisis: Young Justice #2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbSB9-SXyYsB8eOkc5WSvxhVCluV2D65ZJkuuzx5L2TBrt5k8GQ36kNpmyY8dXXR1szwtArsUtia2mCyPh6-vFWaV4-cNj691cHiB1wxktqQaTe8UaH-4DYyHQMAgsjJYrgPvRpNxb274JGmQTQ_0bdVjNm0BUNtteh_jch8ZWjHQlhVs18lPA-AyX/s2320/ABC8F48A-7026-4007-B69A-8A1E2AC88800.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1503" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbSB9-SXyYsB8eOkc5WSvxhVCluV2D65ZJkuuzx5L2TBrt5k8GQ36kNpmyY8dXXR1szwtArsUtia2mCyPh6-vFWaV4-cNj691cHiB1wxktqQaTe8UaH-4DYyHQMAgsjJYrgPvRpNxb274JGmQTQ_0bdVjNm0BUNtteh_jch8ZWjHQlhVs18lPA-AyX/s320/ABC8F48A-7026-4007-B69A-8A1E2AC88800.jpeg" width="207" /></a></div><br /><div>A Tale of Two Cassies</div><div><br /></div><div>Meghan Fitzmartin Writer</div><div>Laura Braga Artist</div><div>Luis Guerrero Colors</div><div>Pat Brosseau Letters</div><div>Max Dunbar and Luis Guerrero Cover</div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">Nikola</span> <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); color: #262626;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Čižmešija Variant Cover</span></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); color: #262626;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dave Wielgosz Editor</span></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); color: #262626;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ben Abernathy Group Editor</span></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); color: #262626;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.</span></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); color: #262626;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Superboy created by Jerry Siegel.</span></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); color: #262626;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.</span></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); color: #262626;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); color: #262626;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Our cover is a nice improvement over last issue. It’s bold and dynamic and three of the four characters on it look halfway decent. (Superboy looks like he’s 60 years old for some reason.) Yes, I am annoyed that even the digital version of this cover is forced to perpetually advertise a lame kids movie — ironically right next to the box that says this comic is for ages 13+. And I always have problems with covers that are misleading and/or spoils. This one manages to do both. It’s instantly revealed that this Wonder Girl is a bad guy, although a fight like this doesn’t occur anywhere in this issue, or this whole series, for that matter.</span></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); color: #262626;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); color: #262626;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwxOA_EcnA9LWzSMqgsK4Kf_wGv5FXlewZR9rqKcjn7HoxDToWkguBAalR8dQ215zAcS81KUQrvIvAjPgrP7DrGoAnY-PRGFircqvnrrJ4IundxmIgBl0W6sqjuTmkbuGtgcskZ9k_EMCCMAaVzvqRddrCW54AAPWbAITfPgZk75F8_XyOtbH-K_Cz/s2160/D84C1C40-298F-45AF-8E3E-A563FFBC036D.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2160" data-original-width="1405" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwxOA_EcnA9LWzSMqgsK4Kf_wGv5FXlewZR9rqKcjn7HoxDToWkguBAalR8dQ215zAcS81KUQrvIvAjPgrP7DrGoAnY-PRGFircqvnrrJ4IundxmIgBl0W6sqjuTmkbuGtgcskZ9k_EMCCMAaVzvqRddrCW54AAPWbAITfPgZk75F8_XyOtbH-K_Cz/s320/D84C1C40-298F-45AF-8E3E-A563FFBC036D.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">The variant cover is a very nice homage to Superboy and several of the big moments in his career. I’m a little surprised by the choice of using Tim, Bart and Cassie in their Teen Titans gear, but I’m glad they’re here all the same.</span></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); color: #262626;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); color: #262626;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This issue is narrated by Robin, who is surprised to see that the Mighty Endowed has easily thrown Wonder Girl off her. Tim’s glad to see Cassie again, but he wonders why she didn’t show up at Happy Harbor like the rest of them. He orders Impulse to keep his eyes up to avoid being hypnotized (I’m not sure if he meant that in a literal or metaphorical sense), and Tim admits it’s fun being the leader again.</span></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); color: #262626;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Wonder Girl claims to have been in this world for a while now and is glad the boys have finally shown up. She says it’s a fun place and can’t wait to show them around. But first she needs to take care of the Mighty Endowed, which she does by lifting her high into the sky. The boys gape up at the two female figures, and Bart says he’s “loving the view.” Conner and Tim stare at Bart, who can’t believe he just said that. Surprisingly, Conner says, “The old Bart is back!” Bart correctly insists he was never like that and says they really need to figure out what’s going on. But Conner rushes back into the battle and Tim just tells Bart to not worry and try to have a little fun for a change.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">So Bart reluctantly joins in the battle, and everybody gets a hit in. Finally, Wonder Girl puts down the Mighty Endowed for good, triumphantly stating that “Young Justice prevails!” Superboy asks if they’ve ever said that before, and Impulse insists they never say it again. Robin says they now need to figure out what they’re doing here, much to Impulse’s relief. Bart also points out that they didn’t see anyone actually in trouble from the Mighty Endowed — she was just waiting for them. He also asks where exactly they’re supposed to take her. Tim suggests they question her, but Wonder Girl distracts everybody with a ride in the Super-Cycle.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjNEedLEDaW7v-Ff9K7B5YPADg5jiuwczoBQTMSVgzztGR1bx3g4cXH43kUtHyzodQFz7YXZnjsWb46NCXVQi8bVJLAjhG19oIrZL8O-r4LDf0G-xouDNeBxnn-O2Pt6-BnFhmWXJzObn_XLIh-SBAuLHi9PF54ZdMZYt9qaNu5_hdrnJQ2-YrB5zJ/s1149/063542E0-C7E1-4302-9BF0-54FA7523A422.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1149" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjNEedLEDaW7v-Ff9K7B5YPADg5jiuwczoBQTMSVgzztGR1bx3g4cXH43kUtHyzodQFz7YXZnjsWb46NCXVQi8bVJLAjhG19oIrZL8O-r4LDf0G-xouDNeBxnn-O2Pt6-BnFhmWXJzObn_XLIh-SBAuLHi9PF54ZdMZYt9qaNu5_hdrnJQ2-YrB5zJ/s320/063542E0-C7E1-4302-9BF0-54FA7523A422.jpeg" width="209" /></a></div><br /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Bart is annoyed to be reunited with this vehicle, but Conner declares it to be the best and Tim admits he missed it. (Laura Braga, meanwhile, forgot to draw room for Bart’s and Tim’s legs, which I guess is hard when their pecs take up so much space.) Conner urges Bart to lighten up, but Bart oddly says he still has nightmares about the Super-Cycle. I only remember him hating the name of it, not the machine itself, but whatever. Tim realizes he hasn’t felt this light in a long time, and he’s happy to see Conner be filled with life once again. He’s also happy to see that Cassie is less angry than she’s been in years, but he does admit he barely remembers her being this clueless.