Earth-Prime: Hero’s Twilight #6

 Savior Complex

Jeff Hersch and Thomas Pound Writers

Will Robson Art

Alex Sinclair Colors

Tom Napolitano Letters

Kim Jacinto Cover

Bryan Hitch and Hi-Fi Variant Cover

Andrew Marino Editor

Katie Kubert Senior Editor

Special thanks to Kim Roberto and Richard Flores

Our main cover features Magog, the villain originally created for Mark Waid’s and Alex Ross’ Kingdom Come series. He’s been quietly lurking in the shadows of all these Earth-Prime books, and now here he is sitting in a throne on the cover of the series finale. It’s an OK cover, but slightly misleading. This throne-chair pose suggests to me that the villain has already conquered the world (or at least a small part of it). But nothing like that happens here.

This variant cover I found at dc.fandom.com does a much better job of showing what this issue’s actually about. I love the idea of Impulse and XS running around Magog so quickly that it looks like there’s dozens of them. I’m not the biggest fan of this style, though. Bart and Nora look bland and uninspiring.

Our story begins in Central City in the year 2049, where a mysterious figure in a green cloak is spying on Bart and Nora in their house. Bart is watching TV upside down, complaining about how bored he is waiting for Chester Ruck to light the “Impulse signal,” which doesn’t exist. Nora is busy working on an article for the Citizen, stressing about making her deadline because for some reason she’s incapable of writing at super speed. Bart has no such hang-ups with his homework, though, which accounts for his boredom. He suggests that his sister clear her head with a little crime-fighting, then quickly amends that to  “big crime-fighting” as the news reports the attack of a large monster named Bloodwork.

Bart thinks it’s “crash” that they’ll be able to save Keystone City and he immediately throws on his Impulse outfit. As usual, Nora puts the brakes on Bart’s fun. She points out that their dad and Jay Garrick have classified Bloodwork as a Level 5 villain, which means they’re not ready to take him on. Bart complains about this “superhero-hierarchy politics,” but Nora stays firm on her stance, especially when the news reports that Martian Manhunter is battling Bloodwork. Nora does, however, suggest they find other ways to help, and right on cue, she gets an alert of a jewelry store robbery. Bart complains that the robber looks like a Level -10 baddie, but he agrees to help.

Turns out, Bart was right. The robber is just a normal guy with a gun and a ski mask. And as soon as the robber sees Impulse and XS, he immediately surrenders, saying he knows he doesn’t stand a chance against the two of them. Bart whines that this was a waste of time, saying he wants to do something big to prove that they’re ready to take on major villains. As fate would have it, Bart’s wish is immediately granted by the arrival of Magog.

Bart mocks Magog’s ridiculous outfit and predicts he can’t be more than a Level 4 villain. But Nora is wary of the destruction he’s causing and suggests they call in some help. Bart ignores her, and is immediately struck down by Magog, who calls him a fraud whose death will act as a beacon to the guiltiest heroes. Bart’s lucky that Magog is so long-winded because his little speech gave XS enough time to rescue her little brother. But she does a bad job of getting the two of them to safety, as they’re both blasted from behind by Magog’s staff.

Suddenly, Supergirl arrives to save the day. And yes, she does still go by Supergirl, even though she’s probably in her 40s by this point. Anyway, Bart suggests they help her, even though he’s forced to admit that Magog nearly killed him. Nora suggests they instead head to S.T.A.R. Labs to try to pick up some intel on this villain. When Supergirl says that’s a good idea, Bart decides to go along with it.

Bart and Nora meet up with Chester, who’s quite baffled by Magog’s technology. He also says there’s an unusual amount of cosmic energy causing interference, which may explain why he’s been unable to contact Barry, Wally or Jay. Bart realizes this means they’re Supergirl’s only backup, which he calls the “total opposite of schway.” Chester reports that several other cities are also under attack, and even though those cities have their own heroes, Bart and Nora decide to try to help them, just in case these attacks are related to Magog’s appearance. 

They decide to first head to Star City, where they are shocked to see that Evil Eye has somehow broken out of Iron Heights. Evil Eye has hypnotized a large crowd into attacking the new Green Arrow (daughter of the original), and he’s delivering a monologue very similar to Magog’s. Impulse and XS quickly pull Green Arrow out of the mob and explain to her that they believe Magog has freed Evil Eye. Green Arrow is surprised that they chose to help her instead of defend their own city, but she welcomes their help anyway.

As Impulse and XS start subduing the crowd, Nora begins to wonder whether Green Arrow had a point about ignoring the rule of avoiding high-level villains. Green Arrow, meanwhile, manages to cover Evil Eye’s face with a claw-like arrow. But as soon as she pulls him down, Green Arrow mysteriously vanishes in a cloud of green smoke. Evil Eye regroups and begins mocking Impulse and XS for showing fear. Acting instinctively, Impulse clears a path through the crowd and XS uses a lightning whip to slam Evil Eye into a wall, knocking him out. Bart’s pleased that worked, but says they really should communicate better next time. Nora tries to tell Chester that Green Arrow vanished, but he doesn’t answer. However, Nora does receive a message from the new Atom (Ryan Choi), who is bizarrely announcing that the superheroes will no longer protect the people.

Impulse and XS race to Coast City to try to talk some sense into the Atom. When they get close enough, Bart realizes that his eyes are the wrong color. The real Atom suddenly shows up and punches the imposter, who turns out to be Clayface — from the past, for some reason. Clayface says Magog made him promise not to eat anyone, but he believes Magog will be too busy focusing on the carnage in Gotham to notice. The Atom calls out to Impulse and XS to help as he’s being slowly devoured, but our bewildered heroes have no idea what to do until the Atom tells them to pretend they’re in pottery class. So the speedsters zoom straight into Clayface, causing him to explode. But then the Atom also abruptly disappears in a cloud of smoke. Believing this to be Magog’s doing, the siblings decide to race to Gotham to try to protect Batwoman.

