Impulse #61

The Sidekick Swap

G. Johns ♥'s da Guest Writer
Mshindo I. & E. Battle ♥ da Guest Pencillers
R. Ramos ♥'s Guest Inking
J. Chiang ♥'s Letters
Colorist R. Taylor ♥'s Jamison Separations
Randy Newman ♥'s L.A.

This issue's cover by "Stars" Van Sciver and "S.T.R.I.P.E." Faucher. This issue's credits were carved into a tree trunk, hence the hearts (which I hope show up for everybody). Anyway, this is a really fun cover with Impulse riding S.T.R.I.P.E. upside down and Max nervously poking his head out the window. Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. are perfect guest stars for Impulse, and if a guest writer was necessary, then Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. writer Geoff Johns is the best choice. I am glad that Ethan Van Sciver has returned at least to do this cover, but his presence is sorely missed on this series. He hasn't done an issue since Impulse #57.

Our story begins with Max dragging Impulse out to Blue Valley, Nebraska, on a Saturday. Bart wanted to go see Ratman 2001 with Preston for the fifth time. But Max says this is a great chance to learn from someone who was around when teenaged heroes first appeared — and he's not talking about Old Justice, whom he considers a "bunch of bitter sidekicks" who've taught Impulse more than enough. Max, who is working up quite a sweat on this run, tells Bart that he needs to learn more about his legacy, particularly that of Kid Flash's legacy, since Bart recently sort of met Wally as Kid Flash during Sins of Youth.

Just as Bart starts to complain about being called Kid Flash all the time, the Star-Spangled Kid makes a dramatic arrival and calls Bart "Kid Flash." She then asks if he's gotten a haircut, but realizes she might be thinking of his adult form during their previous adventure. Impulse reminds her of the first adventure they had, where they both lost their hair and turned blue, and he asks Courtney not to tell Max. Courtney asks how Robin is doing, and Bart wonders why all the girls ask him how Robin is.

Max Mercury and Pat Dugan become reacquainted — apparently they haven't seen each other since 1943 with the Seven Soldiers. Both of them experience some sort of time warp, which is why they're (relatively) young still. But the teenagers interrupt the old-timers' reminiscing by complaining once again that it's Saturday. Pat says superheroes don't get weekends off. Max encourages him to have patience, but Pat says Courtney doesn't know the meaning of the word. Max vows to teach it to Courtney, and he immediately grabs her and rushes her off to her lesson, leaving Bart and Pat to begin theirs.

Pat explains that he used to partner with one of the world's first teenage heroes, the original Star-Spangled Kid. Now he's with the current Star-Spangled Kid in Blue Valley, which is still best known for being the home of Kid Flash because of the tremendous legacy he left behind. Pat talks about how Wally acquired his powers as a teenager and had to learn how to adapt to them, whereas Bart was born with them and had to learn how to adapt to reality. But Bart quickly gets bored with this history lesson, and begins fiddling around with Pat's suit, accidentally triggering his launching fist, which destroys Blue Valley's famous Kid Flash billboard.

Meanwhile, Max takes Courtney to the Justice Society of America headquarters in New York City, running past newspapers that say, "Catwoman's prison cat fight," "Superman under siege" and, most importantly to us, "Fog Prince loose!" Max asks Wildcat for a JSA assignment, but Wildcat says it's been a slow day, and all he has for the two of them is reports of a ghost at the Silversmith Gentlemen's Club. The old men at the club are very old fashioned, and they prohibit Courtney from entering, since she's a girl. Courtney literally kicks the door in, and Max lectures her for not asking to enter in a more courteous way. They quickly spot the source of the disturbances — the Gentleman Ghost, who I guess was involved in Day of Judgment (not like Impulse was).

