Bart Allen first appeared in The Flash (Vol. 2) #91 cover date June 1994. A full appearance with costume and the cover shot would happen the following issue.
The character was popular enough to earn a spin-off by co-creator Mark Waid and Humberto Ramos who made a splash with this series. The Waid/Ramos run lasted the first 26 issues including a crossover with The Flash and the series ran for 89 issues plus Annuals and Specials. He was also featured in the Young Justice series by Peter David alongside popular contemporaries Superboy (Kon-El), Tim Drake, and Cassie Sandsmark.
When that series ended the character faced many difficulties in the subsequent years. He became Kid Flash in the 2003 Teen Titans series. A couple of years later he was aged up in Infinite Crisis to young adulthood and given his own series Flash: The Fastest Man Alive. The move and the series were unpopular and the decision was quickly reversed within a year. In Flash: TFMA #13 the character was killed by the Rogues and Wally West returned from the Speed Force where he and his family had been since IC. Bart Allen's time as the Flash has never been mentioned again since that time and I believe those 13 issues are not counted in the formal Flash numbering. That whole year is just radioactive.
Bart was resurrected in Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds in Kid Flash form. He reunited with Barry Allen in Flash Rebirth. Reportedly he was going to star in a new Kid Flash series in a family of Johns' lead Flash titles Then the whole universe was rebooted in Flashpoint and he didn't exist for many years. He returned in Flash Vol. 5 #50 in 2018, joined a new version of Young Justice by Brian Michael Bendis that was short-lived and since then he has shown up occasionally in The Flash but has no home.
I think the character got a raw deal in the 2000s by creators who didn't understand his innate independence and tried to slot him into roles he was made to be in. A fun and goofy character got his personality lobotomized for the po-faced seriousness of 2000s comics. If he was meant to be Kid Flash he would have been created as Kid Flash. While he may have been reverent of his grandparents he wasn't of Wally or really anybody else. He is no sidekick or inheritor of a mantle.
The early issues of his series have been collected a couple of times but the Waid run has never been collected in full and nothing past the Waid run has been collected at all save for crossover issues probably. The two-volume TPB set of the Waid run only got one out so maybe the whole thing will find a home as a Compendium. I'd like for the whole series to get reprinted.
As a character who exists to be light and fun to read about with a ton of personality, I'd love for him to get a shot in the arm and a new series. Maybe a rivalry with the current serious-minded Wallace West Kid Flash. I love all of the 90s teen characters but I think Impulse is my favorite.
The character was popular enough to earn a spin-off by co-creator Mark Waid and Humberto Ramos who made a splash with this series. The Waid/Ramos run lasted the first 26 issues including a crossover with The Flash and the series ran for 89 issues plus Annuals and Specials. He was also featured in the Young Justice series by Peter David alongside popular contemporaries Superboy (Kon-El), Tim Drake, and Cassie Sandsmark.
When that series ended the character faced many difficulties in the subsequent years. He became Kid Flash in the 2003 Teen Titans series. A couple of years later he was aged up in Infinite Crisis to young adulthood and given his own series Flash: The Fastest Man Alive. The move and the series were unpopular and the decision was quickly reversed within a year. In Flash: TFMA #13 the character was killed by the Rogues and Wally West returned from the Speed Force where he and his family had been since IC. Bart Allen's time as the Flash has never been mentioned again since that time and I believe those 13 issues are not counted in the formal Flash numbering. That whole year is just radioactive.
Bart was resurrected in Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds in Kid Flash form. He reunited with Barry Allen in Flash Rebirth. Reportedly he was going to star in a new Kid Flash series in a family of Johns' lead Flash titles Then the whole universe was rebooted in Flashpoint and he didn't exist for many years. He returned in Flash Vol. 5 #50 in 2018, joined a new version of Young Justice by Brian Michael Bendis that was short-lived and since then he has shown up occasionally in The Flash but has no home.
I think the character got a raw deal in the 2000s by creators who didn't understand his innate independence and tried to slot him into roles he was made to be in. A fun and goofy character got his personality lobotomized for the po-faced seriousness of 2000s comics. If he was meant to be Kid Flash he would have been created as Kid Flash. While he may have been reverent of his grandparents he wasn't of Wally or really anybody else. He is no sidekick or inheritor of a mantle.
The early issues of his series have been collected a couple of times but the Waid run has never been collected in full and nothing past the Waid run has been collected at all save for crossover issues probably. The two-volume TPB set of the Waid run only got one out so maybe the whole thing will find a home as a Compendium. I'd like for the whole series to get reprinted.
As a character who exists to be light and fun to read about with a ton of personality, I'd love for him to get a shot in the arm and a new series. Maybe a rivalry with the current serious-minded Wallace West Kid Flash. I love all of the 90s teen characters but I think Impulse is my favorite.
statistics: Posted by Starrbeardd — 4:10 PM - 1 day ago — Replies 2 — Views 110