He's got big hair, big feet, super-speed and the worst case of ADD that the DC Universe has ever seen. This week in Comic Accurate, we take a look back at an heir to the Flash legacy as we spotlight Bart Allen, when he was known as Impulse!

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Impulse debuted in 1994 in Flash #92, during Mark Waid's legendary run on the book. He was Barry Allen's grandson from the future. Having travelled back in time with his grandmother Iris Allen, they needed the help of Wally West to save Bart's life. Once Bart was healthy and safe, he made such an impact that at the time, it seemed he was poised to take up the mantle of the Flash. Mainly beacuse this was right around the same time that DC's top tier characters were being written out as dead, crippled or gone crazy, but regardless, that wasn't the case. Bart went on to his own series which ran (no pun intended) for 89 issues in addition to annuals, specials and a multitude of appearances in other titles prior to Geoff Johns and DC ruining him. Only a tiny handful of which we're going to have the space for in this article.

We're going to start with one of Bart's first stories, before he got his own ongoing and during his appearances in Flash. It was "Terminal Velocity". Remember when I mentioned earlier how it was sort of teased that Bart was going to take over for Wally? This was the story that took place in. Wally is being slowly pulled into the Speed Force, but before he can leave he has to stop Kobra from destroying Keystone City and killing his girlfriend Linda Park. Bart was part of a group of speedsters Wally assembled to fight the Kobra armada. So to start things off, we're going to use the LE of Impulse from DC 75th Anniversary. This will be the figure we're going to use for all these teams.


an104 R Impulse
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 0
Points: 49
Keywords: Future, Teen, Young Justice

11 9 17 2

11 9 17 2

10 8 16 1

10 8 18 1

8 8 15 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

(Damage) Speed Force Duplicate: Impulse can use Shape Change. In addition to the normal effects, if he is the only target of the attack, on a roll of 5 or 6 he may be immediately placed in a square adjacent to the character that targeted him.

d10a010 V The Flash
Team: Justice League
Range: 0
Points: 105
Keywords: Central City, Justice League, Police, Teen Titans

11 10 18 2

12 10 18 2

13 9 17 2

14 9 16 2

15 9 17 3

14 8 17 2

13 8 16 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

(Improved) Vibrate Through: The Flash can use Improved Movement: Hindering Terrain.
(Speed) So Fast You Didn't See the Hits: The Flash can use Charge and Flurry. When The Flash uses Charge, he can use Exploit Weakness.
(Damage) Mach 3 Punch: Damage dealt by Flash cannot be reduced below 1.

aa056 U The Flash
Team: Justice Society
Range: 0
Points: 120
Keywords: Central City, Justice Society, Past, Scientist

12 10 18 2

11 10 17 2

11 9 16 2

13 9 15 2

12 9 16 2

11 8 17 2

11 8 17 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

(Speed) Cosmic Treadmill: The Flash can use Hypersonic Speed and Phasing/Teleport. When the Flash uses Phasing/Teleport, he can use the Carry ability.
(Attack) Supersonic Punch: The Flash can use Quake as part of a close combat attack (instead of a close combat action), but targets of the attack are not knocked back.
(Defense) Fastest Man Alive: The Flash Can use Energy Shield/Deflection and Super Senses.

un069 V Jesse Quick
Team: Titans
Range: 0
Points: 68
Keywords: Central City, Justice Society

12 9 17 1

11 9 16 1

11 8 16 1

11 8 15 1

10 7 15 1

10 7 14 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

an010 R Johnny Quick
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 0
Points: 50
Keywords: All Star Squadron, Reporter

6 8 15 1

13 10 17 2

12 9 16 2

11 9 15 2

10 8 15 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

bb023 E Max Mercury
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 0
Points: 71
Keywords: Central City, Keystone City, Past

14 9 17 2

13 9 16 1

12 8 18 1

12 8 17 1

11 10 16 2

11 9 16 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

(Damage) Speedforce Mentor : Max Mercury can use Perplex, but can only use it to modify another character's speed value by +3.

cdB006 Linda Park-West
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 0
Points: 4

6 6 14 1

KO KO KO KO

lgB001 Iris West-Allen
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 0
Points: 3

6 6 13 .

KO KO KO KO

The Flash Family together all come out to 470 points. With thirty points remaining that's either Armor Piercing on three people, Swingline on three people or a mix somewhere in there.

