Year in Review: 2024

It's true what they say: The older you get, the faster time flies by. Here I am at yet another Year in Review for a blog that I started more than 10 years ago. I made a solemn vow to review every appearance of Impulse, even if that means going through years like this one, where he doesn't have too much to do. It was also a relatively quiet year for superhero films, as the MCU is going through a bit of a retooling and the DCEU was completely destroyed. From Columbia Pictures, we got three movies that I suppose technically count as Marvel movies — Madame Web, Venom: The Last Dance and Kraven the Hunter. Venom made a little bit of money, but Kraven and Madame Web were disastrous flops. The one bright spot for Marvel wad Deadpool & Wolverine, which finished the year second in the box office, behind only Inside Out 2. The only film from DC was Joker: Folie à Deux, the sequel to 2019's Oscar-winning Joker. I haven't seen it yet, but I do know it wasn't nearly as well-received or profitable as the first one.

As I said, 2024 was a pretty quiet year for Impulse. Simon Spurrier undid Jeremy Adams' beautiful sendoff of the character only to do ... almost nothing with him. There were a few moments that we'll get to, but for the most part, Impulse was reduced to a donut-munching goofball in the background. He didn't really get to participate in the Absolute Power event, and nobody at DC seems to be in any rush to revive Young Justice. In other words, brace yourself for some pretty lackluster awards.

Best Story: The Flash #7

I didn't like this issue nearly as much as I should have. Bart defied Wally's orders and somehow managed to find Max Mercury in a hellish plane of existence all by himself. And then the two of them were quickly overwhelmed by the horrific nature of that place and found themselves unable to run or fight. In what should have been one of the most gut-wrenching, tear-jerking moments in Bart and Max's relationship, the two of them embraced and accepted their imminent death. I say "should have" because this issue handled that whole sequence rather clumsily. Bart and Max were rescued via deus ex machina, received a dump truck's worth of exposition, then were summarily shoved into a corner for the rest of the story. Looking back at Spurrier's 13-issue tale, the contributions of Bart and Max were virtually nonexistent. But at the end of the day, I have to give this award to something, and The Flash #7 featured more Impulse than any other issue — by a wide margin.

Best Writer: Simon Spurrier

Make no mistake: I did not like Spurrier's writing at all. I was intrigued at first, and I kept giving him the benefit of a doubt. But the longer the story went, the worse it became. And I might be more willing to forgive an ambitious-yet-flawed story like this had Impulse been handled well. But Spurrier simply didn't know what to do with Bart. Finding Max all by himself was perfectly in character. And his brief discussions with Inspector Pilgrim about the nature of time travel had potential. But it all vanished away as quickly as possible and the only thing Spurrier could think of was a lame running gag of Bart constantly eating donuts. Unfortunately, Spurrier didn't have any competition this year, so he wins this award by default.

Best Artist: Khary Payton

Impulse's erratic appearances in The Flash were handled by several artists, but none of them really drew the character the way I'd expect him to look. They usually made him look way too young. I almost was forced to endure an entire year of mediocre Impulse art, until a small backup story in Wonder Woman saved me. Yeah, I know Khary Payton only drew Impulse in one panel, but that panel knocked my socks off! I had almost forgotten how cool Impulse can look when he's drawn by an artist who shares my sensibilities of this fun (and almost forgotten) character. So yeah, I know this is an unusual award winner, but I am choosing to reward quality over quantity.

Best Supporting Character: Max Mercury

Max wins this award for the fifth time total and the first time since 2002. It was great seeing Bart and Max back together again after spending so many years separated. No, I didn't really appreciate how Spurrier wrote Max — he didn't seem to have a great grasp on Max's voice or powers. And yes, I certainly do wish Spurrier devoted more time to Bart and Max, or at least made their moments more significant to the story. But Bart had his biggest moments of the year with Max, and that's what this award is all about.

Best Villain: The Arc Angles

I hate having to reward this vague concept of an antagonist, but I have no other choice. Yeah, Amanda Waller did capture Bart, but he was rescued almost immediately and didn't seem to suffer any consequences from that. So I'm going with the main driving force behind all the drama of Spurrier's first 13 issues of The Flash. Yeah, their ultimate goal of trying to destroy time was completely nonsensical and barely involved Impulse, but it's the best I've got.

I honestly have no idea when I'll be back. Spurrier is still writing The Flash, but he's focusing primarily on the West family. Perhaps Bart will return for a quick cameo in that series. Maybe I'll be completely shocked by someone abruptly plucking him from this limbo and giving him something interesting to do. If and when that happens, I'll be here to review it.

Year in Review: 2023

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).

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.

Best Story: The Flash #800

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.

Best Writer: Mark Waid

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.

Best Artist: Todd Nauck

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.

Best Supporting Character: Kid Flash

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!

Best Villain: The Fraction

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.

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.

Next time, we'll return to Spurrier's mysterious story with The Flash #5.

Year in Review: 2022

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.

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.

Best Story: Earth-Prime: The Flash #5

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.

Best Writers: Jess Carson and Emily Palizzi

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.

Best Artist: Todd Nauck

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.

Best Supporting Characters: Chameleon Boy and Saturn Girl

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.

Best Villain: Mickey Mxyzptlk 

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.

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.

Year in Review: 2021

Here we go again. Another year in the books, and sadly, not a whole lot of Impulse to talk about. But first, a quick review of the year that just barely ended. I don’t need to remind you that the pandemic continued to mess with release schedules and box office numbers. But despite all that, it was still a pretty busy year for superhero movies. Marvel released Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Eternals and Spider-Man: No Way Home, which dominated the box office with over a billion dollars at the end of the year. DC wasn’t quite as prolific (as usual), with only one film being released in theaters, The Suicide Squad. Zack Snyder’s Justice League did come out on HBO Max, but that doesn’t really count as an original film. At least in my book.

The enhanced streaming options really made this two-year pandemic bearable. And once again, Marvel led the way in this new front, with the Disney+ shows WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, Hawkeye and What If…? DC really couldn’t compete with that. Sure, they had their usual slate of bland CW shows (Superman & Lois being the exception) and Young Justice: Phantoms premiered on HBO Max, but there wasn’t a whole lot to get excited about. And for Impulse fans like me, there was even less.

I had predicted that Bart Allen would disappear and be forgotten after Brian Michael Bendis’ Young Justice was cancelled and Joshua Williamson left The Flash. Unfortunately, I was right. I can count on one hand the number of significant appearances Bart made in comics and television in 2021. Impulse was quickly killed in the opening pages of a Future State comic, made a cameo in Jeremy Adams’ Flash run, and then finally made an appearance on the CW’s Flash show. But that was it. Still photographs/memories of Bart did show up here and there — Teen Titans Academy, Suicide Squad, Young Justice: Phantoms — but each of those “appearances” were so small and worthless, I didn’t see the point in reviewing them. What would I say about them? “I’m glad that Conner/Gar remember Bart?”

So anyway, I’m saying all this to say that this is an especially difficult year for handing out awards. There were few options to choose from and, frankly, none of them were that good. But the show will go on! Because I have hope that one day, DC will start producing fun stories about Impulse once again and I’ll be able to fondly look back on this record of the dry spells.

Best Story: The Flash #769

I really didn’t like this comic that much. I’ll be honest with you. It featured Impulse in name only and forever banished him to the unreachable future for no rhyme or reason. But … it was the best choice of the year. Future State killed Bart before he could do anything. And the CW show was laughingly, embarrassingly, even insultingly bad. The Flash #769 was none of those things. It was actually a fairly interesting Wally West story. I just wish Impulse had something to do in it.

