New History of the DC Universe #4

Mark Waid Writer

Howard Porter & Hayden Sherman Artists

Hi-Fi & Tríona Farrell Colorists

Todd Klein Letterer

Chris Samnee & Giovanna Niro Cover Artists

Megen Bellersen, Louis Prandi & Curtis King Jr. Publication Design

Marquis Draper Associate Editor

Brittany Holzherr & Andrew Marino Editors

Superman created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster.

Superboy created by Jerry Siegel.

Supergirl based on the characters created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster.

By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel Family.

Unsurprisingly, Impulse was not included on this issue's cover or any of the variant covers, either. Regardless, we're still treated to another beautiful work from Chris Samnee — except for poor Damien Wayne. His head got sqooshed for some reason.

Anyway, Bart was not included in the coverage of Blackest Night or Flashpoint, but we did get a tiny glimpse of our old New 52 friend, Bar Torr. The most interesting thing for me was seeing that Dr. Manhattan was the one who put together the New 52 universe — not Pandora, as was originally intended.

We don't actually get to see the real Bart Allen until the formation of the new Young Justice (unfortunately drawn in a style I don't care for by Hayden Sherman). And that is all the Impulse we get until the timeline at the end.

New History of the DC Universe Timeline Part Four

Written by Dave Wielgosz

Based on research by Mark Waid & Dave Wielgosz

Special thanks to John Wells

Bar Torr is mentioned in the timeline (as Kid Flash III), but we don't see him. We do get to see Impulse with the re-formed Young Justice, which was explained as a result of Bart's return in The Flash #50. And that's all we get until the timeline dips its toes in what it calls "The Many Tomorrows of the DCU..."

We get to see the adult Bart Allen as a member of the Titans of Tomorrow. And Bart's dad, Don Allen, is mentioned as having fathered our lovable speedster in the 30th century. And ... that's it. The timeline concludes at the end of time, where Doomsday has evolved into the Time Trapper, which perfectly sets up the next big event.

I admit I probably should have skipped this issue due to the lack of Impulse in it. But I had to do the last one because he was on three of its covers. And I like how the ending of the timeline leads us right into DC K.O. Naturally, Bart isn't a big player in that main title, but — much to my delight — Mark Waid found something genuinely interesting to do with Impulse in the Flash series.

Next time: The Flash #26

New History of the DC Universe #3

Mark Waid Writer

Dan Jurgens & Doug Mahnke Pencillers

Norm Rapmund & Doug Mahnke Inkers

John Kalisz & David Baron Colorists

Todd Klein Letterer

Chris Samnee & Giovanna Niro Cover Artists

Dan Mora, Ryan Sook, Scott Koblish & Hi-Fi, Frank Quitely, Karl Kerschl Variant Cover Artists

Megen Bellersen, Louis Prandi & Curtis King Jr. Publication Design

Marquis Draper Associate Editor

Brittany Holzherr & Andrew Marino Editors

Superman created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster.

Superboy created by Jerry Siegel.

Supergirl based on the characters created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster.

By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel Family.

Our cover gloriously puts Impulse front and center among all the icons of the '90s. I'm a little sad that Tim Drake wasn't included, but at least Superboy is proudly standing right by his old pal, Bart. And I also have to laugh at the tiny bit of irony by sticking Impulse right next to Blue Beetle, as the two of them were so close during the Young Justice animated show. But that's a different continuity in a different decade. This issue is all about that glorious 20-year span of high Impulse activity. And I'm beyond thrilled that one of my favorite artists, Chris Samnee, got to illustrate this cover.

For the first time in a long time, Bart was included on a variant cover. So I turned to dc.fandom.com to help me out. Here he is as Kid Flash in Ryan Sook's reinterpretation of Superboy's death in Infinite Crisis. Of course, it didn't happen this way, at all — especially since Bart was in the Speed Force at the time of Kon's death, and by the time Bart had returned, he had already grown up to Flash age. Regardless, this is still a tender tribute to a momentous event in DC history.

