Graphic Novel Review: Reckless Youth

It seems like every couple of years DC Comics has an event that “changes everything” in the DC Universe. There was Crisis on Infinite Earth, Zero Hour, Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis and now Blackest Night/Brightest Day. I don’t usually go for these somewhat melodramatic “epic” plots. However, there was a development that began in Final Crisis and continued to play out through Brightest Day that caught my eye. It was the resurrection of the classic Flash, Barry Allen. Allen was last seen alive in 1985 when he supposedly died while working against the Anti-Monitor. (Google if you want. It’s not that interesting.) Everybody knows that no one really dies in the world of comic books, but most people thought Barry Allen would go the distance and prove to be the exception. He was not. Anyway, the point is that the return of Barry Allen intrigued me. Having never read Flash before, I decided to pick up Geoff Johns’ Flash: Rebirth. Even without context I really enjoyed the story, but I realized that there was a lot of history I needed to catch up on in order to really appreciate a new Flash series.

I know the basics of the Barry Allen era so I decided to go back and start reading where Wally West picks up the mantle of Flash. The first trade in the Wally West era was Born to Run; next came The Return of Barry Allen (a misleading title that deals with a Barry Allen imposter). That brings us to the subject of this review, Impulse: Reckless Youth. This title begins with the next installment of the Wally West era and also includes the first 6 issues of Impulse’s solo series.

A little background first. Wally West is the nephew of Barry (the previous Flash) & Iris Allen. Iris is actually from the 30th century. It is in that time that she and Barry have children and ultimately a grandson named Bart Allen. This makes Bart/Impulse the cousin of Wally/Flash. Bart is born with Barry’s powers and is taken from the Allens and studied. Iris eventually steals him away and returns to the past so that Wally can train Bart to control his powers. Due to his rapid aging and unconventional education, Bart has intelligence but lacks common sense. In the Flash issues Bart gets separated from Iris and it’s up to Wally to catch and help him.

The Impulse section picks up much later with Bart now in control of his powers, using the Impulse alias and living with another speedy hero, Max Mercury. A page in between explains what’s happened in the meantime. I found this second half to be pretty weak. It lacked the complexity of the Flash issues and played more like a dull issue of Teen Titans or a watered down Robin rip-off.

All in all I’d say this trade was a mixed bag. The Flash half was interesting and necessary to the overall storyline, while the Impulse section was neat to see a sample but ultimately forgettable. What I was really interested in was Wally training Bart and the formation of that relationship. Sadly that was all missing. Hopefully it’s collected in some other trade. As for Impulse: Reckless Youth as a whole I’d say borrow it to read the Flash issues and stop there.