Best Writer: Jeremy Adams

Adams gets this award by pure default. Yeah, he really annoyed me with what he did to Impulse, but it wasn’t nearly as unforgivable as what the CW writers did to him. Or Brandon Vietti’s choice to kill him in a super quick, super lame way. Besides, Adams does deserve some credit for bringing a fresh approach to the mess of Wally West.

Best Artist: Dale Eaglesham

Eaglesham didn’t do anything particularly noteworthy on Future State, but he was a competent, solid artist that got the job done. The team of artists on Adams’ Flash stories churned out computery, rubbery art that really annoyed me.

Best Supporting Character: Jay Garrick

I would have liked to give this award to Wally or even Gold Beetle, but we really didn’t see Bart do anything with them. And since Bart’s story in Future State was so brief, I’m left with the CW show. That Bart was interesting in that he had a mother, father and older sister — unlike any other version of Bart we’ve ever seen, who’s almost always been somewhat of an orphan. But despite that large, loving family around him, this Bart was most closely connected to Jay Garrick — to the point where he recklessly risked his life to try to protect his old mentor. And so the original Flash picks up his third Supporting Character award on this blog.

Best Villain: The Calculator

I almost gave this award to Godspeed, the ridiculous and confusing villain of the CW. After all, he did kill Jay Garrick (off screen, in the future) and he did arbitrarily declare Impulse as his mortal enemy. But he never really did anything to Bart, and, worse of all, Bart didn’t even get to participate in the final battle that ended in Godspeed’s defeat. The Calculator, though, gets to go down in history as one of the very few villains who managed to kill Bart Allen. And that’s just enough to earn this award. At least for this year.

What does 2022 hold? Who knows. My wife is expecting our second son in April, so that’ll be quite the adventure. Young Justice: Phantoms might return from its hiatus by then and maybe, if we’re lucky, they’ll actually give Kid Flash something to do. The CW’s Flash is still chugging along, but so far (thankfully), they haven’t brought Impulse back. And as for the comics? Sadly it seems like it’ll take a miracle to bring Impulse back. But I’ll keep watching and waiting. I hope you will, too.

Year in Review: 2020

 I normally start these posts with a quick recap of the year in film, but 2020 really threw things for a loop. After the massive explosion of cinematic and superhero entertainment of 2019, the coronavirus pandemic slammed everything to a grinding halt the following year. Most movies were delayed for a whole year. Some were pushed directly to streaming services like Disney Plus or HBO Max. Theaters kept fluctuating between being closed or open at limited capacity. So, technically speaking, the highest grossing film of the year was the Japanese anime Demon Slayer. But does that really count? Nomadland won the Academy Award for Best Picture, but again, was that a fair competition?

There were three new superhero films in 2020. Marvel’s disastrous New Mutants was very quietly released after being stuck in development hell for years. DC’s Birds of Prey failed to garner much attention and Wonder Woman 1984 opted for an HBO Max release. That was the only of the three that had the potential to be a major blockbuster, and only the executives at Warner Brothers can determine if they made the financially prudent decision. I, for one, was happy to enjoy that movie from the comfort of my own home.

Of course, I’ve been burying the lead here. In 2020, I became a father! My wife gave birth to our son on March 20, just as all the shutdowns began (the hospital literally changed their rules for visitors while we were there). So, in light of all the challenges brought on by the pandemic, one silver lining was my ability to work from home and spend more time with my baby.

And luckily for us, the pandemic had a rather minimal effect on comic books. Apart from a brief hiatus at the beginning, DC continued to publish at a regular pace. And it was especially good for Impulse, since he became a regular in The Flash, as well as Young Justice. Granted, Young Justice took a major nosedive in 2020, ultimately leading to its cancellation in November, but that’s beside the point.

Best Story: The Flash #759

Brian Michael Bendis effectively held Impulse hostage for a full year, culminating in an empty, disappointing issue that focused entirely on Bart, but didn’t answer any questions or advance the plot in any way. Joshua Williamson finally reclaimed Bart and made the right decision in mostly ignoring whatever it was Bendis was trying, but failing to do. The Flash #759 unfortunately had a really stupid cover and not my favorite interior art, either, but the story was the best Impulse story we’ve had in years. I think the last time I was this excited was the debut of Bart in the Young Justice show way back in 2012. Williamson confirmed that Bart remembered being killed as the Flash, gave him an epic fight scene against the Reverse-Flash, and capped it all off with an emotional reunion with Grandma Iris. I couldn’t have asked for more in a single issue.

Best Writer: Joshua Williamson 

Williamson ended his Flash run on an unfortunately sour note by showing that the Reverse-Flash was single-handedly behind every mistake, argument and bad thing that ever happened to anyone in the Flash family. But everything up until that point was pretty good. And Bart’s explosive entrance into the story was more than enough for Williamson to earn this award for the third time. And, frankly, Bendis didn’t put up much of a competition. He got caught in the same pitfall of the Lost TV show, where the only thing he could do was allude to more mysteries and questions, but never answer them, trapped treading water until the series was mercifully taken from him.

Best Artist: John Timms

I was heartbroken when Patrick Gleason left Young Justice. Timms was nowhere near as brilliant, but a very serviceable replacement. Eventually, Timms left, too, and Scott Godlewski proved to be a serviceable replacement of Timms. But still, not quite as good, not nearly as dynamic as what we used to have. (Honestly, it mostly comes down to Timms drawing better Impulse hair than Godlewski.) The Flash books had a slew of artists, but none of them really got it done for me.

Best Supporting Character: Superboy

This is only the third time Superboy has won this award, as he’s almost always been the runner-up. But this year, he stood out head and shoulders above the rest. Part of that is due to Williamson’s failure to do anything meaningful with Impulse after that memorable entrance in issue #759. But part of it is also a credit to Bendis. (I know! I actually said something good about him!) As disappointing as Young Justice #16 was, I did appreciate how it showed that Superboy was hands-down Bart’s best friend on the team. Conner was the one Bart cared about the most and trusted the most. And more than anyone else in Bart’s life — including the Flash family — Conner had the ability to truly empathize with him. He’s the only one who has also experienced the trauma-inducing confusion of repeated deaths, rebirths and being stranded outside of his original reality.

Best Villain: Reverse-Flash

This is the first award for Eobard Thawne, although we have had other members of the Thawne family earn this honor — President Thaddeus Thawne and Inertia (who did reappear in 2020, but didn’t do anything). It’s true, I will never forgive the decision to blame Eobard on everything bad that ever happened to anyone in the Flash family (including keeping Bart away for a year). But I will credit him with orchestrating a large enough threat to warrant the inclusion of all our favorite speedsters. Taking over Barry Allen’s body and corrupting the Tornado Twins is a pretty big deal. Bart had to rescue both his father and his grandfather. And nothing remotely similar can be said about any of the “threats” from Young Justice. Seriously, Bendis, S.T.A.R. Labs is not evil!

Next time, we’ll begin 2021, which is odd because it’s currently July 2021 and I don’t know what the rest of the year holds. Sadly, I do know there are very few comic appearances, as the cancellation of Young Justice and the departure of Williamson has left DC without any creators who want to touch Impulse. But we will see a long overdue live-action version of Bart on the CW’s Flash. And the delayed fourth season of Young Justice is rumored to debut in October. It’s going to be strange catching up to real time on this blog. It all begins with Future State: The Flash #1.

Year in Review: 2019

I know I said 2018 was the biggest year yet for superheroes. But 2019 surpassed that in every way. Avengers: Endgame became the highest-grossing film of all time at more than $2.7 billion. And there were three other superhero movies that passed the billion-dollar mark — Spider-Man: Far From Home, Captain Marvel and Joker. DC's r-rated, non-DCEU Joker was the big surprise, not only in the box office, but at the Academy Awards, coming away with two Oscars — Best Original Score and Best Actor for Joaquin Phoenix. 