Back at Blue Valley, Impulse and Pat make a quick pit stop at his garage, while Impulse suggests they head to a zoo, arcade, or better yet, the movie theater to see Ratman 2001. Bart answers Courtney's phone that she left behind, and has a quick talk with her friend Mary, who also asks how Robin is doing, much to Bart's chagrin. Pat tells him they're going to repair the billboard they destroyed, and in his excitement, Bart accidentally spills some paint on the remains of the villain named Paintball. Pat thought he and Courtney had defeated that paint-based villain, but apparently all it takes to revive him is to have his goggles come into contact with some paint. Paintball quickly reforms himself and sticks Pat to the wall and Bart to the floor.

In New York, amidst a slew of Ghostbuster jokes, Courtney tries to battle the Gentleman Ghost, but her attacks keep flying through him. Max tries to help, but he's overcome with exhaustion. The Ghost explains that after Day of Judgment, the powers that be appointed him to stay on Earth to ignite heart attacks in old, rich men ... for some reason. The battle goes from bad to worse, with Gentlemen Ghost grabbing Max by the throat, saying he still needs to fill his quota for the week.

In Nebraska, Impulse easily frees himself from Paintball's trap, but instead of pulling Pat off the wall, he decides to jump into the S.T.R.I.P.E. suit himself. Pat warns Bart that he won't be able to do anything in there since the whole system is based on virtual reality, but Pat soon realizes that this won't be a problem for Bart. Sure enough, Impulse considers the insides of the robot to be "home sweet home," and he instantly begins pushing the machine to its limits by attacking Paintball and freeing Pat. Eventually Paintball is defeated with ordinary paint thinner, and Bart says, "Whoa, he melted. Wicked. As in witch."

The other battle also comes to a quick end, as Courtney finally figures out that her energy-based "shooting stars" can damage the Gentleman Ghost. The specter doesn't like being harmed, so he just teleports away, saying he'll look for another club with less distractions. The old men at this club, however, are still mad at Courtney for barging inside and basically destroying the place. But Max angrily defends Courtney, prompting her to remind him of the lesson he was trying to teach her.

Just as soon as Bart and Pat finish rebuilding the Kid Flash billboard, Max returns with Courtney. Both Max and Pat consider their lessons to have failed, and they each tell their old friend that he has his hands full. Courtney, however, had a fun time, saying she's never seen a ghost before, and she'd like to do this swap thing again. Max quietly says he'd do another swap the day he grows a second head. Bart quickly rushes Max out of there, saying there's still a chance he and Preston can catch the 7 o'clock showing.

As the two speedsters take off, we see that Bart has left a small note on the billboard: "Wally, thanx for going first! Bar Impulse." Max does his best to keep up with Bart and not let him see how hard a time he has with running. He resolves he can't put off his next appointment with Dr. Morlo, who is currently working on Max's problem in his lab. Morlo is not happy with the results he's seen so far, and as he works, a dark, sinister creature lurks on the screen of one of his monitors.


This issue was a bit of a disappointment. Maybe it's because I'm tired of getting filler issues in Impulse. Maybe it's because I'm mad that this was labeled as a "Day of Judgment Follow-Up" that actually had nothing to do with Day of Judgment. (It actually had more to do with Sins of Youth, if anything.) But I think the biggest reason I'm disappointed in this issue comes down to the Gentleman Ghost. Traditionally, in a superhero swap story, you'd have each hero battle the other's usual villains. This worked with Impulse fighting Paintball. We've seen Paintball on the early covers of Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E., and watching Bart have fun inside the S.T.R.I.P.E. suit was great. But the Gentleman Ghost is not an Impulse villain. He only made one very brief cameo in Impulse #54. So it makes no sense to bring him in here (and to defeat him in a really lame way, too). Ideally, Courtney and Max would have gone to Manchester, Alabama, to battle someone Impulse has actually faced before. Granted, I don't know exactly who this should be — obviously not Inertia — but maybe someone like the Spazz or White Lightning could have returned?