Impulse also appears in the lower right corner of Scott Koblish's massive wraparound collage. This is part three of four, spanning the entire DC history, grouping notable characters chronologically. It's a really impressive achievement and I think it would be pretty fun to get all four of them as a massive poster. But mostly, I'm just glad that Impulse was prominently included. Few character exemplify the '90s as much as he does.

There's not really a story for this issue. It's just Barry Allen writing the history of Earth's superheroes. He notes that his grandson, Bart Allen, was sent back in time so Wally West could help him control his super-speed. And Bart quickly gained the code name Impulse, which reflected both his powers and his personality. (I'm glad Waid didn't repeat the error he once made by saying Batman named him Impulse. Bart came up with the name himself after Wally complained he was being impulsive.)

Impulse is later seen with Young Justice, as drawn by Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund.

I'm really sad they couldn't bring in Todd Nauck to draw this issue, but I suppose they wanted Jurgens so he could draw Superman battling Doomsday for the 1,000th time. Anyway, we next see Bart as Kid Flash and a member of the Teen Titans. Sadly, he was not mentioned in the recap of Infinite Crisis. But that's OK. He shows up quite a bit in the backup story.

New History of the DC Universe Timeline Part Three

Written by Dave Wielgosz

Based on research by Mark Waid and Dave Wielgosz

Special thanks to John Wells

This literally is just a timeline with brief lines of text for important events and the occasional photo taken directly from the source material. Impulse's debut is accompanied by a panel from Flash #92 drawn by Impulse co-creator Mike Wieringo.

Mostly, I'm impressed with how detailed this timeline is. We get a reference to Savitar from Impulse #11. We see the origins of Arrowette from Impulse #28 by Tom Peyer and Craig Rousseau. And the formation of Young Justice is explained as the result of the battle with Bedlam in JLA: World Without Grown-Ups. We even get to see Impulse's arch-enemy Inertia!

The teenaged Lobo is shown, but Wielgosz's text incorrectly identifies him as "Slobo, a.k.a. Li'l Lobo, a teenage clone of the Main Man." Li'l Lobo was actually the real Lobo, who was magically transformed into a teenager by Klarion the Witch Boy. Slobo was a smaller, defective version of Lobo that was born from his blood after he died on Apokalips. But I don't fault Wielgosz for missing these details — he had a LOT of ground to cover here.

Anyway, the timeline also shows Bart as Kid Flash with the Teen Titans and mentions how he aged to adulthood to become "Flash IV" in Infinite Crisis. The timeline says that Inertia and the Rogues killed adult Bart, then it ends by showing the revived Kid Flash and Superboy from Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds.

This was a pretty fun comic. I think the art could have been stronger, but I'm just happy that DC has finally decided to officially lay out what "counts" and what doesn't in its sprawling continuity. And for most purposes, this history and timeline will be more than enough for everybody. For those nerds like me, I recommend dc.fandom to get the fuller, and more accurate, history.

Next time, we'll conclude this Mark Waid project.

The Flash #23 (legacy #823)

Bad Moon Rising Part Five

Written by Simon Spurrier

Art by Vasco Georgiev

Colors by Matt Herms

Letters by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

Cover by Davide Paratore

Editor Chris Rosa

Group Editor Paul Kaminski

Our cover shows the Flash posing menacingly in front of images of Eclipso, Captain Cold, and ... somebody. I know I've seen that monstrous face before, but I can't for the life of me place it. It doesn't help that this figure (and Captain Cold, for that matter) is nowhere to be seen in this issue. And that really cuts at the core of my complaints about this story. Spurrier started with an intriguing concept — the Flash family in an all-out war against Eclipso and the Rogues on the Moon — but Georgiev is either unwilling or unable to actually show that war. Anyway, this cover by itself is fine, but not particularly indicative of the story inside. And none of the variants feature Impulse, so we'll omit them.