There were two other superhero movies in 2019 that didn't quite live up to the incredible standard set by these others. DC's other film, Shazam!, was a delightful romp that I quite enjoyed, but it didn't really find an audience. And for Marvel, Dark Phoenix was meant to be the swan song for Fox's X-Men franchise, but it felt like everyone gave up halfway through, as the Disney-Fox deal was finalized. Speaking of Disney, their box office domination was almost absolute in 2019. In addition to their Marvel blockbusters, Disney had five other sequels or remakes earn at least a billion dollars — The Lion King, Frozen II, The Rise of Skywalker, Toy Story 4 and Aladdin. Hopefully that gave them enough money before the pandemic of 2020 hit.

Let's see ... what else happened in 2019? Oh, nothing much. Just the biggest year for Bart Allen in almost 20 years! He returned to the world of animation as Kid Flash on Young Justice: Outsiders, via the DC Universe app. And, much more significantly, he became a founding member of the rebooted Young Justice series in the comics — not as Kid Flash, but as the original Impulse once again! It was quite exciting.

Best Story: Young Justice #1

After appearing on a glorious splash page in Flash #50 in July 2018, we didn't get a single glimpse of Bart until January 2019. There was a tease in Action Comics #1006 on the 2nd, then the Young Justice: Outsiders premiere on the 4th, which unfortunately made clear that Bart would not be a big part of this season. But then, finally, Young Justice #1 dropped on January 9, and boy was it something. It was loud, it was bright, it was colorful. It screamed from the mountaintops that Young Justice is back and Impulse is at the center of it. That issue was a loooong time coming, and it appropriately matched the level of excitement it needed. And, frankly, there wasn't any other issue or episode that came close. Bart had a ton of appearances in 2019, but nothing as big as this. His cameos in The Flash were forgettable, and his role on Outsiders was inconsequential. And, sadly, none of the subsequent issues of Young Justice were as good as the debut.

Best Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

This was another no-brainer award. I don't know if Joshua Williamson was not allowed or was simply unwilling to use Impulse, but he really didn't. So the vast majority of Bart's appearances this year fell under the massive Bendis umbrella. DC gave him a large corner of their universe to work with, and he made sure to frequently have his revamped Young Justice make cameos in his other titles — even if that didn't fit in his established continuity. Regardless, Bendis did do a very good job with Impulse this year. Although he never explained anything, he nailed Bart's personality and power set. And even though I started to sour on Young Justice around issue #10, the series was a lot of fun.

Best Artist: Patrick Gleason

Sadly, Gleason quickly bolted for Marvel after only a handful of Young Justice issues. But the work he did  was fantastic. In interviews, he spoke of how he saw Impulse as the heart of the team, and it showed every time he drew him. Gleason also was innovative in choosing to rarely — if ever — drawing Bart in a traditional running pose, opting instead for chaotic and random jumping, ducking and basically dancing. And that choice perfectly fits Bart's personality. He doesn't just run fast, he moves fast. Also, Gleason became the first artist since Humberto Ramos to redesign Impulse's look. He has a new costume, buck teeth (meh), new hair, new eyes (I miss the yellow), new everything. But, there is no mistaking that this is Impulse. And more important than how he looks, is how he feels ... if that makes any sense. Anyway, no other artist came close this year to matching Gleason's accomplishments.

Best Supporting Character: Eduardo Dorado Jr.

Poor Superboy is once again the runner-up in this category — a position he's in almost every year. Yes, Bart's reunion with Kon was by far the most emotional of this year. But Bendis oddly interrupted that glorious hug with a whole separate issue that neither of them appeared in. And after that hug, what have Bart and Kon actually done? Those 11 issues went by way too fast for any normal conservation or introspection. So that brings up Kid Flash's newest best friend, Eduardo. There is a very strong implication that the two of them are boyfriends — which would be a very interesting direction to explore — but there was no confirmation. (It's a little strange, considering how the third season of Young Justice didn't shy away from LGBTQ characters, but oh well.) At the very least, Bart and Eduardo are great friends who care a lot about each other. They were constantly at each others' side and deeply worried about each others' safety during battle. And that's more than I can say about Bart and Kon.

Best Villain: Granny Goodness

This was a tough one. Technically, the Dark Lord Opal was the main villain for the start of the Young Justice comic, but he never really felt like much of a threat, and was quickly, unceremoniously defeated. After that, Young Justice bounced around the multiverse for a little bit, before finally getting into a fight with their Earth-3 counterparts. But once again, they hardly provided a challenge and were easily beaten. So that leaves us with the main villain of Young Justice: Outsiders. And that was Granny Goodness. Bart didn't get to help defeat her at the end, but she did cause him and his teammates the most pain and torture they felt all year, so that gives ol' Granny the win.

Before I can move on to 2020, there is one final Impulse appearance I must record: the cover of Flash Forward #4.

The wonderful Doc Shaner snuck in a Bart and Wally straight from Mike Wieringo's Flash #97. But Bart didn't appear in the issue, which is fine with me, because that miniseries has two of my least favorite creators on it — Scott Lobdell and Brett Booth. Ugh! Unfortunately, I will have to take a quick look at Flash Forward #5.

But first, we'll start 2020 with Young Justice #12.

Year in Review: 2018

This is the 25th Year in Review for this blog, and there's no better way to celebrate this milestone than with the return of Bart Allen! And it was only natural for Bart to come back during what was undoubtedly the biggest year for superheroes yet. In 2018, six of the 10 highest grossing films were based on superheroes. Avengers: Infinity War led the way with an astonishing $2 billion, followed by Black Panther, Incredibles 2, Aquaman, Venom and Deadpool 2. Rounding out the list were Ant-Man and the Wasp and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Not only were these films profitable, but some of them were critically acclaimed. Spider-Verse won the Academy Award for Best Animated Film and Infinity Award was nominated for an Oscar. Black Panther won three Oscars and was nominated for four more, including Best Picture (which it lost to Green Book).

Amidst all that excitement, it was actually another quiet year for Bart. We wrapped up the story with the Titans of Tomorrow and the Super Sons, then we had to endure months of teases and preludes of the Flash War before Bart finally made his triumphant return — for exactly one splash page before disappearing for the next five months. But hey, he actually finally came back! So let's celebrate!

Best Story

1994: Flash #92
1995: Impulse #6
1996: Impulse #10
1997: Impulse #24
1998: World Without Grown-Ups
1999: Impulse #50
2000: Impulse #66
2001: Young Justice #31
2002: Young Justice #45
2003: Young Justice #55
2004: Teen Titans/Legion Special
2005: Teen Titans #19
2006: Infinite Crisis #4
2007: The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #13
2008: Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge
2009: Legion of 3 Worlds #4
2010: Blackest Night #8
2011: Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost #3
2012: Young Justice: Invasion – Bloodlines
2013: Young Justice: Invasion – Intervention
2014: Multiversity: The Just #1
2015: DC Sneak Peek: Teen Titans
2016: Rebirth #1
2017: Teen Titans #15
2018: The Flash #50

There was only one possible winner this year. Granted, The Flash #50 barely offered any explanation for Bart's return — Wally somehow just happened to break the "Force Barrier" — and Bart didn't get to do anything other than run through the streets on one page. But he did come back. And that's the important thing.

Best Writer

1994: Mark Waid
1995: Mark Waid
1996: Mark Waid
1997: Mark Waid
1998: William Messner-Loebs
1999: Todd Dezago
2000: Todd Dezago
2001: Peter David
2002: Todd Dezago
2003: Peter David
2004: Geoff Johns
2005: Geoff Johns
2006: Geoff Johns
2007: Marc Guggenheim
2008: Geoff Johns
2009: Geoff Johns
2010: Geoff Johns
2011: J.T. Krul
2012: Peter David
2013: Peter David
2014: Scott Lobdell
2015: Will Pfeifer
2016: Geoff Johns
2017: Joshua Williamson
2018: Joshua Williamson

Williamson wasn't allowed to do anything with Impulse other than bring him back. But he did convey the right amount of excitement with this event. And as torturous as it was to be teased with statues of Bart and Max in the museum, it was a nice reminder that someone at DC still cared about those characters and missed them, too.