And, of course, the art added to the disappointment factor. Two pencillers is never an ideal situation, and I think there's a reason why Mshindo never became a big name in comics. He kept having Bart bite his lip and make really weird, annoying faces throughout the whole issue. But I will give him credit for showing Max's fatigue while running. And I will also credit Geoff Johns for making sure to tie everything in nicely to what has previously happened in Impulse and what will happen next. So really, this wasn't an awful issue by any means. It just could have been a lot better.

Impulse Reactions begins with Jack Purcell, of Northampton, Mass., saying Impulse keeps getting better and better with Todd Dezago and Ethan Van Sciver. Jack loved Impulse #57 because it reminded him what a great character Plastic Man can be, and he asks for more interactions between him and Impulse.

Tamiko Campbell, of Bronx, N.Y., praised Impulse's ability to pull in other DC characters (like Plastic Man) and allow them to branch out in new ways.

Bart Allen (that's what he said his name was!) asks for an issue that guest stars some VERY old characters — Sugar and Spike, Scribbly and Ma Hunkle.

Craig Rousseau writes: "Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed the Christmas issue! Todd and Ethan are making Impulse so good these days, it jumps right to the top of my monthly pile of books!" L.A. Williams thanks the former Impulse penciller for his praise, and encourages readers to check out his work on Batman Beyond.

Captain E. Nemo said issue #57 was the second best issue after Impulse #50. He loved the idea of Plastic Man finding someone else annoying and obnoxious.

Dark Vengeance loved Mr. Mxyzptlk's plan to ruin Superman's reputation with the Santandroid. He also asks what Bart's going to name his new dog, and L.A. brings that question to the readers.

Steve Premo said he loved reading issue #57 to his kids since it showed Bart still believes in Santa Claus and did nothing to imply that Santa doesn't exist. Steve's kids loved how Plastic Man struggled to pronounce Mxyzptlk, and he suggests the dog be named Primo.

Faries Odom, of Malden, Mass., called issue #57 a good read with lots going on, and perfect for children and teenagers.

Brian J. McNamara, of Amherst, Mass., said his 5th and 6th graders at Wildwood Elementary loved the Christmas issue. Several children loved how Impulse believes in Santa, and others especially liked the happy ending. Brian enjoyed comparing it to the comics he read as a child in the 1950s.

Electric Peter Tork loved how Woozy Winks was given a chance to be useful.

Erik Johnson simply praises the creators and says he looks forward to each new issue, and identifies one of L.A. Williams' quotes.

Jon Hart, of Kansas City, Mo., identifies another quote and says he enjoys the book.

Eduardo A. Santillan Marcus, of Rosario, Argentina, called issue #57 the best Christmas story of the year, perhaps the decade. He almost died laughing at Plastic Man, Woozy and Mxy. His only request is that Impulse meet Lobo someday. L.A. notes that Impulse will be meeting Lobo in Young Justice very soon.

Nuriko is glad to have some happiness on the book ahead of the upcoming intense storyline, Mercury Falling. But before we can get there, let's check out this month's new ads:

Ken Griffey Jr. asks, Sometimes I wonder, why baseball? Why not basketball? Why not football? Why not soccer? Then I wonder, why not eat them all? Sportz crackers.

Hey, kids! Comics! talks about the Superman writers' Super Summit 2000, alluding to the storyline of Lex Luthor becoming president. It also includes a tribute to longtime DC artist Gil Kane, who had recently passed away. Kane was mostly known for his work on Green Lantern and the Atom in the Silver Age. He also provided the art to The Life Story of the Flash.

You can win instantly to be in Nicktoons through specially marked packages of Nabisco products.

The story of pink milk. (Pink cows picking strawberries.) Hershey's Strawberry Syrup.

DC Kids Combo Deal. Order any two titles for only $29.95 and receive this free erasable memo board and pen. Individual issues of Impulse cost $2.25 at this time. This subscription ad includes Impulse and Superboy, but sadly, not Young Justice or The Flash.

Best Western Summer Adventures. Stay at a hotel and get a free disposable camera, 10-minute phone card and a comic book.

When titans crash! Superman & Bugs Bunny.

