Mercury Falling, part 2!

[inexpediency]

Here we have the conclusion to the Impulse story arc, Mercury Falling. First up is Impulse #65, appropriately titled "Bart Allen's Evil Twin".

Impulse, as it would seem, is having a perfectly normal night fighting the Glory Shredder.



"...this is his dark and evil twin--Thaddeus Thawne, the vengeful and vindictive Inertia!"

Yes, Inertia, and in a quite villainous internal monologue he explains how, when Bart was pulled into an alternate dimension while fighting the mudbug (see previous post for details), Inertia trapped him in a VR prison to take his place.

And of course, while Inertia spends an entire two pages reflecting on this, he is mercilessly pounding the snot out of Glory Shredder.

But not only does Inertia need to replace Impulse, he needs to replace Bart Allen in day-to-day life. He thinks he's convinced them, and that any small changes they might notice could be contributed to maturity, or Max's "cancer". Carol seems suspicious, but the rest of the gang, well...



(Okay, I have to admit that "ring a bell" joke made me snicker.)

Continuing with the inner monologue, Inertia notes that even Max Mercury and Young Justice haven't noticed a thing--besides "Bart" actually acting mature, for once.

And all the while...Inertia is starting to have fun being a hero.





Even Bart's dog, who'd been suspicious and aggressive towards Inertia, is starting to like him (mostly because of the treats Inertia gives him.) Inertia decides to name the dog Ivan, as in Ivan Pavlov (and not, as Max thinks, as in "Ivan the Terrier".)

Eventually, Inertia and Max head over to Dr. Morlo's lab to get ready to enter the speed force.



Meanwhile, Carol does some snooping.



She also finds some brown hair dye in Bart's closet, and (just in case she was too stupid to put the pieces together) a hologram of Inertia, explaining his plan to kill Max Mercury at the speed force.

With Helen, she runs to Dr. Morlo's lab to stop them, but it's already too late.



That leads into Imp #66, "Deathrace".

Inertia and Max are well on their way to the speed force. Max is praising "Bart" for all his hard work and improvements, even calling him the son he never had, which of course only makes Inertia angrier.

Back at the lab...





Clearly, Inertia is pissed.





Bart shows up then, and the two fight while Max slips closer and closer to the speed storm. Inertia easily gets the best of Bart.





"And in that moment, Inertia realizes that his life, dedicated to a centuries-old hatred--devoted to pleasing a handful of cold, bitter ghosts--has been wasted...is empty. He will never have what Impulse has; will never know their approval, their pride...their love. And as his anger rolls and churns away inside him, his hatred becomes a more personal one...condemning those who condemned him to this sad and solitary single-minded existance!"

Distraught and angry, Thad runs off into the speed storm--Bart and Max try to stop him, but there's really not much they can do. Bart picks up Max, despite his protests, and carries him into the speed storm.



:)

And, just as the icing on the cake, the follow-up issue--Impulse #67, "Friends Like These".

It's a party for Max!



Max starts to get annoyed, however, when some of the guests keep talking about how incredulous they are that Bart actually pulled it off; some even nag him about not getting more responsible help. Max points out that, although Bart couldn't do it at first, he pulled through when Max really needed it.







Oh, goodness. I love Supes just fumbling there. "Kal Ell...inson...man...ton..."



Cut to a page of Bart's friends ogling Diana, while Carol (and some other girl I don't know the name of) look on disgustedly.

Later, after the party, Max and Bart have a little chat.



He catches up with Carol, but she's not in real good shape...



Awwwww.

Alright, alright, I guess I should make some comments. Not much I can say about the actual story (besides the fact that it gives me the warm fuzzies every single time.) But I can't say I'm a big fan of the art--it's okay, I guess, but not really my cup of tea. It's a little too cartoony, I guess you could say, but really detailed at the same time--especially with Bart's ultra-muscleyness--which can look sorta creepy at times.

However. Ethan Van Schiver does such a great job with expressions, in my opinion, so for me it kind of balances out.

Also, we don't have an Inertia tag. What's up with that? More Inertia, I say.

tags: title: Impulse, char: Impulse/Kid Flash/Bart Allen, char: Max Mercury, char: Thaddeus Thawne/Inertia, creator: Todd Dezago, creator: Eric Battle

Comments

[bluepard]

"I love you like a son!"
"Yeah, I know, whatever, can I borrow the car?"
It's like he's a teenager already.

Continuing what I said last time, I would give Thad hugs, too, so long as it's this young woobie Thad and not baby-killer Thad. (Sad that the boy has more depth in his brief appearance in this comic than in the entire rest of his existence.)

[fifthie]

"brief appearance"

??

He was effectively the main character for like three issues.

[bluepard]

About 9 pages of which we knew he wasn't Bart. White Lightning probably got more screen time than Inertia.