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Suddenly, Oracle calls Young Justice over the Super-Cycle radio (something that never happened in the original series). She orders them to head to Metropolis to stop Tora — another minor villain from Young Justice’s early days. Tim suggests they call in some backup, like Jon Kent, Damian Wayne or even Wallace West. Wonder Girl insists they can handle Tora by themselves, adding that she hasn’t even heard of any of the people Tim just mentioned. The boys are all pretty spooked by this comment, but whereas Conner says this means they have more responsibility now, Tim seriously begins to wonder where they are.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Once our team reaches Metropolis, Impulse recognizes Tora and immediately charges into battle with Superboy. Conner asks Tora if she’s ready for a real bullfight, but Bart suggests he rethink that. Robin, however, pulls Wonder Girl aside, saying they need some answers before they keep getting distracted by fights. He asks if they’re in an alternate dimension and why they’re fighting their old villains. Wonder Girl concedes that something strange is going on, but says that she can’t figure it out — only that she’s been waiting for the rest of the team to show up. Tim feels they’re finally getting somewhere, just as Impulse and Superboy finish up with Tora. Conner is surprised that Wonder Girl and Robin didn’t want to join in on the fight, and Bart asks if Tora was always this cartoonish. Wonder Girl says that although she doesn’t have any answers, she knows someone who might.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">We then return to the real Cassie Sandsmark, who is hunting down Cissie King-Jones at Cardy Boarding School (which Cassie describes as a hoity-toity place that sends its students to the Ivy League. Cissie is not thrilled when she spots Cassie, but nevertheless politely introduces her to her nonbinary friend, Liz, who says nothing, does nothing and will promptly disappear only to never be seen or mentioned again. Really makes me wonder why the creators of this book made such a big deal to introduce a character that has nothing to do with the plot whatsoever.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">A little while later, Cassie continues her plea with Cissie at the archery range. Cassie insensitively says that Cissie is only practicing because that means she wants to be Arrowette again. Cissie patiently explains that she is using archery to earn a college scholarship. This angers Cassie, who can’t believe that Cissie is more concerned with college than helping her oldest friends. Cissie says she’s more worried about a world without a Justice League than a world without Conner, Bart and Tim, adding that she doesn’t have the same fond memories that Cassie does. She oddly says she only remembers fighting people the Justice League didn’t understand, like women and people from other countries who were just doing their best. (I have no idea where this comment came from, but it isn’t remotely true.)</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Cassie admits they all made mistakes when they were kids, but says the world needs Tim, Bart and Conner now more than ever with the Justice League missing. Cissie says that Cassie only visits her when something’s wrong with the boys — an accusation that Cassie rejects. Cissie then insanely says she stopped being a superhero because of the toxicity. (Again, this is a flat-out lie!) She says Cassie’s life revolves around the boys and she asks who she is without them. Cissie says she didn’t want her life to end up like Cassie’s — overshadowed by three privileged idiots who had the whole world handed to them on a platter. Ultimately, though, Cissie does agree to help Cassie, but says this is the last thing she’ll ever do for Young Justice. Cassie tries to apologize, saying she didn’t realize Cissie felt this way, but Cissie coldly tells her it’s too late and slaps her hand away.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">We then cut back to Bart, Conner and Tim, who appear to be riding in Impulse’s old, forgotten spaceship, The Max, to the JLA Watchtower on the Moon. The boys are greeted by the entire Justice League, and Superman even says it’s good to have them home. Tim is shocked to see the League look like it did back when they started out, and Wonder Girl coldly says it’s because it <b>is</b> the League. But Tim feels like he’s remembering two different truths. Before the stunned boys can even exit their ship, Wally West zooms inside and wraps his arm around Bart, saying how happy he is to see him. A confused Bart points out that Wally just saw him not too long ago, and the Wally he remembers never liked him this much.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Superman invites them all inside, and he, Wonder Girl and Superboy have a private little meeting. Superman and Wonder Girl present Superboy with a red cape, saying the world needs him and he deserves this mantle, completely ignoring Conner’s comments about Jon filling in his father’s footsteps.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Wonder Girl also seems to be simultaneously meeting with Flash and Impulse privately in a room that looks like an ordinary gym, but Wally and Wonder Girl insist is full of fun trophies, such as boomerangs and cosmic treadmills. Bart asks Wally what’s going on, saying this feels like a memory, but he doesn’t remember this part. Wally brushes off that comment as “Impulse always joking,” but Bart sternly says that Barry would know he’s not joking. He tells Wally that he thinks he’s seen cracks in this world and a total lack of awareness when it comes to other people. Bart’s having trouble fully articulating the problems he’s noticing, even asking if it was always like this. But he is certain he isn’t home, so now he has to figure out what brought him and his friends here and why. Wonder Girl says it’s obvious. As she presents Bart with Wally’s mask, she tells Bart he was brought here to become the next Flash.