An ode to Bart Allen

Ok, so I'm not really going to write an "ode" per say, but I just wanted to talk about the late, great Bart Allen. The first comic I read Bart in was Young Justice:Girl frenzy, which was one of the precursors to the official Young Justice comic book, which I was interested in when I found out my favorite writer, Peter David penned the whole series. I thought the three teen heroes who formed the team had a very good dynamic, Robin as the brains/leader type, Superboy as the ego maniacal, jock type, and Impulse(Bart) as the comic relief of the group. I enjoyed these issues enough that I managed to find the complete Young Justice series on eBay, for a very reasonable price.

Right off the bat I was drawn to Impulse, mainly because the way he was drawn kind of demanded attention, his hair and feet were huge(!), as well as the peculiar way he acted. Bart Allen was born in the far flung future as the grandson of perhaps the most famous Flash, Barry Allen, but never met his super-hero grandfather(Barry died prior to Bart's birth). Bart was raised in a virtual reality simulator, so he had little to no understanding of the danger he would often run head long into in the real world. As the Young Justice comic evolved and new characters joined the team, Impulse remained the same playfully, oblivious innocent that he had been from the beginning of the series. The other members of Young Justice often looked at Impulse as a valued teammate, but also as a little brother, due to his impulsive nature, and various pranks. As I completed the Young Justice series, I realized that I still wanted my fix of Impulse, so I went out and acquired his own self titled comic book.

The Impulse comic, which ran for 89 issues I believe, was almost always a fun read. To me though, the comic peaked early, while Impulse's creator Mark Waid was the writer for the first 30 issues of so. Impulse's comic also introduced me to the character of Max Mercury, the guru of speed. Max was the perfect straight man for Impulse's wild behavior, and was always there to try to teach Bart to slow down and think about things before just acting first and then thinking. Max was often times flustered by Bart reckless behavior, but in time the two of them developed a father/son relationship and although Max could never really get Bart to slow down and act normally, he did make great stride in taming Bart's more reckless qualities. One of the strange things about Impulse's series was that he never really developed his own enemies until around issue 50 or so when his evil clone from the future arrived going by the name of Inertia. Inertia was the polar opposite of Bart in many ways, in that he was a scheming evil genius, as opposed to Bart never coming up with a plan once in his life. Inertia hated Bart's unbridled enthusiasm for life, as well as the way he would never think before he acted. Inertia tried several times to defeat and kill Bart, but Bart's reckless ways were always enough to counter Inertia's well laid plans, which only deepened the hatred Inertia had for Bart. Inertia could never understand how Bart, who he considered his intellectual inferior always managed to defeat his self professed brilliant plans.

In time Impulse's comic was cancelled, and Young Justice was repackaged into a new version of the Teen Titans. Bart served the Teen Titans, initially as Impulse, but after being shot in the kneecap by perpetual Titans enemy Deathstroke the Terminator, decided that maybe it was time to grow up a little and adopted the guise of Kid Flash, the mantle formerly held by the then current Flash, Wally West. As Kid Flash, Bart seemed more in control of his impulsive behavior and also made a point to become more studious, but was still seen as the little brother and prankster on the team.

This all changed during the DC comic event Infinite Crisis, which saw an evil version of Superboy who called himself, Superboy Prime, aligned with the always evil alternate version of Lex Luthor in attempting to destroy the universe in an effort to create one they deemed better. The Teen Titans, as well as several other heroes stood up to this deranged Superboy, but he managed to kill several in their ranks. The speedsters, including Bart decided that the only way to halt Superboy Prime's path of destruction was to try to drag him to the speed force, which is the place all speedsters derive there powers from, at the cost of their own freedom. The hope was that by placing Superboy Prime in another dimension altogether, they could stop his destructive rampage. It worked for a little while, but the deranged Superboy Prime returned from the speed force as hell bent as ever in destroying the universe. Bart returned from the speed force as well, having aged several years to about 20, to warn the other heroes of Prime's impending return. Ultimately, the alternate Luthor was killed and Superboy Prime was imprisoned.

Bart, however was changed from his experiences in the speed force, and had matured to the point that he now a responsible young man, who had shown that he had finally learned how to reign in his impulsive antics. With the previous Flash, Wally West, still lost in the speed force, the world was left with only Jay Garrick, who was the golden age Flash, and was getting long in the tooth. Jay implored Bart to take up the Flash mantle that was his legacy, but Bart resisted, seeing only the pain and hardship being the Flash had brought his teammates, friends and loved ones. Bart tried to live a normal life, enrolling into a police academy, to follow in his grandfathers footsteps, but the draw of his family heritage was too great and Bart wound up donning the Flash costume, when he realized the world and especially Keystone City needed a Flash to be its protector.

Now that Bart had become the Flash, he was visited by a grim reminder from his past, Inertia. Inertia now hated Bart even more, seeing as that not only was Bart older and more mature than Inertia, but he had actually managed to make something of his life, which is something Inertia could never manage to do because of his obsession with Bart. After attacking Bart on his own and being thoroughly defeated, Inertia decided to enact a new plan, banding the Flash's Rogues gallery together, explaining to them that he was from the future and had a way to halt the passing of time, which would allow the Rogues to commit robberies to their hearts content. Inertia's actual plan though was much more ominous. The device he had the Rogues create with him didn't stop the passage of time, but cut off Bart's connection to the speed force, rendering him powerless. Even though he was powerless, like a true hero, Bart tried to defeat the Rogues, who were unaware of the fact that Bart's powers had left him. The Rogues viciously tore into Bart, letting their blood lust get the better of them, only stopping when Bart's time travelling grandmother arrived on the scene, begging them to stop. It was then that the Rogues realized they hadn't just killed a Flash, they had killed Kid Flash, making them the most hated and hunted villains in the DC universe. Inertia tried to make his escape, but was caught by the just returned Wally West(the previous Flash). Wally, seriously gave thought to killing Inertia, especially considering the fact that not only was Inertia completely unrepentant for what he had done, he actually had he nerve to gloat about how great it was to watch Bart die. In the end, Wally couldn't bring himself to kill Inertia, in part, because Inertia, being Bart's clone looked practically identical to Bart. Wally instead used his command over the powers of speed to completely drain Inertia of his ability to move, rendering him little more then a living statue. Wally then took the immobile Inertia and place him in the Flash museum, facing him towards a statue of Bart in his Impulse and Kid Flash guises, so that for as long as Inertia lived, he would be forced to stare at the image of the man he took from the world.

The aftermath of Bart's death, was seen in an issue of "Countdown", where a public funeral was held in a baseball stadium in Keystone City, while an issue of Teen Titans (#50 I think) dealt with his fallout among his long serving teammates. I personally would have liked to have seen more done to honor Bart's passing, I can't recall his death being mentioned at all in Flash's comic! That's why I am so hopeful while reading the Final Crisis comics, Rogues Revenge. Although, Bart died the type of death that to me is perfectly acceptable in a comic(he died a true hero, protecting others), I still hope that somehow, some way, Bart Allen makes his return to the DC universe. Hey, if they brought back Barry Allen, who was dead for like 20 years, why not bring back Bart?