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Impulse - Blog Posts
New Bart Allen headcanon because I'm so so weak and my brain don't stop buzzing.
In Smallville, Bart Allen is being hunted down by the Black Flash (Basically the grim reaper of the Speedforce), because he's the only speedster who was born with the speedforce by two speedster family's, thus making his powers "Pure" untapped potential.
Superman is in the comic, he tries saving Bart, he's irrelevant. Jay Garrick was also there at some point but mans didn't do shit. Anyways. Eventually, Black Flash does catch up to Bart in Smallville, making all sorts of wild threats if Imp didn't give up his powers.
Bart, being the selfless sacrifice he is, agreed to the terms and Black Flash essentially killed him. A lotta lightning came down from nowhere and struck Bart. After the storm cleared, Bart and Black Flash were no where to be seen, and all that was left was a Flash insignia on the ground to remember him.
Obviously, Bart came back, but my headcanon is that he comes back with lightning scars traveling all down his body, from his hair to his feet. He's impulse again, but with these otherworldly tree branches of scars covering his face, arms, legs, everywhere. And no one really knows how to address it, they're just all relieved to have him back, and he doesn't seem bothered by them. He sometimes makes Harry Potter jokes, and it either gets a laugh or makes people uncomfortable, there's no in between.
He doesn't really have a social life anymore, since he's been legally dead a lot and Batman had to make yet another fake birth certificate and records for him, but even he's happy to do so to see the speedster around again.
Bart never really got along with Barry and Wally completely. They were his heroes before he even met them, but they weren't what he was hoping for and that always put a strain on their relationship. That and Wally just generally treated Bart like shit, and Barry acted like he didn't even want him sometimes. But then Bart's alive again, showing up on their doorstep like "SINCE WHEN IS IT 2019", and they're just staring at him like he's the ghost of Impulse, tattered and scarred just like the accident left them, and thing's are better now because Bart's filling up the silence that filled their voids again.
Okay then, when do you think that Bart would have his large growth spurt in his teens?
Bart Allen already had a few growth spurts, he just died whenever he was taller/older and then we were back at stage one with Impulse.
In smallville, Bart adapts a new look. He shaved his hair off and dyed it blonde, even changed his Impulse suit. A notable difference too is that he’s definitely taller. I’ll put some photos down below for reference, but he’s now as tall, if not taller, than Jay Garrick, and almost as tall as superman. It was never specified his age at this time but following the chronological path, I’d say he was 17 by that time. So we can assume in two years of being Impulse his age will catch up to him and he’ll shoot up like a tree.
Again in Flash comics, when Bart took over the mantle (even though he didn’t want to), he was a tall and built, muscular guy. He aged up by four years and thus his body with it, so he was 18 or 19 when he became Flash. So again, another growth spurt after Smallville. In the side notes for the comics, it was said that Bart actually grew taller than Wally, as reference. (Since Wally wasn’t actually around for comparison). Beside him in the photos is Valerie; he’s taller than her and she’s wearing heels!
Hope this helps!
where does it say bart has an alabama accent?
It never had to be said, the implications are all there. Bart was raised in Alabama with his mentor and father figure Max Crandall. To fit in better, Bart acclimated his speech patterns and accent to sound like everyone else in town as shown here.
In the first three Impulse comics, he has the usual speech of an american accent, or as far as we can tell, but Issue 4 and after he starts cutting off some words like the to th’ and suppose to ‘spose, you to ya— as minor examples. As well as using more generation acquitted terms like “outta” instead of out, “gotcha” instead of Got ya. Stuff like that that tell us he’s grown into using an accent.
Hope that helps!
More info for JayBart, which is completely headcanon and can be platonic: For reference, cause I think a lotta people are confused about this,
Bart and Jason are canonically only a year apart of age, which is why I think a lot of you are questioning in case you thought it was bigger than that.
Bart, as we all know, had speed aging where he grew up faster than anything and chronologically speaking, he’s lived for 4 years. But since his perception of time is different than others, plus with the help of his Virtual Simulation growing up, he’s biologically 15 when he starts out as Impulse (According to secret origins 80 page giant #1). So he’s A year older than Tim.