Be a Dark Knight. Batman with a chocolate milk mustache. Got milk?

Next time, we have to take one more quick diversion before starting Mercury Falling, with Young Justice #21.

Young Justice #14

Like Heck, You Say or Crossovers are Heck!

Peter David Hecka Writer
Todd Nauck Hecka Pencils
Lary Stucker Hecka Inks
Jason Wright Hecka Colors
Digital Chameleon Hecka Seps
Ken Lopez Hecka Letters
Maureen McTigue Hecka Associate
Eddie Berganza Going to Heck

It's Harm in your face by Todd Nauck & Lary Stucker with some WildStorm colors! This cover certainly doesn't hold back the big surprise of this issue. Luckily, though, there will be a pretty big surprise associated with Harm we'll get to enjoy. Altogether, this is a fun and exciting cover. Although, I am a little confused as to why Impulse is thinking of a zebra. Is it just because Harm is (mostly) black-and-white now? Or is there a deeper meaning I'm missing?

Our story begins with Secret making her way back to the only home she's ever known, the Young Justice cave. She's still pretty shaken after her experience in the hospital, and now she's afraid to be alone. She searches for her friends, especially Robin, whose name she repeats several times. Interestingly, we see that someone has put up a Hugga-Tugga-Thugees poster on the wall next to the portrait of the original Justice League of America.

Secret isn't able to find anyone, and she visits the swimming pool, thinking about how just a few days ago they were all playing in the pool like normal kids. She wonders if she was ever normal, and as she stares at her reflection in the water, she sees herself being electrocuted. Secret hastily turns away from the image, deciding she doesn't want to remember these horrifying memories. As she does so, her hand freezes and turns to ice. For the first time ever, Secret feels cold. And she becomes more frightened than she was before.

We then check in with the rest of Young Justice, who are flying past an unnamed town in the Super-Cycle. A volcano has spontaneously appeared in the middle of the town and is spewing lava all over the place. Arrowette says, "Well, that can't be good!" Impulse notes that Superboy usually says that, and it's kind of becoming their slogan now. Robin orders Impulse to contain the lava while Superboy and Wonder Girl dig a trench to catch the overflowing lava. Everything in the town is appropriately themed for this disaster, with big advertisements for devil's food cake, hot sauce, the hottest comic books for sale, and the movies Volcano and Armageddon. And, is that Snapper Car down there?

Impulse contains the lava with a high-speed air cushion, and he notes the similarities between this and Young Justice's most recent adventure with Supergirl. But as Impulse astutely observes, "But dis ain't Dis ... I mean, this ain't this ... Dis ... I ... this ... aw, never mind." Superboy and Wonder Girl get to work on the trench, and nobody seems to notice the demons emerging from the volcano. After a few minutes, Impulse reports to Robin that the lava seems to have a mind of its own, and he can't contain it much longer. So Robin has Arrowette shoot three liquid nitrogen arrows into the heart of the volcano. This works perfectly, and soon the volcano is frozen and the town is saved. The kids fly home, tired and covered in ash. Sadly, they pass another town, Blue Point, that they weren't able to save and is completely covered in lava. Superboy pessimistically notes that for every town they do save, there's a hundred more they don't.

We then cut to Chicago, where Red Tornado is approached with an offer from the mayor's office: help protect the city from an invasion of demons in exchange for a full pardon. Red Tornado accepts the deal, and when the guard fumbles with the keys to his cell, Red simply blasts the door off, demonstrating that he could have escaped at any time. The android also says he would have helped the mayor even without the pardon, but since the deal has been made, he will accept it. So, Red Tornado is finally free, without the help of the A.P.E.S. or Old Justice. He flies into the sky and is quickly surrounded by a bunch of demons that look similar to the ones from Dante's Inferno, but are slightly different.

