Year in Review: 1995

As an 8-year-old boy in 1995, I was very active in all the great forms of entertainment the year had to offer. It was the year of Toy Story and Pocahontas. Robin Williams continued his run as the funniest man alive (in my mind) with the exciting Jumanji. And although I didn't see Braveheart (won the Oscar for Best Picture) or Die Hard with a Vengeance (highest grossing film), I did see Apollo 13, which felt like one of the more important movies of year. But for me, by far the most important movie of 1995 was Batman Forever, which easily outclassed all other superhero movies at the time, including Judge Dredd (which I still haven't seen) and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (which I absolutely loved). But neither Batman Forever nor Power Rangers hold up very well 19 years later.

Nineteen ninety-five was Impulse's first full year in comics. And it's a historically significant year, as Impulse's own, self-titled series debuted. Impulse appeared in a total of 40 comics: nine New Titans, eight Impulse, six Flash, four Darkstars, three Damage, three Deathstroke, two Justice League Task Force, and one-shot cameos in Green Lantern, Guy Gardner: Warrior, Adventures of Superman, Primal Force and Blood Pak. It was a pretty busy year for Impulse, who helped Flash close out Terminal Velocity, participated in the Crimelord-Syndicate War, was briefly involved with Underworld Unleashed, and kicked off Dead Heat.

Best Issue: Impulse #6

I'll admit, I kind of surprised myself with this selection. The Flash #100 was amazing, and I almost went with Impulse #1, which established the new look of the character and the tone of the new series. But the issue didn't provide any new information for those who had already read Flash #92, and the actual story — about a rival businessman trying to destroy a hover tank — was quite boring. I initially read Impulse #1 years ago when I discovered it was free on Comixology. And the issue didn't leave that big of an impression on me. It wasn't until much later, when I read a handful of issues in the 30s, that I fell in love with Impulse. One in particular stood out to me, as it followed up on the events in Impulse #6. It was a major turning point for me when I realized this goofy, fun book also had the ability to address real-world challenges. Impulse #6 blew me away, and it just might be the best issue in the whole series.

Best Writer: Mark Waid

Waid is the hands-down favorite to win this award for the second year in a row. Not only did he continue to write amazing stuff on The Flash, but he gave Impulse a wonderful start in his own series.  He demonstrated great versatility by handling the more traditional, serious nature of The Flash, while maintaining a lighter sitcom-like tone for Impulse. And it's really the little things that help Waid stand out from other good comic book writers like Marv Wolfman. For example, the dialogue of a non-native English speaker. XS was a delightful charm with her struggles to learn English, and the Russian speedsters in The Flash actually sounded like Russians. Far too many people write foreigners with absolutely perfect English except for the most basic of words, like yes and no, which they always say in their native language. But Waid understands that foreign speakers confuse subject-verb agreements, mix up colloquial phrases, and sometimes just use the wrong word.

Best Artist: Humberto Ramos

Last year's winner, Mike Wieringo, sadly had a very limited involvement in his co-creation in 1995. He drew a handful of Flash covers, and that was it. It would have been great if he was a guest penciller on Impulse or The Flash. But even if he did do that, I probably would have still given this award to Humberto Ramos, a relatively unknown artist out of Mexico City, who tweaked Wieringo's design just a tad to make Impulse look more like a gangly 14-year-old. Ramos said he was thinking of rabbits when he gave Bart his famously big feet, and he admitted to being inspired, in part, by Japanese manga. Ramos' cartoony style proved to be a perfect fit for Impulse and his series, establishing a wonderful foundation for years to come.

Best Supporting Character: Max Mercury

Last year's winner was Damage, who quickly became Impulse's best friend on the New Titans. But that friendship deteriorated as quickly as it formed. Damage's angst began pushing everyone away, and although Impulse showed up in Damage's title a couple of times to help him out, Damage never seemed to acknowledge or appreciate the effort. So this award goes to Bart's new guardian, Max Mercury. At first, it seemed like a rather odd and random pairing, but Mark Waid's genius quickly shone through. Max's stoic nature makes him the perfect counter to Impulse for comedic and practical reasons. Max really is the most qualified to teach Bart to slow down. And although he rarely fights crime in his tights, he is playing a major role in Dead Heat.

Best Villain: Kobra

There were actually a handful to choose from this time. Impulse's first original villain, White Lightning, appeared in two issues, but ultimately didn't cause that much damage. Impulse's second original villain, Gridlock, was rather pathetic. Blockbuster made a guest appearance and caused the most damage in an Impulse issue, but he only showed up for that one-shot. Psimon, who won this award last year, did attack Impulse psychologically — showing him what he'd look like if Wally hadn't put a stop to his rapid aging. But Psimon was very quickly defeated that issue in an unsatisfying manner. So Kobra gets the award, since he was a constant, and powerful threat in The Flash. Kobra destroyed Keystone City, and beat the snot out of Impulse. And in a way, this brought the best out of him. I really enjoyed the hyper-focused and angry Impulse, desperately trying to prove he wasn't a failure. It really was Impulse's most heroic moment of 1995, outside of trying to save Preston from child abuse. But I don't consider Preston's mom to be a villain — just somebody who needs some help.

Well, what do you think? Did I do 1995 justice? Are these the right winners? Do I need to add more categories or background information? Let me know in the comments section or tweet me @BartAllenImpuls.

The year 1996 will sadly have less Impulse appearances than 1995. New Titans will come to an end, and Impulse will do very little with The Flash once Dead Heat ends. But the main Impulse series will continue on strong, and Impulse will take part in the Final Night event, as well as make plenty of guest appearances in a variety of titles.

Next time, part 2 of Dead Heat in The Flash #109.

The Flash #108

Dead Heat First Lap: Flatfooted

Mark Waid • Story
Oscar Jimenez • Pencils
Jose Marzan, Jr. • Inks
Gaspar • Letterer
Tom McCraw • Colorist
Alisande Morales • Asst. Editor
Brian Augustyn • Editor

We've got a pretty cool cover by Jimenez and Marzan. These are the same type of ninjas that terrorized Impulse and XS at the end of Impulse #9. It's nice to have the Flash back in a high-stakes adventure. And this cover portrays the intensity of a story called Dead Heat.

Our story begins one year ago, at the dark and scary castle we saw Max Mercury being held captive at. A group of creepy guys in blue robes perform a dark ritual and summon down a bolt of lightning, which kills one of them. Suddenly a large naked man with long hair appears and begins laughing maniacally.