Best Artist

1994: Mike Wieringo
1995: Humberto Ramos
1996: Humberto Ramos
1997: Humberto Ramos
1998: Craig Rousseau
1999: Todd Nauck
2000: Ethan Van Sciver
2001: Todd Nauck
2002: Carlo Barberi
2003: Todd Nauck
2004: Tom Grummett
2005: Mike McKone
2006: Todd Nauck
2007: Tony Daniel
2008: Scott Kolins
2009: George Pérez
2010: Ivan Reis
2011: Francis Manapul
2012: Jorge Jiménez
2013: Jorge Jiménez
2014: Tyler Kirkham
2015: Kenneth Rocafort
2016: Jorge Jiménez
2017: Jorge Jiménez
2018: Howard Porter

Porter isn't my favorite artist — sometimes he makes his characters too chunky and scraggly for my liking. But his page of Impulse's return — complete with a hidden reference to Mike Wieringo — was full of so much love and joy, it played up this stupendous moment perfectly.

Best Supporting Character

1994: Damage
1995: Max Mercury
1996: XS
1997: Carol Bucklen
1998: Superboy
1999: Max Mercury
2000: Max Mercury
2001: Carol Bucklen
2002: Max Mercury
2003: Jay Garrick
2004: Beast Boy
2005: Future Bart
2006: Jay Garrick
2007: Robin
2008: Brainiac 5
2009: Brainiac 5
2010: Superboy
2011: Barry Allen
2012: Blue Beetle
2013: Blue Beetle
2014: Solstice
2015: Red Robin
2016: Wally West
2017: Future Conner
2018: Wally West

Wally didn't intentionally bring Bart back — he was trying to bring his kids back. And I don't blame him at all. But it does seem like he and Iris did remember Bart and the others — to an extent — although they never mentioned any of them by name. Barry ... well, if we're being charitable, we could say he was being overly cautious ... but it really came off as him not caring about all these stranded family members. Anyway, regardless of Wally's intention, he did bring Bart back to life. Which I guess makes up for Wally accidentally stealing adult Bart's powers and causing his death ... or one of his deaths ... except he didn't really die thanks to Brainiac 5 ... whatever! You know what I mean!

Best Villain

1994: Psimon
1995: Kobra
1996: Savitar
1997: Pres. Thawne
1998: Bedlam
1999: Inertia
2000: Inertia
2001: Pres. Thawne
2002: Bedlam
2003: Deathstroke
2004: Deathstroke
2005: Dr. Light
2006: Superboy-Prime
2007: Inertia
2008: Inertia
2009: Superboy-Prime
2010: Nekron
2011: Brainiac
2012: Harvest
2013: Black Beetle
2014: Shira Torr
2015: Harvest
2016: Durlans
2017: Savior
2018: Zoom

Hunter Zolomon wasn't really an antagonist working against Bart in the traditional sense. I mean, nobody was working for or against Bart in 2018. But Hunter's insane scheme to harness the Strength Force and the Sage Force did set the Flash War in motion, thus providing Wally the opportunity to inadvertently save Bart. So, I guess in a way, I should thank Zoom. But he was unquestionably the bad guy of the story, seeking to cause death and destruction everywhere he went.

Well, that's it for 2018. Before I begin 2019, here's a very quick look at a couple of minor Impulse appearances I missed over the years.

In Superboy #42 from 1997, Superboy was once again stressing out over the prospect of not being able to grow up and had a dream where Robin and Impulse were adult members of the Justice League, along with several of the old Ravers. I'm pretty bummed out that I missed this fun comic, despite the brevity of Dream Adult Impulse. Ironically, all of Superboy's friends have stayed perpetual teenagers through the years, except for that one year where Bart was an adult.

Also in 1997, a corpse of Impulse was seen on the cover of JLA #14. This was only a dream of sorts, and the Impulse corpse is not seen inside the issue. But it is cool to see that Wally could be haunted by Bart's death way back then.

Our last missed Impulse comes from The Flash #243 in 2008. Wally's twins were having trouble with their powers, so he took them to the Speed Force, where he was briefly greeted by the images of Barry, Jay and Bart. Interestingly, Bart is presented as Impulse, even though this story takes place after he died as the Flash and before he came back as Kid Flash. I guess Bart's "true self" is Impulse. Which makes it so fitting and comforting that he finally returned as his original self (more or less).

I'm quite positive I missed a few other little Bart Allen cameos, but I'm fairly certain I got all the big ones. But if I find any more, I'll probably add them in brief quick hits like this. We're now entering a strange moment for this blog. The stories will now be only one year old or less. I'm not quite sure how it'll go. I think I'll be waiting a bit longer between reviews, but I hope they'll still be fun all the same.

Year in Review: 2017

This is the second straight year with little to no Bart Allen stories in all the comics, movies and TV shows DC offered. Which is a shame, since 2017 was another huge year for superheroes and sci-fi in general. The Academy Award for Best Picture (and three other awards) went to The Shape of Water. The top-grossing film at $1.3 billion was Star Wars: The Last Jedi. And four superhero films cracked the top 10 highest grossing list.

Marvel produced four stellar features — Logan, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Thor: Ragnarok. Logan was nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar, but lost to Call Me by Your Name. Guardians was nominated for Best Visual Effects but lost to Blade Runner 2049. DC put out three movies, one good, one goofy and one ... rather terrible — Wonder Woman, The Lego Batman Movie and Justice League. So we had five fantastic movies between the Big Two and only one stinker. That's not so bad. Except for the fact that Justice League was supposed to be the best of the batch. How can you mess up a movie with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg? Well, Zack Snyder, Joss Whedon and DC sure found a way.

Best Story: Teen Titans #15

We only had three Bart-related stories in 2017. In one, we only saw the costume of Impulse. In the second, a future adult Bart appeared only on the last page of the comic. In the third, he actually appeared on both the main cover and the variant, and had a slightly larger role. He still didn't do too much, but it was by far the most we got all year. Adult Bart grabbed hold of adult Tim Drake's hand, lost through space and time, which will enable the Titans of Tomorrow to pay a visit to the current Teen Titans. Will they help the insane Tim kill Jon Kent, or will they join forces with our heroes to stop this man who now calls himself Savior? We'll find out pretty soon.

Best Writer: Joshua Williamson

This was a tough one. Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason are crafting an intriguing story in this Super Sons of Tomorrow crossover, but the adult Bart is just an afterthought (at least so far). Joshua Williamson didn't do much more — all he did was include Impulse's costume in the background. But that was a very significant, prominent Easter egg. It was on the first panel of the comic, the first thing we saw, saying, "Yes! Impulse will eventually come back! We don't know when, we don't know how, but it will happen!" So that brief moment of excitement puts Williamson over the top.

Best Artist: Jorge Jiménez

Surprisingly, Jiménez ties Todd Nauck with his fourth Best Artist award. And, just like last year, he wins without even have drawn an entire issue. But the work he did in Teen Titans #15 was the best artwork we had this year. Francis Manapul's covers were incredible, but he gave the Titans of Tomorrow distractingly bland faces. So Jiménez wins for the fourth time, drawing his third different version of Bart — New 52 Bar Torr, Smallville Bart and now Titans of Tomorrow Bart.

Best Supporting Character: Future Conner

The only Bart we saw actually talking and doing things this year was future Bart, who only interacted with future Conner and future Cassie. Conner gets the slight edge since he's the clear leader of the Titans of Tomorrow, guiding them on this mission to locate future Tim. And that's it for this category.

