Bart Allen
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Bartholomew "Bart" Allen II is a fictional character in the DC Comics Universe. He originally went by the code name Impulse and later became the second Kid Flash, before becoming the fourth Flash. He first appeared in The Flash vol. 2, #91 in a cameo appearance. His first full appearance was in issue #92.
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[edit] Fictional character biography
[edit] Impulse
Suffering from a hyper-accelerated metabolism, Bart Allen was aging so fast that he appeared to be twelve when he was chronologically only two years old. To keep him from going insane he was raised in a virtual reality machine that created a simulated world which kept pace with his own scale of time. When it became clear that this method was not helping he was rescued by his grandmother, Iris Allen. Iris took him back in time to the present, where Wally West, the Flash at the time, tracked him down in a race across the world. By forcing Bart into an extreme burst of speed, Wally managed to shock his hyper-metabolism back to normal. However, while the two had to work together during the Terminal Velocity arc, it was apparent that Bart rubbed Wally the wrong way. Because he had spent the majority of his childhood in a simulated world, Bart had no concept of danger and was prone to leaping before he looked. The youth proved to be more trouble than Wally could handle and he was pawned off onto retired superhero speedster Max Mercury, who moved Bart to Manchester, Alabama. As revealed in Impulse #50, Batman named him "Impulse" as a warning, not as a compliment.
Bart joined the Titans[1] early in his career before going on to become one of the founding members of the superhero team Young Justice along side Robin and Superboy. He remained with the team for a long while during which he developed a new ability of making speed-force energy duplicates, which would allow him to be in multiple places at once. This power came in use for some time, until one of them was killed during Our Worlds at War storyline. Bart quit Young Justice temporarily, as the death of his duplicate caused him to come to terms with his own mortality. He however returned to the team some time later.
Following Max's disappearance, Bart was taken in by Jay Garrick, the first Flash, and his wife Joan. After the breakup of Young Justice, Bart joined some of his former teammates in forming a new line-up of the Teen Titans.
[edit] Kid Flash
Shortly after joining the Teen Titans, Bart's kneecap was blown out by Deathstroke (who was at the time possessed by Jericho) and replaced with an artificial one. While recovering, Bart read every single book in the San Francisco Public Library and reinvented himself as the new Kid Flash. Even with the artificial kneecap, he can still run close to light speed.
In the "Titans Tomorrow" storyline, Bart assumed the mantle of the Flash after the current Flash died in a "Crisis". In this alternate future, he was able to steal the speed of others, a power he used on his past self. At first, he appeared to be working with the Titans of Tomorrow, but was secretly spying on those Titans on the behalf of the resistance group formed by the Cyborg of this alternate future, Titans East. In this future, Bart had a romantic relationship with Rose Wilson, The Ravager.
[edit] Infinite Crisis
After Superboy-Prime attacked Conner Kent (Superboy) and injured or killed many Teen Titans, Bart joined with Flashes Wally West and Jay Garrick to stop the rampage of Superboy-Prime by running him at top speed into the Speed Force. Jay reached his limit before entering the Speed Force and Wally turned into energy and vanished, leaving Bart alone with Superboy-Prime. Barry Allen, Johnny Quick and Max Mercury, all of whom had previously been absorbed into the Speed Force, appeared and aided Bart. After taking Superboy-Prime into the Speed Force, Barry told Bart that "Wally is waiting for you" and they disappeared, taking Bart and the Speed Force with them.
Bart spent four years in an alternate reality's Keystone City, with Max, Barry, Wally, and an alternate version of Jay Garrick. There Superboy-Prime managed to escape from his prison, and the alternate Jay failed to stop him. The speedsters rallied together to return to their dimension so they could warn everyone about Superboy-Prime, knowing none of them could get there before Superboy-Prime. At Barry's suggestion, Bart absorbed the Speed Force in order to arrive first, taking Wally's Flash ring and Barry's costume to help him survive his journey.
Bart reappeared in Tokyo wearing his grandfather's costume to aid in the Battle of Metropolis, and unleashed his anger against Superboy-Prime for killing Conner Kent, pummeling him at super-speed and forcing Superboy-Prime to retreat from the battle. When the crisis was over, Bart explained to Jay where he had been, and that the Speed Force was destroyed; Bart had used up the residual speed locked in his body fighting in Metropolis. He gave Barry's costume to Jay and said that Jay was once again the fastest man alive.
[edit] The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive
In Teen Titans vol. 3, #34, Bart is referred to by Robin as "kind of retired," and suffers from partial amnesia of his times on the alternate Earth during the Crisis. Bart and his roommate, Griffin Grey, assemble cars on a scab basis for a newly automated, high-tech plant in Keystone City.[2] Bart has nightmares about the Speed Force, such as when he and Jay Garrick were separated during Infinite Crisis, and glimpses of Barry's death in Crisis on Infinite Earths. Lying to everyone that the Speed Force is gone, Bart is still able to tap into it, though the effects are far more difficult, and lethal, to control. Despite the risk, Bart attempts, unsuccessfully, to use his powers to save Griffin when a bomb is set off at the plant, and is seen doing so by Jay.
