The Flash #81

Death and the Speed Force Conclusion

Joshua Williamson Writer

Scott Kolins Artist

Luis Guerrero Colors

Steve Wands Letters

Rafa Sandoval, Jordi Tarragona & Tomeu Morey Cover

Guillem March Variant Cover

Rob Levin Associate Editor

Paul Kaminski Editor

Jamie S. Rich Group Editor

Our cover shows the newly revamped Rogues raising their fists triumphantly in the air because it's the Year of the Villain. And the Rogues all have new looks and/or new powers because it's apparently the New 52 again. Whatever. I don't really care. It's kind of a boring cover and, ironically, the Rogues really don't have that big a presence in this issue.

The bulk of this issue deals with Hunter Zolomon learning that Eobard Thawne secretly engineered the worst moment of his life, just as he had done with Barry Allen. Hunter then sacrifices himself to fix the Force Barrier. (The rupturing of the Force Barrier was apparently what allowed Bart Allen to return to the real world, although neither The Flash nor Young Justice has thoroughly explored that idea.)

Barry battles the Black Flash and Iris is hanging out at the Flash Museum with a guy named Steadfast, who can tap into the Still Force. He senses something is wrong with not only the Speed Force, but the whole Multiverse. And this is where we see a statue of Impulse in the background, although he still has not interacted with Barry or Wally or Wallace or Avery or anybody else involved in this issue.

It's really frustrating how Williamson was unwilling or unable to do anything with Bart Allen. We keep getting periodic reminders in the background that Bart really is part of the Flash family, but month after month and year after year passes without anything substantial. And, frankly, I'm tired of being teased. I'd almost prefer not to have anything over this torment. Well, let's check out the new ads while we wait for Bart to actually show up in The Flash.

Being a hero isn't all about having superpowers ... it's about having a voice, too. Black Canary Ignite.

Harley Quinn's Villain of the Year, accompanied with an online poll for the top villain (The Batman Who Laughs won).

A DC Nation interview with Joe Hill on Basketful of Heads.

Next time will be yet another brief look at an Impulse cameo in Action Comics #1016.

Justice League #34

Justice/Doom War Part 5

Scott Snyder & James Tynion IV Writers

Bruno Redondo and Howard Porter Art

Hi-Fi Colors

Tom Napolitano Letters

Francis Manapul Cover

Francesco Mattina Variant Cover

Ben Meares Associate Editor

Jamie S. Rich Editor

Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.

Well, I caved in and bought this comic. I decided that if you like something, then you should support it when you can. And I want DC to keep making comic books, so I'm going to keep giving them money — even if I only care about one page in this issue ...

I'm not going to pretend to know anything about what's going on in the cover or in the Year of the Villain as a whole. Young Justice has not been involved in it at all. But I will say I like the cover — Manapul remains one of my all-time favorites. However, the cover doesn't truly convey what's inside this issue, which is a mashup of dozens and dozens of heroes from alternate timelines and parallel worlds. And that's where we come in, just for this one splash page.

In the bottom left corner is what dc.fandom.com describes as the "Sins of Youth" Flash. And it's hard to argue with that. Chances are, this is an alternate, adult version of Bart Allen. The costume's not quite the same from Sins of Youth, but it's close enough for me to write this brief blog about it. I wish we would have seen this Flash in a few more panels to get confirmation of who he really is, but I guess we'll just have to make do. I actually was more interested in the guy next to him, who is clearly, unquestionably the Flash from DC One Million, John Fox. And next to him is the Flash from Batman Beyond. 

Anyway, it is pretty neat that DC keeps finding ways to validate all these different versions of characters, even if it's just for a random panel here or there. Let's check out the new ads:

Murder is his art. Catching killers is hers. Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity.

The Batman's Grave.

A DC Nation interview with The Last God writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson.

Next time will be another quick post, as we take a peek at The Flash #81.

Young Justice #9

Lost in the Multiverse Part 3

Brian Michael Bendis Script

André Araújo (p. 2-11 and 15-18) John Timms (p. 1, 12-14, and 19-22) Art

Gabe Eltaeb Colors

Wes Abbott Letters

Timms and Eltaeb Cover

Nick Bradshaw and John Rauch Variant Cover

Brittany Holzherr Associate Editor

Mike Cotton Editor

Brian Cunningham Group Editor

Superboy created by Jerry Siegel.

