Wonder Woman Plus Jesse Quick #1

Heroes!

Christopher Priest – Script
Mike Collins – Penciller
Tom Palmer – Inker
Gaspar – Letterer
Ian Laughlin – Colorist
Jason Hernandez-Rosenblatt – Asst. Editor
Paul Kupperberg – Editor
Alisande Morales – Consulting Editor
Brian Augustyn – Plot Assistance
Johanna Draper – Research Assistant
Mark Waid – Speed Force
Wonder Woman created by William Moulton Marston

That's quite a bit of people who helped put this issue together. However, I suspect Mark Waid's name is only included because he wrote all the extensive flashbacks of Jesse Quick's past. The cover is by Collins and Palmer, and although I feel like Wonder Woman could've been drawn a little better, I do enjoy Jesse Quick here. But the most interesting part of the cover is the ninja in the background. We haven't seen those guys since Savitar was defeated in Dead Heat. But it makes sense that a few of his fanatical followers would linger around.

Our story begins with a nervous Jesse Chambers on the first day of her new job as CEO of her late father's company, Quickstart. Luckily, her day at the office is delayed by a hostage situation at a store called J.J. Lords across the street. So Jesse says her super-speed formula, 3X2(9YZ)4A, and throws on her superhero uniform. Jesse Quick soon finds herself in an elevator, face-to-face with a 12-year-old holding a gun to a 4-year-old. The older kid calls himself 2Young (I don't know how anyone was supposed to know he wanted to use the numeral 2 instead of the word Too, but that's beside the point). The elevator is surrounded by SWAT officers, and Jesse Quick finds herself too close to the boy to say her formula without having him shoot the younger kid. So she briefly exits the elevator, which buys her enough time to say her formula. Doing so caused the police to open fire, but Jesse is able to catch all the bullets and save the hostage.

Shaken by the whole ordeal, Jesse heads home to take three showers and eat a tub of ice cream in her bathrobe. Jesse is bothered by 2Young, but also her mother, the former Liberty Belle, who seemed to act like a completely different person at Johnny Quick's funeral. Jesse's mother then arrives and lectures Jesse for shirking her CEO duties. Jesse can't handle the criticism, so she runs away through her bathroom window.

But as soon as Jesse is gone, Libby Lawrence-Chambers is attacked by Savitar's old ninjas. They don't have their super speed anymore, but they are able to overwhelm the retired hero by their sheer numbers. Meanwhile, Jesse in her bathrobe is finally able to calm down on a park bench, and decides to return home when some nuns believe her to be homeless. She arrives at her apartment to find her critically wounded mother, who manages to tell Jesse that the ninjas were looking for a scroll of Savitar's.

During the Dead Heat saga, Max Mercury burned Savitar's extensive speed library. But before doing so, Jesse snatched one of the scrolls that she simply thought looked cool. (And you can see her pocket that scroll in Impulse #11.) Jesse takes her mom to the hospital and takes another look at the scroll to try to figure out why the ninjas want it. The scroll is written in ancient Greek, so Jesse throws her costume back on and pays a visit to an expert on the matter — Helena Sandsmark. Helena identifies the scroll as a petition to Hermes, the messenger god of speed. Jesse tells her how she acquired the scroll, and Helena suggests this would be case better suited for her assistant, Diana Prince. Diana seems familiar to Jesse, but she doesn't see the value in enlisting her aid in this dangerous situation.

Suddenly, a group of ninjas invade the museum. As Jesse rushes off to confront them, she is astonished by Diana's ability to keep up with her. Then Jesse realizes that Diana really is Wonder Woman, who engages in some serious ninja butt-kicking. The ninjas are soon defeated, and our heroes interrogate one of them. They learn that the ninjas want to pull their master Savitar out of the Speed Force by bringing the scroll to the Circle of Light. But before he can explain what the Circle of Light is, one ninja who still has super speed sneaks up on the heroes, knocks them out, kills the interrogated ninja, and steals the scroll. Wonder Woman chased after the ninja, but wasn't able to catch her, only being able to tell Jesse the ninja was a woman. Jesse then realizes this one ninja who still has powers is Christina, Savitar's most devoted follower.

Wonder Woman then takes Jesse to Julia and Vanessa Kapatelis to try to find out more about this scroll and Circle of Light. Jesse tells them Savitar was based in South America (which isn't true — his citadel was in the Balkan Mountains, in Europe). Anyway, while the four women eat at Taco Whiz, Vanessa determines the Circle of Light could be referring to La Luz Redondo, a tiny Dominican Republic mountain parish. So Jesse Quick and Wonder Woman run/fly to South America, with Jesse recapping the fight with Savitar on the way.

When our heroes arrive in the Dominican Republic, they find Christina has already unlocked the secret of the scroll, opening a portal to the Speed Force. Jesse quickly beats up a few ninjas and takes one of their swords, determining to use it to kill Christina for causing her father's death. Christina starts running toward the Speed Force with Jesse hot on her heels. Christina reveals that she hasn't forgiven her former master for betraying her, and she really wants to rob Savitar of his greatest ambition by pulling him out of the Speed Force. Jesse doesn't care, and moves in for the kill. But then Wonder Woman manages to get her lasso of truth around Jesse, exhorting her to calm down before doing something she'll regret. Jesse then has a series of flashbacks, showing the true cause of her frustrations.

It all started when Wally West named her the next Flash. Jesse was initially honored by this, but soon learned the whole thing was just a ruse to get Impulse to focus more. When Impulse and Max were trapped outside of Kobra's force field, this started a deep-seeded anger in Jesse toward Wally, and a strong desire to prove herself. This carried over to the conflict with Savitar, when Jesse probably got a bit carried away, and had to be saved from Christina by her father. Johnny Quick ran so fast he became one with the Speed Force, but he could have come back. And thanks to Wonder Woman's lasso, Jesse realizes for the first time that she's mad at her dad for leaving her. But she also realizes that she would have done the same had she been in his place.

Christina disappears, and Jesse crumbles into an emotional heap in Wonder Woman's arms. But Wonder Woman helps her confront her feelings and recover from the grief. And our story ends with Jesse taking Wonder Woman to visit her mother in the hospital to help her also work through the grieving process.


Even though this issue basically had no Impulse in it, I was pleasantly surprised by it. Jesse Quick definitely deserves to get some attention in the spotlight from time to time, and I was impressed at this issue's ability to pick up on a minor detail from an earlier issue and run with it. The location for confusion is a slight problem, but it doesn't negatively impact this book. Jesse and Wonder Woman each got a small taste of the other's world, and we got to learn a little more about Jesse's personal life.

There aren't any letters to the editor, naturally, so let's see if there are any new ads I can scrounge up.

The video invasion hits home! Independence Day on VHS. This was by far the biggest movie of 1996, and one that I enjoyed immensely as a kid. And I still love it today. It's just a really fun, exciting movie.

We have an apparent ultrasound of a baby in fetal position, with the caption: Better get used to being in this position again. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis.

Open all night. No quarters needed. Arcade's Greatest Hits for Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis.

Twenty-six have been given life, and twenty-six will take it away. Mortal Kombat Trilogy for PlayStation and Nintendo 64. Yes, we have entered that awkward period where some games were being made for Super Nintendo and some were for N64.

Born in arcades. Abused. Caged. And brought to your home. Fighting Vipers for Sega Saturn.

A three-page ad for Nights Into Dreams ... fro Sega Saturn.

Spend some quality time with Michael Jordan. Like 2 1/2 hours. NBA Video on VHS.

See Jonny run. See Jonny fly. Be Jonny. Jonny Quest CD-Rom game.

Elsewhere in the DC Universe ... Batman Plus Arsenal, Supergirl Plus The Power of Shazam!, Superman Plus The Legion of Super-Heroes, and Sovereign 7 Plus The Legion of Super-Heroes, which I will be reviewing in a bit.

Old soldiers never die, they just turn into bloodthirsty mutant zombies. Final Doom on PlayStation.

Next time, we'll get back on track with the classic stuff in Impulse #21.

DC Universe Holiday Bash #1

So I must admit, I am cheating a little with this one. I do not own DC Universe Holiday Bash #1, which was a collection of various Christmas stories, including one featuring the Flash, in which Bart Allen made a quick cameo. However, that Flash story was reprinted in 2000, in a trade paperback called DC Universe Christmas, which I do own.

Present Tense

Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn Story
Paul Ryan Pencils
Dick Giordano Inks
John Costanza Letterer
Tom McCraw Colorist

Our story begins with Wally West decorating his house for a Christmas party. His last task is wrapping the present for his girlfriend, Linda Park. Linda's always been difficult to shop for since she never tells Wally what she wants. So this year, Wally bought her the world's fastest microwave, so powerful it's banned in nine states. But before he can wrap it, he overhears Linda talking to her mom on the phone, saying she knows Wally got her a great gift because she told him exactly what she wants while they were at Boone's department store. Wally then sees the microwave as a bowling ball with the name Homer engraved on it (a reference to a classic Simpsons episode), and even though the party will start in 20 minutes, he hastily throws on his Flash uniform and says he needs to go out for ice.

