DC Just Made An Overlooked Flash Character Cool Again (& Convinced Me He Needs His Own Series)

The Flash has been the first that keeps on giving for 85 years now. Over the years, the various Flashes have created one of the coolest families of characters in DC Comics. The Flash family has everything you could want from a group of heroes. The costumes are all great, and their powers make them extremely formidable. Do you need an elder statesman kind of hero? The Flash family has you covered. Need a sidekick who graduated? There are several in the Flash family. Need young heroes with a variety of personalities? Look no further than the Flash family. Over the decades, the Flash family has introduced some amazing teen heroes, but one of the best of them has fallen from grace.

Bart Allen was introduced in The Flash (Vol. 2) #92 in 1994. He was the first teenage speedster introduced since Wally West became the Flash, and would take up the name Impulse. Impulse quickly graduated to his own solo series and was a huge part of DC’s ’90s teen hero renaissance. Impulse was an awesome speedster that fit the ’90s like a glove, but over the years, he’s had a rather calamitous fall. However, that’s unfair to this awesome character, and The Flash (Vol. 6) #26 is reminding readers why he’s so amazing.

Impulse’s Return Shows Why He’s so Great

The Flash #26 is a DC K.O. tie-in issue that sees Impulse decide that the best way to beat Darkseid is to run back in time and defeat him with the Speed Force. He ends up taking himself out of existence completely, forcing Wally West to follow him back in time to Darkseid’s defeat in DC All-In #1 to figure out what he did to time. It’s the most Impulse thing ever, leaping without looking and causing a huge amount of trouble. This is classic Impulse (Impulse co-creator Mark Waid co-wrote the issue), and it reminded me why Impulse is such an amazing character.

Impulse was sold to readers as the ADHD speedster. He’s the grandson of Barry Allen from the future, who used futuristic VR technology to train himself to use his Speed Force powers and ended up coming back to the present to become an actual superhero. He was constantly using his super speed powers, and this made him an impulsive yet powerful young hero. Impulse had to learn how to slow down and think, working with Golden Age speedsters Max Mercury and Jay Garrick to become a better, smarter hero. His growth through the ’90s made him an integral part of the new generation of teen heroes introduced by DC, a fun character whose impetuous nature made him a blast to read.

Watching Impulse grow into a better hero was a huge part of what made readers love him, but the first mistake with the character was making him into Kid Flash in Teen Titans (Vol. 3). Bart ended up getting mature and boring, losing everything that made him unique just so he could be the new Kid Flash. However, fans still liked him and were excited when he became the Flash. However, sales of his new book weren’t great, which led to his death. He’d get resurrected in Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds, just in time for the New 52 to ruin him as a character, much like it did to his entire generation of heroes. Since then, he’s been a shell of what he was before.

The Flash (Vol. 6) #26 is the first time we’ve seen the real Impulse in a long time. He’s impulsive, but he’s not stupid. He’s funny. He’s young and a little bit of a danger to himself. He makes mistakes and needs to be bailed out. A lot of people think that the problem with Impulse was that he grew as a character, but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that the character was taken out of his own lane and forced to fit into the Kid Flash mantle. There’s a way to do Impulse as an older, more mature character, and this latest appearance proves it. In fact, it’s about time we got another Impulse series.

A New Impulse Series Could Show a New Generation of Readers What the Character is All About

The ’90s were a great decade for teen heroes, with Tim Drake and Superboy making this type of character popular again. However, looking back on their various ongoing series, Impulse was always the best one. He was a perfect teen hero, a funny, entertaining character who was able to grow without losing the core of what made him great — his impulsive nature. Since then, there have been some missteps with the character, but he’s ready for a rollicking return to his own book.

The Flash (Vol. 6) #26 reminds readers of why Impulse is so great: he’s fun. If we’re being honest, the worst problem with Impulse as the years went on wasn’t that he became more mature, but that he became boring. He lost his impetuousness, and that took something away from the character. The Flash (Vol. 6) #26 shows that the core of the character is still viable even with his growth. DC is firing on all cylinders right now, and a new Impulse could bring the teen/young hero book roaring back to the charts. It’s about time. We Impulse fans who grew up with the character want more of our favorite young speedster, and an Impulse book could lead to a return of the forgotten generation of young DC heroes.

What do you think of Impulse? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!

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