By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.

Our cover shows Young Justice preparing to face off against their evil counterparts on Earth-3. It's a perfectly serviceable cover — finally putting all these villains together in one image. However, nothing really grabs my attention. It's not off-putting, by any means, but it's just not that captivating. Plus, this showdown doesn't happen in this issue.

I snagged this textless variant from dc.fandom.com. It does exactly what a variant cover should do — experiment. It uses a unique color palate and portrays a ridiculous, yet funny and heart-warming scene. No, I don't think Bart would be THAT freaked out to be flying like this, but it is still a fun expression on his face.

This issue begins with the same introductory page as before, so we'll skip it. This comic also spends the bulk of its time telling the origin story of Teen Lantern, which I found rather boring and unoriginal. So I'm going to only focus on the final two pages, where Impulse is involved.

Batwoman has recovered from her injury sustained by being knocked out from behind by Impulse, and she leads Impulse and Robin to her Batcave to try to find a way to send them back home. Bart immediately rushes throughout the cave until he conveniently finds a thumb drive that he believes to contain the long-fabled Multiverse Map.

They plug the drive in the computer and sure enough, Bart was right. Stephanie explains that Doctor Fate gave her the map before Ultraman fed him to Gorilla Grodd. She says she has no idea how to use the map, but Bart believes he can get them all home. Tim, however, can't stop talking about how messed up this world is, so Bart agrees, decrying its lack of super-rabbits. Stephanie assures Tim that he doesn't need to feel obligated to take care of this Earth, but Tim believes they may have come here for a reason. So he tells Bart that before they go home, they're going to put their evil counterparts out of business.

I don't have much to say on this one. Bendis is once again awkwardly interrupting the action to explain who these new characters are — a side effect of trying to manage such a large team in a narrative with a breakneck pace. I was a little surprised to see the Multiverse Map actually exists and even more surprised to see how easily our heroes obtained it. I guess it's just time for them to go home.

There aren't any new ads, so that's it for today. Next time, I might look at Justice League #34, but I might skip it. We'll see. In any case, the review probably won't come for a couple of months because I'd rather wait for this issue to appear on the DC Universe app instead of buying it.

Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium #2

Brian Michael Bendis Writer

Nicola Scott, Jim Cheung, Jeff Dekal and Ryan Cook Artists

Tomeu Morey and Jordie Bellaire Colorists

Dave Sharpe Letterer

Ryan Sook Cover

Bryan Hitch and Alex Sinclair Variant Cover Artists

Brittany Holzherr Associate Editor

Brian Cunningham Editor

Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

Superboy created by Jerry Siegel.

By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.

Our cover shows Superboy being welcomed into the Legion of Super-Heroes with his very own Legion Ring. It's beautiful. It's joyful. It's exciting. And also heart-breaking. I will forever mourn Jon Kent's lost childhood (he basically went from 10 to 17 overnight, while Damian Wayne has been able to stay 13 for a solid decade). But, this is not a Superboy blog, nor a Legion blog, so those complaints are neither here nor there. This is an Impulse blog, and since Bart Allen didn't appear on the variant cover, we're going to skip it.

And since this is an Impulse blog, we only care about the background images of one page of this comic. And those images appear as holograms in a museum in the future. We see the current group of Young Justice remembered in the Hall of Heroes a thousand years later, as well as the Teen Titans lineup of Bart, Conner, Cassie and Tim working under Cyborg, Beast Boy and Raven. The latter is most surprising, but it seems that continuity has been restored somehow.

Bendis defecting to DC from Marvel was probably the company's most high-profile creator acquisition since Jim Lee. As such, he was essentially given the keys to the kingdom. He got Superman, Young Justice, the Legion and more. And he likes to periodically weave his titles together, creating the burning need (in geeks like me) for some answers as to how the pieces fit exactly. Naturally, the longer we wait for a resolution, the more worried I become that we won't get one, or, equally bad, the answers provided will be rushed, contradictory and unsatisfying (see Scott Lobdell in the New 52). Time will tell. In the meantime, let's look at the new ads:

Two pages dedicated to the new Legion of Super-Heroes series launching out of this title, which Bendis calls the biggest thing he's ever done in comics.