Impulse actually does get a few more lines this time, although he still doesn't have much to do. We pick up with Bart and the rest of the Flash family apparently surrounded by an unseen horde of enemies. Seriously, we do not see anything. But everyone's worried this is the end, and Max Mercury bizarrely has a grossly optimistic take on the prospect of fighting to the death alongside the ones he loves. However, the crisis is solved by Irey doing ... something.

Don't blame me for not being able to explain this, because the characters in the story can't explain it, either, and the art once again does us no favors. But whatever she did, it both saved our heroes (for the time being) and freaked them out. Avery says it looked like a billion Ireys all fighting at once, but Ace argues it was more like the whole universe was Irey. Judy Garrick (daughter of Jay) comments on how Irey's stunt seemed to take all the power out of her. Bart picks up on this, adding that he's never felt anything so powerful or "freaking scary" in his life.

Wally is quite upset with this kind of talk, since Irey appears to be quite distressed by the whole ordeal. In fact, Wally is so mad that he orders the others to ask the Justice League to help them get Irey home once he expels everyone from the Chronosphere. Yeah, this whole war was taking place in this special bubble outside of normal time, and the only reason the other speedsters could even participate was because Wally had extended his aura around them. But now he's decided he can't risk them or his family being hurt, and he expels them all, intent to take down Eclipso himself.

This was another frustrating and boring and incomprehensible story from Simon Spurrier. Luckily, this is the last time he uses Bart in Bad Moon Rising, so I don't have to attempt to explain how Wally and his kids once again saved the day. Or recount how Wally once again learned to trust and love his children. 

The next time we'll visit this series, Mark Waid will have taken over. But first, a quick detour into another Waid project, the New History of the DC Universe.

The Flash #22 (legacy #822)

Bad Moon Rising Part Three

Written by Simon Spurrier

Art by Vasco Georgiev

Colors by Matt Herms

Letters by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

Cover by Davide Paratore

Editor Chris Rosa

Group Editor Paul Kaminski

Our cover shows an army of Flashes battling Eclipso on the Moon. It's ... not terribly exciting. That may be mainly because I'm not really into the whole concept of this story, but it's also due to the style of this cover being so different from the interior art. I would have preferred to see Vasco Georgiev draw this. Anyway, I'm once again skipping the variant covers, as they do not include Impulse.

Speaking of Impulse, he barely makes an appearance in this issue. But since he does speak, I am honor-bound to report on it. So as I already mentioned, the Flash is fighting a war against Eclipso on the Moon. And because Simon Spurrier has severely power-boosted the Flash, Wally has the ability to create a seemingly endless army of duplicates of himself. I'm not too concerned about the particulars. All that matters for this blog is that the various members of the Flash Family are serving as generals, leading platoons of Wally's duplicates.

I do have to admit that I'm slightly intrigued by the idea of seeing Impulse command a couple hundred Wally clones in battle. Unfortunately, we don't get to see any of that. Just Bart delivering a report, which is ignored. Spurrier is much more interested in developing Wally's children, who also have insane, over-the-top abilities. It's all rather boring and frustrating for me, but I suppose I should be grateful for these table scraps being tossed to us Impulse fans.

Next time: The Flash #23

Justice League Unlimited #5

Mark Waid – Writer

Dan Mora – Artist

Tamra Bonvillain – Colors

Dave Sharpe – Letters

Cover by Dan Mora

Marquis Draper – Associate Editor

Paul Kaminski – Editor

Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

Supergirl based on the characters created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.

Our cover is a beautiful, updated look at the old, classic Legion of Doom. And I do mean old. This lineup was basically what was used in the Super Friends cartoons from the 1970s. Dan Mora has quickly become one of my favorite artists of all time, and I think he's rendered everyone exceptionally well. This issue also had a lot of variant covers, but since Impulse isn't on any of them, I won't worry about them.