Flash immediately heads to Boone's and begins racking his brains to remember that conversation. But all he can recall Linda talking to him while standing in front of a hideous orange sweater that looks like the Rainbow Raider threw up on. In desperation, Flash buys a scarf, not realizing it's 100 percent cashmere, which Linda is allergic to. So he dumps the scarf in the arms of an old man standing in front of Infantino's restaurant (an homage to classic Silver Age Flash artist Carmine Infantino).

Since all the stores are closing, Flash heads back a time zone to California. Again he notices the ugly orange sweater, but decides to buy a fancy makeup set. He then realizes Linda is a broadcast journalist and has all her makeup done by the TV crew, so he gives the makeup to an old man in front of a store called Waid's (in honor of Mark Waid).

Flash continues heading west and stops at a curio chop in Hawaii, which also has the ugly sweater for sale. Instead he chooses a nifty-looking ring, only to learn it's a Mahaluan wedding band. Since Flash is nowhere near ready to get married, he dumps the ring off in the hands of another old couple and races across the Pacific. (I suspect all these people receiving Flash's presents are famous comic book creators, but I can't say for certain.)

It's now 7:15 in Keystone City, and Wally is in Hong Kong, struggling mightily to find a good present and/or to remember what Linda said she wanted. He then spots a factory outlet stocked with tons of the ugly sweaters, and he finally remembers what Linda told him. We then zip back to the party, where Linda unwraps ... the ugly sweater.

Bart and Max are at the party, and Bart looks rather shocked to see Linda open that sweater. I do like Bart's sweater, however, which is reminiscent of Jay Garrick's Flash outfit. But I'm not sure if Bart is supposed to have freckles on his face, or cookie crumbs. Anyway, Wally says he only bought the sweater to remind him and Linda of that conversation, in which Linda said, "I know you love me. What I want is for you to show it ... by listening to me." Linda is very happy to see Wally remembered this, and they share a romantic kiss under the mistletoe.


So this was a pretty fun Christmas story, but it was a Flash story that just happened to throw Bart in one panel. I would have loved a story showing Bart celebrating his first Christmas, and needing Max to explain everything to him. But this was fun, too.

Next time, Impulse will make another brief cameo in Wonder Woman Plus Jesse Quick #1.

Year in Review: 1996

I was 9 years old in 1996, and just like everyone else that year, I absolutely loved Independence Day, which nearly doubled the worldwide gross of the second-highest film, Twister, which also was pretty good. I didn't see Mission: Impossible until I was 19, and I thought it was kinda stupid. But I really enjoyed Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (the most underrated Disney animated classic, in my opinion), the live-action 101 Dalmatians, Eddie Murphy's classic, The Nutty Professor, and, of course, the immortal Space Jam. The Academy Award went to The English Patient, which I still haven't seen. The biggest superhero movie of the year was The Phantom, which scared me a bit back then.

Sadly, 1996 was a relatively quiet year for Impulse. After appearing in 40 comics in 1995, Impulse only showed up in 28 comics in 1996. He made a quick cameo in the final issue of The New Titans and didn't join another superhero team all year. And Impulse stopped showing up in The Flash after the Dead Heat storyline wrapped up. Altogether, 1996 gave us 12 issues of Impulse (including the Annual, which featured a future, alternate version of Impulse), four issues of The Flash, three issues of the Final Night miniseries, two issues of The Ray (as an alternate future version of Bart Allen as the Flash) and one appearance in The New Titans, The Adventures of Superman, Sovereign Seven, The Legion of Super-Heroes, Green Lantern and Robin Plus Impulse. I'm also counting JLX #1, which featured the amalgam character Mercury — a combination of Impulse and Marvel's Quicksilver. So, not only did we get fewer appearances of Impulse, but quite a few of them weren't the 14-year-old Bart Allen we know and love. However, what we did get in 1996 was very good, so let's take a look at the best of what the year had to offer.

Best Comic: Impulse #10

For the second year in a row, the sadder, more sentimental issue of Impulse wins out. It's kind of funny, since the Impulse series is known for its light-hearted humor, but these more introspective issues really stand out. Impulse #10 shows us what happens to Bart when he loses his super speed. But more importantly, it shows us what happens when someone Bart cares about is critically injured. Although he constantly butts heads with Max, Bart really does love him, and that love was expressed in a beautiful, touching way in this issue. Impulse #11 was also a significant issue, as it featured the death of Johnny Quick, but Impulse #10 carried a larger emotional impact. And it gave us more insight into Bart Allen than any other issue.

Best Writer: Mark Waid

It should come as no surprise that Waid wins this award for the third consecutive time. He engineered a brilliant Flash-Impulse crossover with Dead Heat, and continued to write brilliant stories for Impulse, expertly straddling the line between humorous and emotional stories. The Impulse issues in 1996 ranged from wacky dream sequences and inter-dimensional adventures with Zatanna to everyday teenage struggles with peer pressure. And let's not forget the emotional backstory of Max Mercury, which Waid began setting up right from the start of this series. Altogether another awesome year for one of the best comic book writers of all time.

Best Artist: Humberto Ramos

Ramos claims his second straight Best Artist Award, even though he began to take on more outside projects in 1996, requiring more guest artists to work on Impulse. But Ramos continued to draw all of the covers, and the issues he did do stand out heads-and-shoulders above anything else. His facial expressions and overall goofiness were unparalleled, and his action scenes were great, as well. And his covers were some of the boldest, most colorful masterpieces I've seen.

Best Supporting Character: XS

Max Mercury won this award for 1995, and he easily could have been a repeat winner, especially with his near-fatal injury and the revelation of his backstory. I also could have thrown in Carol Bucklen, as we got to learn more about her personal life, and she gave Bart his first kiss. But I'm going to give the 1996 award to Bart's cousin, Jenni Ognats. They didn't get to spend too much time together, but it was very sweet. Bart was initially frustrated with Jenni, but gradually grew to love her. She was the only teenager on the planet who could keep up with Bart's speed, and only the second blood relative he's come in contact with (after his grandma Iris Allen). And when Bart left a message for Jenni in a saxophone, it was one of the most touching moments of the series. So XS just barely edges out Max Mercury for this year.

Best Villain: Savitar

The winner of 1995 was Kobra, who wasn't seen or heard from at all in 1996. But Savitar easily claims this award, outranking the likes of Lord Manny I and Saul Zaranec. White Lightning did return, but she actually teamed up with the Trickster for a good cause. The only other possible villain that approaches Savitar's level of villainy is the Sun-Eater, but I consider that to be more of a force of nature than a calculating, evil individual. Besides, Impulse didn't directly battle the Sun-Eater. But Impulse did directly battle Savitar, who kidnapped Max, nearly killed, stole all the speedsters' powers, and caused the death of Johnny Quick. I thought he was a fascinating villain, and one more than powerful enough to unite the entire Flash family.

So that's it for 1996. We'll now head into 1997, which will be a slightly larger year for Impulse. He still won't join a superhero team, but he'll continue to make plenty of guest appearances and take part in DC's big event of the year — Genesis. The Impulse title will also undergo its first major creative team transition, which will be a bittersweet experience.

Next time, we'll take a quick peek at DC Universe Holiday Bash #1. Even though it has a cover date of January 1997, it likely came out in time for Christmas 1996.

Impulse #20

First Base

Mark Waid Story
Humberto Ramos Pencils
Wayne Faucher/Chip Wallace Inks
Chris Eliopoulos Letterer
Tom McCraw Colorist
Jason Hernandez-Rosenblatt Assistant Editor
Paul Kupperberg Editor

Our cover by Ramos and Faucher is a bit of a departure from the usual Impulse covers of the time with bold, dark colors. But I enjoy the variety. A lot of white space is fun every now and then, as is breaking the fourth wall. Impulse is reading The Flash #118, which concludes the saga with the future Flash, John Fox. And Impulse has to read this issue since he doesn't appear in it. And my favorite part of this cover is the fake ad on the back of Impulse's comic: Just when you thought it was safe to go into the checkout lane ... Barcode IV. What a creative way to incorporate the barcode into the cover art.

Our story begins with Bart and Carol playing Sega while sitting upside down on the couch. But their fun comes to a quick end when Carol has to leave for piano practice. Bart complains he'll be bored if Carol leaves, so she suggests he join a club or a team. So Bart rushes off to the school to try his hand at sports. First up is basketball. However, Bart soon finds out he's at a bit of a disadvantage with his size.

Max soon arrives and drags Bart away before he's attempted to use his super speed. But Bart's insistent, and next gives football a try. But once again, the tiny teen fails miserably. So Bart heads to the track, knowing he could kick anyone's butt in a race. But he displays some rare maturity by pulling himself out. Bart then complains to Max about how he wants Bart to fit in and act like a normal kid, but he can't do that by playing in any sports. Luckily Max gets an idea, and gives Bart a baseball helmet, which he thinks is for motorcross.