Joe Hill presents Hill House comics. A new line of comics dedicated to bone-chilling horror featuring new and well-known creative voices.

A DC Nation interview with Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity artists Mico Suayan and Mike Mayhew.

Next time, we return to Young Justice #9.

Young Justice #8

Lost in the Multiverse Part 2

Brian Michael Bendis Script

John Timms Art

Gabe Eltaeb Colors

Wes Abbott Letters

Timms and Eltaeb Cover

Jonboy Meyers Variant Cover

Brittany Holzherr Associate Editor

Mike Cotton Editor

Brian Cunningham Group Editor

Superboy created by Jerry Siegel.

By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.

Our cover shows the entire Young Justice team clinging to Superboy as he ... yells in rage? In fear? I can't tell what's going on here. Behind our heroes are two small images of a building on fire and a figure in red using heat vision(?) on a fighter jet. It's too busy and confusing. If it weren't for the text on the cover, I wouldn't have had any idea Young Justice was on an alternate Earth.

I snagged this variant cover from dc.fandom.com, and I like it a lot more than the main cover. Meyers is one of my favorites, and he does a great job here. Superboy's face is a little weird, but it's still a very nice cover.

This issue begins with a recap page, which I think is necessary, since it's been a while:

Robin, Superboy, Impulse, Wonder Girl, Jinny Hex, Amethyst, and Teen Lantern come together just in time to save the magical land of Gemworld from the out-of-control dark powers of Opal.

Young Justice have so many questions as to where the team has been and how they even remembers each other and are eager to get home to Earth to unpack it all.

But the courts of Gemworld, fearful of Amethyst's constant interference, banish the young heroes into the uncharted multiverse with no way home.

They are not on their Earth, they are on ... Earth-3: Home of the Crime Syndicate of Amerika.

Our story begins with Wonder Girl being attacked by her evil counterpart, Amaxon Thunder. The evil Superboy, Luthor-El, soon shows up, followed by the evil Impulse, Speed Zone. He promised to spare Impulse's life if he handed over a multiverse map, which bums Bart out, because that means neither of them has such a map. He then cleverly tricks Speed Zone by pulling a roadrunner/coyote move by stopping short, causing Speed Zone to continue running down into Delaware before realizing what happened.

Robin, meanwhile, is battling his evil counterpart, who calls himself Drake because it's one of the most dangerous birds. Tim, who has long struggled with the Robin/Red Robin name, is forced to admit that the name is Drake is pretty good. The evil Drake, however, pulls a gun on Robin and quotes the Dark Knight Returns: "Rubber bullets. Honest." Luckily, Impulse is able to save Robin before the bullets hit him. Bart complains about his evil version, prompting Tim to joke that he always thought Bart was the evil version. They briefly discuss their need for a multiverse map, and Bart asks if Robin's evil self gave him any clues. All Robin can say is that he calls himself Drake, which really catches Bart's attention. But before he can elaborate on this thought, Bart races off to save Amethyst — with Speed Zone in hot pursuit.

While Bart is away, Tim encounters the Earth-3 version of his girlfriend, Stephanie Brown. Here, she calls herself Batwoman, and is actually the first good guy our heroes have encountered here (she's also the narrator in the purple speech boxes throughout this issue). But Bart doesn't know that, and he promptly knocks her out from behind with another "meep meep." Bart casually resumes his conversation, telling Tim that he should start calling himself Drake, as poor Tim tends to Stephanie. To his credit, Bart does apologize once he learns Stephanie's not evil, but he still thinks it's important to get Tim's code name sorted out. Tim asks Bart to save it for when they get back home, and in the meantime, suggests they try to find this Earth's Batcave to revive Stephanie.

I've given up on the dream of this series taking a breath to explain itself. Yeah, sure, we're having fun, but I'm out of breath! And since Bendis keeps throwing so much at us, we never get a chance to process any of it. We barely know this large group of heroes we have, and now they're all fighting the Earth-3 versions of themselves. It's a fascinating concept — but we didn't get any time to explore it. What's Speed Zone's story? Why is he evil? Why is he black? Is he actually that Earth's version of Bart Allen, or just a random speedster? We'll never know.

