Sovereign Seven #28

So Whatever Happened to Power Girl?

By Chris Claremont & Ron Lim
Chris Ivy Inker
Richard Starkings and Comicraft/EM Letters
Prismacolor Colors & Separations
Dana Kurtin Associate Editor
Kevin Dooley Editor
Claremont & Turner Creators

Our cover by Lim, Ivy and Angus McKie shows Impulse and Reflex battling for the affections of Power Girl, who is now a part of Sovereign Seven. It is a pretty funny image — Reflex's massive size contrasts nicely with Impulse's smallness — but both these heroes are acting a bit out of character. And nothing remotely like this happens in the issue. But it's still pretty fun.

Our story begins with some light-hearted sparring being interrupted with the news that someone is using Power Girl's civilian name Karen Starr, and has set up a computer software company called Starrware, conveniently located in Manchester, Alabama. So Power Girl and the Sovereign Seven decide to take a field trip to check it out.

Speaking of field trips, Bart Allen happens to be on one with the eighth grade class, visiting, you guessed it, Starrware. Bart lags behind as his bus unloads, and he happens to spot Power Girl and her friends quietly flying down into a back alley. So Bart runs over there to check it out, and is pleasantly surprised to run into Reflex again. Bart's teacher, Mr. Wade, lectures him for wandering off, and the Sovereign Seven just kind of include themselves in the tour group with Bart's class.

Bart's very excited to be touring the company that created The Conqueror's Throne and other amazing video games. Then for some reason, Bart looks at Reflex like a strict, Canadian mountie, and even though Power Girl's too old for him, he entertains the thought of hitting on her just to drive Reflex crazy. (I have no idea what's going on.) Anyway, Bart learns that Power Girl and friends arrived at Starrware without any kind of plan, so he teaches them a lesson from the book of Max: First, define your goals, then devise a plan to achieve them. Our heroes are so wrapped up in their planning that they don't notice they've become separated from the group and have fallen right into a trap.

Game Level 1

Impulse and Reflex suddenly wake up in their uniforms and surrounded by an army of demons. Impulse recognizes the Castle of Doom up ahead from The Conqueror's Throne video game he was talking about. Impulse and Reflex try to fight the demon horde, but then Impulse remembers the only way to hurt the demons is to use their own weapons against them. So Impulse grabs a big blaster rifle and begins mowing down the demons. Reflex asks where they go next, and Impulse explains they'll automatically get bumped to the next level once they cross the scoring threshold, which is exactly what happens.

Game Level 2

Impulse and Reflex suddenly find themselves on very tall, narrow pillars rising above a pool of molten lava. Impulse jumps on Reflex's back, and he deftly hops from pillar to pillar until they reach what they assume is the exit — a small window hovering high in the air.

Game Level 3

Our heroes leap through the window and into a seemingly innocuous castle room. But they soon find the floor is made of quicksand. Reflex begins rapidly sinking, so Impulse takes charge this time, having Reflex hold on to him as he runs in place, churning the liquid-like quicksand until it becomes solid. Soon, they're free and out the opposite window.

Game Level 4

This one is a giant pinball machine, knocking Impulse and Reflex around until suddenly ... nothing.

Bart realizes he's nowhere, floating in midair. After running through a wide gamut of emotions, Bart imagines the disappointed reactions of Max, Carol and his mom if he were to die. He imagines the Impulse wing of the Flash Museum being closed and forgotten, and, for some reason, Reflex gloating over a defeated Impulse. Reflex snaps Impulse out of this by throwing his massive shoe at him. Reflex is amazed at how Impulse went through all the physical and psychological responses to sensory deprivation in less than a minute. Impulse doesn't care about that, and throws the shoe back at Reflex. But Reflex tosses it right back, pointing out that he's slowly pushing Impulse toward the exit by chucking his shoe at him. So they toss the enormous boot back and forth until Impulse finally is forced out the window.

Game Level 5

Impulse sees Power Girl chained up and surrounded by beautiful, but evil women who want to attack the intruder. But first, Impulse has to save Reflex. So he takes off his costume, stripping down to his whitey-tighties, but keeps his mask on. He puts Reflex's shoe in his uniform and spins it around, using his uniform's stretchiness to reach Reflex and pull him in.

Impulse begins fighting the evil women, but then he takes a moment to think. He realizes that the game is interactive and keeps finding out new ways to counteract their powers. And he wonders where the other Sovereign Seven members are. Reflex tells him to save Power Girl then think later, but Impulse theorizes that would only worsen their situation. Since they're clearly heroes, that makes them predictable for the game. So Impulse and Reflex agree to act unheroic and allow Power Girl to die.