So Bart heads out to his first game, playing on the same team as Preston and Carol. The first time Bart steps up to bat, he quickly swings three times and strikes out before the first pitch is thrown. Carol tries to show Bart a few pointers, and the rest of the team makes fun of her for liking Bart.

Bart then heads out to right field, and accidentally uses his super speed to make a catch that he shouldn't have been able to make. Bart excitedly tells Max he's actually having fun, but Max sternly reminds him that using his powers isn't fair to the other players. Meanwhile, Preston begins probing Carol about her relationship with Bart, asking her if she's kissed him yet. But Carol steadfastly maintains that they are just good friends and nothing more.

Later in the game, Bart catches a grounder without using his powers, and is so happy, he begins to do a celebratory dance. Carol yells at him to throw the ball, so he panics and throws the ball so fast, it goes sailing out of the park. The only one who realized what happened was Max, and Carol chews Bart out for goofing around.

On Bart's second at-bat, he once again swings long before the pitch arrives. Max tells Bart to keep his eye on the ball, which Bart does ... watching the ball all the way until it hits him right in the eye. Carol helps the dizzy Bart up, and the two get a little closer than they perhaps intended, which only inspires more ridicule from their teammates and the attention of Max.

We finally come to the bottom of the ninth inning. Bart's team is down one, has two out and the bases loaded. And it's up to poor Bart to save the day. One of his teammates suggests he takes the pitch in the head again to tie the game, but Bart says no thanks. Max tells Bart once more to keep his eye on the ball, so this time, Bart uses his super speed to run alongside the ball, study it, grab a drink, take careful aim, and then finally hit a home run. Bart's so transfixed by this, he has to be told to take his eye off the ball and run.

When he finally rounds the bases, an excited Carol jumps into Bart's arms and kisses him! The seemingly romantic moment quickly dissolves as Carol and Bart burst out into laughter, leaving their teammates to conclude that the two weirdos deserve each other. Bart asks Carol what that was about, and she says she has no idea, only that everyone kept riding her, and she just kind of lost herself. Carol asks if they can still be friends, and Bart says he can't imagine why not.

Max then approaches Bart, saying, "I see you scored." But that comment went over Bart's head. Bart then tells Max he's done with baseball, feeling sports are a little too public for him and Max. So Max says he'll buy the new Garguax Invasion game for Bart so he can plop back on the couch where he belongs.


What a fun issue! We didn't see Impulse once, and it was great. And, most importantly, this featured Bart's first kiss! However, it really was more of a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing between good friends, but ... this just may be planting a few seeds for a Bart-Carol romance. We'll have to wait a few years for that to fully develop, though.

Travis Stoffs, of Gainesville, Fla., said Impulse #17 ties with Impulse #3 for the best Impulse story. Travis, however, does complain about Zatanna wearing fishnets, saying that's a Black Canary look. But Jason Hernandez-Rosenblatt tells him that this is Zatanna's current look, and Black Canary no longer wears fishnets.

Augie de Blieck Jr., of North Haledon, N.J., not only wants Bart to go on a date, but thinks it would be great to have Bart book two dates on the same night, with one of them being with Carol, naturally.

Ynot Trebyes, of Los Angeles, said he's never enjoyed a Zatanna appearance as much as in issue #17. Tony also points out how the inter dimensional travel scenes were reminiscent of Steve Ditko's Dr. Strange.

Ed Homa Jr., of Bear, Del., loves the way Humberto Ramos and Wayne Faucher draw Zatanna and asks to see her again. He also wants Impulse to meet Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Nightwing, Green Lantern, Superman, Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, Donna Troy, Atom, Elongated Man and Jesse Quick.

Stacey Hogan, of Middletown, N.J., enjoyed Impulse saying "To infinity ... and beyond!" She also jokes about Max's maid outfit at the end, saying he could probably pull it off if he shaved his legs.

Doud Ohmer, of Covington, Ky., thanks DC for bringing Zatanna out of comic book limbo, and asks to see much more of her in the future. Doud also thinks it would be a good idea for Impulse to have a major failure to get him to act more serious. Now for the few new ads:

Watch This Space breaks down all the guests at Superman's wedding. Surprisingly, there were very few comic book characters in the room, but mostly comic book creators. Appropriately, the presiding priest at the wedding was Jerry Siegel.

Batman Holo Series. All-hologram trading cards.

Well, that does it for the year 1996. Next time, I'll present my third Year in Review, presenting awards for each comic Impulse appeared in with a 1996 cover date.

Robin Plus Impulse #1

Dashing Through the Snow

Brian Augustyn and Mark Waid • Story
John Royle • Pencils
Rob Leigh • Inks
Jason Wright • Colors
John Costanza • Letters
Jordan B. Gorfinkel • Editor

Fans have been asking for this pretty much since the creation of Impulse. And now, our lovable speedster finally gets to team up with the most famous teenage superhero of all time — Robin. And even though Robin gets top billing here, this almost feels like an exclusive Impulse story since it involves his two creators: Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo, who did the cover with John Dell. Wieringo was the regular penciller on Robin at the time, and it shows. Robin looks great on this cover, but Impulse ... not so much. Keep in mind that even though Wieringo designed the character, he only drew him in a couple of issues. Most likely, this was the first time Wieringo drew Impulse since the cover of Flash #100, and sadly, he did not incorporate some of the elements Humberto Ramos introduced to the character. But that's alright, since John Royle did the pencils inside, and, while not as polished as Wieringo or Ramos, he did manage to give Impulse the more updated look.

Our story begins in Gotham City, with Robin investigating a burglary. Although we don't see him, Batman is communicating with Robin the whole time, offering tips and helping out from the background. Apparently a former Soviet Bloc super spy named Piotr Vilk has stolen some obsolete computer equipment, which has quite befuddled our young detective. But before Robin can get too far with his investigation, his rope is cut by a mysterious woman in a gold mask.

Robin's next step has him tracking Vilk down to The Pines ski resort in Virginia. So Robin decides to visit the place as Tim Drake with a couple of friends and Alfred, telling them his dad had discount tickets to the resort. Tim and Alfred quickly set up a makeshift crime lab in their hotel room, and Tim is able to spot Vilk with his binoculars. But Vilk is with another large, intimidating man and a beautiful young woman, so Alfred advises Tim to bide his time. Tim then spots some more kids arriving at the resort, one in particular with really big feet.

And, of course, the kid with big feet is Bart Allen, who is visiting The Pines with his class, including Carol and Preston. And Max Mercury is there, acting as a chaperone and encouraging Bart to behave like a normal kid. Surprisingly, Bart absolutely hates the snow and his puffy winter clothes. But he gets the chance to run a bit when Preston notices his wallet is missing. Bart vibrates out of his coat and boots, runs the few hundred miles back to Manchester, Alabama, finds Preston's wallet in his house, and brings it back, claiming to have found it in the snow all before anyone had a chance to notice Bart's winter clothes were momentarily empty. Everyone except Max, that is, who lectures Bart about protecting his secret identity and punishes him by having him carry everyone's skis.

Later, Bart happens to share a chair lift with Tim Drake. Bart has a hard time hiding his disgust (and even a little terror) of the idea of skiing, and Tim admits he's hoping for some other kind of action. But while Tim skis down the slope, Bart finds himself frozen with fear for the first time in his life. And the once proud daredevil shamefully backs away in front of his classmates.

Back at the lodge, Bart busies himself with Downhill Doom 3 on his Game Lad and tries to sound cool in front of Preston and Carol by saying the slope simply wasn't challenging enough for him. But despite his video game, Bart is able to notice Piotr Vilk suspiciously leaving the lodge at night with a briefcase. Robin also noticed Vilk's movement, and decided to follow him on cross country skis. But Robin's ski gets caught on a tree branch, alerting Vilk to Robin's position. The Russian spy pulls out a gun and begins firing at the Boy Wonder, but suddenly, Impulse arrives, catches the bullets, and says, "Relax, Red-Breast — Impulse is on the case!" Impulse frees Robin, and pulls him to safety behind a snow bank. Robin then says, "Thanks for the save ... Bart."

Bart has a wonderfully comical reaction, and Robin assures him he'll keep his identity a secret. Impulse then asks Robin if he can join him on his case, and Robin says yes. Then Impulse asks for Robin's secret identity, but he says no.

So our two heroes track Vilk and his out-of-date computer equipment to a military camp. Alfred then contacts Robin via his radio, saying he's identified Vilk's associate as one George Deegan, leader of the super-violent militia group White Heat. Alfred advises Robin stay behind and wait for Batman, but Impulse doesn't know the meaning of wait. Bart rushes in and begins beating up all the bad guys, and although Robin knows better, he can't help but act a little impulsive himself.