Young Justice returns to the cave, and Impulse begins shouting for Tornado, Traya and Secret. Arrowette jokingly shouts for Cubby and Annette, which I assume is a Mickey Mouse Club reference, which seems a bit old for her. Robin calls up Red Tornado, who simply says now is not a good time to talk. Wonder Girl heads to the lockers to clean all the ash off herself, and she actually takes off her wig and goggles. But Cassie immediately screams once she enters the locker room, and Impulse is naturally the first to arrive.

The sight that made Cassie scream is Secret covered in ice all the way up to her head. Impulse initially thinks it's an ice sculpture of Secret, but Wonder Girl says this must be the same effect that caused Supergirl's flame wings to freeze (which Supergirl told everyone about, apparently). The rest of the team arrives, and Arrowette asks Robin what they should do. Robin can only stammer out an "I don't know," and Superboy rips into him, saying a leader doesn't get to say that. In his panicked state, Robin lashes out at Superboy, saying he'll deck him if he doesn't shut up. Before Secret's head is covered by the ice, she speaks ominously about Hell freezing over and the coming of the abyss. But soon she's completely engulfed by the ice, and all Robin can think to say is to get her to the sauna. Suddenly, Secret begins cracking, and an old foe, Harm, emerges from the ice.

While Red Tornado has his hands full with demons and volcanoes in Chicago, Harm explains to Young Justice that they haven't seen him in a while since he's been suffering from a slight case of death. Harm says the only way he could have returned was if Hell froze over, which it just did. He pulls out a flaming sword, and fires a large blast at our heroes. Superboy protects his teammates by bearing the brunt of the blast, but it takes a lot out of him. Robin tells Wonder Girl to get him to safety (which I think is a big mistake to send away one of your heavy hitters while battling such a powerful enemy).

Robin, Arrowette and Impulse move in to attack, and Impulse quickly gets on Harm's back and pummels him with punches. Harm calls Impulse's little fists cute, and to demonstrate that he is, in fact, dead, he runs his sword through himself to get at Impulse.

Impulse is shocked to see that Harm actually cut his arm on that attack. Arrowette fires three arrows at the villain, but he slices them all with his sword. Secret, now a scattered vapor in the room, begins pulling herself together to help her friends. As she does so, she also pulls together all those memories she desperately tried to bury.

Harm takes the fight out into the main room, where he begins wailing on Wonder Girl and Superboy. Luckily, Secret returns to full strength and fills the room, telling Harm she remembers him. Harm also remembers Secret, saying the last tim they fought, he didn't get a good look at her. Impulse feels like a dunce, and even Arrowette and Robin are confused by this revelation. Secret calls Harm Billy and demands to know how he could kill her, his sister. Everyone is shocked by this, but Harm smugly explains that a sacrifice was required, although in hindsight, he feels he should have sacrificed their father. Secret then goes ballistic and lifts Harm out of the cave, blasting him out to a nearby mountain.

Secret and Harm battle in the snow, with Harm blasting her with his flame sword and pushing aside her words that siblings are supposed to love each other. Superboy and Wonder Girl are first to arrive, ramming into Harm from both sides. The others are right behind them on the Super-Cycle, which hits Harm with a big blast from its cannon. But Secret gets in the final blow. Still on fire, she rams herself into the mountain's snow pack, saying this time, she and Billy will die together. Harm and Secret are buried in an avalanche, and Robin orders the team to stand by at the ready, saying the snow won't hold those two for long.

After waiting a long time (eight hours according to Superboy), Impulse begs Robin to give him something to do, saying his foot's asleep, and his legs and his hair ... So Robin gives the word, and Impulse looks all over the avalanche, but is unable to find a trace of Harm or Secret. Arrowette asks what they should do, and once again, Robin has to utter those three evil words, "I don't know." But Robin follows that up by saying Secret is one of them, and they'll find her, no matter what. And at the end of this issue, we see that somehow, inexplicably, Secret has fallen into the hands of agents Fite 'n Maad.