Best Villain: Savior

Again, I couldn't pull anything from that Flash issue, since it was just Impulse's costume sitting in a glass case. So that leaves us with the Savior, the insane future version of Tim Drake, who is driving the conflict of the Super Sons of Tomorrow storyline. We don't know yet if future Bart is actually working against Tim or just trying to help him, but Savior is clearly the best villain of the year.

Next time, we'll begin 2018 and things will finally get interesting. Still not a whole lot of Bart, but it's getting better. It all starts with the conclusion of the Super Sons of Tomorrow.

Year in Review: 2016

Bart Allen was virtually nonexistent in 2016. The New 52 version of him, Bar Torr, ran away off page in his only appearance of the year. An Impulse did appear in a KFC advertisement, and the real Bart did make a tiny cameo in a flashback. In the 23rd year of this character's existence, this was hands-down the worst.

However, 2016 was a huge year for superheroes. Captain America: Civil War was the top grossing film of the year at $1.15 billion. Deadpool was a surprisingly huge success, and X-Men: Apocalypse and Doctor Strange weren't too bad, either. Doctor Strange was nominated for the Best Visual Effects Oscar, but lost to The Jungle Book. And, finally, DC came back to the big screen with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad, which actually did win an Academy Award for Best Makeup. And speaking of Academy Awards, this was the year of the famous La La Land/Moonlight mixup.

I was initially quite defensive of Batman v Superman, arguing that Civil War shared many of the same flaws. However, time has proven me wrong. Civil War still is fairly low on my list of favorite Marvel movies, but it fits in very well with the other 20 films of that massive, incredible story. The whole of the Marvel Cinematic Universe elevates Civil War and helps it withstand the test of time. Batman v Superman does not enjoy this benefit. The DC Extended Universe devolved into a hot mess, with each subsequent film overcorrecting the sins of the previous. This created an unbalanced and bland story that can never figure out what kind of tone it wants. And on repeated viewings, years later, all the hope and ambition is lost, leaving all the flaws naked and exposed.

So yeah, DC's big films of the year were rather disappointing, but the CW TV shows were still fairly interesting in 2016. Unfortunately, the Flash show did not — and still hasn't — brought in it's own version of Bart Allen. Young Justice was still in hiatus. So we end up with some pretty lame awards this time. But I shall persist!

Best Story: DC Universe: Rebirth #1

There was no question here. That "conclusion" of Bar Torr's story arc was completely awful. And even though Bart didn't do anything in Rebirth, the story still had a massive impact on him. This was DC's way of acknowledging after five years of pretending otherwise that Bart Allen really did exist and the old continuity did happen. And then the door was opened for these old characters and ideas to slowly trickle back into the comics. This trickling was much too slow for my tastes, but I am still thankful to this story for creating that possibility.

Best Writer: Geoff Johns

Last year's winner, Will Pfeifer, forfeits this award for writing off Bar Torr in the lamest way possible. I seriously could not come up with a more unsatisfying ending for that character. So Johns wins his seventh award for helping DC find a way to move forward, utilizing the best aspects of all the previous continuities. And, of course, one of those great aspects was the Flash family.

Best Artist: Jorge Jiménez

Jiménez wins his third award purely for one cover. But it was a great cover. And we didn't have any other good art to compete with this year. Rebirth had a slew of excellent artists, but unfortunately, the weakest artist of the bunch, Ethan Van Sciver, was the one who drew the one panel of Kid Flash.

Best Supporting Character: Wally West

As remarkable as it seems, in 23 years of Bart Allen stories, this is the first time Wally West has been named the best supporting character. He was always a strong candidate, but usually his relationship with Bart was just too antagonistic to justify the award. But finally, Wally wins for being the only person in the DC Universe to remember the real Bart Allen and actually take the first step toward bringing him back. And you don't get much bigger than that.

Last year's winner, Red Robin, almost won again for freely admitting he could kiss Bar. I like to imagine that Bar didn't run away because he suddenly remembered Solstice, but that he was embarrassed by Cassie mocking his budding romance with Tim. But that's just me creating a more interesting story than what we got.

Best Villain: The Durlans

This was the weakest category of the year. I guess the Durlans win by default more than anything. They were the only source of conflict in the only story where Kid Flash actually did anything. They successfully trapped him in an energy field he conveniently escaped from off-page. But more importantly, they inspired him to leave the team and the DC Universe forever.

Next time, we begin 2017, which is sadly not going to be much better than 2016. We'll kick things off with a quick, but crucial cameo in The Flash #27.

Year in Review: 2015

I spent most of 2015 in Boise, Idaho, before moving back down to Utah at the end of the year to start my current job at the Deseret News. And one of the most exciting moments for me was going to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens with my brothers. Most of the rest of the world saw it, too, as it earned a staggering $2 billion. Four other films also crossed the billion-dollar mark, including Avengers: Age of Ultron. Marvel also produced the surprising Ant-Man and the disastrous Fantastic Four. For the second straight year, DC was absent from the big screen. And the Academy Award for Best Picture went to Spotlight.

Bart Allen was almost nowhere to be found in 2015. We saw the Injustice version of him make an unspoken cameo before being killed unceremoniously in an atomic explosion. We also saw a teensy tiny cameo of Impulse at the end of the incomprehensible Convergence story. And then Bar Torr of the old New 52 randomly reappeared for no apparent reason. Nobody knows why. Nobody knows how. And apart from one out-of-character rant directed at Red Robin, everybody just acted as though Bar had been there all along. In fact, everybody consistently called him Bart. It was a complete and utter mess. Every issue of Teen Titans we reviewed had a different art team. And Scott Lobdell came back halfway through just to tear down everything Will Pfeifer was clumsily trying to build. It truly was miserable.

Best Story: DC Sneak Peek: Teen Titans

Every issue we reviewed this year was pitiful. The conclusion of the company-wide event Convergence was incredibly disappointing. The Injustice issue was bleak and brief. And each Teen Titans issue was worse than the previous one. So this award goes to a comic that wasn't even really a comic. And it wasn't that good, but it was the best we had. If you could look past the rather weak attempts of an intellectual discussion, this Sneak Peek did present a fairly interesting concept of a war between the top teen heroes of the time. I wanted to see what Kid Flash and Wonder Girl were going to do alongside Klarion and these others. I was hoping to have been thrust into a grand mystery with Manchester Black and potential mind control. None of those things panned out, though. But that fleeting feeling of optimism was nice.

Best Writer: Will Pfeifer

Last year's winner, Scott Lobdell, was once again eligible, but all he seemed to do was make things worse. Pfeifer was building up to a big fight between the Elite and Teen Titans, set against a supermax prison breakout. Sounds great, right? But then Lobdell hijacked that story to shove in a stupid, confusing Harvest cameo. Plus, Lobdell gets dinged for his failure on Convergence and completely forgetting that he set up Kid Flash and Power Girl for his Doomed crossover. So Pfeifer wins. Not for merit, but by default.

Best Artist: Kenneth Rocafort

Ethan Van Sciver, who won this award in 2000, was once again eligible for his near-microscopic inclusion of Impulse at the end of Convergence. But that combined with his thoroughly unpleasant covers of Teen Titans wasn't near enough to win. Granted, Rocafort didn't do much more, either, but he was the most competent artist we encountered this year. Yeah, he did draw Bar Torr as if he were Wally West. And I guess he deserves credit for changing Kid Flash's eyes from red to white (be that better or worse). But at the end of the day, all the other competition in this category was pretty awful.