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Naturally, Wonder Girl is also giving Robin a Batman mask at the very same time. She insists that Tim always wanted to be Batman, but Tim isn’t quite sure about that. He’s wrestled with this very problem since he became Robin, but when Damian showed up, Tim always assumed he’d get the cowl. However, Tim is now wondering what he’ll be if he’s not going to be Batman. Wonder Girl says she’s sure Spoiler would love to get back together with Tim once he becomes Batman, but Tim points out that he’s currently dating Bernard. Batman, however, insists that Stephanie Brown is Tim’s destiny, and he’ll start dating her again once he’s out of “this phase.” Tim is not at all pleased about that comment, but he keeps his thoughts to himself in a censored swear word.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Tim, Bart and Conner meet up at the JLA table to have cheeseburgers and fries and swap notes while the three of them are alone. Bart is shocked that Batman said Tim was going through a phase, but Conner doesn’t understand what he was referring to. Tim doesn’t want to talk about it, simply saying that the real Batman would never say that. Bart says he misses Barry, explaining that he forgot how impossible it is to talk to Wally without Barry around. He starts to ask what they should do, but Conner angrily throws his hamburger down on the table. Tim tries to calm him down, pointing out that something is clearly wrong. Bart agrees, but Conner cuts him off, saying he doesn’t think anything is wrong and maybe they shouldn’t even try to go back.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Tim insists they need to go back and Bart elaborates: This isn’t their past. This world got the design wrong, seemingly going out of its way to be sexist, racist and homophobic. Bart says this is a place for immature boys — not them. But Conner persists on asking if this is the world they belong in. Frustrated, Bart turns to Tim, saying, “I said words out loud, right? You all hear me?” Tim tries a different approach: asking Conner if he actually thinks this place is real. Conner responds by throwing doubt into all reality and all memories. He says they might be in heaven, or this is the real world and their old memories were something like the Matrix. Conner concludes by saying it’s better for them here because he never died in this world. Bart then abruptly changes the subject by asking where Cassie is.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">The real Cassie, meanwhile, is rather randomly battling Red Volcano. Apparently she and Cissie were unable to find Red Tornado, so they went to his evil “brother” instead. Cassie is quickly encased in molten lava, while Cissie watches helplessly from afar, knowing her arrows are completely ineffective in this situation. Luckily, Red Tornado conveniently arrives in the nick of time and deactivates Red Volcano with a single stroke. Cassie asks for Red Tornado’s help, and he readily agrees, surprisingly giving the two girls big, rib-crushing hugs.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">We cut back to Bart, Tim and Conner, who were unable to find Wonder Girl anywhere on the Watchtower. So they return to Earth to cruise around in the Super-Cycle, wondering where Cassie likes to go when she’s upset. Bart coldly assumes they hurt her feeling by being bad friends, and all of them feel a bit guilty. Tim suggests they split up. He says he last saw Cassie with him and Batman, so he offers to head to Gotham City to look for her. But Conner says she couldn’t have been with Robin and Batman, because she was last with him and Superman. Bart says she was actually with him and the Flash. As Robin wonders how she could have been in three places at once, we see a fleeting image of what looks like a young Mr. Mxyzptlk on the hood of the Super-Cycle.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Suddenly, the Super-Cycle crashes on a rock that seemed to appear out of thin air. Bart asks if the cycle tried to kill them, but Conner and Tim point out that the very Earth seems to be trying to kill them. The ground splits open, revealing an army of zombies. Impulse tries to take them out, but find he’s lost his speed. Superboy tries to blast them with his heat vision, but it won’t hit the zombies. Robin surmises that this world won’t let them fight the zombies, so they have to go back to Happy Harbor. Superboy agrees and he picks up his two friends to fly them over himself. Bart says he’d prefer to run, but then suddenly notice that the ground beneath them has mysteriously become a large body of water.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">When they reach Happy Harbor, our heroes are shocked to see Deathstroke, Captain Boomerang and Lex Luthor standing at the entrance of the cave. With an unconscious Wonder Girl beneath them.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">I thought that </span></span>Meghan Fitzmartin understood Young Justice. I was wrong. True, she knows a bit more about their history than Brian Michael Bendis, but not that much. Or perhaps what I’m seeing here is even worse. Perhaps Fitzmartin is willfully engaging in revisionist history to suit her agenda. Look, I understand that her thesis is that nostalgia isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. There are lots of examples of things we loved as kids that are kind of problematic today. But does that really apply to Peter David’s and Todd Nauck’s Young Justice? I don’t think so.</div><div><br /></div><div>Let’s break it down. First, the Mighty Endowed. A crude joke, for sure. A little sexist? Perhaps. But let’s roll back the tape and look at what actually happened way back in 1998. Mighty Endowed was only seen on two pages of Young Justice #1. And she didn’t even fight our heroes. She challenged them to a battle — which only the horny Superboy was interested in — and then she promptly collapsed due to the weight of her enormous breasts. Yes, I’ll concede that was likely Peter David’s clumsy attempt at appealing to teenage boy humor. But mostly, I look at it as commentary on the trend of so many comics of that day to give every female hero and villain impossibly large cleavage.</div><div><br /></div><div>Tora was also a quick, throwaway villain that only showed up on a couple of pages. Fitzmartin (through Cissie) seems to be implying that Young Justice was somehow … unfair? … to fight her because she was a woman and from another country? I don’t fully understand the criticism. What seems unfair to me is to put so much stock into such a quick little gag. Tora robbed Wall Street and a china shop just because they were related to bulls. Then she tried to crash a plan onto a crowd of people watching the running of the bulls in Spain. Was it wrong of Peter David to create jokey villains like Mighty Endowed and Tora? I really don’t think so.