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.