Our heroes find a Gotham on fire, with a crowd of people burning Batman merchandise and also … aliens? But they don’t seem to be doing anything? Anyway, Batwoman asks the speedsters what took them so long and Impulse jokes that they ran into traffic is Des Moines. XS wonders why so many people are listening to Magog’s anti-hero message, and Batwoman postulates that there are thousands of people who are scared and silent, who only need to be inspired by the heroes. Her inspirational speech is cut shot by the arrival of a Superman wearing a black suit. Batwoman suddenly vanishes in the green smoke and the black-suited Superman mocks Impulse and XS for being too cowardly to take on Magog themselves. When he says it sounds like Supergirl is losing, Bart and Nora race back to Central City.

Bart and Nora reach Supergirl just as she’s blasted hard into a wall. They beg her to tell them what to do, but all she manages to say is “You’ll know.” before she also disappears in green smoke. Bart confesses to his sister that he’s scared, saying if they fight him, they’ll die. Nora gets an idea, though, and leads Bart out to Smallville, where they find the real Superman, who has oddly decided to do some night-time farming. Bart and Nora tell Clark all about Magog and the disappearing heroes, which leads to Bart desperately ripping open Clark’s shirt … only to find he’s not wearing anything underneath it. Bart sheepishly asks everyone to pretend that didn’t happen, while Nora begs for Superman’s help. 

But Clark refuses. He tells a long, boring story about the first time he battled Lex Luthor and lost, then concludes by telling Bart and Nora they’re stronger than they think. Bart and Nora thank Clark, then head off, not noticing the mysterious green-cloaked figure watching them from a distance.

The speedsters race back to S.T.A.R. Labs to take stock of their situation. Bart feels rather hopeless, but Nora is surprisingly filled with inspiration, saying that maybe the only reason they’ve never taken on a big bad like Magog was because they didn’t believe in themselves. Bart reminds her that they could die, but Nora promises to not let him die if he doesn’t let her die. Bart agrees, even though he’s still scared, and the two of them take off to confront Magog once more.

Magog calls them children, to which Impulse calls him “Poopy Ram-Head.” XS then attacks Magog’s legs, while Impulse punches him in the face. But the villain is quickly back on his feet, knocking down the speedsters with another blast from his lance. Bruised and bloodied, Impulse and XS still manage to rise to their feet, which even impresses Magog. Our heroes get in a couple of more hits, before Magog decides to call in some reinforcements.

At the push of a button on his glove, Clayface, Evil Eye, that alternate Superman and those random aliens teleport next to Magog. He explains that he traversed space and time to find people who shared his beliefs, and Bart warns him that messing with the timeline is a big no-no. Magog explains that his goal is to inspire humanity to save itself, since he was — repeatedly — let down by superheroes. His family died in a fire while Supergirl was busy stopping a crashing train nearby. Later, Magog’s laboratory was destroyed during a Martian Manhunter fight against a random villain. Deciding to drown his sorrows over becoming “collateral damage,” Magog just happened to be caught in the middle of a fight between the Flash and the Reverse-Flash.

Despite being outnumbered (and completely unfazed by that lengthy origin story), Impulse and XS resolve to keep battling Magog. It’s at this point that we finally realize the mysterious stranger is the Spectre, who has finally decided that Impulse and XS are ready and worthy. He returns all the heroes he stole away, plus several others, including Wally West, Martian Manhunter, Hawkman and Hawkgirl and a few others. Supergirl asks the speedsters what’s the plan, and Bart responds with the vague, “follow our lead!”

As our heroes brawl, Chester suddenly comes through on the comm-link. He also recently reappeared, and has quickly learned that even though Magog is a Level 52 villain, all his power comes from his lance. So Bart uses himself as bait, luring Magog into another killing strike pose like he attempted when they first met. But this time, XS grabs the lance and vibrates it at super speed, easily destroying the source of Magog’s power.

Magog is electrocuted(?) and collapses, while Bart and Nora lecture him on the importance of heart and never giving up. The rest of the heroes easily capture all the other villains and send them back to where they belong … except for the evil Superman, who mysteriously disappeared once Magog went down. Supergirl congratulates Bart and Nora, but declines Bart’s invitation to a pizza party. Bart then reminds Nora about her newspaper article, and she hastily takes off.

Supergirl, meanwhile, flies to the Hall of Justice, where she meets up with Clark, Barry, Wally and Jay. Barry is watching video of his children in action, saying it was very difficult for him to not interfere, as the Spectre instructed. He asks the Spectre if he’ll finally explain why they had to rig up that big test for his kids, but the Spectre (who used to be the original Green Arrow) only mysteriously says that he was helping Bart and Nora prepare for what’s coming.

There’s a backup story involving the Flash’s old tech guy, Cisco, but Impulse isn’t involved, so I’ll skip it.

Well, that was certainly something. I really got my hopes up after that last Earth-Prime issue was such a beautiful callback to classic Impulse comics. But this issue had a different creative team and none of the same magic. The art was totally fine — I’ll give it that. But the story was just off. It tried to pay homage to Kingdom Come, but it didn’t do the work of properly setting up that idea. It tried to be the ultimate team-up book of all the CW heroes, but it didn’t give any of them enough time or anything of consequence to do. And it tried to be a coming-of-age story for Bart and Nora, but it messed that up, too.

Bart and Nora seemed to be written much younger than they actually are. Bart’s in college. Nora’s graduated. Why are they calling bad guys “poopy heads”? Why are they so scared to take on Magog? Didn’t these writers know about their battles against Godspeed? Or maybe Godspeed was just a Level 4 villain? 

And this brings up another gripe of mine. I hate, hate, hate arbitrary power classifications! I hated it X-Men: Last Stand. I hated it in Phantom Menace. And I really hate it here. Especially at the end, when Chester said Magog was Level 52. I hope that was a typo, because otherwise that number is completely nonsensical. Heck, even just calling him a Level 5 villain is nonsensical. Who makes this list and what determines a higher ranking? Eh, forget it. Let’s move on to the Spectre’s big plan.

What was the Spectre trying to accomplish, exactly? He wanted to put Bart and Nora in a no-win situation where they would be forced to defy their father’s orders? Just so they’d realize how courageous they could be? I just don’t see it. Maybe if this story was a bit more focused, and didn’t jump around so much, or waste so many pages on redundant “inspirational” dialogue, then maybe this plot could have worked. Actually, it should have worked. But it couldn’t be a coming-of-age story and an ultimate team-up at the same time. It needed to focus on one or the other. Because both ideas kind of contradict each other, much to the detriment of the entire story.