As the boys fight, Vilk's "girlfriend" sneaks away to quickly change into her outfit with the gold mask we saw at the beginning of this story. She joins the fight, but chews out Robin and Impulse for forcing her to blow her cover after six months of work. She introduces herself as Mystral, and points out that the only important people, Vilk and Deegan, have gotten away during the chaos. So the three heroes begin tracking Vilk once again, but this time he uses a hand grenade to bury them under an avalanche.

We then head back to the lodge, where we find out Max was out looking for Bart and Tim, but had to give up because of an incoming blizzard. And the storm has gotten so bad, even the professional rescuers decided to abandon the search. The panic unites Bart's and Tim's friends, and brings Max and Alfred together for the first time. Alfred tries to assure that Bart might be safe if he's with Tim, and Max agrees that Bart is unusually lucky, but he decides to go out looking for the boys again.

Back to the action, we see that Mystral apparently has super strength and is using it to keep our heroes from being buried by the snow. And Impulse is keeping them warm with his ... vibrational heat? At least that's what Robin said. Anyway, when Mystral tells the teens she's not strong enough to get them out of their makeshift cave, Impulse says he can save them and only didn't because no one asked. So Impulse creates a mini-vortex to tunnel the heroes to safety.

Mystral then locates Vilk via her telepathic powers, and explains that he was looking for an abandoned military base loaded with nuclear missiles in Mount Crockett. When our heroes arrive there, Robin realizes Vilk needed the old computer equipment to crack the base's outdated lock. And Mystral points out Vilk waited for a blizzard to keep the army away while he took the nukes.

So our heroes fight their way into the base, and the action gets a little silly. Impulse ties a rope between two trees to knock some guys off a snowmobile, then Mystral crashes the snowmobile into a truck carrying explosives. Then Robin pushes Impulse down a hill, so he can take out a bunch of guards while sliding on his butt. Impulse really likes it, calling it Downhill Doom IV.

This is where the plot gets a little mixed up. Vilk's associate, Deegan wanted to take all the weapons from the base to "save America from itself." But Vilk wanted to launch a nuclear strike on Russia to reunite the Soviet Union against America. Even though it seems like both their goals could be met here — they each want to unite their home countries under the threat of war — Deegan feels like Vilk used him. They easily could have just talked this out, but Vilk rashly decides to kill Deegan right before our heroes reach the control room.

Mystral takes off after Vilk, while Robin and Impulse try to prevent Vilk's nuke strike. Even though Vilk says he targeted all the missiles to land in Russia, the computer's map shows all the targets in America. Miscommunication between the writers and the artists, I guess. Anyway, Robin wasn't able to see Vilk enter in the specific digits of the code from across the room, but he is certain the password is five numbers followed by three letters and another two numbers. So Impulse begins entering every possible combination that matches that format. Robin points out he only has three and a half minutes, but Impulse says he beat Zelda in less time.

As the clock ticks down, Impulse jokes about confusing the computer with questions about love, but this only makes Robin freak out more. He says, "C'mon, Bart, everyone always says it's our generation that'll save the world — let's actually do it!!" Bart answers this melodramatic statement with an appropriate, "Um ... sure. Whatever." Sure enough, Bart saves the world with plenty of time to spare.

Impulse and Robin reunite with Mystral and take out all the remaining White Heat goons. Mystral then takes off, leaving behind her gold mask and her fake face she wore underneath it. Robin and Impulse then begin the long walk back to the lodge through the blizzard, while Impulse teases Robin for having a crush on Mystral.


This was a very fun, delightful comic book. The fans were right to clamor for a Robin-Impulse team-up — they work perfectly together! However, this issue did have a few flaws with it. The plot was overly complicated and weighed down with unnecessary details and characters, such as Deegan and even Mystral. As far as I know, Mystral never appeared again in any comic, which makes all her mystery and too-convenient powers all the more frustrating. This story would have been a lot better if it was just Robin and Impulse against Piotr Vilk. I think Brian Augustyn and Mark Waid just had too many ideas on the table and couldn't decide what to cut. And because there was so much nonsense going on with Mystral, the entire subplot of Max searching for the boys was dropped. Perhaps Augustyn was a better editor than a writer. But all in all, I really enjoyed this issue. The art was solid, the dialogue was funny, and this was the first of many wonderful Impulse-Robin adventures.

There aren't any letters to the editor (naturally), so we'll take a look at the ads:

Space Jam. Get ready to jam. Starring Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan. Also Wayne Knight, before he'd play Micro in Punisher: War Zone, and Danny DeVito, after he played the Penguin in Batman Returns. I was 9 years old in 1996, so I believe that Space Jam is the greatest movie of all time. I even own the soundtrack!

See Johnny run. See Johnny fly. Be Johnny. Johnny Quest CD-ROM game.

Jordan jams! Bugs slams! Space Jam: The Video Game on PlayStation. I sadly didn't have this game as kid, but I did get to play it a couple of times and I thought it was really cool.

He's big on action! A two-page ad for the 12-inch action figure Action Man.

Why allowance was invented. A two-page ad for Major League Baseball cards.

Play dirty! Three Dirty Dwarves on SEGA Saturn.

JLA. The world's greatest heroes together again! Grant Morrison, Howard Porter, John Dell.

Dannon Sprinkl'ins Magic Crystals yogurt. If you wanted to destroy your comic book, you could fold this page in half to see the yogurt spell the word "new."

Next time, we'll cover Impulse #20, the final Impulse appearance with a 1996 cover date.

Green Lantern #81

Funeral for a Hero

Ron März – Writer
Darryl Banks – Pencils
Romeo Tanghal – Inks
Pamela Rambo – Color
Chris Eliopoulos – Letters
Eddie Berganza – Associate
Kevin Dooley – Funeral Director

I suppose this is a rather solemn cover, but it doesn't really do much for me. I guess that's because I'm not a big Green Lantern fan. But I think they could have done something that was solemn and more inspiring, as well. Maybe a statue of Hal Jordan?

So apparently Hal Jordan's death at the end of Final Night was conclusive enough for all the heroes of Earth to hold a funeral for him. After all, he did go out as a hero, destroying the Sun-Eater and restoring the sun to its former glory. So the current Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner, constructed a cathedral in Coast City and invited everyone who's anyone to attend.

Impulse sat on a row with Max Mercury, Jesse Quick, Wally West and Linda Park. Donna Troy, now retired from being a superhero, was there, but sadly, I couldn't spot any of the other New Titans Impulse used to hang with. Superboy was there with Superman and Steel, and Robin, who felt compelled to bring his bow staff to a funeral, was there with Batman and Nightwing. But Batman still can't forgive Hal for what he did during Zero Hour, so he withdrew himself from the crowd, forcing Nightwing and Robin to join him in the shadows. Impulse was well-behaved during the funeral, so he didn't really have a chance to interact with Superboy, Robin, or the Legion of Super-heroes.

Superman directed the proceedings, and the first people to speak were former Green Lanterns Guy Gardner and John Stewart. Black Canary then spoke on behalf of the late Green Arrow, Oliver Queen, who was good friends with Hal. Then Wally spoke on behalf of the late Barry Allen, who was also good friends with Hal. Carol Ferris, Hal's former girlfriend, gave a tearful address, then Kyle Rayner closed the ceremony. The original Green Lantern, Alan Scott, created a green flame to burn eternally for Hal. And Swamp Thing created a beautiful garden to surround a statue of Hal made by Kyle. Then, at the very end, Batman says he finally forgives Hal.

My digital copy of this comic also includes a new adventure of Hal Jordan, which is mostly a flashback to his origin, reprinting pages from 1960. It was pretty neat, but again, I'm more interested in the Flash family and Impulse, so I don't have a lot to say about this issue.

Next time, Impulse finally meets Robin in Robin Plus Impulse #1!

Impulse #19

A Game of Spew

Mark Waid Co-Plotter
Tom Peyer Guest Co-Plotter & Script
Humberto Ramos Penciller
Wayne Faucher Inker
Chris Eliopoulos Letterer
Tom McCraw Colorist
Jason Hernandez-Rosenblatt Assistant Editor
Paul Kupperberg Editor

This cover barytes and Faucher shows a seemingly impossible situation. Someone at school knows Bart is Impulse! And that someone is using a special Impulse issue of Teen Beat (More Impulse than your heart can handle!) to deliver this message. Well, as we'll soon find out, this is an impossible situation. And the cover, while it is well-done and pretty fun, is a bit of a cheat.

Our story begins with Max making Bart go to bed at 8 p.m. since it usually takes him four hours to fall asleep. Bart whines and complains, and Max asks whether Robin whines at Batman this much, and Bart says Robin gets to stay up late. (I imagine this issue was supposed to come out after the Robin Plus Impulse special, but as I said previously, that book was delayed because several pages of the artwork were lost in an IRA bombing.)