Today, we see that Impulse and XS weren't the only speedsters who lost their powers. Jay Garrick drops a vase he thought he could catch — not a huge deal, but worrisome. Jesse Quick has a worse time, though. While out on a date, their car is hijacked. She speaks her speed formula — 3x2(9yz)4a — and chases after the thieves, but loses her speed mid-pursuit and is shot in the arm. But the most tragic example involves a couple of Russian speedsters I've never heard of before. Apparently they're running a high-end delivery service, and one of them decided to run a package up the side of a skyscraper. Halfway up, he lost his speed and fell to his death.

We then cut to Wally West enjoying a nice lunch with Linda Park at an outdoor cafe. They're having a good time until they bring up the topic of marriage. After a few awkward moments of silence, Wally is happy to suddenly be attacked by ninjas. But it turns out these ninjas also have super speed. After fighting for a bit, one of the ninjas gets away. Wally manages to knock one out, and is suddenly joined by Jay and Jesse.

Jay and Jesse tell Wally they lost their speed, and they believe that Wally has become so mainlined with the Speed Force that he has inadvertently stolen all the available energy. And to demonstrate how serious their predicament is, Jay shows Wally a remarkably up-to-date newspaper reporting the death of the Russian speedster.

We then cut to a quiet diner, where Iris West is meeting with Johnny Quick. Iris urges him to believe in the Speed Force, as someone's life is currently on the line. She hesitates to reveal any more information, saying only that all the speedsters are on the cusp of another major turning point. Johnny says he'll keep an eye out, but refuses to put the Speed Force above his formula. But as he tries to run away, he finds his formula has failed him for the first time.

Meanwhile, Wally's captive ninja has come to, opening up the possibility for interrogation. Wally takes the ninja to the top of a building and holds him over the edge by his ankle. The ninja reveals his master is Savitar, the lord of speed, who has "stripped the unworthy of their swiftness ... transferring it instead into Thunderbolts Agents." The ninja begins to gloat, saying Savitar will soon eliminate the "true students of speed." But suddenly, the ninja rapidly ages and his bones turns to dust in Wally's hands. Wally tells all this to the others, and that Bart Allen and Max Mercury are in danger, as well. Linda tries to call Max, but gets no response.

We then cut to a scene of Max before Impulse #9. Max is chained up and hanging upside down in the dark scary castle, being beaten by the large man we saw appear supernaturally in the beginning of this issue. The man, who can only be Savitar, accuses Max of spreading the speed and allowing others to join their little circle. Savitar says he wants to kill Max, but can't, since Max was the one who showed him "the face of God." So Savitar orders his ninjas to kill Max. And as we saw in Impulse #8, Max was able to free himself from the chains and defeat the ninjas.

Wally decides to use his new power of lending speed to others to take Linda, Jay and Jesse to Manchester to check on Bart and Max. Wally hopes Max can explain who Savitar is, and, more importantly, that Bart's secret identity has kept him safe. But it hasn't, as we end with the same image Impulse #9, with Impulse and XS surrounded by Savitar's ninjas.

The letters in Speed Reading are about The Flash #105, so we're lucky to have a few mentions of Impulse.

Chris Karnes, of Naperville, Ill., says the Impulse appearance was a nice surprise, and helped mirror the original Flash #105, which had Barry and Wally team up to fight the first Mirror Master. Chris also wants to see more interaction between Bart and Linda, believing that Bart's unnecessary use of powers would irritate her.

Chip Chandler, of Pampa, Texas, requests that Bart be used to usher in the Legion of Super-Heroes, which literally just happened with the introduction of XS.

Charles Skaggs, of Columbus, Ohio, says Impulse was a welcome sight, and he hopes Bart and Wally find a way to work out their differences.

Doud Ohmer, of Covington, Ky., says Bart needs to continue to show up in The Flash every once in a while. He also wants Wally to get along better with Bart, believing the two of them could be an unstoppable force.

Jason Perkins says he enjoyed the scenes of Impulse and Linda, and enjoys Mark Waid so much, he has decided to mow extra lawns to add Impulse to his pull list.

There are only two new ads here, and that's only if you count a different Mallrats ad. It's designed to look like a comic book cover, saying, "Supehero anatomy! Topless fortune telling! Bunny bashing! An more!"

Mad TV. It looks like a hypnotist, saying, "You will watch Mad TV!" over and over again.

Before we can continue to The Flash #109 for part two of Dead Heat, I'm going to wrap up the year of 1995 — Impulse's first full year in comics — with my Year in Review. I'll hand out awards for the best issue, writer, artist, supporting character and villain. It'll be a fun way to look back on how far this character has come.

Impulse #9

Running in the Family

Mark Waid Story
Humberto Ramos Pencils
Wayne Faucher Inks
Chris Eliopoulos Letterer
Tom McCraw Colorist
Ali Morales Assistant Editor
Ruben Diaz Associate Editor
Brian Augustyn Editor
Impulse created by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo

Our cover by Ramos and Faucher shows a scowling Impulse running away from three random motorcyclists and, more importantly, XS! Who's XS, you may ask? Why, she's a member of the 30th century's Legion of Super-Heroes, and she's Bart's first cousin. Her real name is Jenni Ognats, and she's the granddaughter of Barry Allen and daughter of Dawn Allen. Here's a quick family tree:

                          Barry Allen – Iris West
                                              |
                                        —     —
                                     |                 |
 Jevan Ognats – Dawn Allen  Don Allen – Meloni Thawne
                        |                                         |
               Jenni Ognats                       Bart Allen

So that's a lot easier than explaining how Bart and Wally West are related. Here's the complete Allen family tree. Like Bart, Jenni inherited the family's super speed. But unlike Bart, Jenni grew up normally and stayed in the 30th century, eventually joining the Legion of Super-Heroes and acquiring a Legion flight ring. But now, the Legion is trapped in the 20th century, and Jenni has become separated from her team.

Our story begins with Bart, though, who has spent the past three days home alone after Max Mercury's mysterious disappearance. Like any teenage boy, Bart has taken advantage of this time to eat junk food and play video games to his heart's content. And since Bart has super speed, he is playing four games simultaneously on three TVs and a GameBoy. But after 72 hours of such activity eventually gets boring, so Bart decided to finally go looking for Max. Instead, he finds a gang of purse-snatching motorcyclists — the guys on the cover except their bikes are red, yellow and green instead of all purple. Bart quickly takes out the first two, but then gets distracted by a purple blur zipping past him.