I don’t know why I’m getting so worked up about this. I hate the CW Flash. I guess I just let my hopes get up after the last issue was such a pleasant surprise. And speaking of high hopes, next time I’ll cover something I was looking forward to for a long time, Dark Crisis: Young Justice #1.

DC Pride: Tim Drake Special #1

The Elephant in the Room

Meghan Fitzmartin Writer

Belén Ortega Artist

Luis Guerrero Colors

Pat Brosseau Letters

Ortega & Guerrero Cover

Travis Moore & Tamra Bonvillain Variant Cover

Dave Wielgosz Editor

Our cover shows the newly bisexual Tim Drake standing next to his new boyfriend, Bernard. Behind him, are images of his best friends, Superboy, Batgirl (formerly Spoiler), Batman, Nightwing and our lovable Impulse. It’s not the most impressive image of Impulse I’ve ever seen, but I am glad he was included in this collage of people most important to Tim.

The variant cover is just a cuddly picture of Tim and Bernard, so I’ll skip that and head right into the issue. This comic book is divided into five stories — all by Fitzmartin and four by Ortega. But the stories are really more like chapters of one larger tale, primarily about Tim coming to terms with his sexuality. Bernard is kidnapped, but Robin easily saves him. And it’s all fairly nice and cute, but Bart doesn’t show up until the very end, so that’s where we’ll head.

Conner and Bart just so happen to be in Gotham City for whatever reason and have encountered a mysterious giant glowing elephant. So, they naturally call in their buddy Tim, who can only look on in bewilderment as Conner’s heat vision passes harmlessly through the beast. Superboy can’t even grab hold of the elephant, but the elephant can knock Impulse down and put a huge hole in the wall. Bizarrely, Robin tries using Zatanna’s backward-speaking magic, which has no effect. (Has Tim Drake EVER cast a magic spell?)

As our bumbling heroes chase the elephant out onto the streets, Superboy suggests that Robin should call in his ex-girlfriend, but Tim refuses, saying Stephanie Brown has been avoiding him lately. Conner says he’s heard just the opposite. Meanwhile, Bart is the only one actually doing anything, rescuing bystanders from a stampeding beast that Robin believes isn’t a ghost or magic.

Suddenly, our heroes are joined by Stephanie and Cassandra Cain (who both call themselves Batgirl now just to make things more confusing). Tim’s interaction with Stephanie is just as awkward as you could imagine, but Impulse luckily interrupts them with a couple of clues: an old telegram and a police officer’s badge. Cassandra suggests they split into two teams — one to follow the elephant and one to investigate the clues. And much to Robin’s dismay, everyone insists on pairing him with Stephanie.

The telegram contained an address that led Tim and Stephanie to an abandoned warehouse, where they find an odd silver disk. As soon as they touch the disk, the elephant rematerializes right in front of them. It doesn’t take too long for the others to catch up with them, and when they do, Robin finally has a plan. He has Cassandra distract the elephant, while Conner destroys the disk with his heat vision and Bart throws together an impromptu suit of armor to ram through the beast like a cannonball. Once the elephant is gone, a mysterious voice says, “Finally, I have found a worthy opponent.”

We never do find out who said that, as the story abruptly cuts to Tim and Stephanie finally having a heart-to-heart discussion and Tim introducing her to Bernard.

The last time Impulse appeared in comics, he was in the far future, hanging out with Gold Beetle without any explanation given as to how or why he was there. That was Flash #769, which came out more than a full year before this comic. Seriously, it took over a year before someone at DC dared touch Impulse again after Jeremy Adams unceremoniously banished poor old Bart. It wasn’t until Meghan Fitzmartin sat down to write one of the most important chapters in Tim Drake’s life that we got an opening for Bart’s return. And what was her solution? Simple. Just ignore Jeremy Adams’ story. Hey look, if he wasn’t going to bother with explaining how or why Bart ended up in the future, then she doesn’t need to provide any reasons for his sudden return to the present. Besides, DC gave up on caring about continuity years ago.

I was really happy that Bart was shown here as one of Tim’s best friends. However, he didn’t really do anything as a best friend. He did plenty as a hero — rescuing bystanders, finding clues and delivering the final blow on the monster — but not much beyond that. Granted, the last thing this issue needed was one more heart-to-heart conversation about why it’s OK for Tim to be bisexual. We got plenty of that here, thank you. But I do wish that the elephant was an elaborate prank played on Tim by Bart and Conner as a way to force Tim to finally talk to Stephanie. Instead, the elephant was created by an unseen, unknown villain that nobody seemed to care learning anything about.

As a whole, this was a nice, sweet issue, but maybe a little too nice. Every single person in Tim’s life showered him with unconditional support right from the get-go. And that’s the way it’s supposed to be, but it doesn’t always turn out that way in reality. Even in today’s world, many people have to choose between being open about their sexuality and losing many friends and family members or preserving those relationships by burying their true selves. I’m not advocating for more heartache and drama being thrown at Tim, but maybe having just a couple of people be uncomfortable by this would have made for a more interesting story. And I’m looking specifically at Stephanie. She was dumped by Tim for a boy, but was totally fine with it and instantly overjoyed to meet this boy. Again, that’s the way it’s supposed to be, but not every teenage girl is going to handle a situation like this with so much maturity and class. It would have been perfectly fine for her to be mad at Tim for a few issues.

Funnily enough, I actually found myself feeling jealous on Bart’s behalf. In his complex and sometimes contradictory history in the comics, Bart was always portrayed as heterosexual. He had a steady girlfriend in his solo Impulse series, had another during his brief spell as an adult (even had sex with her), plus various random crushes and flirtations. And yet, when I first heard that Tim Drake was bisexual, my first thought was that it should have been Bart. I guess the only reason I had for this were the strong hints — but no confirmations — given in the Young Justice animated series. Then again, maybe I was just jealous that Tim got a whole special comic book all to himself, while Bart can be completely forgotten for entire years at a time, only to be revived as a mere background character. In the end, gay, straight or whatever, I just want more Impulse stories.

