What Does [SPOILER]'s Return Mean for Flash and the DC Universe?

WARNING: This article contains a major spoiler for The Flash #50 by Joshua Williamson, Howard Porter and Hi-Fi, on sale now.

This week's The Flash #50 marked the surprise return of a prominent pre-Flashpoint speedster, a fan favorite who simply could not exist in the New 52 universe. Though Wally West ultimately failed to rescue his child Jai and Irey by breaking the Speed Force, he inadvertently freed another member of the Flash family -- Bart Allen, the young speedster best known as Impulse.

While the reveal is certain to excite longtime readers, fans who came to The Flash more recently may be at a loss -- after all, even before the New 52 reboot, it's been some time since we've seen that costume in action. So who is Impulse?

My Name Is Bart Allen

Debuting in 1994's The Flash #92 by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo, Bart Allen is the grandson of Barry and Iris Allen, born and raised in 31st century. Before Barry sacrificed his life to save the multiverse in Crisis on Infinite Earths, he and Iris briefly enjoyed a happily-ever-after in the far future, Iris's home era. They had superpowered children, Don and Dawn Allen, known as the Tornado Twins, but unfortunately, they met their fates during an invasion by the Dominators. Bart is Don's son with Melanie Thawne, a descendant of Eobard, the Reverse Flash.

That's a lot, and we're just getting started!

Bart's metabolism aged him incredibly rapidly, such that he physically appeared to be twelve years old when chronologically he was only two -- to compensate, he was raised in a virtual reality world that could keep pace with the world as he experienced it. As such, he has very little concept of consequence and reacts purely on impulse -- hence the name.

Iris shuttled Bart back to our present, where Wally was able to stabilize Bart's aging. Impulse's apprenticeship to the Flash was contentious, though, and soon Bart found himself living with and learning from Max Mercury, the Zen Guru of Speed.

Bart had his own series, Impulse, which ran 90 issues, and was also a member of Young Justice before changing his superhero name to Kid Flash and joining the Teen Titans.

Bart was even the Flash for a little while! When the DC Universe jumped "One Year Later" after the events of Infinite Crisis, a slightly aged-up Bart donned the red and gold to star in The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive. That series lasted only 13 issues, ending with Bart being beaten to death by the Rogues. He was later resurrected, once again as the teenage Kid Flash, in Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds.

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Gone with the New 52

Like many heroes with deep roots in DC continuity -- and it should be clear by now that Impulse had that in spades -- Bart Allen simply didn't fit into the revised DC Universe of the New 52 era. At the time he was introduced, Barry Allen was the martyred patriarch of the Flash Family, with Bart destined to inherit his grandfather's legacy after Wally eventually passed the torch. Even once Barry returned to the land of the living, there was still a place for Bart (by now going by Kid Flash).

But when the New 52 universe took hold, Barry was the only Flash, a young man with all of his greatest deeds ahead of him. It would make absolutely no sense to also have his grandson running around Central City. And so a doppelganger Kid Flash was created for the new Teen Titans series, until finally an all-new Wally West took over that role (creating more fun later, when the Original Wally returned).

But now we're two years into the Rebirth era, and many elements of pre-Flashpoint continuity have begun to reassert themselves -- especially around the Flash, a character who has been so central to nearly all of DC's universe-shaping events.

Wally's return to the DCU was the thread that began to unravel the rebooted universe (which was apparently the creation of Watchmen character Doctor Manhattan, though that mystery has yet to fully play out in the pages of Doomsday Clock), and many of Wally's adventures since then have focused on recapturing what he's lost, from his picture-perfect marriage to reporter Linda Park to, in "Flash War," rescuing his and Linda's children from the Speed Force. There had also been hints that Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick was set for a heroic return, as Barry and Batman caught a glimpse of the original Flash in the crossover "The Button."

So with everyone's attention on the West children on the one hand and Jay on the other, Williamson and Porter pulled a bit of a swerve in bringing back Impulse. But what does this mean for the Flash family?

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Speed Force United

Bart was last seen as Kid Flash, so why is he now Impulse again? The most straightforward answer might be "because Rebirth already has a Kid Flash." But there must also be an in-story reason, as well, and there are some clues to how this might work in Wally's return.

Wally West escaped the Speed Force wearing his Kid Flash costume, with some (but not all) of his memories intact. He also seemed to be slightly younger than he had been pre-Flashpoint -- he said that someone "took years from us to weaken us." If years have also been taken from Bart, that could set him back to his time as Impulse.

This is a good development, as Waid and Wieringo had created a truly unique character in Impulse who flattened out a bit once he grew into the role of Kid Flash. Impulse was reckless, but all heart, especially in his solo series the creators were able to portray a sincerely sweet, heartwarming story of family, friends, and super-speed adventure and wide-eyed wonder. Restoring Impulse to the DC Universe speaks directly to the original mission statement of Rebirth.

But this does raise the question of where he fits in the current tapestry of Flash characters.

The Waid era was marked by an embarrassment of super-speed heroes. Jay, Wally, Bart, Max Mercury, Jesse Quick, her father Johnny Quick, future Flash John Fox, the Legion of Super-Heroes' XS, probably seven or twelve others I'm forgetting. They referred to themselves as the Flash Family, and truly operated as such, complete with black sheep, schisms, and so forth. The current era, too, is marked by a plethora of speedsters, both hero and villain -- Flashes Barry and Wally, Kid Flash Wally, Godspeed, Reverse Flash (Thawne), Reverse-Flash (Daniel West, deceased), Negative Flash, Zoom (Hunter Zolomon), the Flash of China, a bunch of folks who gained speed in a storm and were mostly murdered by Godspeed, and so forth. And now Bart. And, probably soon, Jay.

But even amongst the heroes, the divisions now seem to run much deeper. Barry and Adult Wally have fallen out, thanks to the events of "Flash War," and Barry and Teen Wally have operated largely independently pretty much from the start. It's really starting to look like Barry can only be idolized when he's been dead for a few years! If there is no "Flash Family," who does Impulse align with? Does he go his own way, another solo speedster rocketing around the DCU?

Or does he bring everyone together?

In an issue explicitly about family, Bart's return is presented with Barry's caption narration "I'll always have hope." Bart does seem uniquely suited to bringing the speedsters closer together, both through his attitude and his position within the Flash legacy. With time travel broken through Zoom's machinations in "Flash War," Impulse's origins in the future might also hold the key to rescuing Wally's children Irey and Jai. He'll also want to go after Jay, Max, Jesse, and his cousin XS, though that last one might have to wait for the return of the Legion.

In short, Impulse's return spells only good things, though precisely what role he'll play -- in both the Flash Family and the greater DC Universe -- remains to be seen.