Impulse keeps his focus on the motorcyclist, and crashes into the purple blur, which is, of course, XS. The biker gets away, and Impulse slowly gets to his feet while XS gibbers at him in a different language. Impulse yells at her to "talk English," but she can't. Eventually, Impulse recognizes Interlac, the universal language of the future. He did speak it in his two years in the 30th century, but hasn't heard it since he arrived in 1994.

Now that the two can understand each other, XS asks Impulse if he's Bart Allen. Bart quotes the Simpson's with "I'm Bart Allen. Who the hell are you?" XS introduces herself as Jenni Ognats and picks up her cousin in a big hug. But Bart's in a bad mood. He says his grandma told him he had a cousin, but she never said she'd try to kill him. Jenni apologizes for the konk on the head, saying she was just trying to help.

Jenni explains that she got separated from the Legion of Super-Heroes on their trip through time, so she began looking for family. She went to the Flash Museum in Keystone City, knowing how to find it since it's in the same place in the future, only bigger. Jenni was drawn to the newest exhibit in the museum, which features Impulse. It's still rather small, but already includes a little Impulse statue, several photographs of him fighting Kobra and White Lightning, and a collection of newspaper articles. Jenni recognized Impulse's futuristic jumpsuit, which is made after the same cut Earthgov used to make the Legionnaire costumes. Using the Manchester Herald, Jenni tracked Bart down in Alabama to ask him to help her return to the future. But Bart had no idea how to help her, saying maybe Max could help, but he has no clue where he is.

We then see Max in a dark, scary tower, chained up and hanging upside down. A couple of ninjas move in to slice off his head, but Max vibrates his feet to free himself. And in a surprising display of violence for this title, Max uses the chains to strangle — and perhaps kill — his would-be executioners. The injured speedster then slowly makes his way toward the window to attempt an escape.

On a lighter note, Bart decides to take Jenni home, and since she's taller than him, he takes her to Max's closet to find some clothes that might fight. In an attempt to be "hep" and "groovy," Jenni throws on a very odd hodgepodge outfit. Bart then decides it's time to teach her English, figuring it should be easy since he was able to learn it quickly from his grandma. The English lesson lasts about 20 seconds, consisting of little more than Bart holding up a baseball and shouting the word "ball." They both soon realize this isn't working and head off to the library.

Jenni begins to read every children's book she can find, and Bart's friends Preston and Carol just happened to be there, too. Jenni excitedly introduces herself to them by saying, "Greetings! It is my honor to being Bart's cousin!" After an awkward moment of silence, Jenni follows that up with: "Ssssso. Have you ... seen Spot run ... ?" Bart quickly pulls her away for sounding like a door, and Preston says, "Wow. And I thought Bart was weird ..."

But before Bart and Jenni can leave the library, they run into Helen Claiborne, who asks Bart how Max is doing. Jenni interjects, frankly telling Helen that Max is likely off battling super villains. She then introduces herself as a Legionnaire of the United Planets and uses her powers to fight for justice much like Impulse. Bart almost has a heart attack, and angrily rips Jenni out of the library.

Bart then goes on a rant, in which he says the word stupid a lot, and chews out Jenni for almost revealing his secret identity. Jenni tries to apologize, but Bart's too upset to calm down. He yells at her for bonking him on the head, not learning English right, and in general, messing everything up. Right on cue, the last remaining purse-snatching motorcyclist returns, and Bart decides to take out his anger on him.

Impulse follows the biker up the mountain, and tries to swing in on a vine to take out the thief. The biker jumps off his motorcycle, and XS catches him. Impulse, meanwhile, didn't realize he was so close to the edge of the cliff, and begins to fall. Suddenly, he is caught in midair by XS. Bart thinks this is so cool, he instantly forgives Jenni for everything and asks how she can fly. Jenni says she might tell him later if he's nice to her.

The two kids then race home, and Bart tries to show off by vibrating through the wall. But he ends up crashing into it, instead. Jenni realizes both of them have lost their super speed, and she suggests they contact the Flash. But before they get the chance, they suddenly find themselves surrounded by the same type of ninjas that were threatening Max.

This was another great issue of Impulse. First, a note about the art. Humberto Ramos has really come into his own here, giving us some of the best facial expressions we've ever seen on Bart. It really helps that he was so angry for so much of this issue — an emotion he really displays — but I also loved the panic he had when Jenni nearly revealed his identity. And Bart's "English lesson" is one of my all-time favorite panels. But what really made the art stand out in this issue was the detailed backgrounds. Ramos started throwing in all sorts of fun tidbits, such as a Looney Tunes store, Cookie Monster in the library's kids section, and tons of sports clothing — the Alabama Crimson Tide, San Antonio Spurs, Orlando Magic and New York Yankees. All these little extras make the issue more immersive and really enhance the reading experience.

I also applaud Mark Waid's efforts of keeping this book fun and light-hearted, while also putting in enough of the darker, more serious stuff to lead in to the Dead Heat crossover. The placement of this issue within that story is a little awkward, as technically the first part of Dead Heat (The Flash #108) came out a couple of weeks before Impulse #9. But the events of that issue take place at the same time as this, and they both share the same image on the final page. So it felt weird to me to have Flash #108 before Impulse #9, hence my little cheat in the order here.

Cindy Warner, of Westminster, Md., calls Impulse #6 a "totally believable, timely story with a twist," and one of the best stories she's read this year.

Mary Cateli, of Hagerstown, Md., calls the issue an "excellent story on jumping to conclusions," and hopes to see more of Preston, his dad and Carol.

Mark J. Kiewlak, of Nanticoke, Penn., said it was by far the most serious issue yet, but Mark Waid managed to make it entertaining and enlightening. He said he loved the pure goodness of Bart's decision to sacrifice his secret identity to save his friend. Mark also asks whether this story was loosely based on a real-world incident where a mother drowned her two little boys, but editor Brian Augustyn says that tragedy occurred after the issue was written.

Jeff DeMos, of New York, said the topic of child abuse "elevates Impulse beyond the realm of super-speed-kid-and-his-adventures." He applauds the book for tackling such a controversial issue, and imagining the potential good it could create, said he hopes Impulse doesn't shy away from such problem areas in the future.