After "Terminal Velocity" ended, Impulse went on almost immediately into his own series, written by Waid and art by then-rising superstar Humberto Ramos. There, he was placed in the custody of his new guardian Max Mercury and they moved to Manchester, Alabama where Max would try to give Bart a normal life. Good luck. One of the earliest team-ups Bart had was in issue #17. Dragged to a magic show by Max, Bart meets Zatanna and irritates her to the point that she sends him to another dimension. Sort of regretting the decision, Zatanna follows and further wackiness ensues. For the build, we're just going to take the Impulse and Max figures and pair them up with our Zatanna piece.

jl028 E Zatanna
Team: Justice League
Range: 8
Points: 72
Keywords: Celebrity, Justice League, Justice League of America, Mystical, Sentinels of Magic, Seven Soldiers

10 10 16 2

8 10 16 2

8 9 15 2

10 9 14 1

10 9 13 1

7 8 13 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

We're at 192 for a cheap little team. Feel free to fill out the points with a Protected or something.

Bart's adventures in his book wouldn't just keep him restricted to Alabama, or teaming with just Max as a mentor. During the DC 1 Million crossover, Bart took a trip to the 853rd century with Jesse Quick and teamed with that era's speedster (kinda), John Fox. All we need to do here is take Impulse, the Jesse Quick from earlier and add in John.

jl057 E The Flash
Team: Justice League
Range: 0
Points: 83
Keywords: Future, Justice Legion A, Scientist

12 10 18 2

14 9 17 2

14 9 16 2

12 8 17 2

10 8 16 2

10 8 16 2

10 7 15 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

(Speed) Speed Force: The Flash can use Charge and Flurry.

This trio come out to 200 points on the nose.

Now we've been building some pretty heavy Hypersonic Speed centered teams featuring Bart. And over the course of the series, he'd meet the likes of Superman, Batman, Plastic Man and others, but it was in issue #68-69 that Bart worked with the odd cosmic pairing of Kyle Rayner and Adam Strange. The Green Lantern "Circle of Fire" crossover had just ended where Kyle basically jeapordized the universe. So with Adam and Bart's help they were cleaning up his mess.

cd205 LE Kyle Rayner
Team: Justice League
Range: 10
Points: 135
Keywords: JLA

10 10 18 4

10 9 17 3

8 9 16 2

8 9 16 2

8 8 15 3

7 8 15 2

6 8 15 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

cd096 U Adam Strange
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 8
Points: 88
Keywords: Justice League of America, Seven Soldiers, Soldier

10 10 17 2

8 9 16 1

6 8 17 1

12 7 17 .

8 9 16 1

6 8 15 1

7 8 14 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

These three add up to 272 points. Swingline and Armor Piercing for Bart, and a Protected for Kyle. If you're just playing a home game or something a little looser where it's okay to go over in points, you could just use the version from DC 75th. It'll come out to 306 without feats, but it is a pretty decent figure.

Our last team for this week was from a two issue prestige mini-series called "JLA: World Without Grown-Ups". This story would serve as the initial basis for what would eventually become Young Justice. A magic spell is unleashed that splits the world into two realms. One of them being as you can guess, a world without grown-ups. On that world, Bart works with Robin, Superboy and Billy Batson to try and fix the problem.

cr013 V Robin
Team: Batman Ally
Range: 6
Points: 79
Keywords: Detective, Gotham City, Martial Artist, Teen, Teen Titans, Young Justice

8 10 17 2

8 10 17 2

7 9 17 2

7 9 16 2

7 9 16 1

7 8 15 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

sm017 R Superboy
Team: Superman Ally
Range: 6
Points: 125
Keywords: Metropolis, Reign of the Supermen, Young Justice

10 10 17 3

10 9 17 3

9 10 16 3

9 9 16 3

9 11 16 3

8 10 15 3

8 9 15 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

(Special) Reign of the Supermen: If a friendly character named Superman has been KO'd this game, modify Superboy's combat values by +1 for the rest of the game.

or079 R Shazam!
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 0
Points: 105
Archenemy: Mister Mind (White)
Keywords: Kid, Mystical

7 7 15 1

10 10 17 4

9 9 17 4

8 7 15 1

7 7 15 1

9 10 16 4

8 9 16 4

8 9 15 3

6 8 14 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

Since we don't actually have an Alter Ego Billy Batson (yet), I'm just running with the old rookie. Just keep him on the activation click or something. But this foursome come out to 358. Put on our Swingline/Armor Piercing combo for Bart and Brilliant Tactician for Robin since you should push him quickly to get on that second click. Then he can help out Bart and Connor.