Well, at least I have the CW Flash universe to give me some Impulse content. Next time, we’ll wrap up the Earth Prime miniseries.

Young Justice: Phantoms – “Death and Rebirth”

Director: Vinton Heuck

Writer: Greg Weisman 

We pick up in Metropolis on September 14 at 5:46 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, where General Zod is ordering Superboy to kill Superman in front of the world. We then cut back to the North Pole, just five minutes earlier, where we see Nightwing meeting up with Miss Martian and her team. Dick had faked his death to escape Zod, and Miss Martian created an illusion causing Zod to believe everyone on her ship except for Superman had died. (I’m not sure exactly why this seemed more like a move to fool the audience than anything, but that’s beside the point.) A few heroes on the Bio-Ship were actually wounded, though, and Kid Flash offers to retrieve some medical supplies. He expresses concern for Green Lantern Forager, and Bio-Ship “spits out” the Cosmic Treadmill, indicating that she also is quite injured. Nightwing sadly reports that the Kryptonians destroyed the Fortress of Solitude’s Zeta Tubes, meaning they won’t be able to teleport directly to Metropolis. However, Bio-Ship’s baby suddenly shows up, eager to help our heroes.

Back in Metropolis, Zod tells Conner to prove he’s a member of the Zod family by killing Superman. But at the word “family,” just enough of Conner’s memories return for him to fight the brainwashing and refuse Zod’s order. Frustrated, Zod pulls out the Kryptonite to kill both Superman and Superboy, but Kid Flash zooms in just in the nick of time and yoinks the Kryptonite away. Lor-Zod chases after Bart, but is hit by a magic flying school bus driven by Artemis, Kaldur and Zatanna. (There’s a long, complicated story behind that, but it doesn’t really matter too much. The important thing is all the original Team members are coming back together for one more big fight.)

We cut to the Baby Bio-Ship flying over the Eastern Seaboard at 6:08 a.m. (suggesting Zod was speaking for about 15 minutes straight). The only heroes on board are Miss Martian, Nightwing, Saturn Girl, Chameleon Boy and Phantom Girl. (Convenient how the nonessential heroes were the ones who were injured.) Meanwhile, in Metropolis, Zod finally decides to bring his whole army out of the Phantom Zone, but he’s only able to get two more Kryptonians before Zatanna shuts off the Boom Tube. Lor-Zod almost smashes Tigress with a car, but Kid Flash pulls her away at the last second, cockily saying, “Double yoink!” However, Bart was so excited to go for the “triple yoink,” that he didn’t stop to think that grabbing the Emerald Eye might be a bad idea. Kid Flash is electrocuted with magical green energy, which knocks him out for the rest of the fight. (Remember what I said about nonessential heroes being injured?)

By the time Bart wakes up, all the bad guys have been sent to the Phantom Zone, except for Ursa, who was whisked away to the planet Daxam by the Emerald Eye, and Lor-Zod, who escaped in the Time-Sphere that Rocket inexplicably showed up in. Well, it’s not entirely inexplicable. We eventually find out the Time-Sphere was set up by Metron to have Lor-Zod killed by the bomb he planted on Mars six months earlier. But none of our heroes realize this, and they are left to conclude that they may have won the battle, but lost the war.

We then skip ahead to Happy Harbor on September 16 at 16:16 EDT. (We get it, Greg Weisman! You’re obsessed with the number 16!) Conner and M’gann are finally getting married and everyone’s invited. Black Canary suggests creating a Sanctuary to help heroes with mental health issues, and Superman suggests turning the planet Trombus into a prison planet for the Kryptonians stuck in the Phantom Zone. However, none of our heroes realize that Vandal Savage had Klarion pull all the Kryptonians out of the Phantom Zone and imprisoned in Warworld. Savage gave one Kryptonian to Darkseid as tribute and set Ma’alefa’ak free. Darkseid rewards the White Martian and his followers with the planet Durla.

Bart Allen oddly decided to attend the wedding in his Kid Flash uniform (he’s not the only one, but it still feels strange). Just as he was trying to convince the three Legionnaires to acclimate to life in the 21st century, a Time-Sphere appears in front of them, revealing Brainiac 5 (who doesn’t have a nose for some reason?!). Brainiac 5 tells Saturn Girl, Chameleon Boy and Phantom Girl that he’s here to take them home, as he’s calculated a 99.84% likelihood that the timeline has been substantially restored. Chameleon Boy worries about the other 0.16% (sixteen again!!), but Bart convinces him to relax and the Legionnaires immediately take off, refusing to stay for the wedding or explain to Superboy why he was so important to their timeline.

The wedding finally begins and when I say everybody is there, I literally mean everybody. Every single character we’ve ever seen on this show is in the audience. Bart sits next to Eduardo, but they’re not holding hands or anything. Snapper Carr inexplicably officiates the wedding and Superman’s son, Jon, is the ring bearer. Megan, who chose to be wed in her human form, exchanges vows with Conner and credits roll. During the credits, Snapper comments on how the newlyweds are having their first dance 16 feet in the air. (Seriously, enough already! There are other numbers!) And after the credits, we see that Granny Goodness has recruited Mary Marvel and Supergirl into her Furies.

I didn’t intend to take off five months between reviews. I mostly blame my newborn son for that. However, I will also admit I wasn’t terribly excited to do this episode. Yes, I know a lot of stuff happened here, but most of it was setup for a fifth season that might never happen — especially with all the turmoil surrounding HBO Max and DC right now. The episode kind of felt like a Geoff Johns comic that was overburdened with planting seeds for future ideas that may or may not come to fruition. But unlike Johns, Weisman did remember to wrap up everything he set up in this season, and I do appreciate that. I just felt it was a little contrived to get the original Team back together once more. At least we didn’t have any more awkward visions of Wally.

And as for poor Bart? Well, he was there. And that’s something. I’m glad he wasn’t completely forgotten. But I’m sad no one thought of anything interesting for him to do. Which has been my main complaint across all DC for quite a few years now. Where’s Peter David when you need him? But seriously, if you take Bart Allen away from Young Justice: Phantoms, I don’t think anything would have changed. The closest bit to an essential plot point he provided was being a missing person for Nightwing to investigate. And that’s pretty sad that his role was diminished so much on this show. 