</div><div><br /></div><div>I do think it’s wrong to have Cissie complaining about Young Justice only fighting women and people from other countries. Both Mighty Endowed and Tora happened before Arrowette joined the team. And once she did join, they mostly fought an evil genie that warped reality, a bunch of different demons (some of which brainwashed toddlers into killing their parents), and Harm, a psychotic murderer who threw an arrow through Cissie’s shoulder. So I really have no idea what Cissie is referring to, or why Fitzmartin is choosing to say these things through Cissie.</div><div><br /></div><div>Should we talk about why Cissie actually quite being a hero? Because Meghan Fitzmartin somehow missed reading one of the most emotional and significant issues in Peter David’s run. Cissie’s therapist and friend, Marcey Money, was tortured and killed by her ex-fiancé. Cissie retaliated by hunting down and attempting to kill that man, only being stopped by Superboy at the last possible second. Cissie stopped being Arrowette because she never wanted to risk returning to that dark place ever again. But she didn’t stop helping out her friends as a civilian — notably taking part in a high-stakes intergalactic baseball game and signing up as a medic during Our Worlds at War. She didn’t quit the team because of the male toxicity exhibited by Impulse, Robin and Superboy. Heck, it was Superboy who stopped her from becoming a murderer! And Cissie knows the boys well enough to understand that none of them had an easy life or “had the whole world handed to them on a platter.” I mean, two of them were killed, for crying out loud!</div><div><br /></div><div>I don’t know which would be worse: Fitzmartin simply not knowing any of the things I just said, or knowing all that and choosing to ignore it because it didn’t line up with the story <i>she</i> wanted to tell. But either way, it makes for a very frustrating and distracting experience. I’m trying to get into the mystery and enjoy the moments of Impulse having the most level head of the group. But I can’t get past how angry Fitzmartin is making me. And Laura Braga, too. This is unacceptably bad art. In this day and age, with characters this iconic and revered, we should have more consistent artwork.</div><div><br /></div><div>Next: The Trinity of Trauma!</div>Dallinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12077214646519366484noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576434651382736087.post-13113166160474877602023-02-09T11:31:00.002-07:002023-02-09T11:31:49.430-07:00The Flash – “Negative, Part 2”<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb2G19VNbMp3h1mBtTlCyzigCG-CihmLwSqGp9XGG8gQyygxEINrzFeoS3rp--uG2GYd_pWcn802qo_idzDKigoa3flCC8uqibQh3Wh_l_dPEPqi_-ynlEXQRowJbgfOJanxOu-kIceBXQ3w4rejZcmip5RRkqZyL7fK5cl7aEPFnQaTdnC8MK36co/s1920/683B1AE6-089B-4E02-B9B0-80F396E781EB.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb2G19VNbMp3h1mBtTlCyzigCG-CihmLwSqGp9XGG8gQyygxEINrzFeoS3rp--uG2GYd_pWcn802qo_idzDKigoa3flCC8uqibQh3Wh_l_dPEPqi_-ynlEXQRowJbgfOJanxOu-kIceBXQ3w4rejZcmip5RRkqZyL7fK5cl7aEPFnQaTdnC8MK36co/s320/683B1AE6-089B-4E02-B9B0-80F396E781EB.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div>Director: Marcus Stokes</div><div>Writer: Eric Wallace</div><div><br /></div><div>We pick up right where last episode left off, with the shocking rebirth of Eobard Thawne, apparently at the expense of Iris’ life. Eobard gloats for a bit, baiting Barry into … blasting him with lightning? … because that’s totally a thing he can do now. When suddenly, to my complete surprise, Impulse and XS arrive to try to convince their dad not to commit murder. I don’t know why they didn’t come back just a few minutes earlier to save their mom (since they are traveling through time, after all), but I am happy to see they’ve disobeyed Barry’s ridiculous order to not get involved. And they actually bring up a pretty good point. They tell Barry that the fact they still exist proves that Iris isn’t dead yet. So Barry relents and then Eobard mysteriously disappears.</div><div><br /></div><div>They all regroup at S.T.A.R. Labs, where the actors can all stand perfectly still in a carefully spaced-out line to deliver their lines, I mean, where the team can plot their next move. Barry says he wants to go into the Negative Speed Force, which Bart says is insane. But Barry believes that’s where Eobard is, because Chester conveniently ran an infallible satellite search off screen and determined that Eobard is nowhere on Earth. Barry also still believes Iris is dead, reasoning that the changes in the timeline just haven’t caught up with them yet. And Bart begins to cry when he realizes his dad still wants to kill Eobard.</div><div><br /></div><div>Eventually, Chester hooks up Barry, Bart and Nora with harnesses designed to take them to the Negative Speed Force. But they don’t do anything other than cause pain to our heroes. However, Barry is able to easily enter the Negative Speed Force thanks to the help of yet another speedster named Meena. She has a long, complicated backstory that I don’t feel like getting into right now. But suffice it to say, she has a natural connection with the Negative. Of course, she only helps Barry go there, much against the wishes of Bart and Nora. However, Barry is almost immediately ejected from the Negative Speed Force. He was there just long enough to learn that the other forces were transforming Eobard, before he got teleported back to S.T.A.R. Labs.</div><div><br /></div><div>Suddenly, the “new and improved” Reverse-Flash appears in Central City with a black suit that Bart stupidly says was designed by Satan. Even though Eobard is causing quite a bit of mayhem in the streets, all our heroes choose to spend some time observing him from the safety of their monitors, which somehow reveal that Eobard now has the powers of all the Negative Forces.</div><div><br /></div><div>Barry, Bart, Nora and Meena eventually do confront Eobard, opening with another “thrown lightning” attack (I hate that concept so much). They knock him down, but he suddenly transforms into Bart, suggesting that he somehow swapped places with Impulse right before the lightning hit him. Eobard then snaps his fingers, teleporting Bart, Nora and Meena back in time one billion years.</div><div><br /></div><div>Even though this show has established how Bart and Nora can easily travel through time without any consequences whatsoever, they are unable to come back on their own. Maybe it was because of the Negative Still Force power that sent them back or something. Anyway, they miss the entire fight, wherein Barry is super-charged by the Positive Forces and he learns that Iris is alive. She was stuck in some weird limbo land and was able to escape through the power of self confidence. Seriously. There was a dumb time stone involved that Jay Garrick got to talk about, but it was mainly self confidence.