One Underrated Flash Family Member Has a Power Greater Than His Speed

Bart Allen

As extensive as the Flash family is, every character is beloved in some way and has a unique relationship with speed that truly defines their character amidst all those speedsters. One of the most beloved family members recently made his return to DC’s main continuity: Bart Allen aka Impulse. His unique personality and abilities make him one of the strongest speedsters out of the bunch, but not because of his speed.

Impulse has always had a unique relationship with the Speed Force, having been absorbed by it, lived in it, and even create something called ‘Speed Scouts’. They are essentially beings made of pure energy from the Speed Force that Bart can create and send out to traverse time and space. After learning all they can, these Speed Scouts return to Impulse and are reabsorbed, including all their memories and experiences. This unique ability has saved Bart and his team many times over, but has been forgotten about by DC for a long time. Despite all its uses though, one fatal flaw is that all experiences the Scouts encounter happen to Impulse’s original body.

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In Impulse #77 by Todd Dezago, Carlo Barberi, Juan Vlasco, Tom McCraw, and Janice Chiang, one of these Scouts is destroyed, which leaves Bart in a catatonic state. However, despite its weaknesses, it’s a powerful ability that should be brought back and combined with Bart’s photographic memory to ‘predict’ the future. If used correctly, theoretically Impulse could send a Scout through time into the future as a passive observer, learning all it can of events unfolding. When it returns to Bart, and he reabsorbs the memory, he would see exactly what they need to do to defeat an enemy, or exactly what to avoid. Already, he’s used this ability to fight and comb through different places in Young Justice #45 by Peter David, Todd Nauck, Lary Stucker, Jason Wright, and Ken Lopez. Which led to an eventual victory for Impulse and provided help when the Young Justice team needed to bring people together.

Impulse gets defeated in the pages of Young Justice.

If this ability was brought back into DC Continuity, Bart could make Young Justice a key player in DC’s present and future crisis events, as he could literally scout through time and space to find out what happens. The last time readers saw the ability combine with his memory was in Impulse #85. By sending a scout back in time, Bart would be able to see their mistakes, what they did wrong to create this crisis they were in, and figured out a way to fix it. His memory provided a perfect play by play of the events, and with his scouts help, he could completely reset the story. This would make him nearly unstoppable, and if he kept them all as observers, he wouldn’t have to be subjected to any pain imposed on them. Besides the odd strike here and there that he can’t prevent.

While fans will debate whether Bart is truly the fastest Flash, he doesn’t need to be the fastest to be a great hero. All speedsters have these unique abilities that set them apart from one another, and Impulse’s ability could give many heroes the upper hand by providing a glimpse into their own actions. He could prevent a crisis before it comes by fixing mistakes, see what happens in the future to sway the tide of a battle, and so much more. However, his Speed Scouts have long since been put away, and the Flash Family’s unique speedster may never get the chance to use them again.

Author: Deann Hawkins