Granted, I don’t completely blame the show for this. Its cast of characters grew exponentially each season, making it all but impossible for satisfying character arcs. All of the Outsiders not named Beast Boy were completely relegated to the background of this season. So, in the end, I actually think it’s good that this show might finally die for good this time. It tried to do too much and turned into an unwieldy, monstrous beast. This is a mercy killing. Of course, this world might find new life in the comics. The story does continue in a six-issue series that does have a tiny bit of Kid Flash, so I will be reviewing that. And maybe, just maybe, if that series is received well, DC will let Weisman and company keep telling these stories in a more suitable format.

Next time (and hopefully it won’t be another five months), I’ll be taking a very quick look at the Tim Drake special that was part of DC’s Pride celebration.

Earth-Prime: The Flash #5

Sidekick Rules

Jess Carson and Emily Palizzi – Writers

David LaFuente – Artist

Miquel Muerto – Colorist

Tom Napolitano – Letterer

Kim Jacinto – Cover

Justina Mintz – Photo Variant Cover

Andrew Marino – Editor

Katie Kubert – Senior Editor

Special Thanks – Kim Roberto and Richard Flores

Earth-Prime is a limited series with each issue focusing on a different DC show on The CW. The Flash’s Impulse (modeled after Jordan Fisher) made very small, inconsequential cameos in the backgrounds of the Legends of Tomorrow issue and the Stargirl issue. So I’m skipping straight to this one, which prominently features Bart front and center, with his sister, XS, trailing behind him. I actually love this cover. It’s fun and dynamic and reminds me of those energetic Impulse covers by Jeff Matsuda in the ’90s.

I got this photo variant cover from dc.fandom.com. There’s nothing too special about it. Just Grant Gustin posing for a promotional photo. Ironically, Gustin’s character, Barry Allen, has almost nothing to do in this issue.

Our story opens in Central City in the year 2049. Impulse and XS are chasing a couple of crooks, and Nora warns Bart to wait until they form a plan, but he ignores her. Impulse somehow creates a ring of lightning around the criminals, then smashes their heads together. As he stands triumphantly over the unconscious crooks, holding their stolen bags of cash, Impulse fails to notice the getaway driver aiming a gun at his back. Fortunately, XS is able to catch the bullet before it hits Impulse, who’s left wondering where that guy came from. Nora lectures her brother for not being able to go one nanosecond without showing off, but Bart defensively insists that the gunman would have missed him. Bart sees nothing wrong with improvising a little, but Nora wants them to work as a team. Adding to Bart’s chagrin, a nearby boy praises XS for her heroics, completely ignoring Impulse’s “lightning tornado ring.”

Bart and Nora then rush home to their parents. For some reason, they lie about where they were, but Barry and Iris seem too busy packing their bags to notice or care. They announce they’re heading out for a few days on an overdue vacation, leaving Nora in charge while they’re gone. Bart protests this, not only because he wanted to party, but also because Nora hates being XS. Barry tells Bart he’s too young to understand that being a superhero isn’t about the glory. With that, Barry rushes Iris away, and Nora immediately forbids Bart from doing anything impulsively by himself, saying that if anything comes up, they’ll handle it together. Poor Bart is left to whine about how unfair this is.

We next see Bart at Central City University, where it’s apparently the first day of the semester. Bart has his nose in a book, reading as he’s walking, not noticing the people he bumps into. He does, however, notice a large young man with blond hair named Will Parker, who is live-streaming his arrival on campus. For some reason, Will glares at Bart and his blue eyes suddenly flash red. Even though Will seems incredibly popular, Bart doesn’t know who is, and he’s even more perplexed by what just happened.

Bart then attends Forensics 101, taught by Dr. Evie Clariss, a Black man with an arm in a sling. (I suppose this is a reference to the show’s version of Rival, but I’m not entirely sure.) Dr. Clariss announces that Bart West-Allen (we finally know his full name!) scored a perfect grade on his extra credit early-semester quizzes. The only other student to score perfectly was Will, who naturally has to share this with his social media followers. At the end of class, Dr. Clariss tells Bart he has a knack for forensics but is too easily distracted. Bart barely listens to him, though, because he’s so busy thinking about Will.

Will happens to have several other classes with Bart, one-upping him in each one. Finally, Bart manages to catch Will by himself and begins talking to him. Will’s eyes glow red, and so do Bart’s, who suddenly says it’s “crash” how Will takes command of each class. Will asks Bart what makes him tick, and Bart starts to blurt out how he’s happiest being Impulse, but Will abruptly leaves before Bart fully reveals his secret identity. Bart snaps out of a trance once Will is gone, and he begins to suspect the social media influencer might be a metahuman.

Bart begins seriously investigating Will, learning that not only does he have 5 million followers, but his followers absolutely adore him. Bart later catches Will convincing Dr. Clariss to throw out a test score so it wouldn’t hurt his grade. But Bart’s big break comes when he surreptitiously records a video of Will convincing a food truck vendor to give him his order for free.

We cut to Bart eating pizza at home with Nora, who asks if he’s made any friends at school. Bart says he’s too busy doing important things to make friends, then complains that they’re sitting around having boring conversations instead of going out and catching bad guys. Nora insists they stay home and be safe while their parents are away, especially since Bart can’t control his impulses. This only angers Bart and he promptly runs away from his sister.

Bart heads to a laboratory owned by a company called Tannhauser and begins fiddling with some equipment. It isn’t long before he’s discovered by his “aunt,” Dr. Caitlin Snow. He shows her the reflective “sunglasses” he’s working on and admits that even though his parents don’t want him to do superhero stuff while they’re away, he needs something to negate Will Parker’s hypnosis energy. He shows Caitlin the video he took and she cross-references it with temporal readings in the area to confirm that Will really is a telepath. Bart then heads out to expose this “Evil Eye,” saying he can take him down without Nora’s help or even becoming Impulse. As he leaves, Caitlin admits Evil Eye is a villain name Cisco would be proud of.