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Barry-Eobard fight was enormously dumb, until the ending. Inspired by Iris, Barry decided to stop fighting and go into a meditative state, where Eobard could no longer hurt him. And then Eobard kind of just … fizzled out, I guess. Or maybe his big energy blast rebounded on him? I don’t know. But he disappeared and Barry finally decided to bring Bart, Nora and Meena back.</div><div><br /></div><div>Everybody heads back to … I don’t know, is this Barry’s house? But Bart and Nora suddenly have stylish civilian clothes on, perfect for lounging on couches. Joan shines a blue light on Iris’ face, which tells her that her “time sickness” is completely gone, and Nora’s wrist computer says there’s no Eobard anywhere in the timeline. Barry starts to apologize to his kids for briefly feeling a bit murderous, but they brush it off, saying he did the right thing at the end of the day. They all share big hugs and Bart stupidly quotes the Young Justice show by saying this was all “aster” and none of the “dis.” And then they all run back to 2049, where I can only hope they’ll stay far, far away from Season 9 of this accursed show. Unfortunately, I may not get my wish, as the episode ends with a strong tease to Cobalt Blue.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>In case you can’t tell, I absolutely hate this show. Everything about it reeks of laziness, from the writing to the production values. And even though Jordan Fisher did throw on that horrible Impulse outfit, his character was once again completely inconsequential. He cried for two seconds when he thought Daddy was getting too dark, he failed to journey to the Negative Speed Force, and then he threw one little bolt of lightning at the bad guy before being zapped away a billion years. The writer of this episode, just like the two writers of the previous episode, really had no idea what to do with what I can only assume were contract-mandated cameos. But it’s not like they had a really solid plan on what to do with the main characters, either. This was an absolutely bizarre, stupid story that didn’t make a lick of sense. Everything just … happened … because a character on screen said so. Truly awful stuff.</div><div><br /></div><div>However, I will allow myself the faintest glimmer of hope. I heard the next season will be the last of this show. Maybe, just maybe, the forces that be will pull out all the stops to ensure that this former hit of a show will go out on a high note. I have serious doubts, but it’s still fun to dream, right?</div><div><br /></div><div>Next time, we will return to Dark Crisis: Young Justice #2.</div>Dallinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12077214646519366484noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576434651382736087.post-15194494767145640482023-02-02T15:27:00.001-07:002023-02-02T15:27:21.848-07:00The Flash – “Negative, Part 1”<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjpXBgSZuJJAQ4V9qmU4ckwX0V4e6ES7XWaTnobLZrP8z0AQcIc_ZO96uX2wRUR5meNUXMPtz_MyVIImeakxxKA17xICzqDZbDspkT8NouX5BFwWJNeqR44YlNt6pUhUCTiAlTIOluxGg3E8GhX6fgDTEv05QAvtcMw2qs93Mz_pgZzNx_184BNSYU/s1920/5584AD35-4A0C-4489-A796-F8C0629748D0.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjpXBgSZuJJAQ4V9qmU4ckwX0V4e6ES7XWaTnobLZrP8z0AQcIc_ZO96uX2wRUR5meNUXMPtz_MyVIImeakxxKA17xICzqDZbDspkT8NouX5BFwWJNeqR44YlNt6pUhUCTiAlTIOluxGg3E8GhX6fgDTEv05QAvtcMw2qs93Mz_pgZzNx_184BNSYU/s320/5584AD35-4A0C-4489-A796-F8C0629748D0.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div>Director: Jeff Byrd</div><div>Writers: Jonathan Butler & Gabriel Garza</div><div><br /></div><div>Our story begins in Central City in 2049, where Bart and Nora are happily playing some futuristic video games, when they’re interrupted by a call from their mom. Bart hastily throws on a Central City University sweater and grabs a handful of textbooks in a pathetic attempt to make it appear like he’s been studying. Naturally, this doesn’t fool Iris, who was actually calling to assign Nora another story to write. Suddenly, the video chat is ended with a burst of green light, followed shortly by an identical burst of light in the living room, which brings the Iris from the past into the future.</div><div><br /></div><div>So the kids sit their younger mom down on the couch with a cup of tea and ask her what’s the last thing she remembers, which is just a rather vague “I got lost in the timestream.” Iris naturally wants to talk to Barry, but Bart informs her that he’s currently off world with Uncle Jay. (It sure is convenient how we always happen to miss seeing the future Barry.) Nora abruptly decides to run Iris back to 2022 by herself — without a cosmic treadmill or anything — and is shocked when she immediately is repulsed by a barrier of green light. Nora reasons that the Still Force is keeping Iris in 2049, although none of them know why. (By the way, the Still Force is the guy in the black-and-white jacket in the image above that I got from arrow.fandom.com.) Iris is suddenly overcome with a painful headache, which apparently is a side effect of her “time sickness,” a disease that Bart and Nora know nothing about.</div><div><br /></div><div>We return to the present, where a lot of boring, confusing stuff happens. But none of it really pertains to Bart, so I’ll skip over it. Bart and Nora decide to take their mom to a doctor (I assume this is Joan Garrick?), who discovers that Iris’ body is infected with “negative tachyons” that are increasing at an exponential rate. During the checkup, Iris gets another headache, and this time, she sees a glimpse of the other Forces (Strength, Sage and Still). Nora decides that the only way to help Iris is for her to go back to 2022 to enlist Barry’s aid. And Bart chooses to stay behind to look after his mother.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the past, Nora learned that all the Forces have a negative counterpart, and it’s these Negative Forces that are killing Iris. It’s quite convoluted, but basically the Negative Forces want to use Iris to poison the Positive Forces so they can get back at Barry for destroying the Negative Speed Force during a previous battle against the Reverse-Flash. Or something like that. Anyway, Barry is preparing to fight the Negative Forces, but he refuses to let Nora help him, ordering her to return to 2049.</div><div><br /></div><div>When Nora returns to the future, she finds Iris’ condition has worsened. Joan suspects she won’t survive another “temporal attack” and says the only thing they can do is pray that their father in the past can find the strength to defeat the Negative Forces.