Jason Todd is Two years older than Tim, also to reference. DC just doesn’t know how to draw the correct look for age gap. Bart just looks younger since he aged so fast, but he does shoot up in three years.
While their approach varies, they have very common morals when it comes to justice work and corrupt systems. (100% they both support ACAB, DC’s just too scared to bring up something “so controversial”) I mean, the amount of times Jason was failed by justice department and everything in between, on top of Bart unknowingly growing up in a system that’s run by the Evil President Thawne (HIS GRANDPA), the “science police”, that were just as corrupt as the president and constantly hunting him down, plus y’know, living in the apocalypse; both of them have strong views on the matter. (And Yes, I know Bart was a CSI for a year but Central City is already so far gone and morally depraved that he might as well be the one good thing about it.)
Yes, I think they would make a great couple, but I also ship them as platonic soulmates/platonic husbands, but really they just have an amazing dynamic (that has never been explored). I prefer my ships to have chemistry above all else, and you know, be in each other’s age range, and not siblings. Thing’s you shouldn’t ship characters for, but Chemistry is important to me at least.
Thank you for your time, if you’ve read thus far.
Batman has a secret interrogation method specifically for Joker and Riddler and it’s called “Bart”. It’s super effective.
Axel Walker with his prosthetic arm and Bart Allen with his prosthetic leg pointing at each other like “YOOOOOOOO”
Reference for all you Bart Lovers out there, he actually has really nice and neat handwriting and he can draw things so well that they look like photos— and this is canon— so in your fanfics, he does not have chicken scratch writing. Thank you for your time.
Bart: muttering interlac curses under his breath
Everyone else: what?? What the fuck?? Huh???
This man, Brucie Bats, is literally holding an arm out to keep the cape around Bart’s body, like a brooding bird to their babies. Tell me Bart isn’t unofficially part of the Batfam, do it. You won’t. He is cape shielding this lil boi and telling him he did good work in his own weird way.
Ofc Bart couldn’t give a fuck about the Flash’s (Max Supremacy), he works solo and literally just showed up outta nowhere to prank Robin then got roped into helping Batman on a Joker Hostage case.
Need I say more? #BartintheBatfam
I want Bart to go feral on his family. I want him to snap and fight to be treated better than he is because he deserves better and he’s not a pushover, i don’t know why anyone would ever think that of him. Iris and Joan is pretty great to him, but Barry, Wally and Jay deserve to be yelled at, scolded, punched, anything.
AU where it's literally just Bart and following his stories and seeing his progression with family and friends but like- all him, only him. Please, I miss the Impulse comics so much
A new JayBart fic, cause I’m weak. ✨
“Four times Tim Drake was oblivious to his best friend dating his brother, and the one time it hit him like a truck.”
Please stop Bart from thinking he doesn’t have to be mad at Barry just because he’s the flash. Endorse the kid sucker punching him for being rude. He does it to Wally, why not his grandpa too?
Just thinking about how Bart’s Generation is (Probably) Gen Delta. (It’s not even named yet).
idk as someone with adhd, which is what I headcanon Bart with, I could see the reading the whole library thing. I've burned through wikipedia articles and thousands related to them just cause, I could probably burn through a library in relative two years if I had the time off work and a reason. I do admit that his becoming more serious and Kid Flash was hella scuffed though ngl. Also this is in no way me saying that headcanoning him autistic is wrong, just offering another perspective. Hell he could be adhd and autistic, whatever way the character resonates with you.
Hyperfixation is actually very common! Bart has shown plenty times that he can focus his efforts on one thing while at superspeed, like when he does his homework that takes him two weeks in his perception of time, but a couple of seconds to the outside world. So the library thing doesn’t actually surprise me much! I think it’s great he’s expanded his knowledge and used his eidetic memory for more of a practical purpose. He’s basically a walking fact book of infinite knowledge and him knowing the entire human nervous system, how to take something apart and put back together, plus all those fun facts by memory is the coolest.
But on the other hand, Bart has a “danger deficit disorder” as it’s said. He’s gotten better at distinguishing real danger from nonexistent ones, but it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s the type to stop for a second. Bart thinks on his feet better than all the speedsters before him, and he comes up with plans that don’t need to be thought out so much as improvised. He’s the king at improvisation. Taking that away from his character basically strips him of a big thing that makes him unique and himself. It was a big no on their part. Listening to a plan means that’s wasted time to be saving people, stopping to look at his surroundings means that something could have been done quicker to stop his enemy. His mindset is what makes him impulse and they deprive him of that when making him “Kid Flash”. So uncool.