Andrew Joseph, of Islington, Ontario, said he forgot that "violence need not wear a man's face." He also asks what the contribution was of Joyce Porter of E.T. Richardson Middle School. Augustyn explains that she was an administrator of the Philadelphia-area school, and she acted as a technical adviser to the story, explaining what a school and its people would do in a situation like Preston's.

Amy Koyama, of Los Angeles, enjoyed the touching issue #6, and also asks for more White Lightning. She also (rather stupidly) expresses confusion about Impulse appearing older in Justice League Task Force. Augustyn simply explains it as artistic license.

Alice Lewis writes, "DON'T YOU DARE CHANGE A THING!" She says she loves Impulse, calls him cute, but most of all, doesn't want the creative team to change. She also points out the Japanese manga-feel of the book, and Augustyn confirms that Humberto Ramos is a manga fan.

Our first ad is for Dungeons & Dragons, a game I did try to play with my friends a couple of time — even bought my own bag of dice. But it grew quite boring before too long.

The #1 comic book is now a hot new video game! A match made in hell. Todd McFarlane's Spawn: The Video Game. On Super NES.

Believe in miracles! Mister Miracle. Dooley, Crespo, and Morias. The hottest super-hero team-ups — every month! Showcase 96.

A two-page ad for Street Fighter II. It shows a very large and ugly orange woman saying, "If you're going to fight, do it outside." Even your mom knows Street Fighter II is on Game Boy.

Pinky and The Brain Christmas Special. Peace on Earth, good will to mice. Pinky and the Brain are dressed as elves, with Pinky singing "Jingle narf," and Brain saying, "Not even world conquest, Pinky, is worth that humiliation."

You asked for it! And here it is! Order 12 issues ... get the Annual free! You could get 12 issues of Impulse for $16, when each individual issue normally cost $1.75.

Battle your brains out! Batman Forever Tiger electronic game. Most kids probably don't know what these things are, but they were cheap little handheld video games that could only play one game. It had a set background and could only light up a limited set of predetermined black figures to try to convey motion and movement. They were pretty fun, but quickly becoming obsolete by 1995.

Next time, we properly begin Dead Heat in The Flash #108.

Justice League Task Force #30

Thunderworld

Priest • Writer
Ramon Bernado • Penciller
C Wallace & M Stegbauer • Inks
Adrienne Ray • Colorist
Kevin Cunningham • Letterer
Alisande Morales • Ass't Ed.
Ruben Diaz • Editor
Cover by Chris Batista & Chip Wallace, colored and separated by Matt Hollingsworth

The cover shows Martian Manhunter battling three rather random villains — Shrapnel, Sledge and Brimstone. He doesn't fight them simultaneously, but they are directly related to the Underworld Unleashed story. Actually, this issue is ironically more closely related to Underworld Unleashed than Impulse #8 was, even though Mark Waid was the author of the event.

The story begins with what I assume is supposed to be a joke. Martian Manhunter needs to assemble the Justice League Task Force, so he asks this blue pterodactyl man named Yazz to contact them. I have no idea who or what this Yazz is, but he seems to be something of a goofball. Anyway, Yazz accidentally contacts everybody who's ever had anything to do with the Justice League Task Force, leading to a room full of random heroes, including Nightwing, Wonder Woman, Damage and Impulse.

Martian Manhunter apologizes to everybody for the confusion, and they all leave, with Damage literally dragging Impulse away. To my surprise, Damage was wearing the Task Force suit they gave him when they offered him a spot on the team in Justice League Task Force #26. Even though Damage turned them down, they still apparently let him keep the suit, and he felt he should wear it when they called him a second time.

Anyway, that's all the Impulse we get here, so I won't dwell too much on this issue. Martian Manhunter tells the team one of their members has been captured, but an alert goes off before they can begin their rescue mission. Since J'onn says they're pressed for time, he decides to take down Shrapnel by himself. But as soon as he does, he gets another alert, and another. Meanwhile, the demon Neron visits the leaderless team and offers to grant each of them their deepest desire in exchange for their souls.

This wasn't a terrible issue, although the art was completely terrible. Everything and everybody just looked so flat, ugly and unrealistic. Even the coloring felt lazily slapped together, adding up to making this issue almost completely unbearable to read. But the actual story was fairly interesting, especially since we got to actually see this evil Neron in action.

I only have the digital copy of this issue, so no ads or letters this time. Next time, we'll prepare for the first official Impulse-Flash crossover with Impulse #9.

Impulse #8

Smart Men, Foolish Choices

Mark Waid – Story
Humberto Ramos – Pencils
Wayne Faucher – Inks
Phil Felix – Letterer
Tom McCraw – Colorist
Alisande Morales – Assistant Ed.
Ruben Diaz – Associate Editor
Brian Augustyn – Editor
Impulse created by Mark Waid & Mike Wieringo

The cover by Ramos and Faucher shows Impulse battling the giant Blockbuster. This is a slight exaggeration, but Blockbuster is really big (about 8 feet tall) and Impulse is rather small (about 5 feet tall). I really like Impulse's expression here — or rather, lack thereof — but I'm not a fan of the way Ramos draws Blockbuster here. He looks a bit better inside. I guess Ramos was trying to make him look more demonic on the cover, but I don't enjoy it.

Blockbuster is not an original Impulse villain. He's been around for quite a while, usually battling Starman and Nightwing. And he usually is a huge, strong man with the intellect of a child. But that changed during DC's event for 1995 — Underworld Unleashed, written by Mark Waid. I have not yet read that miniseries, but I understand it took a whole bunch of villains to the Underworld, where the demon Neron grants them their deepest desires in exchange for their immortal souls.

Our story begins at the site of a football game. The Manchester Warriors are playing for the SECC Championship, but at the start of the game, a group of men called the Jerky Boys close and lock the gates, shooting anyone who protests. The Jerky Boys are working for Blockbuster, who has one of them on the roof of the stadium use a rocket launcher to shoot down the blimp hovering over the field.

Meanwhile, Bart is out training with Max, who has drawn up an intricate pattern for him to run. Naturally, Bart runs it before Max can finish explaining. This is an obstacle course, and Max will be throwing obstacles that Bart needs to either dodge or vibrate through. So they start over again, and Bart appears to handle it quite well.

But at the end, Bart falls into Max's snare trap, and is lifted upside down by his ankle. Max explains that Bart works harder to be a target than any speedster he knows, and if Bart keeps rushing into situations without looking ahead, he'll eventually get hit by a bus. Bart says he's heard this before, knowing this is the part where Max says he'll need Bart in the months to come, but won't explain why.