</div><div><br /></div><div>Later, Iris suddenly wakes up from her comatose state, wildly saying that the Forces are fighting Barry, creating a new moment in time. Joan, Nora and Bart realize that Iris is watching an event happening in 2022, which is somehow changing the future. Iris begins babbling nonsensically about visions and sacrifices and suddenly she’s teleported back to 2022, strategically placed by the Still Force right in front of Barry’s big lightning attack. The blast seemingly kills Iris, who then fades away into green light, which somehow helps resurrect Eobard Thawne. Don’t ask me how or why. It just did.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The writing on this show has gone completely insane. Like on-drugs insane. I don’t know if the writers were high when they wrote it, but it sure seems like the only way for the audience to enjoy this is to be high on something themselves. The more you think about this plot, the less sense it makes. So I’m going to quit while I’m ahead and focus just on Bart.</div><div><br /></div><div>Bart had no reason being in this episode. He accomplished absolutely nothing and served no real purpose. Iris didn’t even need to go to 2049 in the first place. Everything still could have happened the exact same way with Iris in the present. But by putting her in the future, the show created a situation where Bart and Nora were forced to act out of character. When Joan (or whoever she was) told them the only thing they could do to help their mom was to pray that their dad could win a fight 27 years in the past, those two young adults should have immediately raced back in time. To save their mom’s life, they totally would have defied their dad’s orders and helped defeat the Negative Forces once and for all. But I guess the writers worried that this would rob them of their “dramatic” cliffhanger?</div><div><br /></div><div>Honestly, it feels like the only reason Jordan Fisher was in this episode was because his contract stipulated that he must appear in three episodes per season. At least he didn’t have to put on that horrible Impulse costume here. And we didn’t get any melodramatic crying, which was a surprisingly nice touch. That’s it. I should focus on the positives.</div><div><br /></div><div>Next time, we’ll wrap up Season 8 of The Flash with “Negative, Part 2.”</div>Dallinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12077214646519366484noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8576434651382736087.post-32013120570879838662023-02-01T17:13:00.003-07:002023-02-01T17:13:42.169-07:00Dark Crisis: Young Justice #1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK0euSEfzRTAf5IhmID2W2jXcdERWLhTy2lifQE4LdH-TgA4wOR114RY-R2Cs-mFKif9mmByzy5qB3aU-g0ClQlDrYppI_SE63kJl-gpCKuPx1kL3nQb6PJnRO9wKWhReUgVTRbV9uXQIxFQ0AB0og4kxPlMsm8_xq85C8dyeNOdUxKCTzri7ywm-m/s2320/8F1F8278-CBF1-45F5-A538-299FFA285813.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1504" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK0euSEfzRTAf5IhmID2W2jXcdERWLhTy2lifQE4LdH-TgA4wOR114RY-R2Cs-mFKif9mmByzy5qB3aU-g0ClQlDrYppI_SE63kJl-gpCKuPx1kL3nQb6PJnRO9wKWhReUgVTRbV9uXQIxFQ0AB0og4kxPlMsm8_xq85C8dyeNOdUxKCTzri7ywm-m/s320/8F1F8278-CBF1-45F5-A538-299FFA285813.jpeg" width="207" /></a></div><br /><div>Save Your Generation</div><div><br /></div><div>Meghan Fitzmartin Writer</div><div>Laura Braga Artist</div><div>Luis Guerrero Colors</div><div>Pat Brosseau Letters</div><div>Luis Guerrero Cover</div><div>Todd Nauck & Matt Herms Variant Cover</div><div>Dave Wielgosz Editor</div><div>Ben Abernathy Group Editor</div><div>Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster</div><div>Superboy created by Jerry Siegel</div><div>By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family</div><div><br /></div><div>Our cover shows Wonder Girl passively flying forward in front of images of Impulse, Robin and Superboy, each wearing a bored, disinterested expression. Oh, and there are MIA (Missing In Action) stamps across them, suggesting that the three founders of Young Justice have mysteriously disappeared. But that’s hardly surprising news, as all of these characters have mostly been absent from comics since Brian Michael Bendis ended his Young Justice run back in 2020. Anyway, this is a depressingly underwhelming cover, not reflecting a fraction of the excitement I had when DC announced a Young Justice mini-series tying into their big crossover event.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeH2E4D17Mw5rTTvmWGXws24guptpndtBl-jTJaiezC5P_O-2Tz_eyqL1ShTOJJqReIGW6KdimdyXLKkNq4RNHXBkYczSJsIR4ipHJKXpYZmbGGn_OO7S5ZAfhIRPlR9eatXTHF9ulHafnrRtPcAcxSu0TZxKnvfoKh-241zR8r-O9CHb3kcgiOdte/s2160/894A3AC3-011E-4906-B13D-1CA90D4DDF9B.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2160" data-original-width="1404" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeH2E4D17Mw5rTTvmWGXws24guptpndtBl-jTJaiezC5P_O-2Tz_eyqL1ShTOJJqReIGW6KdimdyXLKkNq4RNHXBkYczSJsIR4ipHJKXpYZmbGGn_OO7S5ZAfhIRPlR9eatXTHF9ulHafnrRtPcAcxSu0TZxKnvfoKh-241zR8r-O9CHb3kcgiOdte/s320/894A3AC3-011E-4906-B13D-1CA90D4DDF9B.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div>Todd Nauck’s variant, however, does capture my excitement — and then some! It’s an absolutely glorious compilation of every single major character from Nauck’s run with Peter David. Seriously, they’re ALL here! And they look great! The only thing that could have made this better was if Lary Stucker had inked it. This is one of my favorite comic book covers I’ve ever seen. I hope I can own it soon. In the meantime, I have to enjoy it on dc.fandom.com.</div><div><br /></div><div>Our story opens at the funeral of the Justice League, held in front of the Hall of Justice. Everybody who’s anybody is there, including Godspeed, who was Bart’s arch enemy on the CW Flash show, but in this continuity I guess he’s some sort of anti-hero? Anyway, our narrator is Wonder Girl, who was already mourning the death of Hippolyta when she heard Wonder Woman had died. So Cassie is not in a good mood at all. She looks at her friends — Superboy, Robin and Impulse — oddly considering the four of them “children of the dead” who “don’t get to grieve like children.”</div><div><br /></div><div>In her head, Cassie criticizes Conner for never having cared about anything until he died. With Tim, she sees a boy who’s stuck letting his Robin identity be his entire personality. And with Bart, Cassie admits to herself that it’s not fair to call him a screwup, but she thinks the label is still accurate. She petulantly mocks Bart for trailing behind Conner and Tim “like a puppy that hasn’t figured out how to work its legs.” These thoughts are rather dark and unfair, and unfortunately, we’re stuck with that kind of thinking for the whole issue.