This was a pretty awesome issue. Young Justice's greatest villain returned, and we finally learned the chilling origin story of Secret. The issue served as a great tie-in to the Day of Judgment crossover, and it never felt like the main story of this series was sacrificed to accommodate it. Red Tornado's situation was resolved (although a bit conveniently), and we got some great character moments from our team. I liked how Robin snapped at Superboy — it helped humanize him and show the intensity of the situation. And Wonder Girl spent most the issue fighting without her wig or goggles — a sign of things to come. And Impulse was his usual, lovable self.

I guess I can now finally talk about the episode of the Young Justice animated series that features Secret and Harm. It's called "Secrets," and is appropriately written by Peter David. In it, Artemis and Zatanna battle Harm, and are aided by the ghost of his dead sister, who can only say the word "secret." The episode did a great job with Harm, who is every bit as chilling and smug as he is in the comics. But I'm really sad that Secret was reduced to a one-note role. I could say that something is better than nothing, but I feel that Secret is a critical part of the Young Justice story — every bit as important as Robin, Superboy or Impulse. So I almost consider it insulting to see what the show did with her.

The letters column accidentally reprinted two letters from last month. But it also includes two new letters, starting with Doud Ohmer, of Covington, Ky., who liked seeing the Psyba-Rats in Young Justice #8, but felt like Chuck Dixon could have done a better job with the story. He was also annoyed at how easily Red Tornado was defeated.

Michael C Lorah, of State College, Penn., enjoyed Dixon's story and loved Impulse's advice to "jiggle it," calling it hysterical and practical, since that usually does do the job. But Michael wasn't a fan of the differing art styles between Nauck and Coy Turnbull, saying it would have been better if Turnbull just did the whole issue. Time now for the new ads:

They'll mess with your mind. Star Wars Pit Droids.

It's not the size of your Howitzer, it's what you do with it. Tiny Tank for PlayStation.

Apokolips Pow! Superman & Savage Dragon: Metropolis.

Anyone want a little brother? ... he's totally housebroken. Mission Hill on The WB.

L2 Levi's at Sears, Goody's, Kohl's and Mervyn's.

Next time, we'll begin the month of December 1999 with Action Comics #760.

Impulse #54

Day of Judgment Night of Camping

A Dezago • Van Sciver • McCarthy • Rollins • Chiang • Taylor • Digital Chameleon • Williams production
Impulse created by Waid & Wieringo

Our cover shows Impulse in a movie theater, surrounding by all the various ghosts and goblins from the Day of Judgment event. L.A. Williams said Ethan Van Sciver and Wayne Faucher drew themselves in it, and I can sort of see them in the monsters right behind Impulse and on the right side. But as fun as all this is, I am compelled to point out that technically speaking, none of this happens in this issue. In fact, as we'll soon see, Impulse doesn't even show up.

We open on Preston Lindsay, who has taken up a new hobby — filmmaking. Through his narrations, we learn that the town of Manchester lies in Jasper County, just off Route 195, and Bart lives at 323 Maple Drive. Preston is filming his neighborhood while standing on top of a ladder in a wagon, which is being pulled by Wade and Mike. As this amateur film crew makes its way past Bart's house, we see Max sporting a fresh cast on his arm, autographed a hundred times by Bart. Preston heard that Mr. Crandall broke his arm fighting a giant, which he assumes is a joke. We also see a copy of the Daily Manchester Eagle, which features a story about a mysterious bank robber known as Sir Real. (Manchester either has a lot of newspapers, or one paper that constantly changes its name.)

Helen is leaving for a dentists convention, and she thinks it'd be good for Max to get Bart out of the house for a while so he can recuperate from his battle with Kalibak. She suggests allowing Bart to have an overnight campout with his friends, saying it'll be good for the boy to have some fun. Max says with Bart, fun is usually a seven-letter word: T-R-O-U-B-L-E. Bart, meanwhile, is completely oblivious to all this, immersed in his Game Boy.