Best Supporting Character: Red Robin

The original Tim Drake previously won this award in 2007, back when Bart Allen was the Flash. This Red Robin is the New 52 Tim Drake — a similar, but more annoying character. And he's actually kind of a surprising win this year, thanks entirely to the disjointed writing of Pfeifer and Lobdell. When Bar first came back, he sided with Wonder Girl and confusingly blamed Red Robin for sentencing him to life in prison. But as soon as Lobdell came back, he made Kid Flash completely and utterly devoted to Red Robin, acting as his personal body guard and checking in with him on every step of the fight. And, he made Bar's favorite memory the time he stole Tim's shirt, as opposed to any memory with Solstice. So Red Robin edges out Wonder Girl in this most confusingly written story arc.

Best Villain: Harvest

Regrettably, Harvest wins this award for the second time. He's just an improbably invincible villain, who can and will randomly pluck our characters away from whatever they're doing just to torment them. Usually, that torment involves head games and revisionist history. But also, he wins this award for being the true source of conflict in this stupid story. It's a bit convoluted, but hear me out. The only reason the Elite was against the Teen Titans was because Superboy had killed a bunch of aliens. And Superboy only killed them because Harvest had programmed him to do it. Manchester Black had no plan at all. He gathered the heroes, secretly gave Power Girl a new power, then idiotically ran straight to who he thought was Despero to beg for his help. Harvest's plan didn't make any sense, but at least he had one.

Next time, we'll begin 2016 by finally sending off Bar Torr once and for all.

Year in Review: 2014

This is a very strange moment for me. I started this blog in 2014. So to go back and review it now feels a bit like a snake eating its tail. But looking back at this year helps puts things in perspective. It was an absolutely terrible year for Bart Allen. No TV shows, no actual appearances of the original Bart, and only seven major appearances of two alternate versions of Bart. It was quite the famine! There was no Bart anywhere to be found and nobody was talking about him, so I started this blog. Now it seems like I'll finally catch up to current time — in a few months (if my baby due in March doesn't completely derail this).

But while 2014 was terrible for Bart, it was actually pretty good for other superheroes in the mainstream. Transformers: Age of Extinction was the only film to cross the billion-dollar mark, but four superhero films earned a spot in the top 10 box office totals. Guardians of the Galaxy, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. The first three are still some of my favorite movies, and they all received an Oscar nomination for best visual effects (Interstellar was the winner). Guardians also earned a second nomination for best makeup and hairstyling, but lost to The Grand Budapest Hotel. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was awful and rightfully killed that franchise.

Superheroes also received critical accolades in some unexpected ways. Birdman, starring former Batman Michael Keaton, won Best Picture and three other Oscars. It's not really a superhero movie, but it is about an actor who used to be a big-budget superhero star. Also, the Best Animated Film award went to Big Hero 6, the first theatrically released animated film based on a Marvel comic. On the small screen, DC's experiment with Green Lantern and Young Justice on Cartoon Network sadly crashed and burned, leaving so many creative ideas in its wake. I'm most sad about the delightful shorts of Supergirl, Batgirl and Wonder Girl. Young Justice eventually was resurrected, but nothing else was. On the bright side, Arrow did well enough on The CW to launch The Flash, with a couple of more shows to follow in the subsequent years.

Best Story: The Multiversity: The Just #1

I know, I know, Impulse was a complete non-factor in this story. He only appeared in one panel and didn't even speak. But that one panel was the most exciting Bart Allen moment of the year. Those five Teen Titans issues were nothing but pain and frustration. So I have to give this award to the only good issue Bart appeared in. It was a fascinating and unique story filled with tons of Easter eggs and cameos, as well as some incredibly deep ideas to ponder over.

Best Writer: Scott Lobdell

I hate to reward somebody for failing this badly, but my hands were tied. Grant Morrison wasn't responsible for Impulse's inclusion in Multiversity — that was Ben Oliver. Even if Morrison did say, "Make sure to put Impulse here," he didn't do anything with him through the rest of the issue. Lobdell, to his credit, did make Kid Flash the focus of an entire story arc. He tried to tackle the complex topic of justified violence in war, but he failed to present both sides equally or keep the tone consistent from issue to issue. Lobdell also attempted to wrap up all the hints and clues he sprinkled throughout the series, but he couldn't keep track of what he was doing. So I guess I'm mostly giving him this award by default, but I think I can also give him a little credit for having some ambition.

Best Artist: Tyler Kirkham

Yes, Oliver did draw the most exciting Impulse moment of the year, but he only drew him once. Kirkham handled the bulk of the art for the year, and actually did a decent job — ironically excelling most when Lobdell decided to make Bar Torr evil. Of course, it's a little difficult to know exactly how much credit Kirkham deserves, since Scott McDaniel did all his breakdowns. So I guess McDaniel will receive an honorary mention as co-Best Artist.

Best Supporting Character: Solstice

The Kid Flash/Solstice romance was unbearable and completely came out of nowhere. But it was there, all the same, culminating in the most bizarre way imaginable. During Bar's trial, all the Titans couldn't bear to look at him, including the secretly evil Raven and Fake Superboy. Even Solstice had to turn her back on Bar and actively opposed him during his attack on the Functionary. But when Bar was exiled to the prison planet, Solstice abruptly changed her mind and made the certifiably insane decision to murder a judge so she could be imprisoned with Bar. Yeah, that's pure insanity, but it is a level of dedication we've never seen before. Of all the girlfriends all the Barts have had, this horrific act surpasses them all. Even the future Rose Wilson wasn't this crazy and inconsistent.

Best Villain: Shira Torr

When Shira was just a year old, the Functionary brutally murdered her parents for simply believing in religion. Shira barely survived thanks to her 8-year-old brother, who was forced to murder a man to prevent her from being raped. Bar eventually dropped her off at a convent, but she rejected the nuns' teachings and joined the Functionary army as soon as possible, believing her parents were foolish idiots to believe in a god. Shira fought against her brother's rebellion and was injured in battle. Later, she somehow was put in command of an impossibly large and powerful warship and used it to threaten to kill every sentient being in a 100,000-mile radius if Bar didn't surrender. I can't think of anyone more disgusting and despicable. And what's worse, is Lobdell didn't try to write her as a villain. That's how bad his writing was — an intended sympathetic character accidentally came off as the biggest villain of the story. Also, can anyone explain to me why she is a full-grown adult when her brother, who is seven years older than her, is still just 16? Did Bar stop aging when he got his powers?

Well, that's it for the worst year of Bart Allen's career. Next time, we'll begin 2015, which won't be much better. It all kicks off with Bar Torr's unexpected and unexplained return to the Teen Titans.

Year in Review: 2013

This is our 20th Year in Review. Can you believe that? Twenty years of Bart Allen in one form or another — from Impulse to Kid Flash to the Flash and then back to Kid Flash ... it's been quite a journey. He's died (sort of) a couple of times, and has been reimagined for the live action Smallville show, the animated Young Justice series and the New 52 reboot. In 2013, we saw the end of Young Justice (for about five years), the death (sort of) of the Smallville Bart, and the revelation that the New 52 Bart Allen was actually a different character named Bar Torr. So ... it was kind of a rough year for our favorite speedster. Especially when you realize the essence of the real Bart spent the year trapped in his Flash ring in the Speed Force (and he's going to stay there for quite a while).

But 2013 wasn't all doom and gloom. In the world of film, Frozen claimed top spot in the box office at $1.3 billion, followed closely by Iron Man 3, which also was nominated for an Academy Award for best special effects (it lost to Gravity). The Best Picture Oscar went to 12 Years a Slave. Marvel's other offerings, Thor: The Dark World and The Wolverine, were moderate hits. But frankly, none of those three are movies I return to. They're all kind of bleak and mediocre. Same goes for DC's lone offering of the year, Man of Steel. It did barely edge Thor in the box office at $668 million, which I guess meant it made enough for DC to justify creating a shared universe around it. Personally, I think the failure of Green Lantern and the success of Marvel forced DC to move forward with Man of Steel despite its lukewarm reception. Maybe 2013 really was all doom and gloom.