So ... it's been a while! Let's see if I still remember how to do this! While I was taking a break from blogging to obtain my master's degree, Mark Waid launched a fun new series at DC. Justice League Unlimited borrows the same concept from the cartoon show of the same name from 20 years ago. Basically every hero on Earth is now a member of the Justice League, coordinated by Mr. Terrific from the Watchtower satellite. And as we saw on the cover, many of Earth's villains have also united. Unfortunately, Waid will treat this like a big reveal on the last page of this issue ... oops!

Anyway, our story begins in Sydney, Australia, where Impulse has surprisingly been chosen for the security team at the G20 Summit — a gathering of 20 of the world's most powerful leaders. Joining Impulse is the Flash, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Star Sapphire, and Thunderlord. Wally explains to Bart that the Justice League is currently battling a mysterious group of superterrorists known as Inferno. Since Inferno has been so unpredictable so far, the League decided to balance the security at this event with strength and super-speed for quick reactions.

Bart's mostly bored by all this and devours all the available snacks, while speculating whether they'll get to deal with a meteor storm, time-traveling assassins, or a poison plague. He's never met Thunderlord before, who explains that he has a supersonic scream. Bart suggests he can use that power to yell for more help, to which Wally kicks Bart's ankle and apologizes for him having the "decorum of a leaf blower."

Suddenly, the 20 world leaders and six superheroes are transported to a different dimension inhabited by gruesome monsters. Simultaneously, Inferno has used an army of robots to attack a nuclear reactor in Japan and destroy China's Three Gorges Dam. These disasters tie up all available Justice League members, while Mr. Terrific tries and fails to find any connection between Inferno and the Legion of Doom. Meanwhile, Batman and Martian Manhunter are working with the Atom to try to locate J'onn's missing telepathic powers.

Back in the other dimension, our heroes are having a hard time protecting the world leaders, as they are not used to taking orders and want to go their own way. Impulse suggests having Wonder Woman use her diplomatic skills to talk some sense into the leaders, but she's too busy fighting the monsters. Impulse, unfortunately, has a hard time making himself useful and ends up basically being run over by both the Flash and Wonder Woman. Wally chews out Bart for being in the way and reveals that he warned Superman against including him on this mission.

Bart sadly slinks to the side, feeling like a wet blanket (as shown to us in a classic Impulse thought bubble). But then Bart notices one world leader standing off by himself and actually smiling. Naturally, this is a huge red flag for Bart, who decides to investigate.

Impulse picks up the delegate (who's surprisingly heavier than he looks), and he directly accuses the old man of working with Inferno. The world leader initially feigns ignorance, but when Impulse refuses to yield, he calls him a clever boy and reveals his true self. Before Bart can react, the villain places him in a trance and wipes his memory of this interaction.

Meanwhile, the Atom discovers that J'onn's telepathic powers were in an African jungle before disappearing at the same time as the G20 leaders and our heroes. Batman correctly surmises that one of the delegates has Martian Manhunter's powers and is behind the kidnapping.

The heroes (minus the dazed Impulse) finally manage to get all the leaders gathered in one spot and Star Sapphire puts them in a protective bubble. Flash figures out how open a portal out of the dimension by vibrating, but he accidentally takes them all to the Phantom Zone. Luckily Supergirl knows how to get them all back to the Watchtower from there. Wally orders Bart to take Green Lantern to the medbay, while Atom, Batman, and Martian Manhunter confront the disguised world leader. The villain reveals himself as Gorilla Grodd, who then is promptly escorted off the satellite via his sleeper agent, Air Wave. And the last page reveals what the cover already showed us — Inferno is actually the Legion of Doom.