A couple of friendly dogs come out and pester our amateur filmmakers, and Preston nearly takes a hard tumble off his ladder. Max and Bart stabilize the wagon and ladder and return to their previous positions before anyone notices, leaving Preston, Mike and Wade wondering why he suddenly stopped falling. Helen's final point, that Bart would be forced to slow down to his friends' level, causes Max to finally agree to the campout.

Helen takes away Bart's game of "Revenge of the Maniacal Muskrats" and tells him he'll be roughing it for the weekend. Max sternly warns Bart to be discreet, and he and Max head inside, leaving a pouting Bart to meet up with his friends. Suddenly, Zatanna appears in Helen's house, asking Max to help battle off legions of demons from the Underworld. Jay Garrick arrives right after with the same request. And despite Helen's protests, Max agrees to help these heroes, noting the seriousness of the situation. So he rips off his cast and bandages, and heads off to the big crossover event without Impulse.

Bart and his friends have gathered up all their supplies in their backpacks, and they head over to the candy shop to pick up Rolly. What they see looks like Evil Eye keeping Rolly's sleeping bag away from him before tossing it at him and calling him a rat. Preston chews out Evil Eye, reminding him how they saved him from Sunnyside. Mike joins in, calling Evil Eye a loser, and all the campers head off, leaving Evil Eye to call the kids girls and tell them to have fun on their "stupid little campout."

The boys head down the train tracks, and Preston begins filming again, explaining that not only are they taking advantage of the last week of summer, but they also plan on sneaking into Christian Taranturro's latest film, "Pulp Dogs." Preston introduces Wade as their film crew's writer, and Mike as their top actor, since he's so animated and can draw on so many emotions. (In case you haven't figured it out, but Wade and Mike are based on Impulse's creators, Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo.)

The kids toss a football around as they walk, and when Bart is told to go long, he goes really long. For a moment, nobody knows where Bart is, but he suddenly reappears right behind his friends, and Preston laughs it off as one of Bart's "magic tricks." After 20 minutes of walking, Bart begins to grumble, asking, "Do you you always walk this slow? ... I mean, 'we'! Do we always walk this slow?!" Wade assures Bart they're almost there, explaining their plan to camp on Griffin's Hill and hike into town after dark, all without being seen by old man Griffin, who is said to shoot trespassers on sight. Rolly says nobody will see them, but none of the boys notice Evil Eye following them from the shadows.

Later, the boys get their tent set up (at a snail's pace, according to Bart). Preston asks Bart if he remembered the food, and we get a fun thought bubble of Bart thinking about himself thinking about himself thinking about ... Ultimately, Bart decides to say the food's in his bag, then hurries home and comes back with the food before anyone notices. Soon, the boys are roasting hotdogs, while a starving Evil Eye watches from the bushes.

Once it gets dark, Bart and friends take the (slow) two-mile hike into town. Mike leads them to a Lexcom movie theater where his cousin works as an usher, and left the bathroom window open so the kids could sneak inside. All the kids make it in, but when Evil Eye tries to follow, he gets caught. The usher tells Evil Eye that he and his friends are in big trouble, and Evil Eye stammers for a bit before sadly saying he doesn't have any friends.

The boys love the movie, but they do get in a bit of trouble when Rolly eats the popcorn of the old lady sitting next to him, and when Preston's and Wade's constant talking annoys the three guys behind him who look an awful lot like Todd Dezago, Prentis Rollins and L.A. Williams. The kids head back to the campsite around 11 p.m., talking about the movie and reenacting its scenes all the way there. When they reach the campfire, everyone starts roasting marshmallows, and Preston pulls out the camera once again as they tell ghost stories.

Halfway through Bart's story, just after Preston turned off the camera, all the ghosts and goblins we saw on the cover come bursting out of the fire. The demons don't bother the boys and fly off into the night, leaving Bart's friends to ask him how he did that. Bart can only say "I dunno," while realizing that if he became Impulse to investigate, he'd be disobeying Max's order to be discreet. The only boy to get scared by the demons was Rolly, who zipped himself up in his sleeping bag and refused to move, even to enter the tent. Mike realizes it's now 2:30 in the morning, so they all go to bed, glad to be among friends and not scared and alone. And Evil Eye settles in for the night nearby, with nothing more than a ratty, patched-up blanket to cover him.