Bart heads back home, carrying a large box stuffed with all his blueprints for the reflective lenses. He initially tries to lie to Nora, calling it a homework assignment, but he quickly admits it’s to help him take down a metahuman at school. Nora says they should do it together, but Bart says he’s not a kid anymore, and it’s time for him to do something like this on his own. Nora tells him to stop whining for five seconds and directly orders him to not go after Will alone. Enraged, Bart runs off once again, leaving his blueprints behind. Nora decides it’s time to call in some reinforcements to reign in her little brother.

Impulse finds Will live-streaming in front of a large crowd of people trying to get his attention. Wearing his reflective lenses, Impulse quickly crushes Will’s phone and smugly tells him his account’s been deactivated. But Will calmly snaps his fingers and the entire crowd turns on Impulse. Bart runs away, repeatedly saying “Oh shrap!”, while Will orders his followers to “take back the city” and bring Impulse to him. Bart is quickly surrounded by hordes of angry mobs, but he’s suddenly joined by Nora and Wally West (who still goes by Kid Flash, even though he’s in his 50s by this point).

Nora and Bart immediately start bickering, but Wally is able to calm them down long enough to form some sort of a plan. Both Kid Flash and XS are sporting reflective lenses, as well, but Wally says he and Nora will run damage control in the streets, while Bart takes on Will himself. Nora saves some people from a car crash and puts out a fire, while also demonstrating that beyond protecting her from Will’s “evil eye,” the reflective lenses can also snap other people out of his hypnotic trance. Of course, while she’s doing all this, Nora has to lecture Bart, saying she wishes he told her sooner about Will, so they could have figured out how to stop him together.

Wally also has a bit of lecture for Bart, telling him that flowers don’t bloom by denying sun and water, but they must trust in the powers of others. Wally also demonstrates the ability to create energy duplicates of himself that race around rescuing people and loading up the injured into ambulances. (I don’t know if he had this power on the show, but it does remind me a lot of Impulse’s scouts from the comics.)

Bart admits that Nora and Wally are right, and he reports that he’s found Will, sitting on a throne outside the bank. But instead of immediately charging at Will, Bart oddly spies on him from around the corner, giving Will’s followers enough time to ambush Impulse and destroy his reflective lenses. When Impulse is brought before Will, he cheesily says he’s going to “unsubscribe,” which infuriates Will. Shouting that no one unfollows him, Will leaps into the air and … blasts a big beam of red energy from his eyes at Bart. I guess? Anyway, XS and Kid Flash arrive in the nick of time to reflect this … blast … back at Will, which conveniently causes all of his followers to instantly snap out of the hypnotic trance. Will is carried off to Iron Heights and the crowd begins to cheer for Impulse. But Bart humbly shares credit with Kid Flash and XS, calling them “totally schway.”

Later, we catch up with Bart and Nora studying human anatomy under a tree. Even though Bart scored perfectly on Dr. Clariss’ extra credit quizzes, he now has apparently asked for Nora to help him catch up in the class. Regardless, Bart quickly grows bored of this, and goofily pretends to hypnotize his sister into giving him another break. Their parents then call them, saying their done with their vacation. When they ask if anything interesting happened while they were gone, Bart and Nora oddly decide to lie once again. But the siblings smile at each other, so I guess it’s a happy ending? There’s also an epilogue with Wally and a backup story with A.R.G.U.S., but Bart’s not involved with those, so I don’t care.

I am gobsmacked. Completely stunned. This is a legitimate, honest-to-goodness Impulse story. Just change the setting to Manchester, Alabama, in the late ’90s, and you have a plot that easily could have been written by William Messner-Loebs or Todd Dezago. Even the art reminded me of Craig Rousseau and Carlo Barberi. It was incredible. I don’t know who Jess Carson and Emily Palizzi are, but they are clearly nostalgic for that old Impulse series and I absolutely love them for that!

And I haven’t even gotten to the best part! I completely was blindsided by Evil Eye! The name Will Parker seemed vaguely familiar, but I didn’t put it together until Bart directly named him Evil Eye. And that’s because the original Evil Eye always went by Eddie. It was a rather obscure fact that his real name was Wilfred — but not too obscure for Carson and Palizzi! But I loved this reimagined version of Evil Eye. He’s more obnoxious and a legitimate threat and more modern. I also appreciated how this story didn’t try to feel too futuristic. The year 2049 isn’t that far away, and I think it’s reasonable to assume that people will still have smartphones and live-streaming then.

It was nice to see the future versions of Barry and Iris, albeit briefly. I was also glad that Jay Garrick wasn’t awkwardly shoehorned in just to try to match the show. But most importantly, I was thrilled that this Bart didn’t start randomly breaking down in tears every five minutes like he does on The CW. This Bart actually felt impulsive and fun. And thanks to the cartoony art of David LaFuente, Bart actually had big hair!

Of course, this wasn’t a perfect story. The pacing felt very odd and the conversations between Bart and Nora quickly became redundant. And the final showdown with Evil Eye did not make a lick of sense. But that’s alright. This is just a goofy, fun little one-shot that got to explore some aspects of the show that The CW will never air. And the fact that they not only chose to feature Impulse, but to do a nostalgic Impulse story, just made my day.

Let’s check out the house ads:

Something terrible lies at the the bottom of the ocean. And it’s waking up. Aquaman Andromeda.

DC Nation Special Edition. Six pages of coverage devoted to Dark Crisis. Joshua Williamson doesn’t say anything significant in his interview, but we do get a teaser for Dark Crisis: Young Justice #1, written by Meghan Fitzmartin with art by Laura Braga.

“Tim Drake, Impulse, and Superboy go missing during the Justice League’s funeral. The only person concerned enough to find them? Cassie Sandsmark, a.k.a. Wonder Girl. But … the three boys of Young Justice aren’t on the Earth anymore … they’re on the world of their dreams, one they may never want to leave! A six-issue series.”

We then get a beautiful two-page spread honoring the late George Pérez and another DC Nation Spotlight page, this time specifically on Dark Crisis #2.

It certainly looks like I’m going to have an entertaining summer. But before I can dive into this Dark Crisis mayhem, I have to wrap up Young Justice: Phantoms.