I have really mixed feelings about this comic. On one hand, I am always thrilled to see Mark Waid return to his creation, Impulse. And I'm even more thrilled to see Impulse drawn so gorgeously by someone as talented as Dan Mora. But on the other hand, I feel like Waid really did Bart a disservice here. He didn't actually accomplish anything. He acted bored and rude at the summit, then just got in everybody's way in the weird dimension. He was clever enough to discover Grodd in disguise, but that achievement was instantly undone by Grodd's mind wipe and Batman's investigation. So, in the end, Impulse didn't even need to be there. I guess Waid just wanted to throw him in there for fun without altering his long-term plan, but I feel like he could have still accomplished this without making Impulse look completely worthless.

I also have to complain about the lack of mystery or tension in this issue. Yes, it was a lot of fun, but there was absolutely no suspense. And mostly because of the cover. Before we even open the book, we know the Legion of Doom is the big bad guy. But then we have endure a full page of Mr. Terrific explaining how the Legion of Doom couldn't possibly be behind this. When Impulse confronts Grodd, we don't see the villain's face, which created a mystery that lasted for ... four pages. What was the point of obscuring his identity if you were just going to reveal it a couple of pages later? 

Oh well. I guess it doesn't really matter for this blog, as Waid chose not to include Impulse in the rest of his Justice League stories. But Simon Spurrier did include Impulse in his Flash stories. It's not a big role, but just enough for me to justify reviewing it.

Next time: The Flash #22

An unexpected Easter Egg for Easter

I have decided to focus this blog on only reviewing major, concrete appearances of Bart Allen. My criteria is that he has to at least say something — merely showing up in the background of a big crowd shot isn't enough. But today I will make an exemption to that rule because of a significant and genuinely surprising find I made last month.

For Easter, I bought my two boys I Am Superman and I Am Batman, both by Brad Meltzer and Chris Eliopoulos. These are kind of a spinoff of their popular Ordinary People Change the World series (which has also spun off into the PBS cartoon Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum). The premise is to create biographies that present the subject matter as children, so that the young audience will see themselves in those historical figures — whether that be Abraham Lincoln or, in this case, Superman. 

I Am Superman came out in 2022, but for whatever reason I never bothered to pick it up until now. But I have always enjoyed the Ordinary People series and Xavier Riddle (even though it's still a bit too old for my kids). And, of course, these creators have always been on my radar. Brad Meltzer has popped up on this blog a few times for his work on Identity Crisis and Justice League of America (when Bart was the adult Flash). Chris Eliopoulos was a longtime letterer for DC before becoming an illustrator. Don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure that Eliopoulos lettered every single issue of the Impulse series.

Anyway, this book is absolutely delightful. After telling the story of Superman's origin (pulling heavily from the 1978 film), the book gives us a big two-page spread of 59 characters crammed into the Fortress of Solitude. And most unexpectedly, happily standing in the bottom left corner, is my beloved Impulse.

As far as I know it, this is the first time Eliopoulos has drawn Impulse. And I think that's really neat, seeing as how he spent years working on Impulse's solo title. Mostly, I'm just glad to see any little reminder that poor old Bart hasn't been completely forgotten yet.

And the world of DC comics hasn't completely forgotten Impulse, either. He's just been shoved very far away into a deeply marginalized position. Impulse did make a fleeting cameo in The Flash #19 by Simon Spurrier and Vasco Georgiev. Impulse, Max Mercury, Avery Ho and Wallace West were all called in to help corral an evil/possessed version of Wally. But we only saw a tiny glimpse of Bart's backside before he helped form a speed barrier around the evil Wally — holding him in place long enough to be boom-tubed away. One would think that Bart, Max and the others would have something to say about an evil, rampaging Wally, but Spurrier wasn't concerned with that. And Georgiev only begrudgingly drew them as small and inconsequentially as possible.

But maybe, just maybe, Bart will actually do something of consequence in the pages of The Flash. And when he does, I'll be here to blog about it.

Year in Review: 2024

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

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

Best Story: The Flash #7

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

Best Writer: Simon Spurrier

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

Best Artist: Khary Payton

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

Best Supporting Character: Max Mercury

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

Best Villain: The Arc Angles

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

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