The Flash #81

Death and the Speed Force Conclusion

Joshua Williamson Writer

Scott Kolins Artist

Luis Guerrero Colors

Steve Wands Letters

Rafa Sandoval, Jordi Tarragona & Tomeu Morey Cover

Guillem March Variant Cover

Rob Levin Associate Editor

Paul Kaminski Editor

Jamie S. Rich Group Editor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Justice League #34

Justice/Doom War Part 5

Scott Snyder & James Tynion IV Writers

Bruno Redondo and Howard Porter Art

Hi-Fi Colors

Tom Napolitano Letters

Francis Manapul Cover

Francesco Mattina Variant Cover

Ben Meares Associate Editor

Jamie S. Rich Editor

Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.

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

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

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

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

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

The Batman's Grave.

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

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

Young Justice #9

Lost in the Multiverse Part 3

Brian Michael Bendis Script

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

Gabe Eltaeb Colors

Wes Abbott Letters

Timms and Eltaeb Cover

Nick Bradshaw and John Rauch Variant Cover

Brittany Holzherr Associate Editor

Mike Cotton Editor

Brian Cunningham Group Editor

Superboy created by Jerry Siegel.

By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium #2

Brian Michael Bendis Writer

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

Tomeu Morey and Jordie Bellaire Colorists

Dave Sharpe Letterer

Ryan Sook Cover

Bryan Hitch and Alex Sinclair Variant Cover Artists

Brittany Holzherr Associate Editor

Brian Cunningham Editor

Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

Superboy created by Jerry Siegel.

By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next time, we return to Young Justice #9.