Bart then reluctantly begins to get ready for bed — at super-speed, which makes a big mess in the bathroom. Max yells at him to brush his teeth at normal speed, and Bart apologizes, even offering to clean up the bathroom at normal speed. But Max sees through his diversionary tactic and tells him to clean it in the morning. So Bart finally begrudgingly gets into bed, which he equates to a coffin. Bart tosses and turns and kicks off his sheets for what feels like a long time, but has only been one second.

Bart then remembers an angry Max telling him to count sheep. So Bart tries it, but the sheep he imagines quickly turn into evil robot sheep, so he pretends to beat them up by punching his pillow. Max hears the noise, so he checks on Bart, who quickly pretends to be asleep. We then have a great page with 48 panels of Bart slowly falling asleep. But the poor kid doesn't finally drift off until 2:05 a.m.

We then enter Bart's dream, where he finds himself at a video game store managed by Assistant Principal Randal Sheridan. The games are on sale for three cents each, but Bart's never heard of the titles, and Mr. Sheridan says Bart needs to pass a physical. Suddenly, the video game in Bart's hand starts glowing, and Impulse finds himself surrounded by the Legion of Super-heroes, who appear the way Bart imagined them based on Jenni Ognats' descriptions. Impulse asks them where XS is, but they don't tell him, instead saying they don't want Impulse in the Legion and that he's the speedster nobody wanted.

Impulse screams, but then is suddenly scooped up by XS. As she runs on the beach of a tropical paradise, she asks Impulse where he wants to go, and he says, "Anywhere with you!" Suddenly, Impulse is in the Flash's arms, who chews him out for sounding whiny. He says he never whined as Kid Flash, and neither did Robin. Flash also says he never let anyone carry him around, and he sets Impulse down, saying he needs to pass a physical.

Impulse runs away and falls off a cliff, landing back in the video game store. Mr. Sheridan, now in pajamas and in bed, says he knows Impulse is Bart, and he tells him to hurry up and play the game so he can go back to sleep. So Impulse puts in the slow-loading Max Mercury game, but the Max in the game picks up a controller that controls Impulse. Impulse bounces around like Pinocchio on strings, and Max soon says he's won the game.

Impulse then suddenly acquires a cape, and says, "My super-fast hearing detects a job for Impulse Man!" And Impulse Man flies off to Washington, D.C., where the presidential satellite is plummeting to the earth. Impulse Man catches it and saves Bill Clinton, who wants Impulse Man to take off his mask so he can give him a medal. But Max comes out of nowhere to drag Impulse away, saying he's spent his whole life and $12,047 to make him a normal boy, while President Clinton sadly says that Impulse should have passed his physical. Max then drags Impulse to a cave filled with giant bottles containing all the other failed Impulses.

Bart screams again and suddenly finds himself taking a bath in the middle of class. Mr. Sheridan tells Bart to read page 34,903 to the class, which says, "I know your secret!" Impulse refuses to read the page, so Mr. Sheridan has the class pledge allegiance to "Bart Allen and Impulse who are one and the same indivisible ..." Max then appears and tells Bart to tell the class he's not Impulse. When Bart does so, Mr. Sheridan says he's the only one, and he's too slow to stop a class full of Impulses. As everyone runs around making a mess, Max tells Bart he needs to learn to control his impulses.

Suddenly, Max is a very old man surrounded by stacks of newspapers. He very slowly asks Bart to fix him some of that gross stuff you have to be really old to want to eat. So an older, fatter, smoking Bart hands Max a bowl of octopus leg. He turns on the TV, which says a bank robbery was stopped by Bart Allen, aka Max Mercury Jr. Max says Bart turned out to be a good boy, but then he spills his octopus slop. Bart complains that he has to clean it at normal speed, and he wishes Max were younger.

Suddenly, Bart is back to his normal age and Max is little boy. Max begs Bart to let him go to bed since he has to wake up early and act normal all day. But Bart happily denies the little Max's request, saying he wants him to stay up and stop whining.

Bart then wakes up, feeling completely refreshed and ready for anything. But then he sees that it's still 2 in the morning and he's only been asleep for 30 seconds.


This was a really fun and sweet issue of Impulse. It perfectly captured the chaotic nature of dreams and the innocence of Bart Allen. And I'm so glad Humberto Ramos did the art here. I love the way he draws Bart screaming, which happens quite a bit in this issue. And with Tom Peyer, the usual writer on Legion of Super-heroes, handling the script and dialogue, we got to see Bart use the word "grife" a bit more. Apparently, "grife" is a swear word in the 30th century, so it makes sense that Bart wouldn't have said it much until after he's had a few encounters with XS and the Legion.

Kevin Dragone, of Phoenixville, Penn., says Impulse #16 was a very sad issue. He hopes Max and Helen spend some quality time together, and asks if Bart will ever date Carol and whether Impulse will team up with Robin.

Ed Homa Jr., of Bear, Del., was happy to have Humberto Ramos back for issue #16, and he requests for Mike Wieringo or Mike Parobeck to the be regular fill-in artist. Sadly, Jason Hernandez-Rosenblatt has to say that Parobeck recently died of diabetes just short of his 31st birthday.

Mark J. Kiewlak, of Nanticoke, Penn., praises Mark Waid for having the guts to spend the majority of an issue on a domestic, character-driven flashback. He also praises editor Brian Augustyn for having the courage to give up his steady job to pursue his freelance writing dream.

C.H. Reynard, of Montclair, Va., says Humberto Ramos' art is the best he's seen in 10 years of collecting comics. He also asks for Impulse to cross over with Robin or Superboy.

Jeff DeMos, of New York, loved the role-reversal of Impulse teaching his mentor about personal responsibility. He also asks whether Helen might have super speed, and he compares Waid's accurate portrayal of teenage life to the movie Welcome to the Dollhouse.

Derrick Lang, of Cincinnati, Ohio, simply begs for a White Lightning miniseries, but Hernandez-Rosenblatt basically says that's never going to happen.

Mary Catelli, of Berlin, Conn., was happy that issue #16 didn't romanticize what Max did, showing he needs to take responsibility for his actions. She also asks for more Trickster in the DC Universe. Now for the ads:

The cost of Final Night ... will be remembered forever. Green Lantern. Issue #81 by Marz, Banks, and Tanghal.

The Amalgam Age of comics. The stories that twisted two universes ... into one. This trade paperback includes the Impulse-Quicksilver character, Mercury.

Subscribe to the world's mightiest heroes! One issue of Impulse normally cost $1.75, but you could get 12 issues for $15.

Watch This Space talks about more DC-Marvel crossovers, more DC-Milestone crossovers, and the Sci-Fi channel re-airing episodes of the 1990 Flash TV series. They also admit they mistakingly listed Patrick Ewing's height as 6-foot-7 instead of 7-feet.

Next time, we'll begin December 1996 with a bit of an epilogue to Final Night in Green Lantern #81.

The Final Night #4

The Final Knight

Karl Kesel .. Writer
Stuart Immonen .. Penciller
Jose Marzan Jr. .. Inker
Trish Mulvihill .. Colorist
Gaspar .. Letterer
Ali Morales .. Assistant Ed.
Dan Thorsland .. Editor

The cover by Immonen and Marzan actually shows Impulse for once! Unfortunately, Impulse is nowhere to be found inside this issue, not even lurking in the background. But he's not alone. Half the characters on this cover only appear on the cover, including Aquaman, Superboy, Martian Manhunter, and Mr. Miracle, who presented the first (failed) plan to take down the Sun-Eater. I wonder if this was a late editorial decision. It's almost as if DC realized at the last second that a bunch of popular characters played no role in this conclusion, so they hastily threw them on the cover.

Our story picks right up where Legion of Super-heroes #86 left off, with Lex Luthor and Brainiac 5 presenting their latest plan. Unable to prevent the sun from going hyper-nova, they have decided to try to contain the blast by placing a massive force field around the sun. Luthor designed a force-field generator, and Flash assembled half a million of them in twelve hours, while other speedsters made continuous supply runs. I guess that includes Impulse, but nobody specifically said his name.

Luthor plans to have Green Lantern pilot Dusk's ship to put the devices in place, but Lantern suddenly disappears right there and then. So Superman volunteers to take his place, but first he stops to write a goodbye note to Lois Lane. He takes so long writing this note, that Ferro has enough time to sneak into Dusk's ship and take off before anybody can stop him.

Suddenly, Green Lantern returns with Parallax, the former Green Lantern Hal Jordan, who destroyed all existence in Zero Hour. But this time, Parallax wants to save the earth. He explains that he can get rid of the Sun-Eater, heal the sun, and moderate the energy so Earth warms up safely. Batman protests, but Superman accepts, and Parallax takes off to save the day. First, he rescues the idiot Ferro right before he dies. Then Parallax dispels the Sun-Eater and restores the sun to its former glory by reciting the Green Lantern's oath. And in an intentionally ambiguous ending, it almost appears as if Parallax died while doing this. Almost.