Best Story: Intervention

All-time leaders:
Impulse – 5
Young Justice – 3
Teen Titans/Young Justice: Invasion – 2

For this category, the leaders list is looking at the source of the best story of the year. Naturally, the Impulse series is on top. And it's no surprise that Young Justice: Invasion won its second straight award here. It was a very well done show with a dense, but tightly written story. There wasn't any major competition for this award from the New 52 comics or Smallville: Season Eleven. I know, Bart did heroically sacrifice himself in Smallville, but that story was a bit too vague and scattered for my liking. This award was always going to Young Justice, it was just a matter of deciding which episode was most significant for Bart.

The episode "Intervention" might not have been the best episode of the season, if we're getting technical about it, but it was the most fulfilling for Impulse's arc. It brought everything together, answering all the questions we had about Bart's behavior and his relationship with Blue Beetle. Yeah, I wish the show didn't hide so much essential information off screen, but at the end of the day, this was a very satisfying conclusion to Bart's mission.

Best Writer: Peter David

All=time leaders:
Geoff Johns – 6
Mark Waid/Peter David – 4
Todd Dezago – 3

This is David's second straight award, bringing him into a tie with Impulse creator Mark Waid. And frankly, there wasn't any major competition. Bryan Q. Miller did kill Bart off in Smallville, but it was done in a sloppy, unsatisfying manner. He kept teasing to a larger Flash world, but never got around to actually exploring it. Scott Lobdell was unbearable with the Teen Titans. And Geoff Johns prevented himself from winning a seventh award for his contrived and worthless insertion of the Titans into Forever Evil.

So the award goes to David, writer of "Intervention." And by extension, this goes to all the showrunners and creators of Young Justice, who had a clear vision and nailed the execution. David was the chief architect of the bookends of the compelling Impulse/Blue Beetle dynamic. He set up everything perfectly, and it all paid off just about as well as you could hope. But most importantly, he helped bring the character Impulse to a much wider audience than any comic book ever could.

Best Artist: Jorge Jiménez

All-time leaders:
Todd Nauck – 4
Humberto Ramos – 3
Jorge Jiménez – 2

It's a little strange that only three artists have multiple awards, but I guess that just shows the transient nature of the business. Writers can and will stay entrenched on a title for years, but artists (especially these days) rarely stay on a project for more than six issues. The Teen Titans title is a perfect example of this — I don't think that series had more than two issues with the same art team in 2013.

Francis Manapul very nearly won his second award for his one beautiful issue of The Flash. And as solid as the animation on Young Justice was, I can't quite bring myself to hand this award out to an animation company. None of the rotating artists on Teen Titans did anything worth consideration. So the award goes to Jiménez for his solid work on Bart's death in Smallville: Season Eleven. Jiménez definitely grew more comfortable in his role on that series, finding ways to put in more of his dynamic, almost cartoony style that I loved so much in 2012. He found new and exciting ways to portray Bart's running, and managed to put in just enough emotion to make it an impactful death.

Best Supporting Character: Blue Beetle

All-time leaders:
Max Mercury – 4
Carol Bucklen/Superboy/Brainiac 5/Blue Beetle – 2

These last two categories are extremely fluid, following the ebbs and flows of Bart's career. Poor Superboy was so often the runner-up for this award, but only managed to win it twice. Same with Bart's first (and true) girlfriend, Carol. Bar Torr's current girlfriend is Solstice, but after two years of their relationship, I still have no idea what she sees in him, or what he sees in her — especially after she cheated on him with Red Robin and never apologized. Superman in Smallville was a strong candidate, as he fought side by side with Bart right up until his death.

But the obvious choice here is Blue Beetle for the second straight year. Bart and Jaime were so much fun together. They made a great combination on the battlefield and in the laid-back, goof-around moments. Plus, Blue Beetle's plight was Bart's entire motivation during the season. It was also fitting, and sweet, how Bart never blamed Jaime, even after his betrayal. He always knew what was going on, and managed to successfully keep everything a secret until he could save the world and his best friend. And for bonus measure, we can throw in all the little moments that so many fans used as evidence of a budding romantic relationship between these two.

Best Villain: Black Beetle

All-time leaders:
Inertia – 4
President Thaddeus Thawne/Bedlam/Deathstroke (Jericho)/Superboy-Prime – 2

I was actually very close to giving this award to Bar Torr. His troubled past was the main cause of all of Kid Flash's problems, so I thought I could be a little snarky and justify it. But at the end, I just couldn't resist the delightfully evil Black Beetle. Truthfully, I wish I could have put Trigon here — one of the best of the best — but Lobdell seemed too timid to do anything of consequence with him. Same goes for Psimon, the inaugural winner of this award. He showed up in both the New 52 and Young Justice, but only in minor roles, and never in direct conflict with Bart. I also feel a little bad for not putting in the villain who killed Smallville Bart. But he was so vague — I mean, the comic could never even decide on a name for him. Was he the Black Racer? Black Flash? Just a monstrous representation of the Speed Force itself? Yeah, that's not a very compelling villain.

Black Beetle was everything I want in a villain. Incredibly strong, but not invincible. Smart, confident, and able to provide an actual threat that can only be stopped with a high cost. As tough a fighter Black Beetle was, the most damage he caused was by trying to destroy Earth with all those devices. And Wally West had to die to stop it. That's some pretty effective villain work right there.

Next time, we begin the year 2014, and things are going to slow down for us in a hurry. Without Young Justice and Smallville, we'll have to rely almost exclusively on Bar Torr, and he's not going to be around for the whole year. I think we'll have one or two interesting moments. Hopefully.

Year in Review: 2012

In 2012, I had graduated from college and moved to Boise, Idaho, to begin my first real job at the Idaho Statesman. By far the best aspect of that move was my discovery of a store called Captain Comics. That's where I officially began collecting comics and, through the New 52 Flash, discovered and fell in love with Impulse. And the rest, as they say, was history.

It certainly was an exciting time in the superhero world. Beyond the New 52 comics and Young Justice animated series, DC and Marvel produced three genuine blockbusters for the big screen. The biggest one, by far, was The Avengers. It was Disney's first Marvel film, and the first real superhero team-up film. I had enjoyed the individual Marvel films for Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and Captain America, but I didn't think this could work. Well, I was completely, and happily, wrong, as The Avengers dominated the box office with $1.5 billion.

DC also crossed the billion-dollar threshold with the conclusion of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises. (I'll admit I cried at the end.) Sony also found success in their Spider-Man reboot, The Amazing Spider-Man, at $758 million. Skyfall and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey also grossed more than a billion dollars, and Argo won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

And as for Bart Allen? Well, he technically didn't exist in 2012. The original Bart sacrificed himself at the end of Flashpoint (clinging to life inside his Flash ring in the Speed Force), and the "Bart Allen" we got in the following comics was actually a completely different version of the character. We also saw a return of the Smallville version of Bart in the Season Eleven comics. And, most exciting, we were introduced to the first animated version of Bart in Young Justice: Invasion. So, between these three Barts, we actually had a pretty busy 2012 (and it'll be an even busier 2013).

Best Episode: Bloodlines

This category is normally for the Best Issue, but TV episodes have always been eligible — they just never had a chance to win until now. Frankly, there weren't any comics that really grabbed me this year. The closest would be the wacky DC Presents with Kid Flash and the dinosaurs, but that's miles away from what Bloodlines did. This episode was such an amazing debut of Bart, who beautifully was allowed to be Impulse again, instead of Kid Flash. Impulse fans had to wait almost two decades for this moment, and when it finally came, it was practically perfect. Yes, he was different, but his core was true to the heart of the Impulse we all know and love that Mark Waid created in 1994. Bloodlines wasn't just the best moment of 1994 — it was one of the best moments for Bart ever.