Suddenly, Bart notices smoke rising from the stadium, so Max lets him down, and he rushes over there. Impulse vibrates the locks and chains off the gates so the crowd can escape the fire. Blockbuster, however, wanted to lure Impulse inside the stadium, so he kills one of his men for failing to do so. One of his henchmen asks him if this was Neron's plan, but Blockbuster snaps at him for using that name. He then decides to take matters into his own hands, personally leading a group of men to tear up downtown Manchester to draw out Impulse.

There are a couple of fun easter eggs in downtown Manchester. The first is a movie theater advertising Batman Forever, starring Chris O'Donnell and Nicole Kidman. So I guess Batman Forever is a movie that exists in the DC Universe based on real events. A little strange, but we make plenty of movies based on real stories all the time, so why wouldn't they? The second easter egg is a copy of the Manchester Journal, with the headline: Augustyn & Waid: "Who's the Next?" We've seen Augustyn's name in the paper before, so I suppose a couple of Alabama politicians share the names with this book's creators.

Back to the action, a car crashes into Blockbuster, but the unfazed giant only yells at the man (and snaps his neck) for ruining his size 86 regular trench coat. He spots a woman making her way to a pay phone, and he has his men shoot her. Blockbuster is surprised when she lives, saying she caught a dozen bullets. Impulse then appears on his shoulder, saying, "Actually ... I caught them!"

Impulse starts beating up the Jerky Boys, even poking one of them in the eyes. Blockbuster explains that a "new acquaintance" of his has asked him to grind Impulse's bones to make his bread. He then throws a car at Impulse and stomps hard on the ground, creating a shockwave to collapse a building. Impulse easily dodges everything and pulls all the people out to safety, all while telling Blockbuster he's not afraid of him since he isn't that ugly.

Blockbuster then throws a bus at Impulse — just like Max said. Believing the teen to be dead, Blockbuster dusts off his hands and leaves for his sanctuary. But Impulse soon vibrates out of the bus and discretely follows the villain back to his lair, which turns out to be a normal-looking apartment built in gigantic proportions to match Blockbuster. Impulse says, "Wow. Incredible shrinking Impulse."

Blockbuster is shocked and furious to find Impulse not only alive but violating his sanctuary. Impulse says, "Well, duh. I'm no genius, but —" Blockbuster then interrupts him, saying he is, in fact, a genius, thanks to the deal he made with Neron. The demon said he could have anything he desired in exchange for his soul, and all Blockbuster wanted to be was smarter. Impulse says he made a stupid deal, and Blockbuster agrees. He was too stupid at the time to ask for what he really wanted — to be normal. Now, he's stuck with the intelligence to truly loathe his massive size and ugliness.

The two fight as they talk, with Impulse taking quite a pounding. Blockbuster boasts that he's beaten Batman himself, but ultimately, Impulse tricks Blockbuster into destroying his sanctuary — the one place where he could feel normal. Eventually, the whole place collapses, burying them both.

We next see a beat-up Bart returning home with his costume in rags falling off him. Max is meditating, tapping into the Speed Force again and has lightning sparking out of his eyes. Bart tells him that a building fell on him but he vibrated through it and sent the police to arrest Blockbuster. But then he turns on the news, which announces that authorities were unable to find the villain amidst all the rubble. Bart vows that the next guy who fights him without super speed is going to get mashed.

Bart then asks Max what he's looking for in the Speed Force, but Max only says he hopes he won't have to tell Bart for a long time. Suddenly, mid-conversation, there's a vwoosh sound, and Max disappears!






It is very nice to have Waid and Ramos back on the book, although this issue was slightly edgier than what we're used to in Impulse. And I think that's because this is an Underworld Unleashed tie-in. Blockbuster is the third super villain to appear in this title, and the first established villain to guest star. He's also the first villain to actually kill somebody in these pages. Dozens of people died in that stadium, and Impulse got more beat up than he's ever been since Kobra, but somehow, these things didn't completely weigh down this issue with grimness.

Blockbuster provides a nice size contrast with Impulse, and his frustration with Impulse's child-like tendencies reminding him of his former, loathed child-level intelligence. But I wish Waid would have explained more about why Blockbuster was so set on killing Impulse. Did Neron send Blockbuster to kill him because he knew Impulse would frustrate him more than any other hero? I can only guess this since I haven't read Underworld Unleashed.

Our first letter is from Shawn Lesser, of Aurora, Colo., who says Impulse is the first superhero comic book to make him laugh out loud. He loved watching Impulse learn how to drive, and votes for White Lightning as the most original new villain. Opposed to many other letter writers, Shawn strongly encourages DC to not have Impulse cross over with Robin or the Ray, saying crossovers need to be rare, special events.

B. Varkentine, of Sunnyvale, Calif., echoes many sentiments by saying Impulse has become a lot more likable since he's left the pages of The Flash. B. acknowledges that Impulse is a lighter-toned book, but notes the heavier stories lurking in the background, especially with Preston. B. praises Ramos for drawing Bart younger looking than the Flash artists and the creative use of the nonverbal thought balloons. B. then questions whether Bart should be fast enough to run to Paris and back, since Flash apparently said a few years ago that even he couldn't run to Europe in two minutes. Editor Brian Augustyn explains that Flash's powers have since increased, and Bart's speed is right behind Wally's.

Chris Karnes, of Naperville, Ill., complains about the speech bubble on the cover of Impulse #5. But he likes seeing Max with Helen and Bart with Carol, and hopes White Lightning returns soon.

Jeff DeMos, of New York, loved seeing Bart get scared by Max and calling football "feetball." But he points out that there aren't any regular thought balloons or "narrative rectangles" that allow the reader into the main character's head. Jeff mainly mentions this because Mark Waid uses them so heavily in the Flash. Augustyn explains that this is somewhat intentional, showing that Bart thinks so quickly, he bypasses all words and thinks in complete, illustrated concepts. He also generally doesn't think, and Max doesn't let anyone know what he's thinking, hence the lack of traditional thought bubbles.

Doud Ohmer, of Covington, Ky., says he enjoys seeing Max be a little more supportive of Bart, and also wants more of Max with Helen and Bart with Carol. Doud asks for White Lightning to visit other DC heroes, and for more super villains to visit Impulse. Now for the ads:

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Now it's time for a special announcement. Yesterday, I visited the Boise Library Comic Con. It's not much of a comic con, but it was fun to see a bunch of kids wearing Flash T-shirts and even a little 4-year-old boy dressed in a full Flash outfit. Anyway, the main purpose of this con is to raise money for the library, and they had a bunch of their old, beat-up graphic novels for sale. So for $1, I bought a water-damaged copy of Impulse: Reckless Youth.