Well, that was a pretty convenient ending. At the end of the day, it didn't matter what any of the heroes did, because the most powerful being in the universe came in at the last second to do everything himself. At least Zero Hour required a handful of heroes to stop Parallax. But here, all the heroes spent most of the time sitting around in a dark laboratory, throwing out suggestions that never went anywhere. And if this was supposed to be a sweet redemption tale about Hal Jordan, then why wasn't he even mentioned in the first three issues of this miniseries? All in all, I consider Final Night and underwhelming crossover event.

Next time, we get back to basics with Impulse #19.

Legion of Super-heroes #86

Heart of Iron

Your guides to the 20th century:
Tom Peyer – Writer/Co-Plotter
Tom McCraw – Co-Plotter/Colorist
Lee Moder – Penciller
Ron Boyd – Inker
Pat Brousseau – Letterer
Ruben Diaz – Associate Editor
KC Carlson – Editor

The cover is by Alan Davis, Mark Farmer and Patrick Martin. It shows the hero Ferro, who can turn his skin into iron, riding a bomb into the sun. This is paying homage to the original Ferro Lad, who died in a similar manner in 1967. But this is 1996 with a new Legion of Super-heroes and new circumstances. However, Ferro does not actually dive into the sun in this issue. He wants to, but doesn't get to.

As you may or may not know, the Legion of Super-heroes is team of teenagers from the 30th century. Bart's cousin, Jenni Ognats aka XS, is a member of the team, which was stranded in the 20th century during the whole Sun-Eater attack. But Jenni was able to return to the future thanks to the future Flash, John Fox, and the cosmic treadmill. But the rest of her teammates are still here, mostly complaining about being stuck in 1996 and whining about how cold it is. I guess they do help out a few people here and there, but the majority of this issue serves to annoy me. Impulse will later have some direct adventures with them, but for now, he's relegated to the background of a flashback.

The interesting part of the issue comes at the end, when Ferro presents a plan to Brainiac 5 and Lex Luthor. You see, Ferro doesn't want any of the major heroes like Superman to risk their lives, so he volunteers himself for a suicide mission to deliver a bomb to the Sun-Eater. He even drew a little sketch that looks just like the cover. But Brainiac 5 and Luthor dismiss Ferro's idea, choosing instead to contain the hyper-nova with a force field. Luthor wants Green Lantern to set it up, but he mysteriously disappears at that very moment. So Superman volunteers, but Ferro's death wish isn't satiated.




I guess this would have been an OK issue if I were a Legion fan, but I'm not, so it came off as rather boring. I'm also not exactly sure why Ferro was so insistent that he kill himself. I think this was a case of the writers being too excited to re-create history, and their unbridled excitement came across as an usual eagerness for Ferro to end his own life.

None of the letters in Legion Outpost mention Impulse, or even XS for that matter, so we'll head straight to the ads:

Skittles. Taste the rainbow. I could be mistaken, but I believe this may have been one of the first time's Skittles used that slogan. And they've kept it going for 20 years.

There's a Cap'n Crunch one-page comic, wherein the Cap'n uses his delicious cereal to motivate three kids to cross a dangerous rope bridge.

CD-ROM comic books burst onto the scene! Featuring animation from the classic 1960s DC Saturday morning cartoons.

If you can't meet the pros in person, we'll send them to your door. Dynamic Forces New York Comic Convention.

It's the ultimate Halloween party. And you're invited. Batman: The Long Halloween. Jeph Loeb. Tim Sale. This is a classic that is required reading for any and every comic book fan.

Night time has come. Night Force. Marv Wolfman, Brent Anderson, Will Blyberg.

Subscribe to the world's mightiest heroes! A normal issue of Legion of Super-heroes cost $2.25, but you could get 12 issues for $21, plus the annual for free.

Watch This Space talks a bit about the DC Versus Marvel trade paperback, which included Mercury, the cross of Impulse and Quicksilver. But most of the editor's column is taken up with a sad note about the sudden passing of 30-year-old artist Mike Parobeck. Apparently he was killed by complications due to diabetes. He was the penciller of Impulse Annual #1, an issue I really didn't care for. But Parobeck was better-known for his work on the comic adaptation of Batman: The Animated Series.

Same time. Same place. Different dimensions. Sliders. Fridays on Fox.

Prepare to fly. Nights: Into Dreams ... Sega Saturn.

Next time, we conclude DC's big event of 1996 with The Final Night #4.

The Final Night #3

Chapter 3: Keeping Hope Alive

Karl Kesel • Writer
Stuart Immonen • Penciller
Jose Marzan Jr. • Inker
Patricia Mulvihll • Colors
Gaspar • Letters
Ali Morales • Asst. Editor
Dan Thorsland • Editor

This cover by Immonen and Marzan shows Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel flying away from scores of body bags. It's a rather haunting image, painting a much graver picture than anything we see inside this issue.

We skipped issue #2, but trust me, we didn't miss much. In issue #3, we find out it's been three days since the Sun-Eater covered the sun. Most of the heroes are busy trying to prevent riots from breaking out around the world and provide supplies to people in need. Meanwhile, a select few are holed up in S.T.A.R. Labs, working on a permanent solution under Lex Luthor and Brainiac 5. And, if you look closely, you can just make out Impulse lurking in the background.

Brainiac 5 and Luthor discover the sun is trying to fend off the Sun-Eater, in a sense, and is in danger of going hyper-nova, which would destroy Earth. But our heroes still aren't any closer to finding a solution. Oh, and the Phantom Stranger spends his time taking Dusk around the world to show her that humanity hasn't given up, or something inspirational like that.


This was a rather dull issue for what's supposed to be DC's big crossover event of 1996. Yeah, every character imaginable is there, but none of them are doing anything interesting. Maybe I'd like this story more if Impulse had something to do, but it really feels like Karl Kesel's story was only long enough for two or three issues, so there's a lot of stalling going on to stretch it to four issues. And the art is really lackluster. Jose Marzan Jr. is normally a better inker than this, so perhaps a lot of this blotchiness can be blamed on the coloring.

Next time, we'll check out one of the Final Night tie-in issues that happens to draw Impulse in the background — Legion of Super-Heroes #86.

The Final Night #1

Chapter One: Dusk

Karl Kesel ... Writer
Stuart Immonen ... Penciller
Jose Marzan Jr. ... Inker
Lee Loughridge .. Colorist
Gaspar ... Letterer
Ali Morales ... Asst. Editor
Dan Thorsland ... Editor

The cover by Immonen and Marzan shows the biggest, most powerful DC characters — Batman, Flash, Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter — standing on Clark Kent's place of employment, The Daily Planet. It's an OK cover, but it seems to suffer from some of the crude computerized coloring that plagued this era.

Our story begins with Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes being alerted to an approaching alien spacecraft, which just happens to land in Metropolis. The alien introduces herself as Dusk and delivers a dire warning: The Sun-Eater is coming! She explains that a gigantic alien is on its way to devour the sun and destroy the solar system. So Superman summons every superhero imaginable to figure out a way to stop this upcoming threat.

And that brief glimpse of Impulse swinging his legs back and forth is all we see of him in this issue. The first plan the heroes come up with is to have Mr. Miracle create a large boom tube to teleport the Sun-Eater away. But that fails. Then all the energy-based heroes combine their powers to create a second sun in an effort to lure away the Sun-Eater, but that fails, too. Soon, the Sun-Eater envelops the sun, casting the Earth in frigid darkness. And Lex Luthor decides to end his tropical vacation to help the heroes save the world.




So that's not a terrible beginning to a big event book. Putting the sun at risk certainly is a large enough threat to unite all of DC's heroes, but unfortunately, only a select few can actually do something about it. It's a similar problem that faced Zero Hour, but unlike Zero Hour, Final Night so far isn't providing any random fighting opportunities for all the land-bound heroes like Impulse.

I only have the digital copy of this series, so there won't be any ads here.

Impulse doesn't appear in the next issue, so we'll skip ahead to The Final Night #3.

Impulse #18

Virtually Wasted

Martin Pasko Guest Writer
Anthony Williams Guest Penciller
Wayne Faucher Inker
Chris Eliopoulos Letterer
Tom McCraw Colorist
Jason Hernandez-Rosenblatt Assistant Editor
Paul Kupperberg Editor
Impulse created by Mark Waid & Mike Wieringo

Sadly it's time for another guest-creator issue of Impulse. But, as always, we have a nice cover by Humberto Ramos and Wayne Faucher. Unfortunately, this is a very misleading cover. Impulse sadly does not go into space ... yet. And the colorist made Bart's hair too light and his eyes blue, instead of yellow. But, this cover is notable for being the first in the series to show Bart not wearing his Impulse uniform.

Our story begins with a hallucinating teenager walking off the top of a tall building. Luckily, the news was right on top of this, giving Impulse a chance to rush over and catch the kid with a small whirlwind. Impulse sticks around to listen to the police, and he learns that there was a similar case not too long ago of a hallucinating teen showing no signs of taking any drugs.