Young Justice: Phantoms – “Over and Out”

Director: Christopher Berkeley 

Writer: Greg Weisman

We pick up right where we left off, on the planet Trombus on September 14, 0:01 UTC. Lor-Zod steps on Kid Flash to greet his parents (as seen above) and proclaim the galaxy theirs. General Zod and Ursa quickly confirm Lor’s identity, but Green Lantern Forager manages to shake off the Kaizer-Thrall’s hold long enough to shoot out a couple of blasts of energy. Realizing how vulnerable they are under this red sun, Lor-Zod orders Ma’alefa’ak to take them to Earth immediately. General Zod wants to pull the rest of his army out of the Phantom Zone first, but Lor convinces him it’ll be better to do that on Earth. Zod does, however, choose to bring the injured and slightly brainwashed Superboy with him, Ursa, Lor, Ma’alefa’ak and the Mother Box-powered Kaizer-Thrall.

Once free of the Kaizer-Thrall, Superman takes off Bart’s inhibitor collar, enabling him to race back to the Bio-Ship. Miss Martian, Orion, Superman, Black Lightning, J’emm J’axx and the three Legionnaires all board the Bio-Ship, which is now being super-charged by both Kid Flash and Green Lantern Forager. As they speed through Subspace, Superman asks Bart if he’s heard from Zatanna and Nightwing, who were last seen looking for Bart. But Bart is sad to report that they never found him.

But even with the Bio-Ship’s enhanced speed, it still needed nearly four hours to reach Earth. The ship’s computer detects a Boomtube at the North Pole, or more precisely, Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. M’gann boasts that the Bio-Ship will be able to approach the fortress undetected, but that doesn’t happen. Mainly because Ursa has bonded with the Emerald Eye (which Lor stole from Metron when he was looking for the Phantom Zone projector a while ago). Ursa uses the Emerald Eye to shoot the Bio-Ship out of the sky, causing it to crash hard enough to knock out everyone on board. Everyone, except Superman. But he’s quickly subdued by a piece of kryptonite that Zod actually stole from Nightwing in the Phantom Zone. (Big mistake on Dick’s part!)

Lor begs his father to kill both Superman and Superboy immediately, but General Zod chooses to boomtube to the Daily Planet building in Metropolis. And with the world watching, he orders Superboy to kill Superman.

That was a pretty nice cliffhanger ending. And the story is still quite compelling. Of course, you know I’m going to complain that Bart still hasn’t had anything to do. True, he did have a few spoken lines here, but he didn’t have anything interesting to say. Oh well. Maybe he’ll help pull off some actual time travel in the show’s finale. And that finale may be the next thing we review here. But we might get an Impulse appearance in the comics before that. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Young Justice: Phantoms – “Zenith and Abyss”

Director: Christina Sotta

Writer: Akira “Mark” Fujita

We catch up with Kid Flash, Chameleon Boy and Saturn Girl (seen above) on September 13, 23:00 UTC, still cruising through Subspace on the Bio-Ship as prisoners of Lor-Zod. Even with Bart’s speed powering the Cosmic Treadmill, it took them nearly a week to reach Oa, only to find out the Kaizer-Thrall had already been sent to Earth. So that’s where they’re headed now, with Bart still wearing bandages on his chest and hands. Lor-Zod confesses to Ma’alefa’ak that he’s troubled by the disappearance of Phantom Girl. He knows the Legion flight rings are also communications devices and he wonders if he can hack into them to eavesdrop on Phantom Girl. Ma’alefa’ak has a simpler solution — he imitates Chameleon Boy and Saturn Girl and begins sending out signals from the rings.

Phantom Girl, meanwhile, is on the Justice League Watchtower, explaining to Miss Martian, Superman and a few others that she escaped from the Phantom Zone, but was unable to bring Superboy with her, as he is now loyal to General Zod. Also on the Watchtower is the Kaizer-Thrall, which is powered by the brain of an 11-year-old boy named Danny Chase, a meta-human who was experimented upon by Desaad. While they start working together on a plan to rescue Superboy, Superman uses the League’s computers to try to locate Kid Flash, Nightwing and Zatanna. But his search comes up empty.

When Ma’alefa’ak reaches Phantom Girl, he impersonates Chameleon Boy, Saturn Girl and even Kid Flash, claiming that the three of them managed to escape from Lor-Zod with the Bio-Ship. Phantom Girl unfortunately falls for the ruse and reveals everything, including their plan to go to Trombus — an uninhabited planet orbiting a red sun — to open a boom tube to the Phantom Zone and rescue Superboy.

Forty-five minutes later, Lor-Zod and Ma’alefa’ak reach Trombus. After the boom tube is opened, Ma’alefa’ak takes control of the Kaizer-Thrall and uses it to attack Phantom Girl, Miss Martian, Superman, Orion, Black Lightning, Green Lantern Forager and Prince J’emm J’axx (from Mars). Lor-Zod arrives, dragging an unconscious Kid Flash behind him. General Zod steps through the boom tube with his wife, Ursa, a lieutenant named Faora, and Superboy, who immediately collapses in pain due to the injuries he sustained before and during his stint in the Phantom Zone. Lor-Zod places a foot on Bart’s chest and proudly welcomes his father and mother, telling them the galaxy is theirs.

Once again Bart basically has nothing to do and nothing to say. At least Jason Marsden did get to speak a few lines as Ma’alefa’ak impersonating Bart (he also voiced Danny). But despite Bart’s minimal involvement, I am glad he gets to be a part of this climax. There are only two episodes left of this season, and they promise to be big ones!

Young Justice: Phantoms – “Rescue and Search”

Director: Christopher Berkeley

Writer: Charlotte Fullerton

Our story begins right where we last left our heroes — on New Genesis on August 29, 0:24 UTC. Lor-Zod and Ma’alefa’ak have forced their way onto the Bio-Ship, as seen last episode. But what we didn’t see then was that Kid Flash and Chameleon Boy actually did try to put up some resistance. Bart retrieved a couple of inhibitor collars, but before he could place them on the intruders, Lor-Zod destroyed the devices with his heat vision. As Bart is burned by the explosion, Lor knocked him out with a quick body check, while still holding Saturn Girl in a chokehold.