I'm using this image from mycomicshop.com since my copy of this trade paperback is so beat up. Also, MyComicShop.com is a great site that has helped me fill out my Impulse collection. Anyway, this TPB, Impulse's first, is pretty fun. It came out in 1997, featuring an original cover by Humberto Ramos and Wayne Faucher. I believe Ramos had stopped drawing Impulse regularly for a while at this time, which might explain why Impulse is looking a little chunkier than he normally does. The larger hair simply matches the size it was in 1997, which was probably the biggest it ever got in Impulse's history. The back cover features a quote from Ken Tucker, of Entertainment Weekly, calling  Impulse "the best-drawn superhero book in the land."

This TPB collects Flash #92 – #94 and the first six issues of Impulse. All the covers are printed in the back, and there's a two-page explanation after Flash #94, telling the reader what happened in Zero Hour and Terminal Velocity, while also encouraging the reader to pick up those two TPBs.

My favorite part of this book was the introduction by Brian Augustyn. He starts with a story about how he and Mark Waid learned the best way to write Impulse. They were showing the script of Impulse #4 to fellow comic book writer Christopher Priest. When he got to the cliffhanger ending, he asked them how'd they pull Impulse out of that situation, but they both realized they hadn't thought that far ahead yet, which is exactly what the character Impulse would do. From then on, they realized the best Impulse stories happened when they just "drove the car off the cliff" and worried about the rest later.

Augustyn also reveals that DC ordered the Impulse series to be released with Flash #100 right as Flash #93 hit the stands. I'm surprised that it only took a couple of guest appearances to earn Impulse his own series, but I'm very glad it turned out that way. Augustyn also talks about the big chance they took with the tone and style of Impulse, making it more of a sitcom than a traditional superhero comic book. And he specifically points out the biggest risk they took with Impulse #6. At that point, they had already established themselves as a comedic title, but they were a little worried about proving they could still write the occasional "serious" story. The whole thing turned out beautifully, and Augustyn called it "one of the issues I'm proudest of in all the work Mark and I have done together."

Next time, we enter December 1995 by continuing Underworld Unleashed in Justice League Task Force #30.

Impulse #7

Arrested Developments

Martin Pasko Guest Writer
Nick Gnazzo Guest Penciller
Mark Stegbauer Inker
Tom McCraw Colorist
Kevin Cunningham Guest Letterer
Alisande Morales Assistant Editor
Brian Augustyn Very good host
Impulse created by Mark Waid & Mike Wieringo

I guess everybody needed a break after the intense Impulse #6, so we get our first issue of Impulse without Mark Waid and Humberto Ramos. However, Ramos and Wayne Faucher still did the cover, which shows Impulse battling the new villain for this issue, Gridlock, who has captured Max Mercury and Bart's friend, Carol. This is only a slight exaggeration of the story inside, and it is unfortunately more colorful. On the inside pages, Gridlock's lightning is a boring black opposed to the vibrant blue and purple on the cover.

Our story begins with Bart being forced to rake leaves at normal speed, while Max installs a satellite dish on the roof. Bart whines and complains, saying this is all a sick game of Max's, since he enjoys watching the grass grow. Max tries to explain that he's making Bart do this to protect his secret identity, and Bart finally reveals the real reason he's mad — the cheerleader tryouts will be over soon. Max says he can't imagine seeing Bart in one of those short skirts, and Bart imagines grabbing Max's tongue and wrapping it around his neck until his eyeballs bulge out.

But just imagining Max's demise isn't enough for Bart, and he impulsively hurls his rake at Max's head. Luckily, Max is able to dodge, but he falls off the ladder. Bart does feel bad for what he did, but he also takes advantage of Max's disorientation to rake all the leaves at super speed.

At the cheerleader tryouts, a couple of girls talk about how Ms. Saxon only chooses cheerleaders who "flash some flesh" — something Carol isn't quite doing. Carol, however, is too distraught with Bart's no-show, even though only about 10 people showed up to watch the tryouts. Bart finally arrives, and Carol yells at him, saying, "Don't tell, let me guess — you're late because of something Max forced you to do, and he won't let you tell me what it is or why." Instead of saying he had to rake the leaves like a normal person, Bart says, "You really do get it. Cool." And this only makes Carol angrier.

We then cut to Technodyne Industries, a place we haven't seen since Impulse #2. The bad guy from the cover is flying around on his hovercraft making a mess of things. He freezes all the security guards with some black lightning he shoots from his gloves, but he's kind enough to explain they'll only be frozen for an hour. He starts to introduce himself as Girdl--, but then catches himself and says his name is Gridlock. He then causes a huge explosion and takes off.

We then return to Bart and Carol, who is still yelling at him for standing him up then showing up at the end to make fun of her. This obviously wasn't Bart's intention, and he doesn't understand what she's talking about. Luckily, he's saved by an imminent disaster. Apparently Technodyne Industries is a lot closer to the school than I realized, and also on top a mountain ... ? I don't know, the art and story-telling here is not very clear (I kept feeling like I skipped a page).

Anyway, all that matters is big chunks of machinery from the explosion are now raining down on the junior high kids walking home from school. Bart's hand is forced, and he becomes Impulse to contend with the falling debris. Impulse soon meets Gridlock, who announces he'll give the young hero a lesson in physics. Impulse doesn't consider the chubby villain to be an Albert Einstein, probably because of his annoying Southern dialect. However, it turns out Gridlock does know what he's talking about, and he knocks out Impulse by stealing all his kinetic energy. Impulse can't breathe for a moment, but Gridlock is nice again, and gives a little energy back to the wiped out hero. Gridlock then takes off, explaining he never wanted to kill anybody — just get revenge on Technodyne.

We then see Max is volunteering at a voting booth in the school along with Helen. But when he sees that Impulse stopped the avalanche and Gridlock got away, Max takes off, saying he needs to make sure Bart got home safely. Meanwhile, Carol is pressured to head up to Applegate Park with some older guys. Bart may be cute and smart, but "he's, like, ninth grade."