In the morning, the kids are awoken by the shouting of old man Griffin. Preston worries that they'll never be able to pack up before they're spotted, but Bart does all the work for them in about half a second. Bart's friends don't have much time to wonder how this happened, since Griffin fired his shotgun into the air nearby, causing everyone to scramble away as fast as they can. Well, Bart calmly walks away, but his friends are running.

Two miles later, the worn-out boys are happy to be safely away, but Rolly realizes he dropped Evil Eye's sleeping bag while running down the hill. Everyone's surprised by this, and Rolly explains that he told Eddie yesterday they were going camping but he didn't have a sleeping bag. Evil Eye excitedly said his dad has one, and Rolly thought he meant he could borrow it. But Evil Eye was actually hoping to go camping with Rolly and the others, but he was too embarrassed and proud to admit this.

When Rolly finishes his story, Mike feels bad for assuming Evil Eye was bullying Rolly, and Preston feels bad for not realizing that Evil Eye wanted to come along. Wade suggests they buy Evil Eye a new sleeping bag, but Bart has suddenly disappeared once again. Evil Eye, meanwhile, is being shouted at by his dad, who happens to be wearing a Messner-Loebs Trucking shirt. Halfway through the lecture, the missing sleeping bag suddenly appears on the front lawn, putting a small smile on Evil Eye's face.


There was no Impulse in this issue, and I loved it. Dezago has done a wonderful job of fleshing out Bart's circle of friends while perfectly capturing the spirit of teenage boys during summer vacation. And I loved how he progressed the story of Evil Eye. He's finally given up hanging out with gangs, but he's still somewhat an outcast among the "good, normal" kids. His story really hits close to home for me, since I had a friend just like Evil Eye when I was this age. My friend was also from a broken home and was a bit of an outcast. It wasn't necessarily his fault he acted out sometimes, but sadly, I and my "good, normal" friends were too young and stupid to realize this until it was too late.

But as sweet and touching and funny as this issue was, I can't help but feel bad for any reader who picked up this comic looking a Day of Judgment tie-in. Showing Max running off to fight demons and having some demons randomly show up at a campfire is nowhere near enough to be considered a tie-in. It also doesn't make any sense for Max to be willing to rush off into such a dangerous situation with a broken arm and not bring Impulse along. I also feel bad for all the letter-writers in the past who asked for another appearance of Zatanna in this series. We were teased with a brief cameo, and that was it.

We only have two letters in this month's Impulsive Reactions, starting with Caleb L. Duncan, who admits he only knew Impulse from the Robin Plus Impulse one-shot and a smattering of Flash issues. Young Justice began to raise his curiosity, but ultimately, it was Batman's appearance in Impulse #50 that got Caleb to take the bait. Now, he's fallen for the series hook, line and sinker.

Jeff Dyer, of Dubuque, Iowa, wrote a "fast-talking" letter (with no spaces) praising issue #50 and Van Sciver's work. Now let's check out the new ads:

Wanna save the world? Relax. That's what these guys are for. The Avengers, Big Guy & Rusty the Boy Robot and Xyber 9 on Fox Kids.

He's big! He's green! He's just in time for breakfast! Reptar Crunch cereal inspired by the Rugrats.

You never know what you're going to win in a box of Totino's. Grand prize is a trip to the "Football Final," which I think means Super Bowl, but they couldn't get the rights to say it.

Six days a week of Pokémon only on Kids' WB! Plus, new episodes of Batman Beyond.

Who is the master spy? Spy vs. Spy for Game Boy Color.

Vatical made the great outdoors portable. Zebco Fishing! for Game Boy Color.

Buy your kid a Suzuki and we'll give you the gear for free.

Next time, we'll take another look at the Day of Judgment crossover with Young Justice #14.