Bart, Reflex and the others suddenly wake up in virtual reality beds. A group of reporters quickly approaches them, eager to interview the beta-testers of the new virtual reality game. Bart plays along, saying they loved the game and are eager to meet the designer. Carol then finds Bart and drags him away — probably out of the Sovereign Seven's social circle forever.


On paper, I should have loved this issue. We get a lot of Impulse, see him in his natural video game environment, and contrast him nicely with the massive Reflex. But Chris Claremont just didn't get Impulse. And it seemed he didn't get the story he was trying to tell. He had Impulse say and think things that were completely out of place, both for this issue and the established character of Impulse. Fortunately, Ron Lim's art was good enough to prevent this issue from becoming a complete disaster.

None of the letters in Royal Mail mention Impulse, so let's head straight into the ads:

The Real Hercules, the Only Xena, starring in their first full-length animated feature. Hercules & Xena: The Animated Movie — The Battle for Mount Olympus. Starring the voices of Kevin Sorbo and Lucy Lawless (who would later voice Wonder Woman in Justice League: The New Frontier).

Mello Yello. Let it out.

Prepare for the arrival. The Visitor on Fox.

The ultimate party is in your house. Ultimate Hip Hop Party 1998. Features 16 of today's hottest, head noddin' hip hop hits.

Always dunk one down! Always Coca-Cola.

Gap Kids. Pro fleece sweatshirt $38. Easy fit jeans $24.

Next time, we'll dive right into DC's Flash Month! I'm not sure if this was to celebrate any kind of anniversary, or if a lot of projects just happened to fall into place. Regardless, the result was pretty amazing. DC churned out two Flash issues, two Impulse issues, a Secret Files and Origins issue, a special Speed Force issue, an original Flash hardcover graphic novel and a T-shirt designed by Mike Wieringo. We'll kick it off with The Flash Secret Files and Origins #1.

Sovereign Seven Plus Legion of Super-Heroes #1

History Lies!

Chris Claremont Writer
Derec Aucoin & Roger Robinson Pencillers
Dexter Vines, Jason Baumgartner & Gary Martin Inkers
Noelle Giddings Colorist
Digital Chameleon Separations
Comicraft Lettering
Eddie Berganza Assoc. Editor
Kevin Dooley Editor
Soverign Seven created by Claremont & Turner

Our cover shows Saturn Girl apparently using an evil Emerald Eye to turn most of the members of the Sovereign Seven evil. That's an interesting concept, unfortunately, nothing like that really happens in this issue. Even the title is misleading. It really should be Sovereign Seven Plus Saturn Girl, because she's the only Legionnaire who shows up.

So I guess the Legion's trip to the Flash Museum had more significance than a wacky time-travel adventure. Saturn Girl became inspired to learn a bit more about Impulse, so she begins researching the archives of the Flash Museum Impulse Wing. It's there that she comes across Impulse's "dramatic adventure" with Reflex.

I find it highly unlikely that Impulse's brief encounter with Reflex in Sovereign Seven #10 would merit any kind of a mention in the Flash Museum. However, it is possible that the entry Saturn Girl read referred to Impulse's second encounter with Reflex that we haven't got to yet. Anyway, the important thing here is that seeing Reflex's name prompted Saturn Girl to look up the Sovereign Seven, which brought up Network's name. In the 30th century, Network has a reputation of being a formidable terrorist. This bothers Saturn Girl so much that she decides to go against protocol, sneak away from the Legion by herself, and put an end to Network before her reign of terror can become the stuff of legends a thousand years later.

And that's the extent of Impulse's involvement in this issue. The rest of the story involves Saturn Girl tracking down Network, then somehow having a psychic meltdown. Saturn Girl inadvertently pulls several members of the Sovereign Seven into her subconscious and creates illusions of various Legionnaires for them to fight. In the end, Network, who is also a telepath, helps Saturn Girl regain control, and the two become the best of friends like only teenage girls can be. They even take a picture together where their faces are smushed together as hard as they can be. And ultimately, Saturn Girl comes to the conclusion that her historical records must be wrong about Network.


I didn't like this issue at all. And that's not just because there was no Impulse here. A lot of my problems with this issue comes from Chris Claremont. I know he's the legendary X-Men writer, but I can't stand his wordy, overly expositional dialogue. And whenever he introduces a character, he has them saying something while simultaneously thinking something melodramatic. I laughed at this technique in JLX #1, which I'm sure was intentionally having fun with that style. But here, Claremont is earnestly, intentionally trying to give these characters emotional depth. But he's doing it in a really cheap, shallow way.

I was also really confused while reading this story because of production errors. The art was not great, and most of the characters looked exactly the same. The only way I could tell them apart was by their hair color, but sometimes that would change from page to page. And then the speech bubbles didn't always point to the right person. All that plus the fact that the Legion of Super-Heroes really doesn't appear here, and you've got one frustrating and disappointing comic book. Impulse has now appeared in three of these "Plus" crossover issues, and the previous two were far superior. On the bright side, two out of three isn't too bad.