Back home, Bart is pulling some milk out of the fridge, when Max suddenly arrives and spooks Bart again — a favorite comedic trope of mine. Bart screams and drops the milk, but Max catches it, warms it up, and serves it to Bart in a Batman mug. Bart tells him all about his encounter with Gridlock, but Max insists he get some sleep to recover his energy. Max then returns to the voting booth while Bart watches the news reporting the disappearance of Technodyne CEO Leo Nordstrom.

Carol then loads up into the cool kids' ridiculously large monster truck with Nine Inch Nails blasting in the background. Carol thought they were just going on a picnic — she even has her own picnic basket — but she's shocked to see the other kids have packed sleeping bags. The big case of beer, however, does not faze her. But Carol still protests to the trip, so the two girls in the backseat force her in, because there's three guys and they need even numbers. Max walks right past this abduction but does nothing to prevent it. I guess the voting booth is too important.

Bart, meanwhile, is still watching the news, which is actually doing a good job of reporting Nordstrom's abduction, by naming Abner Girdler the main suspect. Girdler, a specialist in urban planning and new transportation technologies, was fired four days ago after his plan to install a monorail system in Manchester was shut down by county transportation commissioner Clifton Burdett. Girdler then stole the Konstruktor 3000, which may be the latest generation of the hover tank we saw in issues #1 and #2. Girdler also happened to invent his "immobilizin' gizmo" at Technodyne.

Anyway, when the monorail contract went south, Girdler vowed that gridlock would bring the whole city to a dead stop. At the time, he was talking about the traffic, but after he was fired, he decided to fulfill that promise literally. Gridlock's main plan seems to involve kidnapping and terrorizing Nordstrom, who fired him, and sabotaging Burdett's current election for mayor. So he flies around, freezing everything and everybody in sight, including the giant monster truck Carol is in.

Bart learns of this through the news, which is very on top of this developing story. So Bart visits Max at the voting booth, and under the pretense of making a coffee run, the two discuss the situation with Gridlock, figuring that he wanted to freeze everybody to prevent them from voting for Burdett. Max points out that Bart will need to fight Gridlock without using his speed. For some reason, Bart doesn't see any reason to fight Gridlock, until Max tells him about Carol being trapped in a monster truck with a couple of horny football players. That wakes up Bart and he rushes out to face Gridlock as Impulse.

Using his trusty rake from the beginning (seriously), Impulse destroys Gridlock's hovercraft, bringing him down to Earth. Impulse then runs circles around Gridlock, moving so fast that he creates after-images of himself that draw the fire of Gridlock's black immobilizing lightning. Then, according to the copious narration boxes, Impulse stays perfectly still for one minute so the lightning only has one moving object to lock onto — Gridlock himself. However, the art didn't match the text that well, showing Impulse clearly moving and deflecting the lightning blast with a piece of metal from the hovercraft. He also has a thought bubble of himself as an ... ice cube? So I have no idea what's going on. The important thing is that Impulse defeated Gridlock by turning his own technology against him.

Impulse then steals one of Gridlock's gloves to restart the monster truck Carol is in. Impulse vibrates Carol out of the truck, then causes it to drive off a cliff. He then freezes the truck in mid-air with the glove, then copies Max's move from the beginning, by creating a giant pile of leaves to cushion the truck's fall. Impulse then takes Carol home and immediately returns to the fight with Gridlock, knocking him out for good. Impulse frees Nordstrom, who's not at all as nice as he was at the end of issue #2, and demands that Impulse give him Gridlock's technology since he invented it while working at Technodyne.

Later, we see on the news that Gridlock's plan actually did work, as Burdett is defeated in a landslide. But since Bart interrupted Max's installation of the satellite dish, it's not properly aligned. So until Max fixes it, he needs Bart to hold it in place while he watches the news.

Ugh. This issue was a chore to work through. It was just all over the place, trying to do so much, but accomplishing so little. The art did not match the story very well, and Pasko seemed to change his mind halfway through about how much time should elapse across this issue. At the start, it seemed like it was supposed to take two days, with Carol's "friends" saying they'd leave the next day, and Max chastises Bart for being up past curfew, even though it was still light outside. Then suddenly, Carol is taking off in the monster truck, and Max is growling at Bart for taking such a short nap. So I guess it did all happen in one day, which makes the most sense.

The timing issues combined with the geography and dialogue issues make this story nearly unbearable. Gridlock had a really annoying Southern dialect going on, and all the teenagers sounded like a 40-year-old's idea of what teenagers sound like. They all said "like" a lot, which I guess could be accurate, but they also threw out some really strange slang that I seriously doubt was common in 1995. When they were all running away from the avalanche that came out of nowhere, one kid said, "I ain't crowd-swimmin' no freshmen!" And another said, "Eat chain! We're history!" I have never heard anyone ever say anything close to this.

Gridlock is Impulse's second super villain, and on paper, he's the perfect match for a speedster. But his origin, motivation, and age make him much more appropriate for the Flash than Impulse. White Lightning worked because she was young and directly involved Bart's classmates. This guy is a disgruntled former employee with a political agenda. No wonder Bart didn't want to fight him. And how weird was it that Gridlock accomplished exactly everything he wanted to? He didn't want to kill anybody — just make sure his enemy wasn't elected mayor. And it all worked out that way in the end, despite Impulse's manipulations. I guess this is an interesting change of pace, but really, I'd prefer to see my hero thwart the villain's plans.

It seems like Pasko did a little bit of research before writing this issue, but he apparently did not do enough. I'm not opposed to bringing back Technodyne and Nordstrom, but Pasko somehow missed the fact that Nordstrom's first name was Richard, not Leo, as it was here. And for some reason, Gnazzo seemed to have a lot of trepidation to actually draw Nordstrom. Every time we saw him, he was very small in the background or had his back turned toward us. I don't get it.

All in all, I think Pasko did a fairly decent job of capturing the feel of Impulse, but he did make it slightly more mature than it usually is. The lesbian jokes and the attempted rape scene really felt out of place, as did Bart's sudden infatuation with Carol. Coming off the heels of The New Titans #126, we now have two issues with guest writers making Bart a bit more girl crazy than he's ever been. I think they just didn't quite grasp the concept Mark Waid had for the character. Well, that's enough of me complaining about this crappy issue. Let's see what readers felt about Impulse #4.

Chris Khalaf, of Houston, says he loves the dorky and immature school kids, which he feels is an accurate representation of junior high life. He says he enjoys the continuity of the Flash legend carried on throughout this book, and he briefly philosophizes on how superheroes attract and even create super villains. He then requests a team-up with Robin and Superboy, and says he'd love to see Humberto Ramos draw Plastic Man.