Bart runs home, changes into his New York Yankees jersey, and finds Max preparing to spend a weekend alone at a log cabin. I guess Max knows he can leave Bart alone for a few days after he got by just fine when Max was kidnapped by Savitar. Bart thinks Max is still mad about the maid outfit prank during his adventure with Zatanna, but I suspect Max is trying to figure out what to do after telling Helen he's really her father. Anyway, Bart warns Max to avoid poison ivy, but Max assures him he can take care of himself. As soon as he leaves, Bart begins planning a party.

We then head to a sketchy part of town, where a shady man named Saul Zaranec is strong-arming a 17-year-old genius named Walter Traeger into providing him with some kind of high-tech implants. Walt warns him that there is a glitch in the transmitter not allowing subjects to exit the program and he needs more time to test the devices. But Zaranec accuses him of stalling and sends him on his way. Privately, Zaranec reveals to his henchmen that he's already got men to build more implants, he just needs Walt to provide the prototypes. And if Walt doesn't deliver in the next 24 hours, they will eliminate him.

The next day, Bart takes a field trip to The Dean Acheson Space Flight Center. (Dean Acheson was the Secretary of State under President Harry S. Truman.) Bart's class gets to see the astronaut training area, and Bart is most interested in watching a man experience the sensation of weightlessness while just sitting in an ordinary room. Walt Traeger then introduces himself and explains that the man Bart was watching was using his virtual reality program. Unlike conventional VR programs that require cables and headsets, Walt's technology utilizes a small implant, imbedded under the skin near the temple to transmit images directly into the trainee's brain.

We then check in with Zaranec, and find out that Walt has apparently sabotaged the equipment he gave him, making it impossible for Zaranec to replicate it. He does still have half a dozen implants, but he sends his goons to visit Walt personally to take all of Walt's equipment and take Walt out of the picture.

Meanwhile, Bart is bored after beating level 12 of Galactus Viper. So he decides to prank call Max at the cabin, but finds Max has set his machine to "announce only" specifically so Bart couldn't harass him with annoying messages. I guess Max knew that if there was a real emergency, then Bart would just run over there. Anyway, Bart gets so mad he throws the phone out the window, shattering the glass. Bart then decides to take a quick jog, which happens to take him right past Walt Traeger driving by. So Bart decides to follow him, suspecting he might be behind the cases of the hallucinating teens.

Walt arrives at his boathouse to find Zaranec's men tearing up the place. Luckily, Impulse isn't far behind, able to disarm and scare away the men. Impulse also saves Walt's computer and helps him clean up, while Walt tells his brief life story. Apparently he graduated from high school at 8, got his doctorate before his driver's license, and has been living on his own since him mom died a couple of months ago. But he'll turn 18 next month, way before social services gets to his case file. Walt also explains that Saul Zaranec's father used to own Z Corp, a flight simulator manufacturer. But after Zaranec's dad died, the company couldn't keep up with the improvements made in virtual reality and went bankrupt. So Zaranec started dealing amphetamines to employees at the Acheson Space Center, and one of his customers told him about Walt's implants. Soon, Walt found himself being forced to go into business with Zaranec to create high-tech hallucinogens.

While Walt and Bart talk and clean, neither of them realize that Zaranec's men have regrouped and decided to turn Walt's own technology against him. They've loaded the implants in a high-tech rifle in an attempt to shoot the device into Walt's temple from a distance. But the fist shot hits Impulse instead, who falls off the boat and into the lake. The second shot misses Walt entirely, but knocks a hanging plant on his head, which knocks him out. Zaranec's goons believe they tagged Walt with the implant, and they carry him away.

Impulse groggily pulls himself out of the lake, feeling like an anchor and wondering why he isn't bleeding if he was shot in the head. Impulse sees Zaranec's men drive away with Walt, and he begins to follow them. But just then, the goons activate the implant, believing it's in Walt's head. Suddenly, Bart finds himself flying through space in an astronaut suit, just like on the cover. When Walt fails to react, the henchmen decide to ramp up the hallucination, causing Impulse to believe he's encountered a UFO carrying several deceased rock stars, including Elvis Presley, John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix. Impulse then realizes he's in a hallucination, so he vibrates the implant out of his head.

By the time Impulse recovers, Zaranec's men have given up on tormenting Walt with the implant and have decided to just shoot him and dump his body in a cave. Zaranec himself arrived at the cave to do the job, but Impulse got there just in time. Using the stalagmites and stalactites as weapons, Impulse disarms and knocks out the bad guys and save Walt, who also turns himself in for his role in the whole mess.

Bart goes home and acts all cool when Max gets back, saying he almost missed him. Bart then says, "But that whole move with that virtual reality guy was stoopid buddies, yo?" I don't know if that is supposed to be 30th century slang or 1996 slang, and Max doesn't know either, groaning that the language has been reinvented in the two days he's been gone. Bart then notices Max covered in rashes from poison ivy and teases him the rest of the night.


I didn't care too much for this issue. It certainly dealt with an interesting idea, but the whole story was too convoluted and required too much convenient happenstance. And while I appreciate the effort to make Walt closer to Bart's age, I felt like Pasko put too much on Walt's plate. It's not enough to make him the smartest 17-year-old on Earth, who has created this amazing technology, but he also has to be an orphan? And his relationship with Zaranec was far too complicated, especially for stand-alone, throw-away characters. It reminds me a lot of Gridlock, except this time there was a teenager involved.

R.J. Spassov, of Bolivar, Ohio, actually expresses some disappointment in Mark Waid, wanting him to delve deeper into the topic of religion. R.J. says it would have been nice to see Bart actually investigate some different views, as long as the issue didn't turn into a tirade for or against organized religion.

Phillip Cosand, of Bothell, Wash., speculates that Bart must be close to 16, and he says he'd like to see a story of Bart learning how to drive. Editor Paul Kupperberg says that would be fun, but he fails to correct Phillip by saying Bart is closer to 14 years old.

Doud Ohmer, of Covington, Ky., wonders why Helen Claiborne didn't inherit any super speed from Max Mercury, but he is excited to see how she reacts to the news that Max is her dad. Doud also enjoyed seeing Trickster and White Lightning team up, and hopes the Trickster makes more appearances in Impulse or The Flash.

Paul D. Petrovic, of Canton, Ohio, says he enjoyed Impulse #14, but he warns that if Humberto Ramos permanently leaves, he will drop the book.

Tony Favo, of Grovedale, Australia, applauds Mark Waid for waiting a year to reintroduce White Lightning and sticking to his plot lines instead of succumbing to the "Bad Girl" popularity. Tony also asks if John Fox (the future Flash) will appear in Impulse, but Kupperberg says he'll be too busy.

PL Kenny, of Deckerville, Mich., praises issues #13 and #14, enjoying the moments with Roland and Carol. PL is also happy that Mark Waid was able to handle religion without falling into offensive clichés.

Laurie Flechner, of Bridgeport, Conn., praises Ramos' cartoonish art and Waid's stellar dialogue. She also wants Impulse to meet the Sovereign Seven again, and hopes for more scenes with Helen, Carol and Preston. Now on to the ads:

Retro name. New attitude. Teen Titans. By Dan Jurgens and George Pérez.

Explore the Heart of Darkness computer game sampler. Free! With two wrappers from Gummi Savers.

Nick in the Afternoon. The Return of Stick Stickly. I do vaguely remember this popsicle stick hosting the brief segments between cartoons.

The new animated series Superman comes to Kids' WB! this fall. This Superman show was actually very good, and I'll eventually get around to reviewing it on my other blog.

DC OverPower card game. Batman and Superman.

Coming to life this summer ... The Adventures of Pinocchio trading cards.

Watch This Space tells a rather interesting story about the publication delay in Robin Plus. (For some reason they don't say Robin Plus Impulse, but that's what it is.) Apparently penciller John Royle was trying to photocopy several pages of the comic in Manchester, England, when he got caught in an IRA bombing. John made it out OK, but three pages were lost, which he had to re-draw from scratch.

Red K. It'll rock Superman's world. Superman: Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite.

Next time, we'll head to November 1996 to take part in DC's big event of the year — Final Night.

The Ray #27

Time and Tempest Book III: Requiem

Christopher Priest – Script
Jason Armstrong – Penciller
Drew Geraci – Inker
Kevin Cunningham – Letterer
James Sinclair – Colorist
Alisande Morales – Asst. Editor
Brian Augustyn – Editor

The cover by Armstrong and Geraci shows Ray rapidly aging and disintegrating. This is a rather striking image, and it almost happens in the issue, but not quite.

If you can remember back to The Ray #25, you'll recall that in the year 2016, an adult Bart Allen, now the Flash, grew frustrated with Ray for being a big jerk and knocked him out. Unfortunately, Bart also left Ray's door open, which enabled some of his business rivals to come in and shoot him in the head. But what we didn't know then, was that Ray's energy was transported a few thousand years into the future to Warworld, which is inhabited by the survivors of Earth's demise, locked in never-ending conflict. Ray was brought there by the mysterious Tempest, who wants him to end the fighting, but he's not even sure where to begin.