I do like how powerful Impulse is in this series. I'd like to imagine that he knows more than he's letting on, but that might just be my wishful thinking. Deciding to change Robin's code name to Drake feels both obvious and lazy. I mean, his name already is Tim Drake. Oh well. Let's check out the new ads:

The action-packed thrill ride that inspired the graphic novel! Batman: Nightwalker.

A new edition of the classic #1 best-selling graphic novel. Batman: Hush.

A DC Nation interview with Batman: Nightwalker writers Marie Lu and Stuart Moore.

Next time: Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium #2.

Young Justice: Outsiders – "Nevermore"

Director: Mel Zwyer
Writers: Jim Krieg & Jeremy Adams

It's been a couple of weeks since the defeat of Granny Goodness, but there are still a few loose ends to wrap up for this season. So we check in on Oracle (above) in Gotham City on February 15, 18:31 EST. She's updating Black Lightning on the tenuous situation in Markovia and the coordinated response between the Outsiders, the Team and Batman's personal squad, which Black Lightning has dubbed "Batman, Inc." As Oracle speaks, members of the Outsiders (including Kid Flash) and Team are flying the Bio-Ship into Markovburg on February 16, 1:33 EET (Eastern European Time). Their mission simply is to prevent Dr. Ecks from killing the people who are loyal to King Gregor (Geo-Force's twin brother).

There are two other squads with much flashier missions, which actually get screen time. Kid Flash's group easily defeats Dr. Ecks (a man who can duplicate himself) and rescue his hostages offscreen. The other squads don't fare as well, though. They do technically stop Prince Brion's uncle from staging a coup, but they stand by helplessly as Brion murders his uncle and insanely seizes the crown for himself. Granted, a psychic named Zviad Baazovi was influencing things, but it still is rather inexcusable for all these heroes to let this happen.

We next see Kid Flash a week later on the Watchtower on February 24, 19:00 EST. He's attending a massive meeting that includes almost every conceivable hero on the show (many of whom participated via video call). Nightwing conducts the meeting, opening with an admission that he, Aquaman, Miss Martian and Batman have been running a secret task force over the past six months, coordinating missions with the League, Team and Outsiders. They all step down from their leadership positions and pick Black Lightning to be the new leader of the Justice League. Everybody is happy with this, but I can't help notice how little detail Dick, Kaldur and M'gann provided. If the Outsiders truly knew how much they had been deceived, I don't think they would have been all smiles and cheers at this meeting.

Our last glimpse of Kid Flash is in Taos on February 26, 13:13 MST. He, Eduardo and Gar are present when one of the center's meta-teens, Wendy Jones, finally agrees to remove her inhibitor collar after months of self doubt and anxiety.




And that's it. Bart didn't say a single word in this episode. In fact, he hardly moved at all. This episode was especially guilty of using still images instead of animating the sequences. I think it's alright to do that every now and then, but when it's overdone like this, it feels lazy. And rushed. This season had 26 episodes, but it really needed 52. The show runners bit off more than they could chew, probably a side effect of having spent so much down time between seasons two and three. There is word for a fourth season, but we still don't have a release date for that, even though it's almost been a year since season three ended.

I'm just really sad that Bart was relegated to a background character after having such a large impact on season two as Impulse. He got a new outfit (which is kind of dumb), became good friends with Eduardo (but maybe not in a romantic way?) and was a founding member of the Outsiders. But beyond that, he really didn't do anything. One of his guardians, Joan Garrick, did pass away, but that happened offscreen. The only bit of Bart's home life we saw was him babysitting his toddler father and aunt that one time. I just wanted more. But as an Impulse fan, I'm used to being shortchanged.

Next time, we'll return to the Young Justice comic series, which had issue #8 delayed by a month.

Young Justice: Outsiders – "Into the Breach"

Director: Vinton Hueck
Writer: Jonathan Callan

After that stirring speech to get the adults to support the Outsiders, we didn't see our heroes again for a month (both in real life and in show time). We pick up with Beast Boy, Wonder Girl, Blue Beetle, Kid Flash, El Dorado and newcomer Victor Stone (above) in Burbank, California, on January 25, 17:16 PST. They have taken the Bio-Ship to investigate Gretchen Goode's television studio, while Miss Martian and the Team hunt for Halo.

