Science's Less Accurate Grandmother: Impulse: Bart Saves the Universe by Christopher Priest, Jason Johnson, and Edwin Rosell

27 October 2025

Impulse: Bart Saves the Universe by Christopher Priest, Jason Johnson, and Edwin Rosell

I don't have much experience with Impulse a.k.a. Bart Allen, who was essentially the Kid Flash to Wally West's Flash—that will have to wait until I finally read my Mark Waid Flash Omnibus volumes. But as I've been investigating what JSA-related stories I might somehow have missed in my fifty-installment journey through the history of that superhero team, I discovered there was an Impulse one-shot involving time travel and the JSA, so I added it to my list.

The book came out in 1999 and is set in the then-present of the DC universe, where Impulse is trying to be of use to somebody, anybody, but keeps getting rebuffed. No one wants his help, not Superman, not Wonder Woman, not Green Lantern, especially not Batman. When will he get a chance to save the world... or even the universe?

Well, he gets his chance when Extant (villain of the then-recent Zero Hour) travels back to 1941, battles the JSA, and tricks the Linear Men into changing history. Because he was born in the future, only Impulse remembers the original timeline, and thus only Impulse can do anything to restore it. But can the hyperfast hyperactive kid keep his mind on the job long enough to do it?

Poor Impulse.

The JSA are more of a plot point than actual characters here; they spend most of the story dead, except for one sequence where Impulse crashes one of their meetings. From that perspective, I probably needn't have bothered including it in my sequence of stories. But, you know, if the point of all of this is to be entertained, then this story does a good job of it.

I don't blame Johnny.

I always like a bit of Christopher Priest, and Impulse is a character well-suited to Priest's techniques of rapid cuts and abrupt juxtapositions, as well as his tendency to mix darkness with comedy. Yes, there's a lot of Impulse goofiness here... but there's also some real tragedy as Impulse needs to reckon with the deaths of those important to him, and the fact that Barry Allen does exist in this alternate timeline, and will have to die to restore the proper the universe. (Ain't that always the case.) Artists Jason Johnson and Edwin Rosell are new to me, but they have that manga-influence, exaggerated design sense that I associate with 1990s comics in general and Impulse in particular, so that works well.

Aw, Max,

I particularly liked Impulse's relationship with the Golden Age speedster Max Mercury here, and I finished the one-shot looking forward to reading more about Impulse whenever I get around to reading all my Flash Omnibus volumes. (Impulse himself seems to have only received a single collected edition, alas. I do remember, a long time ago, reading a trade where Bart himself had become the Flash, but he was portrayed as very much a sad sack (I think this one?), nothing like the character here, and then he got murdered in Countdown. Bleh.)

Impulse: Bart Saves the Universe originally appeared in one issue (1999). The story was written by Christopher Priest, pencilled by Jason Johnson, inked by Edwin Rosell, type designed by Willie Schubert, and edited by Paul Kupperberg & L. A. Williams.

This post is the fifty-second in an improbably long series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers Dr. Mid-Nite. Previous installments are listed below:

All Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever (1976-79)

The Huntress: Origins (1977-82)

All-Star Squadron (1981-87)

Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume One (1983-84)

Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume Two (1984-85)

Showcase Presents... Power Girl (1978)

America vs. the Justice Society (1985)

Jonni Thunder, a.k.a. Thunderbolt (1985)

Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 7 (1983-85)

Infinity, Inc. #11-53 (1985-88) [reading order]

Last Days of the Justice Society of America (1986-88)

All-Star Comics 80-Page Giant (1999)