After some fighting, and an unexplained and unnecessary transformation of Ray back into a 19-year-old, he meets Turon, the son of Tempest. He reveals that Tempest, who is the daughter of Captain Atom and Maxima, has been lying to Ray the whole time. Apparently she has been perpetuating the war and wants to absorb Ray's power.

So Ray uses himself as bait, visiting Tempest and allowing her to suck away his power. This causes Ray to rapidly age and shrivel up, similar to what we see on the cover, but it also creates an opening for Turon to attack his evil mother. Ray then recovers, becomes a 40-year-old again, and absorbs Tempest's energy, killing her once and for all. Ray then returns to his body in 2016 and finally dies in front of Flash, Triumph, and his girlfriend Gaelon.

We then return to 1996, where 19-year-old Ray is reunited with his father, who he thought was dead. And the story continues in a decidedly non-Impulse direction, so I'll just end it here.


I was disappointed by this issue. After The Ray #25 spent so much time developing this adult Bart, I was really excited to see him again. But he didn't do anything in this issue, which overall, felt rather worthless. I mean, who cares about the future version of Ray traveling even further in the future to defeat some vague villain? I sure don't.

There aren't any letters to the editor in this issue, but there are a couple of new ads:

Protector of the earth? Alpha Centurion. Story by Barbara Kesel and Stuart Immonen. Art by Dean Zachary, Wade Von Grawbadger, and Pam Eklund.

Watch This Space talks about New York Knicks center Patrick Ewing visiting the DC offices to promote the greatest movie of all time, Space Jam. Unfortunately, DC incorrectly listed Ewing's height as 6-foot-7, when he is a full 7-feet tall. But DC did announce a comic adaptation of that most wonderful movie, so I need to see if I can track that down. Watch This Space also announces a series of cross-overs with the Legion of Super-heroes, including Impulse.

Who says protecting the universe ain't no party? Superboy and The Ravers. By K. Kesel, Mattsson, Pelletier, and Davis.

Sex, bugs, rock 'n roll. Joe's Apartment.

Next time, we head to October 1996 for Impulse #18.

Impulse #17

Quicker Than the Eye

Mark Waid Story
Humberto Ramos Pencils
Wayne Faucher Inks
Chris Eliopoulos Letterer
Tom McCraw Colorist
Jason Hernandez-Rosenblatt – Assistant Editor
Paul Kupperberg – Editor
Impulse created by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo

This is another great cover by Ramos and Faucher, which shows our lovable Impulse being pulled out of Zatanna's hat. I love everything about this cover, except for Zatanna's brown hair. Everyone knows her hair is black! But the important thing is this cover announces a rather high-profile guest-star in Impulse. And, as our editors kindly remind us, this is not the first time Impulse has met Zatanna. They teamed up in The Adventures of Superman #522, helping Superman rebuild Metropolis. Actually, Zatanna just showed up at the end and brought the whole city back to normal with her magic, completely negating the work Impulse and the other heroes had done the whole day.

Our story begins with Bart waiting for Max to get ready for Zatanna's one and only show in Manchester. Bart feels like Max is being a turtle, so he rushes off to the arcade. But Max arrives before he can put the quarter in the machine, and the two head backstage to meet Zatanna. Max is an old family friend, having known Zatanna's father, Zatara, and helped Zatanna defeat Dr. Light not too long ago. Zatanna thinks Bart is adorable, and she asks him to be her assistant for the night. Max thinks putting Bart on a stage would open the flood gates, but Zatanna brushes him off. Bart is naturally very excited by the whole thing, and he even begins talking backwards to mimic Zatanna's spell-casting ability.

Zatanna's show gets off to a rough start, though. Zatanna introduces a trick called Poseidon's Coffin, which involves her being put in a straightjacket and submerged in a tank of water. But Bart puts on the straightjacket and performs the trick himself before Zatanna can finish introducing it. The rest of the show continues in this pattern, with Bart doing everything before Zatanna and messing things up. Finally, Zatanna gets so frustrated, she shouts, "Trab —teg tsol!"

The crowd cheers at the disappearance of Bart, believing it to be part of the act. But Max knows better, and all Zatanna can do is shrug, and cast a spell to teleport herself to Bart's location. It probably would've been easier for her to cast a spell to bring Bart back, but then we wouldn't have this fun adventure that follows.

Bart finds himself in a magical realm with floating castles and giant warriors. They tell him he's in the Realm of Kroz, and that he's not welcome there. They attack him with their massive maces, which shred Bart's civilian clothes, leaving his Impulse uniform underneath. Bart begins to play with the giants, causing them to attack each other. He then heads off toward the floating castle, believing he's in a video game.

Zatanna arrives just in time to see Bart run off, and when she tries to follow him, she discovers her magic doesn't work in this realm. She is then captured by the giants, who take her to the evil wizard Kroz. She tries to tell him she and Impulse arrived by accident, and Impulse thinks it's all a game, but Kroz believes they're his enemies, and he sends his minions out to destroy Impulse. But Impulse easily and gleefully defeats all the monsters, mummies, giants and assassins.

Impulse then arrives at Kroz's chambers, and, wielding a large samurai sword, quotes Buzz Lightyear with a "To infinity ... and beyond!" Bart has fun fighting with Kroz, and asks him if he's from Legend of Magda. Zatanna tries to help by casting her spells, but none of them work. She notices that Kroz is beginning to anticipate Impulse's patterns and speed, so she tries to warn him and accidentally says, "Trab — wols nwod!"

Impulse then freezes in midair, and Kroz silences Zatanna before she can give him back his speed. Kroz prepares one final blast from his magic staff, but Impulse reveals he was faking it and dodges the blast in time. The spell bounces off a mirror behind Impulse and strikes Kroz, slowly disintegrating him.

Zatanna asks Bart how they're supposed to get home if her powers really don't work, and Bart chides her for not playing enough video games. He grabs Kroz's staff and tests it out by summoning a bunch of video games, Max in a maid's outfit, and a whole bunch of bunnies. Zatanna finally yanks the staff away from him and uses the staff to return them home.

Bart's disappointed to see the staff doesn't work in this world, and he offers to help Zatanna clean up. She strongly refuses his help, and he thanks her for the game. The exasperated Zatanna almost transforms Bart into something, but restrains herself and pushes him away, right toward a very upset Max still in the maid's outfit.


This was a really fun, back-to-basics goofy Impulse adventure. Which is necessary coming off the more serious story of Max being Helen's father. And it was wonderful to have Humberto Ramos doing the art, since his great expressions and timing helps the comedy shine. Well, maybe timing isn't the right word for a comic book, but perhaps pacing? Anyway, it was great, whatever he did.

The letters column begins with an editor's note thanking Anthony Williams for filling in for Ramos. I personally wasn't too crazy about Williams' work, but he apparently pleased DC enough to become the go-to fill-in artist for Impulse.

Blake M. Petit, of Thibodaux, La., praises Mark Waid for discussing the topic of religion, and he wonders what exactly the Trickster is up to in Impulse #14. Blake also falls just short of criticizing Anthony Williams' art, mostly lamenting the fact that Humberto Ramos is taking so many breaks.

John Shaver, of Ankeny, Iowa, calls Impulse a really cool book and thanks the creators for bringing back White Lightning.

Jeff DeMos, of New York, got a bit philosophical about the religious nature of issue #14, drawing parallels to Bart wanting Max to tell him what to believe in and so many people in real life who just follow the crowd.

Ed Homa Jr., of Claymont, Del., says he would have liked to see Mike Parobeck or Mike Wieringo be the fill-in artist, but also says Williams did a good job. Ed also likes the idea of Trickster and White Lightning forming a rogues gallery for Impulse.

Doud Ohmer, of Covington, Ky., hopes that Trickster teams up with Impulse to bring down Lord Manny, Blotto and White Lightning. He also wants Bart to go on a date with Carol.

Mike Harris, of Belleville, Ontario, calls Impulse the coolest comic around and says he loves the interactions between Bart and Max and how Bart helps all the kids around him. Mike also requests team-ups with Green Lantern and the Ray. Now for the ads:

Home is where the hostages are. House Arrest. Starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Pollak.

You can earn prizes or cash. Olympia Sales Club.

CHOMP! The Video Game. A CD-ROM based on Gummi Savers.

Alaska. A missing father. A desperate search. An unforgettable adventure.

The Superman Batman Adventures on USA Network.

Legends of the Dead Earth. Aquaman Annual #2. By Peter David, Ed Hannigan, and Steve Mitchell.

Watch This Space talks mostly about Kingdom Come, detailing a book-signing tour for Alex Ross and Mark Waid.

New low fare to the third dimension. Virtual Boy.

Next time, we return to the far future of 2016 to catch one final glimpse of adult Bart Allen in The Ray #27.