Ok, so the Flash #13 spoilers are all over the web.

My feelings are all still a bit mixed on this, but from what it looks like, after Wally got his last-second (Nightwing-style) reprive in Infinite Crisis, the plan was put in place for Bart to have a 13 issue run, ending with him dying (apparently - I’ve not read it yet myself - but I understand that JLA may have provided an “out”). Meanwhile, over in JLA Wally is brought back.

With the dust already settling, I’m reminded of comments made around the start of Bart’s run. Along the lines of “Don’t get too attached to the first Flash you see”. At the time, this was pretty much taken as meaning Jay, with Bart taking over the role after a few issues. Now it seems it was a hint to the wider plan.

I’m glad to see Wally back. He’s a major player in the DCU, and, as I mentioned previously, his “exit” was dissapointingly handled. However, I’m still a bit sad for how Bart’s been treated during this. I loved the character as Impulse. But ever since he was pushed out of that role into Kid Flash, it felt like a different character to me. The question of DC’s attitude towards “fun” heroes is perhaps part of a larger debate, but still, I was sad to lose Impulse.

When Bart then got promoted to Flash I was really dissappointed, as this just seemed to be further removing him from what had made him popular. However, both sets of writers seemed to appreciate this, and made attempts to hark back to his more impulsive nature, even going so far to include his old clone nemesis, Inertia in the book.

As I mentioned before, I’m sad in a way that Bart didn’t get more of a shot. He seems to have been put in the position of being setup just to keep the title ticking over until Wally came back, which is a shame given the hard work the creative teams put in making Bart as the new Flash work as a concept. Danny Bilson and Paul Demeo have gone on to write the incredibly good Red Menace series, and after this, I’ll definitely be keeping one eye open for anything Mark Guggenheim is writing.

Going forward. I’ve still got the issues themselves to read. The rantings in this blog are pretty much based on the spoilers at this point. I’m looking forward to reading how this run of the Flash is wound up though. We’ve then got the relaunch of the main Flash series, presumably starring Wally and written by Mark Waid. That’ll definitely be worth checking out.

As for Bart? This is comics. Dead rarely means dead in them. Even if there isn’t a specific “out” provided in JLA, I doubt he’ll be gone forever.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 at 20:13 and is filed under Comics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.