Ken Goach, of Austin, Texas, says he picked up Impulse #4 after reading a lot of good things about it on the Internet. (So the Internet was influencing comic sales as early as 1995!) Ken says he had to go to four different shops to find the issue, since everyone was sold out of it. He says he liked the Barney gag, and also praises Ramos' art. Ken ironically says he has a hard time accepting a story about a villain recruiting henchmen via the Internet, and editor Brian Augustyn rightly calls him out on this. How could someone who used the Internet to buy the issue have a problem with a villain using it as well?

Chris Karnes, of Naperville, Ill., also says he had a hard time finding this issue, since it kept selling out everywhere. He says he enjoys White Lightning, and labels Ramos as the definitive Impulse artist.

Andy Oliver, of Upminster, England, calls issue #4 another gem free of the tiresome macho posturing and grim and grittiness. He also requests for Mark Waid to write a Max Mercury mini-series.

Doug Ohmer, of Covington, Ky., is happy Impulse has his own super villain, and he really enjoys Bart's thought balloons that show exactly what he's thinking without using any words. He says he wants to see more of Dr. Helen Claiborne and Carol Bucklen.

Mary Catelli, of Hagerstown, Md., says White Lightning fits in this series nicely, and she also wants to see more of Bart with Carol. Mary then suggests the Impulse letter column be titled "Speed Reading," not realizing that The Flash is already using that name. Now for the ads:

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Gang tackle your nervous system. A two-page ad for TSC football cards. Although I think the cards themselves look pretty stupid, I am glad that this ad actually shows pictures of the actual cards, unlike some other football card ads we've seen.

Comix Zone for SEGA Genesis.

So that's it for October 1995. The next issue would normally be The New Titans, but Marv Wolfman was granted one final story arc with his own characters, so he simply ignored Impulse, Supergirl and Rose Wilson, while showing how Damage officially quit the team. Kind of a bummer, but all the same, Impulse is going to be fine with his own title.

Next issue: Underworld Unleashed unleashes the all-new, all-deadly Blockbuster on Manchester and our young speedster. It's by Underworld maven Mark Waid, Humberto Ramos, Wayne Faucher, Tom McCraw, Chris Eliopoulos, Ali Morales and Brian Augustyn, trapped in the underworld.

The New Titans #126

Going Home

Dale Hrebik Writer
Rik Mays Artist
Chris Matthys Colorist
Albert de Guzman Letterer
Keri Kowalski Asst. Editor
Pat Garrahy Editor
A very special thanks to Ruben Diaz
Created by Marv Wolfman & George Pérez

The Siege of Zi Charam is over, and the usual creative team has taken the month off, even though this is technically the first part of Meltdown, a countdown to the end of the series. Will Rosado did the cover, which finally features Arsenal for a change. He is the team leader, after all, so why not pull him out of the background once in a while?

The story begins with basically the exact same image on the cover of Arsenal falling off a bridge. Turns out it's just a training exercise with an old counter intelligence agent from the group Checkmate. Roy Harper then goes to a pool party with his friend, and we get a rare shot of Roy's daughter. There's some brief discussion about his duties as a father, but ultimately, it seems he places the Titans above his daughter.

At the Titans headquarters, Bart slows down to have a serious conversation with Roy. He says since he grew up so fast he probably doesn't know everything he should, and since Roy's sort of an adult, he might be able to help him. After a little prodding, Roy finds out Bart is talking about Rose. He says while everyone was off in space, it was basically just him and Rose manning the headquarters, but she never talked to him. Roy says Bart should just spend some time with her, pay attention, listen and not talk at her a million miles an hour. And then Rik Mays decides Bart needs to look like a girl.

After Bart leaves, it's revealed that Roy was actually Mirage the whole time. She transformed into him without even realizing it. Donna Troy and Kyle Rayner then join Mirage out on the lawn, then they're suddenly attacked by Impulse, Minion, Supergirl, Terra and Rose. Another goofy spar ensues, and Minion warns Donna that Bart said he'd "hit her so hard she wakes up in my century." Donna calls Bart a little imp, and he corrects her, saying his name is Impulse and that she'll never hit him even on her fastest day. Bart was right, and he tackles Donna, ruining her good jeans. She flips him off her and he bounces off Minion's hard Omegadrome.

Mirage again unwittingly transforms, this time into the super villain Mongul. Supergirl easily takes her out, while Terra and Rose double-team Kyle. The real Roy soon arrives, asking whose idea this was, and everybody blames Bart and Tara. Bart calls Roy "Dad" and apologizes for the mess, saying he just wanted to keep the troops sharp. He also says he wanted to play shirts and skins, but Tara wouldn't go for it.

Suddenly, Donna chews out Kyle for being too rough with Rose, and an editor's note tells us she was injured during a training session in Deathstroke #51. Rose yells at Donna for treating her like a little kid and storms off. Bart tries to talk to her about how awful Donna is, but Rose gives him a death glare, making Bart feel like a dunce.

We then cut to S.T.A.R. Labs in San Francisco, where the demon-possessed Changeling is being held in stasis. But then a careless lab technician tosses a thermos to his friend and accidentally cracks the glass on Changeling's chamber, awakening him. Kind of a cheesy way to revive the villain, but whatever. Bart's not going to stick around for most of this Meltdown story, so we don't need to worry too much about it.




This was a rather odd filler issue. For starters, the art wasn't good at all, but that's usually been the standard with The New Titans lately. And Dale Hrebik certainly is no Marv Wolfman. I'm not sure why a fill-in writer would choose to do a character piece when he doesn't have a full grasp on the characters. He should have stuck to a simple monster-of-the-month story. I did like seeing Impulse turn to Arsenal as a trusted adult  — that feels right in line with his character. But I didn't like Bart's infatuation with Rose. I suppose the whole thing happened off-page, and it didn't feel natural at all. Especially when you read in Impulse's own series how he's completely oblivious to girls flirting with him.

The letters this month are from The New Titans #123, the Jarras Minion special issue. One writer, however, does mention Impulse.

Jack Grimes II, of Oxford, N.J., says Impulse is a great character whose personality actually matches his powers. Jack says Impulse can be annoying at times, but he is cool, and an enjoyable member of the team. Now for the ads:

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Next time, we return to the main series with Impulse #7.