There aren't any letters to the editor, naturally, but there are a few new ads:

Tastebud Warning: New Starburst Fruit Twists.

NBA Hang Time for PlayStation and Nintendo 64. The ad lists several NBA players' vertical leap from the comical 10 inches for the chubby Terry Mills to the questionable 49 inches for Shawn Kemp. It is conceivable for Kemp, one of the best dunkers of all time, to have such an amazing vertical, but it's hard to find accurate information on this. Most sources I found listed Kemp at a much more realistic 40 inches, although some claim he could hit 50.

Scud: The Disposable Assassin for SegaSoft.

Meet your new comic source. UCI — The largest club in the world for serious collectors.

Make haste. Or make waste. A two-page ad for Sonic 3D Blast and VectorMan 2 for Sega Genesis.

Watch This Space talks mostly about what music various creators like to listen to.

This is the big one! Batman & Captain America. By John Byrne.

Gotham nights have never been hotter! Catwoman Vampirella: The Furies. Chuck Dixon, Jim Balent, Ray McCarthy.

If you lose, they die! Robotron X.

Every gift ... only Gap.

Next time, we'll get a lot more of Impulse (and some of Jesse Quick) with Impulse #22.

Sovereign Seven #10

There Is No Sun in Gotham

By Chris Claremont & Dwayne Turner
Chris Ivy Inker
Richard Starkings and Comicraft Letters
Gloria Vasquez Colorist
Rob Schwager Separator
Chris Eades Ass't Editor
Rob Simpson Editor
Claremont & Turner Creators

This issue's cover pencilled and inked by Dwayne Turner, colored by Gloria Vasquez, separated by Kiko Taganashi, and cover-edited by Curtis King and John Wren. I'm not sure why two people are needed to edit a cover, but whatever. I also need to point out that even though we see the Bat signal here, Batman himself does not appear in this issue. A little misleading, if you ask me, but again, whatever.

So now we enter another lackluster DC project from the '90s. Chris Claremont was/is a legendary X-Men writer, but for a couple of years, he decided to try his hand at creating a new superhero team for DC. The result was Sovereign Seven — a group of seven superheroes descending from royalty. It never really took off, but did last 36 issues.

Our story begins in Massachusetts, in particular, the town of Crossroads, which is the headquarters of the Sovereign Seven. Our lovable hero, Impulse, passes through the town. To his astonishment, he is spotted by the huge guy on the cover.

The big guy's name is Reflex, and although he can't move as fast as Impulse, he can heighten his reflexes enough to keep up with him. Reflex chastises Impulse for running so fast through the town, saying he might hit somebody. Impulse insists that would never happen, and tries to touch Reflex, but he keeps dodging him. Reflex then pokes Impulse in the nose, causing him to bounce between a couple of cars on the street and go "spludge" in a snow bank.

Impulse takes this all in good humor, then realizes it's 8 o'clock and he's late for school. So he takes off, with Reflex inviting him to come visit Crossroads again. Once Impulse is out of sight, the exhausted huge man collapses on the snow bank, melting it with his enormous body heat. It took all he had to keep up with Impulse during that brief encounter.

And that's all the Impulse we get here. He was only brought in to help show off Reflex's powers, and I'm fine with that. Generally, I enjoyed the way Dwayne Turner drew Bart, but he did tend to veer toward the young side. It wasn't too long ago that everybody drew Impulse too old, but now it seems most guest artists can't draw him old enough. I guess 14 is a tough age to illustrate.

The Sovereign Seven, meanwhile, head out to Gotham City, which is under the threat of a deadly plague. They're also attacked by some thugs who have dedicated themselves to Neron, of Underworld Unleashed fame. Impulse will meet up Reflex again, but not for a while.

None of the letters to the editor mention Impulse, naturally, although I do find it odd that DC sponsored a contest for letter writers to win Sovereign Seven posters and hats. I guess they weren't getting very many letters. Now for the ads:

How do you defeat a god who won't stay dead? New Gods. The triumphant return of Darkseid! Rachel Pollack and Stefano Raffaele.

An army of villains. A deadly new enemy. Batman: Shadow of the Bat. Written by Alan Grant. Featuring artwork by Norm Breyfogle, Bret Blevins, Vince Giarrano, Barry Kitson, and Dave Taylor.

Freefall. Acceleration: 32 feet per second squared. Impact: imminent. Escape: impossible. So, why is this man smiling? Mister Miracle. By Dooley, Crespo, and Morais.

Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom on PC CD-ROM.

That's it for April 1996. The Flash dealt with the post-Dead Heat slump by bringing in a guest artist. But Impulse was simply delayed a month. So we'll pick up with Impulse #13 in May 1996.