Bart confesses to the Garricks the Speed Force's existence and his desire to divest himself from his powers, even asking S.T.A.R. Labs to take away his link with the Speed Force. S.T.A.R. recreates the material used to make Barry's Flash uniform but in the modern design worn by Wally, which Bart is initially unwilling to wear, but does claim regardless. When S.T.A.R.'s Keystone location is blown up, Bart dons the uniform to rescue Valerie Perez. His feelings for the young scientist allows Valerie to examine Bart, which let possible for Valerie work alongside the boy whom she loves from the day he saved her from a riot at her high school. Their relationship lasts even when Valerie, discovered as the daughter of Manfred Mota, is fired.
Meanwhile, Griffin, who gained superspeed after the bomb at the plant, is becoming more unbalanced and unnaturally older. Griffin nearly kills Bart and then kidnaps Jay Garrick, whom Bart rescues. Destroying Keystone's bridge in order to stage a rescue, Griffin's plans are foiled by Bart, who makes a public return as the Flash. Hit by an energy blast during the fight, Bart finally remembers his time on the alternate Earth during the Crisis and why the Speed Force is inside him, but he's unable to save his friend, who dies learning that the "new" Flash and Bart are the very same person.
However, when Inertia resurfaces, kidnapping Valerie on behalf of Mota, and leaving behind a fake Dear John Letter, the increasing pressure makes Bart leave Keystone City for Los Angeles. Inertia later lets Valerie escape, to take her hostage in Las Vegas, chained near a photon cannon set to target the Speed Force. Reunited with Valerie, Bart exerts more control on the Speed Force, outracing the photon ray and freeing his girlfriend. They reunite,and Bart shares with Jay his future plans: with Valerie's blessing he will stay in Los Angeles, following Barry's footsteps by studying forensics at the local police academy.
Robin contacted Bart and asks him to return to the Teen Titans. However, after fighting Steppenwolf with the newly reformed Justice League, he endeavors to one day join the League rather than rejoin the Titans.
Later, Bart's relationship with Valerie is strained after she struggles to come to terms with his life as a superhero.
When Bart confronts Captain Cold at his apartment, Zoom appears and attacks Bart, apparently enlisted by Iris Allen.
[edit] Powers and abilities
As with most speedsters, Bart's primary power is speed with all the abilities that other speedsters have such as whirlwinds, running on water and vibrating through matter. The latter of these has resulted in 'molecular taffy' if he does not concentrate; he also possesses an aura that prevents air friction while running. However, he possesses some abilities other speedsters do not. He has the ability to produce "scouts", Speed Force avatars he can send through the timestream, but has used it infrequently since the death of one put him in a coma during the Our Worlds at War storyline that crossed over between the Impulse, Superboy and Young Justice titles.
Bart is resistant to alterations in the time stream, possibly due to an oddity of his origin; his parents met only in post-Zero Hour continuity, but he actually arrived before the event. Bart has total recall of everything he's ever read, heard or watched (which includes speed-reading every book in the world), allowing him to spout encyclopedic information concerning the situation at hand as well as quotes from Mark Twain, whom he likes.
Since Infinite Crisis, Bart's connection to the Speed Force has been more difficult to control because he now contains the Speed Force and, in essence, is the Speed Force. He is told he has changed on a "macrobiotic level". When he taps into the Speed Force, Bart appears to have electricity crackling around him, and has become so lethal, that he initially wore the Flash suit while running in order to prevent it from killing him.[3] After remembering his experiences on an alternate Earth during a fight with Griffin, he has begun to gain some control over it.
[edit] Flash Legacy
Since his first appearance in The Flash vol. 2, #91 Bart has been trained by several speed-endowed heroes such as Jay Garrick, Johnny Quick and Max Mercury. Prior to his current reluctance to don the red and yellow, Bart has shown a lot of enthusiasm towards his role as the future Flash. This is despite Wally West's apprehensions about Bart, illustrated by his naming Jesse Quick as his successor and his refusal to deliver to Bart his invitation from Cyborg to join the latest incarnation of the Teen Titans. Bart takes these insults in stride though, and, after Robin claims that he will always live in the Flash's shadow, even says that "the Flash will be in mine.[4]"
[edit] Appearances in other media
In the original Kids WB! pitch for the Justice League animated series, Robin, Impulse and a teenage female version of Cyborg were to be seen as junior members of the League. It was later decided to avoid their introduction, so as to avoid making Justice League seem like the old Super Friends series. The corresponding short animation is available as a bonus on the season one DVD of Justice League. [1]
[edit] Smallville
An episode of Smallville entitled "Run" featured a speedster named Bart Allen played by Kyle Gallner. Bart also carries around identification with the names "Jay Garrick", "Barry Allen", and "Wally West", the first three Flashes in the main DC Universe. He was portrayed as a self-centered teenager who uses his powers for personal gain, although he was showing signs of changing his ways by the end of the episode. At the end of the episode, Clark and Bart have a race; Bart is shown to be much faster than Clark.
Gallner reprised his role in the season six episode "Justice", using a codename and wearing a costume of sorts for the first time on air. He appears as part of a team led by Green Arrow, who helped give Bart "direction". Along with Aquaman and Victor "Cyborg" Stone, they form a team to stop Lex Luthor and his LuthorCorp 33.1 project. During missions, he is called "Impulse," a name he did not choose himself, much like in the comics.
[edit] References
- ^ New Titans #126
- ^ The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #1
- ^ The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #3
- ^ Teen Titans vol. 3, #5
[edit] External links
- Crimson Lightning - An online index to the comic book adventures of the Flash.
- The Flash: Those Who Ride The Lightning - Fan site with information about the super-speed characters of the DC Universe.