</div><div><br /></div><div>In a flashback, we see Superboy, Robin and Impulse helped put the finishing touches on the 50-foot-tall gold statues of Superman, Batman and Flash in front of the Hall of Justice. Cassie recalls how Bart pushed Superboy-Prime into the Speed Force, only to emerge as an adult and be killed just a couple of months after deciding to become the Flash. Cassie also has a rather shallow moment by hoping that Conner never finds out how she hooked up with Tim after Conner died.</div><div><br /></div><div>Returning to the present, Bart, Tim, Conner and Cassie are now awkwardly wandering around the Hall of Justice, along with a smattering of random heroes. Joining the Young Justice crew is an old friend, Cissie, whom Robin insensitively addresses as Arrowette. She is now officially retired once more, and is lamely apologizing for being really bad at texting. Cissie can’t even remember the last time they were all together in the same room. Bart reminds her it was when they got together to save Conner, and Conner asks who long ago that was. (A question I also would really like to have answered!) Cassie, meanwhile, is brooding in the background, while her inner monologue criticizes Cissie for abandoning her friends and responsibilities for a civilian life.</div><div><br /></div><div>There’s a moment of awkward silence, where Cassie laments how they barely feel like friends anymore and are too scared to tell each other what they’re really thinking. Bart breaks the silence by wondering if they’ll get the same funeral treatment as the Justice League when they die. Conner darkly (and inaccurately) says they didn’t the last time they died. Tim and Bart sternly chastise Conner for that comment, while Cassie silently wishes she could strangle all of them. Conner apologizes, saying he’s feeling especially bad now because he hadn’t talked to Superman in a really long time. Bart empathizes with him, and starts to mention Wally’s name, but Conner rudely cuts him off, saying he doesn’t need Bart to try and make him feel better.</div><div><br /></div><div>Cissie can tell Cassie is about to destroy something, so she pulls her aside to talk. Cassie admits she’s frustrated that all of them are pretending like the last few years didn’t happen. She says, “Half of us have died, and I just wish that some of them would have stayed dead.” As soon as she utters those cruel words, there’s a fain “bloop” sound. When Cassie turns around, Robin, Superboy and Impulse are suddenly missing.</div><div><br /></div><div>Tim wakes up in Wayne Manor, shocked to see that Alfred is still alive. The erstwhile butler believes Master Drake has merely been dreaming, and he informs him that Young Justice is calling for Robin. Superboy wakes up on the floor of his Hawaii bedroom, which is cluttered with a VHS tape, a GameBoy and an original PlayStation. When Superboy sees his old mentor, Dubbilex, standing over him, he asks if he’s dead again. Dubbilex dryly says he isn’t, and that Young Justice needs his help.</div><div><br /></div><div>Bart is woken up by a punching bag slamming into his face. He’s bewildered to find himself in a gym, training with Wally and Max. Bart quickly grows weary of Wally’s lengthy lecture, saying he doesn’t have to be so hard on him just because they lost Barry. Max is confused by Bart’s wording, pointing out that Bart has never met his grandfather. Bart races off to the Flash Museum in Central City, and he’s shocked to see it’s still like how he remembers it from when he was younger and still thought he had a chance at being the Flash. Even the old statue of Barry is back in front of the museum, causing Bart to ask, “<b>When</b> am I?”</div><div><br /></div><div>Impulse quickly runs around the country, encountering Kyle Rayner, Artemis, Zauriel and Conner Hawke — all relics of the late ’90s/early ’00s. He eventually returns to the first headquarters of the Justice League in Happy Harbor, Rhode Island, and finds it exactly like it was when Young Justice first took it over. Bart’s also surprised to see Conner and Tim inside. Superboy is putting on his old Superman shirt, while Robin is working on the computer. Bart asks if they know whether they’ve traveled back in time or on a parallel world. Conner strangely — and darkly — suggests they might just be back to “how things should be.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Bart asks just what Conner meant by that, but before he can answer, Tim says he believes they’ve gone back in time. He’s found evidence of Superman recently dying, Gotham being struck by an earthquake, and Lex Luthor running for president. Tim’s interrupted by an alert on the computer, and he says they’ll figure this out after they help this person in trouble. Superboy admiringly says that’s the Robin he knows, but Impulse wants them to focus on their bizarre problem. But Superboy overrules him, and Impulse eventually gives in, racing out to save the day with the original Young Justice lineup.</div><div><br /></div><div>Meanwhile, Cassie is beginning to worry about Tim, Conner and Bart. She asked Superman’s son, Jon, to scan for them with his x-ray vision, but he couldn’t find any trace of them. Cassie tells Cissie they should go tell Wally, but Cissie refuses to offer any help whatsoever, rudely suggesting the boys are off “finding horrible coping mechanisms to process their fake dads being dead.” She walks away, saying she’s sure they’re fine because they alway are. But Cassie, who can remember that just 10 minutes ago they were literally talking about how Superboy and Impulse were killed, is still concerned.</div><div><br /></div><div>We return to our lost boys, who have followed the trouble alert to a mysterious figure at the bottom of a crater. Superboy offers to fly down and check on the person, but Impulse stops him, saying this feels familiar. Both Superboy and Robin experience the feeling of deja vu. And all three boys are shocked to see the figure reveal herself as the Mighty Endowed, whom they encountered way back in the very first issue of Young Justice. Superboy says there’s not enough therapy in the world for this, as the large-chested woman begins charging our heroes.</div><div><br /></div><div>We cut back to Cassie, who has traveled to Central City’s Flash Museum to speak with Wally, Wallace, Jesse and Max. It’s apparently been a few days since Bart disappeared, and all the other speedsters are busy dealing with the Dark Crisis. And unfortunately, none of them are concerned about Bart’s disappearance, even after Cassie says she believes her friends aren’t even on this planet anymore. Wally impatiently says he has no time for teen angst and believes that if Bart’s with Conner and Tim then that’s probably the best thing for him, anyway.