Best Writer: Peter David

This is David's second award on this blog, but this time it's not for any comics he wrote. What David accomplished in Bloodlines far outstripped the fun Fabian Nicieza had with the dinosaurs and the marginally decent Smallville stories Bryan Q. Miller penned. Scott Lobdell was pretty close to being a travesty, so David faced no competition from him. In Bloodlines, David paid homage to the Flash family, gave us an Impulse that felt both familiar and fresh, and worked him into the larger Young Justice story in a meaningful way. He made Bart fun, talented and layered with an emotional depth that never seemed to betray his nature. True, I did hate how David ended that episode with the weird time-travel effect, but that was the only ding in an otherwise amazing episode.

Best Artist: Jorge Jiménez

I almost considered giving Young Justice a clean sweep here, but it felt too weird to give this award to MOI Animation, Inc. So I decided to reward the individual who drew the best Bart of the year. Booth's work is far too off-putting for me to seriously consider him, so that basically leaves us with Jiménez. And if the only work he gave us was Smallville: Season Eleven, then I'd be rather loathe to honor him. But Jiménez also gave us some truly inspired work with the side dinosaur story. It was fun, dynamic, and probably would even have given Humberto Ramos a run for his money.

Best Supporting Character: Blue Beetle

We only had two episodes of Bart interacting with Jaime Reyes, but they were rather significant episodes. They had a revealing heart-to-heart conversation in the cave, then got to hang out and show off their powers before getting into a real fight and sadly being captured. Bart does slightly annoy Jaime, but nowhere near enough for him to push Bart away. At the end of the day, he does like hanging out with Bart and they actually have a rather cute relationship. So cute, in fact, that many fans spent years speculating that Bart and Jaime were secretly a couple. While season 3 proved this not to be the case, the New 52 did actually make a girlfriend in 2012 — Solstice. I never seriously considered her for this award, though, because her relationship with Kid Flash wasn't near as interesting or organic as Bart's and Jaime's.

Best Villain: Harvest

This was a very difficult choice this year. Neutron wasn't really a villain, nor was Aqualad, who only captured Bart as part of his undercover mission infiltrating the Light. And I can't really choose the Light or the Reach because Bart hasn't directly confronted them yet. The Smallville Bart defeated Psimon and the Brain way too quickly to give them any consideration, and the Black Flash only just arrived. So that leaves us with the primary antagonist of the New 52 Teen Titans. He was frustratingly vague, displaying unlimited resources and powers combined with an entirely nonsensical plan. But he did provide the catalyst that created the Teen Titans and successfully kidnapped Bart twice.

Next time, we'll begin the year 2013. And as I said earlier, our three different Barts are going to keep us quite busy — we have 11 appearances in the month of January alone. It all begins with our Death of the Family crossover in Teen Titans #15.

Year in Review: 2011

The year 2011 was a rather monumental year for comic books, superheroes, Bart Allen and myself. I graduated from college in 2011 and officially began reading comics, thanks to DC's largest reboot ever, the New 52. Of course, it is rather ironic that the even that took Bart away from comics was the very thin that got me into them.

The world of film also had a big year, with three films grossing over a billion dollars — Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. The Academy Awards were dominated by The Artist, which won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Costume Design and Best Original Score. But more significantly, 2011 saw a flurry of incredible superhero films. From Marvel, we saw Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger (the final pieces of the Avengers puzzle), X-Men: First Class (a successful reboot of that franchise) and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (a rather forgettable sequel to a rather forgettable film).

DC, however, only produced one film in 2011, the poorly received Green Lantern. It only earned $219 million against its $200 million budget, and scuttled DC's grand plans of launching a Marvel-like connected universe. But things weren't so bleak for DC, they did have a rather popular animated series, Young Justice, running at this time. (Bart didn't show up until the second season of that show, but we will get there.) And, of course, DC had the exciting, dreadful, wonderful and awful New 52 that created as many problems as it solved. But hey, it got people talking.

Best Issue: Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost #3

This issue was rushed and inconsistent, but it was a loving tribute to Bart and the Flash family. And, most importantly, it allowed Bart to go out the hero — to selflessly sacrifice himself once more to save the universe. And it successfully gave us the best of both worlds — a heroic death scene for Bart, while creating a method for his eventual return. I really couldn't have asked for a better ending than that.

Best Writer: J.T. Krul

Last year's winner, and six-time overall winner, Geoff Johns, was another strong candidate this year. He actually included Bart in his Road to Flashpoint story, but rather annoyingly made Bart obsessed with gaining Barry's approval. Sterling Gates gave Bart a beautiful ending, but his three-issue Kid Flash Lost series was weighed down by the inexplicable inclusion of Patty Spivot. So that leaves us with J.T. Krul, who had a rather uneven Teen Titans run. He wasted a whole lot of time on a meandering fight against demons in India, then hastily cobbled together a nonsensical battle scene for  issue #100. But he wins this award for being the only writer to attempt to explore Bart's unresolved trauma of being murdered. Those scenes were brief, but they were by far my favorite part of 2011.

Best Artist: Francis Manapul

I'm really excited to finally give this award to one of my favorite comic book artists of all time. Granted, this award is mostly for quality over quantity. Manapul only drew a handful of Flash issues and threw in a smattering of covers. And his Kid Flash Lost covers had nothing to do with the story. But it all looked great. Much better than anything else that came out this year. Especially Nicola Scott's desire to give Bart a round baby face on top of an incredibly stiff muscle-bound body. Manapul actually made Bart look like a lanky 16-year-old with long hair that was brown — not red.

Best Supporting Character: Barry Allen

Last year's winner, Superboy, almost came away with his third award for that delightful race against Kid Flash. But the two of them barely had any interactions with each other in the Teen Titans after that. In fact, Bart barely had any meaningful interactions with any of his teammates. He was briefly infatuated with Solstice, but that died off pretty quickly. And at the end, he chose to hide his suffering from everyone else. Patty Spivot did help Bart escape from Brainiac and begin his run to save the universe, but ultimately, I feel like Bart's bond with Barry was more significant. As annoying as it was, this relationship became a significant component of the entire Flashpoint saga. Bart was the only one bold enough to call Barry out on his bad behavior, and almost seemed on the verge of truly becoming a sidekick for the first time in his career. At the end of the day, Bart couldn't save the universe himself and had to resort to super-charging Barry. Which may be a bit convoluted, but is rather significant.

Best Villain: Brainiac

I almost gave this award to Barry, since he is directly responsible for the Flashpoint crisis. Barry's rival, the Reverse-Flash, also almost won for being indirectly responsible for Flashpoint. Two-time winner Superboy-Prime nearly won his third award, but his appearance at the end of Teen Titans completely came out of nowhere. And he was rendered so weak, and easily defeated, that the whole event became utterly pointless. Same goes for the fake Inertia, who was never properly explained. So that leaves us with Brainiac, who successfully conquered the world 500 years after Flashpoint. Of course, it was Brainiac's decision to capture and study Bart that opened the door for Bart to undo Flashpoint and save the universe. So ... if you really think about it, Barry Allen destroyed the universe and Brainiac saved it. In a manner of speaking.

Next time, we'll begin the year 2012, in which we'll continue to follow the adventures of the New 52 Kid Flash, and, more importantly, become introduced to the animated version of Impulse in Young Justice. Also, since I'm going to be covering a lot more TV episodes, I'm going to stop organizing comics by the cover publication date, and start going by the date they were actually released. The DC Universe app is very helpful in this organization process (seriously, if you don't have it, get it!). Anyway, this means that our next review will be Teen Titans #3, which technically came out November 23, 2011.