That's it for our brief look at some teams we can build around Impulse prior to 2003, when DC ruined him. Join us next time in Comic Accurate as we cross some things off.

You are truly my hero.

Impulse remains one of the highlights of 1990s comics for me. To see Bart grow right up until he fell into the hands of Geoff Johns was one of the greatest sets of comics of that era. This was largely because they didn't take themselves too seriously and Waid used every tool in his belt to balance goofiness with serious themes. I dearly miss those comics, and keep them stashed away for my kids when they are ready to read comics that are fun, meaningful and overall happy.

Bart Allen remains the biggest loss from the DCnU for me. People say he is in Teen Titans - but that isn't Bart. Not the Bart created by Waid and Weiringo. That Bart died sometime long ago, and all remnants of him were lost after Flashpoint.

My favorite Big 2 comic for several years, and yeah, as cool as Johns was writing Strars and STRIPE and Hawkman, Impulse was just a hackjob. I was just disgusted with the last couple years of his life.

With all those extra Johnny Quicks in my box and floating around in general, it would make a pretty good dial for one of the old Jesse Quick figs. Then she'd be carrying her weight.

Fun idea and rep to you!

I love the Flash, especially when written by Mark Waid. This stuff is right up my alley. I just ran a "Return of Barry Allen" team last week.

DC has completely pushed me out of reading their titles.

I was fine with the reboot, until they kept bits and pieces from various books.

Reboot should have been an all or nothing thing.




And back OT, I will try a couple of these teams. I had not thought about the Impulse title in a while, thanks.

Wow, I think my hair looked like that in the 90's.

Agreed - I think they should have not had any legacy characters left, and definitely not reused the names of established characters for entirely new and different characters - but a topic for another day I suppose.

I actually picked Impulse up off of ebay the day the OP kits released just so I could run teams like those above. I wish the sculpt was a little better, I keep thinking about trying to repaint one of the old Legacy ones.

Reminder that DC is publishing a collection of Impulse next year, that starts the series. Pre-Order it if you want to see more, folks.

Seriously? I hadn't heard that! That's awesome!

Seeing the preview of fake Tim Drake today makes me miss Bart even more.

If you want to read a history of Impulse and his villains (and all of the Flashes) pick up The Flash Companion from TwoMorrows publishing. I know the guy who wrote it.



It was me.

Here's the US Amazon page. Wouldn't ordinarily do this, but with DC cancelling books for low pre-orders, might as well throw folks that might want to see this come out a bone.

There is a pog from the old DC map set called Newsboy, or something like that. And it resembles Billy Batson.

I still have Impulse#1 and about 20 other issues from the series. I found them in a dollar store just piled up as no one really wanted them. At least they found a good home.

I would like to add that my current favorite Flash is the 10th Anniversary version.

d10a010 V The Flash
Team: Justice League
Range: 0
Points: 105
Keywords: Central City, Justice League, Police, Teen Titans

(Improved) Vibrate Through: The Flash can use Improved Movement: Hindering Terrain.
(Speed) So Fast You Didn't See the Hits: The Flash can use Charge and Flurry. When The Flash uses Charge, he can use Exploit Weakness.
(Damage) Mach 3 Punch: Damage dealt by Flash cannot be reduced below 1.

Impulse is a fun figure to use. I can't wait to try the new DC10 Flash.

I remember when I won sealed for 75th, I reached for Impulse without a second thought. I'd love to see a remake with a proper sculpt.

Impulse remains one of my favorite DC characters. I actually got the first issue autographed by Waid. Impulse was this fun innocent character that was great to read.

Impulse was the great arguement that you could make a comic character in the 90's without using Guns, Attitude or angst.

Then he became Kid Flash. Then things stopped being fun. Even though I was so thrilled to see it, the Young Justice show when Impulse appears just feels wrong.

Bonus nod to you for mentioning "World Without Grown Ups".