[fifthie]

Regardless of whether we knew he wasn't Bart, he still wasn't actually Bart, and was acting in a manner completely different from how Bart acts and in keeping with his own personality, all of which went a pretty long way towards establishing his various character traits and how they contrast with Impulse's.

Anyway I'm not trying to belabor the point (I mean, I AM belaboring the point. But I'm not trying to), I'm just saying, it's odd to say that Inertia's depth was established in a 'brief' appearance, when he actually had a pretty reasonable interval of time in which to establish his depth, as these things go.

[starwolf_oakley]

I remember some fans were so unimpressed with Kid Flash in the early issues of Teen Titans, they were *hoping* it was Inertia pretending to be Bart.

[deliandra]

I'm still of that opinion. *coughs

[silverzeo]

Inertia starting to like Bart's life makes me think of how Match, being Jokerized, posed as Kon (eating his own boogers, I heard from a webcomic on DA) and Cassie tells him that she love him (the real Superboy). So it is true, all clone want a little loving. Cherub, Interia, Match, Superboy himself.

[dreamreaver]

You wear the mask for long enough, and you become it.

[silverzeo]

Speaking of which, whatever happen to that Skrull who switched sides for earthm but was shot down and then disappeared? Power Ring? Freedom Ring? You think he going to reappear or the writers just wrote him off?

[domino_blue]

I hate to say it but one of the big misteps I have with some of Geoff Johns work was Inertia and Match who were actually pretty cool villains before he touched them who had at least characterizations other then evil twins, inertia more then Match but still I hated how they turned him into another Bizzaro.

[swingbound.livejournal.com]

Motto.

Though without the "hate to say it" part. I rather like saying it because I really hate how he treated the characters.

So much potential. So many stories that could be pulled with those two. All of it wasted. And now, for the foreseeable future, writers will be working with his versions as their points of reference. He's poisoned the well with them.

[domino_blue]

well I like a lot of Geoff Johns work so l tend to give some credit but I think trying to make every villain brutal is stupid waste of time and really needs to think more about the villains motives other then their villains they are just like that. But then again maybe I'm wrong for thinking a kid raised in a jar who finds that he likes being a good guy more then anything but hates Impulse because he has a good life with a great family is more interesting then Baby-killer.

[swingbound.livejournal.com]

I get that. I like some of Johns' work too. But he just seems to have a mental block for anything relating to Bart.

As for interesting... well, on one hand we have, "Guy who decides to go rogue after finding out his whole existence is to be nothing more than a tool in a centuries old family feud, loathes/is jealous of his 'brother,' and longs to be accepted for who he is," versus "Guy who is mean and kills babies."

I know which one I find more interesting.

[dreamreaver]

Random trivia: the root from which the name "Thaddeus" originated apparently translates to "praise"/"desired" in Old Aramaic. Kinda sad, really, when you think about it...

However. Ethan Van Schiver does such a great job with expressions, in my opinion, so for me it kind of balances out.

That's actually part of the reason I love his earlier work; that and the poses looked a lot less stiff (a gripe I have with his current style). And I'm fond of toon-like styles in general.

[inexpediency]

Huh, I was wondering if Thad's name had any significance, whether on purpose or by coincidence.

[dreamreaver]

Probably a coincidence, but I like it.

[dreamreaver]

Note to mods/taggers/whatever (it's still blocked? Ugh...): "creator: eric battle" should be replaced here with "creator: ethan van sciver"; the latter tag should also be added to this post.

[miramira]

Aww. Poor Inertia.

What I really can't get over is Superman, though. It's a good thing he's adopted, if that's the kind of alias he comes up with on his own. (And why doesn't he just go with Clark? Is there something going on in continuity that would prevent it, or does he have that much faith that young people read the paper?)

[inexpediency]

Maybe he just really, really wants to believe that young people read the paper.

[protogarrett]

I'm going to say it.

I hate the art for the Impulse series. It makes my eyes bleed.

[angelophile]

This art is really disconcerting. I'm fine with stylized, I like Ramos, and Skottie Young and people like that. But it's really off putting to have characters looking traditionally drawn in the same panel as others that, frankly, look like they were designed by Jim Henson's Creature Workshop.

[fifthie]

So because of Inexpediency posting these threads I went back and read a bunch of Impulse's series.

And now I'm a little angry at him because the difference between that and any of what DC publishes now was so staggering that it damn near gave me a concussion.

Like I just keep looking at this, and then looking at Rise of Arsenal. And then looking at this again, and then looking at Rise of Arsenal again. And then I just sigh and I have to go lie down for a little while.

[shadur]

Poor Inertia. Such a great, well-written character with believable motivations. Damn shame some hack writer decided that ruining his ending by bringing him back and dumping his characterization was easier than coming up with another opponent for Bart.

[espanolbot]

It's odd, the art is pretty good except for Bart's hair.

Seriously, it looks like it eats stray cats.

[inexpediency]

I sort of want to borrow his conditioner.