Bart points out that the Team already checked out the studio, since it has become pretty obvious that Goode is actually Granny Goodness from Apokolips. But Vic explains that since he's gotten the hang of his Father Box technology, he can essentially tap into every electronic device around the world and — more importantly for this mission — sense Apokoliptan technology. Vic's scouting has identified Goode Studios' Building 16 as a hotspot (this show really needs to dial down its obsession with the number 16). So Gar decided to take the Outsiders there, even though they're missing Static and Geo-Force.

Vic opens a boom tube inside the building and insists on coming along, even though Gar tells him he can wait in the Bio-Ship with Eduardo. But Vic feels he owes it to Violet to try to help save her. Bart does a quick recon of the warehouse and returns with a prop from Gar's TV show. This only makes Gar angry (since he hates having to work for Granny Goodness) and Jaime thinks the idea of aliens with clam-shaped heads is cheesy. Bart writes him off as having no taste, then gets down to business. He checked the whole place twice, but couldn't find anything unusual.

But Vic can sense something strange and he soon reveals a large, menacing machine that had been completely invisible. Bart jokes that this must be "Clamulon" tech, but Jaime's scarab identifies it as Apokoliptan, warning him that such tech is "not compatible." Vic tries to "speak" to the machine, but a boom tube suddenly opens up underneath our heroes, transporting them to a dusty, yellow void that causes them all a tremendous amount of pain.

Jaime's scarab is also overwhelmed by the pain and shuts down to protect itself. This leaves Jaime without his Blue Beetle armor, exposing him directly to the effects of the Void. Eduardo hears their screams and teleports right next to Bart. But before he can pull Bart out, Bart tells him to save Jaime first. So Eduardo tries, but all he can do is teleport to different spots in the void.

Suddenly, a red cube appears around Gar and a second red cube carrying Granny Goodness arrives. She offers Beast Boy the chance to defeat her in single combat for the fate of his friends, and Gar readily agrees. The two red cubes merge into one battle arena, but no matter which animal Gar turns into, he can't stand lay a hit on Granny. However, Vic manages to hack into Granny's personal robotic assistant, Overlord. Fortunately, his battle goes much better than Beast Boy's. Vic takes control of Overlord and teleports everybody back to the studio.

Beast Boy, Kid Flash and Wonder Girl take on Granny Goodness, while Vic and Blue Beetle work on destroying that large machine. Once the machine is disabled, Granny disappears into a boom tube. Vic follows, believing she'll lead him to Violet. But the tube closes before anyone else can join him. Bart then pessimistically sums up their situation: Jaime nearly died, Gar got his butt kicked, Granny escaped, they didn't find Halo and now Vic is missing. He asks if they just lost, and no one is able to answer him.

The Outsiders don't find out what happened to Vic until the next day. At their Hollywood Hub on January 26, 6:54 PST, everyone is licking their wounds in the common room, trying to not let Gar blame himself for their failure. Suddenly, a couple of boom tubes open up, revealing Vic, Violet and the rest of the Team. M'gann announces that the Justice League will soon return to Earth with hundreds of rescued meta-teens, prompting Eduardo to exclaim that the Taos center is going to need more beds and maybe more buildings.

Superboy says Granny got away, but they are confident they shut down her operations. More importantly, Vic obtained video evidence that Gretchen Goode is Granny Goodness. Gar declares him the MVP of this mission, but Vic credits Halo for freeing the Team and League from the Anti-Life Equation. Violet says she wouldn't have been able to do it without Vic, and Gar immediately nominates him to join the Outsiders. The vote is unanimous, but Superboy slows everyone down, saying that they need to make sure Vic actually wants to join them. He reasons that just because he did something heroic today, that doesn't obligate him to become a member of the Outsiders or even M'gann's Team. After a brief speech, Vic decides to join the Outsiders as Cyborg.




I think this was the first and only legitimate mission we saw the Outsiders take part in. This wasn't staged by M'gann and Kaldur or even Lex Luthor. In other words, in 24 episodes of Young Justice: Outsiders, the Outsiders only had one real mission. And even then, they didn't do that much. All the real action was done by Cyborg and Halo — far away from the team that the season is named after. I guess I should be happy with the little bit of Bart Allen this show is giving me, but it's frustrating only having crumbs. And this show will give me one more tiny little crumb.

Next time, the conclusion of Young Justice: Outsiders.