</div><div><br /></div><div>Wonder Girl then visited Nightwing in Blüdhaven, only to have him tell her that Tim’s just processing Bruce’s death and will “come up for air” when he’s ready. In Metropolis, Jon actually tells Cassie that he wishes he knew where Conner was, saying he’d take all the help he can get right now. Dejected, Cassie mopes on a swing set at an empty playground at night, lamenting how her generation was brought up to handle every crisis on their own like it’s no problem, even when they ask for help.</div><div><br /></div><div>We jump back to the boys, who are actually having a hard time battling the surprisingly aggressive and powerful Mighty Endowed. She vows to kill Young Justice, to which Impulse boldly urges her on, saying that many have tried. Robin admonishes him for antagonizing the villain, adding that she’s not much of a threat, at least from his memory. Robin’s comment only enraged the Mighty Endowed, which let Impulse turn that “antagonizing” comment back on Robin. After a particularly big hit, Robin says he feels like he’s gone 10 rounds with Damian Wayne. Bart comments on how absolutely nuts this, but Conner brightly says that someone is coming to the rescue.</div><div><br /></div><div>Cassie is depressingly laying on her bed, still in her Wonder Girl outfit. Her room is littered with junk food, and she is now beginning to wonder if her thoughtless wish for her friends’ deaths somehow caused their disappearance. Despite all the dismissals from everybody she’s talked to, Cassie can feel that Tim, Conner and Bart are in trouble. And she vows to rescue them. Suddenly, a Wonder Girl in an older costume (but not her original) arrives right on top of the Mighty Endowed.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxvw8027I7ael85fGX9eKlJKfdQVMGgoFBK22sH9J6wBcOCY2w2moDiZT05ziyD0JB2MuqwW1RgJMsEHt55LckmF2NQMiTyjVBZzcCv6XyDZ4u0sngqG1fRNXf9NmGI9cT8zedLNWmCL32TzZhITVE-5fOOfrrFJ8FzoSKeHtDbjgXDVVgOhCIZRqf/s2320/DD5EA074-1D2A-457A-8186-705107F3AAED.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2320" data-original-width="1505" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxvw8027I7ael85fGX9eKlJKfdQVMGgoFBK22sH9J6wBcOCY2w2moDiZT05ziyD0JB2MuqwW1RgJMsEHt55LckmF2NQMiTyjVBZzcCv6XyDZ4u0sngqG1fRNXf9NmGI9cT8zedLNWmCL32TzZhITVE-5fOOfrrFJ8FzoSKeHtDbjgXDVVgOhCIZRqf/s320/DD5EA074-1D2A-457A-8186-705107F3AAED.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div>Well, Young Justice is back. Sort of. There’s minimal references to Bendis’ disastrous run — which I’m thankful for — and only slightly more references to the Dark Crisis event. In fact, if you completely removed the funeral for the Justice League, this spin-off series would have absolutely no connection to the main event. And I kind of wish that we didn’t have that sadness weighing everything down. Grief makes people do and say things contrary to their true nature, so in an issue all about grief, almost everybody in it acts out of character. The big problem with that is most of these characters have largely been absent from comics for the past two years, and now that they’re back in their own mini-series, I want to see if this new writer has a good handle on these characters’ voices. And I can’t get a good read on that when everyone is in super-sensitive, saying-things-they-don’t-mean mode.</div><div><br /></div><div>Fitzmartin clearly does know her history with these characters, which is such a breath of fresh air after Bendis’ ignorance was repeatedly displayed. I was impressed and surprised to see that Bart’s fight against Superboy-Prime was remembered and in continuity. I was thrilled to see that Cissie King-Jones was adamantly not Arrowette again. (Take <b>that</b>, Bendis!) Yes, her lack of concern over the boys’ disappearance was disappointing, but I suppose that could be chalked up to grief? I’m also sad that there wasn’t even a mention of Greta (formerly Secret). Everyone seems to forget about her.</div><div><br /></div><div>But I did like Fitzmartin’s impulse to return us to 1999 — in a way. This comic was meant for people my age, who are yearning for that bit of nostalgia. Taking us back to Young Justice #1 was a great way to do that. Making Wonder Girl the only person concerned about Young Justice’s disappearance felt rather symbolic. Impulse has been gone/ignored/stashed away for years at a time, and nobody cared. Not even his own speedster family. Granted, I did feel it was completely against Max Mercury’s character to stand idly by with the news of Bart’s disappearance. But story-wise, that was my only real complaint with this issue.</div><div><br /></div><div>Long-time fans of Young Justice are also in a state of grieving, accustomed to feeling lost and neglected. And even though it’s hard to read a story with such an irrationally angry narrator, Fitzmartin did a good job of speaking to those feelings of grief and neglect. The tragedy isn’t that our heroes disappeared. The tragedy is that they’ve disappeared <b>and no one cares</b>. Fitzmartin seems to understand this perfectly.</div><div><br /></div><div>Unfortunately, this issue was severely hampered by the art. I’m going to be generous and assume that Braga was rushed on this project, because I sincerely hope this isn’t her best work. The characters don’t look good. At all. And I can’t even tell how old they’re supposed to be. They look more like short adults than teenagers — a complaint I haven’t made since the early ’90s. </div><div><br /></div><div>But what really gets me is the missed opportunities. Bart’s run across the country was the laziest, ugliest image in this comic. Just a bland, brown map with a few random red dots representing cities (I guess?) and tiny stock photos of some random ’90s character haphazardly strewn across the whole thing. I really couldn’t tell what was actually supposed to be happening in that panel.</div><div><br /></div><div>And then there’s the Mighty Endowed. Todd Nauck cleverly used a perpetual cloud of dust to cover her cleavage, leaving us to always wonder exactly how big it was. That choice built the suspense and the humor of the situation, especially when she collapsed due to the weight of her breasts. But Braga didn’t seem to understand the purpose of that cloud of dust. Yes, it was there, but it was so small, it didn’t actually conceal anything. You could clearly see the full size and shape of those massive boobs, and it really let me down. Now, because I’ve been so slow with this review, I know how this series ends, and I can say right up front that Fitzmartin will try to explain away some inconsistencies like this. But I felt her efforts in later issues were more like hasty course corrections instead of a planned plot element.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, for better or worse, Young Justice is back in the comics. Unfortunately, I won’t be continuing this series next time. Instead, I will return to … shudder … the CW Flash show. Wish me luck.</div>Dallinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12077214646519366484noreply@blogger.com0