Title: Impulse
My Comments
Issue 50 was fantastic. We get our first look at a villain that could become Impulse's greatest foe. The tone changed for corny to serious with a great comedy feel. The scenes of Impulse's world tour were just fantastic. I truthfully didn't stop laughing for hours. Hopefully after No Man's Land we'll get to see another team up with Batman (besides the YJ: No Man's Land Special) and another appearance by the Joker. Todd should have being doing Batman stories years ago.
Ethan's artwork as always amazes me. The feel of the art and its detail is just awesome. I was not a giant fan of Craig R.'s cartoony and often rushed looking artwork. Ethan's work is top notch and he definitely knows how to work Impulse and his ability to his fullness.
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We open with a story from the past. April 1st, Bart's first April Fool's Day. Before the Gotham Earthquake, before Max was shot, before Impulse meets the Joker. As Helen setup her April Fools Gag, Bart Allen, the fastest kid on Earth shot himself into the room looking for his morning meal. After noticing there wasn't any milk, Bart feel victim to the April Fools Gag, the exploding water trick. As Helen let him know that he was "fooled", she accidentally let it slip that its ok to play a trick on someone, since they won't get mad. Wrong thing to say to Impulse. In a flash, Bart raced to his room to find a discarded issue of Mad Magazine (Cheap plug Ethan) and soon found that he was on his way to Gotham City.
Gotham City. At The Smith and Johnson Novelty Company, we join Commissioner Gordon and the GCPD as they deal with a hostage situation. As Gordon explained to Batman, the Joker was stopping for supplies when a security guard made the mistake of pulling his gun. Now the Joker has hostages and holds the cards, leaving on the Batman as the hostage's savior. As Batman marched toward the entrance of the Novelty store, the Joker sent on of "Joker Radios" through the window. Batman left to scope out the building, but no much longer before Impulse hit the scene. Gordon tried to calm down the kid, but after hearing that Batman was in the area, Impulse picked up the "Joker Radio" and brought it to Batman, not before realizing that the water main to the building had been cut. Batman was not excited to see Impulse.
Batman explained that he would not deal with Impulse, since he was untrained and he didn't listen to directions. Impulse tired to reason by bring up Robin, but Batman returned the debate stating that "Robin used his head and he'd worked long and hard to train him". The debate came to an end after the Joker came back over the radio and demanded that Batman use Impulse as a messenger between them. Batman explained that Impulse was to follow his directions and not to improvise on anything. From there, Impulse went into action.
As Impulse soon raced into the room, the Joker met him with a laugh, and commented about beating up girls half of Impulse's size and that if he tried anything "Kid Flash would be responsible" for his actions against the hostages. The Joker's head-games took a quick effect on Impulse as he told Impulse about blowing up Batman's last Robin partner (Jason Todd). Impulse's face soon grew in fear as he remembered seeing the Robin costume in the case of the Batcave (JLA WWGU #1). Joker warned about setting of the sprinkler system, which would not produce water but would produce the Joker's Laughing gas. So, giving Impulse his list of demands, the fastest kid on Earth was on his way, stopping to take a picture of himself at all the great landmarks, borrow a dinosaur head, a couple of fish, a piece of the SS Titanic and a furby, Impulse also gave Batman a complete layout of the building. In this time, Batman had reconnected the water supply and removed the Joker's gas supply. After Impulse returned with the goods, he soon started playing with a bunch on novelty chatting teeth, which quickly set the Joker off. The Joker admitted "if he wasn't already, this kid could actually drive me crazy." After a call from one of henchman, the Joker decided to put his plan into effect, using his flame-thrower on the sprinkler system, the Joker expected "Laughing Gas", what he got was a lot of water and a pissed off Dark Knight. As Batman went into battle with the Joker, he sent Impulse to start rescuing the hostages, which Impulse did under protest. After saving the hostages, Impulse soon waited outside the building for the Batman. Inside the Batman from the fire and water couldn't see the Joker through the smoke and couldn't get a fix on him, until Impulse outside the building wanted to see if he could call the Joker. Once Batman could hear the phone ringing, it was good night Joker.
Later that night, Batman and Impulse talked for a moment. Batman told Impulse that he did well tonight and that he even saw a little of his grandfather and cousin in him. Impulse asked Batman, why Batman had named him Impulse. Batman then admitted that, "Wally misunderstood me. I never meant for Impulse to be your name, it was meant to be a warning!.