Chameleon Boy transformed into a large monster, but Ma’alefa’ak instantly overpowered him with a transformation of his own. The Bio-Ship then pointed a blaster cannon at the villains, but Ma’alefa’ak convinces it to stand down to save its three friends. Under Lor-Zod’s control, the Bio-Ship then flies off to who knows where.

In the Phantom Zone on September 5, 23:13 UTC, Superboy’s brain is still addled and he unfortunately becomes an open book for General Zod and Ursa (seen above), telling them basically everything they ask.

In Blüdhaven on September 5, 19:15 EDT, Zatanna has finally convinced Nightwing that Superboy is alive. Dick agrees to spend the next 24 hours trying to save his old friend. But when he boots up his computer, both he and Zatanna are shocked to see that Bart has been reported missing. Dick has returned to life as an acrobat, and Zatanna is busy being Doctor Fate, so both of them have been out of the loop of sorts. Dick doesn’t see any immediate connections between the disappearance of Bart and Conner, but he feels he owes it to them to look for both.

Dick’s eventually able to check Bart’s credit card statements (admitting that his hacking skills have gone rusty since he’s passed most of those duties to Oracle) and he finds security footage of the last store Bart shopped at. Dick and Zatanna don’t recognize the two people with Bart in the store, but we know they’re Saturn Girl and Chameleon Boy disguised as regular humans. Dick’s computer doesn’t recognize the Legionnaires, either, but it is able to find footage of them visiting Clark Kent in Bibbo’s Diner.

Zatanna and Dick arrive in Metropolis at 19:48 EDT, and immediately confront Superman about his mysterious visitors. Clark refuses to tell them anything about the Legionnaires, even when they say Bart’s missing. Clark asks if there’s any indication of foul play, and Dick is forced to admit that all evidence suggests Bart is cooperating with the mysterious individuals, but he still worries Bart may have been coerced by them. Clark puts an end to the conversation, saying he trusts the visitors, but can’t explain why.

Angered, Zatanna and Dick head back to Blüdhaven, where Dick begins assembling a red-string board. He notes that Bart and Clark’s “friends” were buying supplies, so he and Zatanna visit the Watchtower at 20:56 EDT to see if any equipment has gone missing. Tigress reports that five inhibitor collars, a space belt and a zeta-tube power core are all unaccounted for. She pulls up the security footage, which initially shows the items suddenly vanishing into thin air. But when they slow the video down to one frame at a time, they are just able to see Kid Flash’s foot in the corner of the screen.

Artemis officially joins the investigation and returns to Blüdhaven, where Dick’s computer finds another match of their suspects. This one is of Saturn Girl serving Superboy coffee at Bibbo’s on February 28 of last year (as seen in the season finale of Young Justice: Outsiders). The computer quickly brings up another match, this one of Chameleon Boy attending Superboy’s speech at the United Nations on February 17.

Dick realizes the equipment Bart stole suggests his mission was off-world. Artemis reports that Rocket just returned from an off-world mission that involved a time-traveling Kryptonian. Dick notes that Bart is also a time-traveler, so he leads everyone to Dakota City at 20:24 CDT to speak with Rocket. Zatanna helps Raquel revisit her memory, confirming the Phantom Zone projector was destroyed by the camouflaged Bio-Ship. 

Dick speculates that Bart may be on a path parallel to theirs, correctly assuming that Superman’s “friends” were on the Bio-Ship with Bart. Dick also wisely supposes that Superman didn’t tell them anything because he feared doing so could threaten the timestream. Which would mean that Bart is likely with two other time-travelers, who have inside intel about the Phantom Zone and Conner being trapped inside it. Raquel thinks Dick is reaching a bit too far with this theory, but Dick concludes that Bart made a choice and they should respect that. But in the meantime, he believes they should do everything they can to rescue Conner themselves.

Nightwing and Rocket visit Poseidonis on September 6 at 1:36 UTC-2 to recruit Aquaman to join their investigation. Kaldur heads back to Blüdhaven with them and reviews all their data on the disappearance of Bart and Conner. He agrees to help Zatanna summon Klarion to ask for access to the Phantom Zone, but … it doesn’t go too well.

We then check in on the Bio-Ship, which is camouflaged above Supertown on New Genesis on September 6 at 4:22 UTC. It’s unclear whether Lor-Zod has held his captives prisoner for a whole week, or if he used the ship’s Cosmic Treadmill to jump forward in time. Regardless, he has placed the three remaining inhibitor collars on Kid Flash, Saturn Girl and Chameleon Boy, as well as removed their Legion rings. Without his super speed, Bart is still recovering from his burns and has large bandages on his hands and chest. Saturn Girl coldly points out that because Lor greedily tried to bring his parents back now, instead of in the future, he has forever trapped them in the Phantom Zone.

Ma’alefa’ak returns from a reconnaissance mission, reporting that an evil sentient computer Lor was using called the Kaizer-Thrall was taken to the Green Lantern planet Oa. Lor orders Kid Flash to assume his position on the Cosmic Treadmill, threatening to kill the others if he doesn’t cooperate. He also mocks the heroes, saying that maybe they’ll get a chance to turn the tables. With his friends’ permission, Bart steps on the treadmill, only to be electrocuted by Lor to remind him who’s in charge. He then gives Bart his speed back and sets course for Oa.

This season has been a very slow build of a lot of separate plot lines that are finally coming together. And that’s great to see. Unfortunately, as with last episode, Bart had another nonspeaking role. His character truly has been reduced to merely serving as a vehicle to help push the plot along. I’m glad that his disappearance became a crucial element of the show, but I wish he would do more than silently scowl at his kidnapper. 

I’m also confused by the timing in this episode. I’ve often said the precise time stamps on this show do more harm than good, and this is a great example of that. Why on Earth would it take Lor-Zod a whole week to figure out where the Kaizer-Thrall is? And if he did jump forward in time, then why did he jump just a week? Or why not go back in time? Is it because the Cosmic Treadmill doesn’t actually grant time-traveling abilities to the Bio-Ship — just super speed? If that’s the case, then the show didn’t explain that.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. I don’t know what my next review will be, but I hope it’s the next episode of this show. Despite all its flaws, I am quite invested in it.