I think Mark Waid did a great job of keeping Bart’s development at a casual pace, keeping his character the same while still leaving room for growth. Plus, coding him with ADHD was a conscious decision on his end, which I find fantastic.
This newer version of Impulse feels too different to me. And after, y’know, DYING five times, you’d think he’d be less… cheery? Like— He was never to begin with! He’s, in simple terms, as teenager as they come. Not too bleak of an outlook, but not a peppy one either. Finds violent video games amusing and fights kids, steals cars, swears a bit, but not as much as people probably expect from highschoolers. He doesn’t just like to fit in, he wants to blend in the background, go unnoticed. Stay quiet and handle situations as they come.
Him as Kid Flash feels too off for me. Bart as anything but Impulse just feels like a violation.
What do you mean "curing" his autism. I don't remember that in the comics????
They don’t outright say it, cause that’d just be stupid of them, but you know the scene right before Bart becomes Kid Flash, when Deathstroke/Jericho shot him in the knee point blanc so he had that prosthetic put in? They basically used that as a coverup to change his character basics and rewrite his character.
It was messy and sure, trauma does a lot to people, but come on. Immediately afterwards he took on the Kid Flash mantle, something he’s said on multiple occasions that he’d NEVER do. He read the entire San Fransico Library and memorised it all, something he’s never had the patience or attention span to do before, and no a traumatic event like that wouldn’t focus him. If anything he’d become more paranoid and ready to jump the gun, figuratively and literally. And then he becomes such a serious character? Like??? That’s not how neurodivergent people/characters work. He cracks jokes from time to time since he’s supposed to be the “class clown” character on the team-- also supposed to be untrue.
So, while I agree with you that the fandom often writes Bart a tad bit to extremely ooc, I don't think using his early days in the Impulse comics is a good indicator of this. He went through a lot of character growth just in those comics alone, not to mention in the 2003 Teen Titans.
Of course! I’ve been talking a lot more recently on his early days because I’ve been re-reading all the impulse comics. He goes through a lot and he comes out on top, that at least never changes.
I don’t mind most fandom written versions of him, actually. I think the people out there that focus on Bart, staying true to his character while also expanding who he is is a great thing! Heck, I have plenty of my own headcanons on him, as you could probably tell from my… everything on my page. Haha 😅
Impulse comics and everything throughout was definitely his peak nearing the end of his series, even the issues of him taking on the Flash mantle and learning what it is about the legacy. (He’s not impressed and I don’t blame him). I just wish they’d let him have good relations in his life more, friends and family, without making them leave his life abruptly and almost as soon as he gets that close to them. It’s happened. Every. Time.
As for the 2003 edition of Titans, he’s definitely different and adverse from his earlier years, that’s for sure. And perhaps the writers at DC went a bit OOC too with his change of costume, and the whole fiasco about “curing” his autism- totally WRONG and UGH. I guess I like a lot of his aspects in it but those ones feel like a different character. Yeah, everyone grows up at some point, but it’s one thing to develop and another thing to rewrite them.
Okay, so lemme point something out.
Bart Allen: Sassy, Sarcastic, smug little shit, will roll his eyes a lot. Neurodivergent, has a prosthetic, and a literal genius. Quiet and reserved while also being a social butterfly, hard headed and will fight for his beliefs.
Hartley Rathaway: Sassy, Sarcastic, smug little shit, scoffs at the idiocy. Him and his sister on the spectrum and he has his hearing aids. A certified genius and advocate for homeless, metas, and LGBT+. Quiet and reserved, a public figure, and strong willed.
And you’re telling me. These two. Have had ONE. INTERACTION. Where Bart DIES IN THE END. W H A T. DC YOU LITERALLY GAVE YOURSELF ONE OF THE BEST DUO’S ACCIDENTALLY AND YOU DONT EVEN— WHAT ARE YOU DOING? TELL ME HARTLEY WOULDN’T ADOPT BART IN A HEARTBEAT. DO IT, YOU CAN’T.
Me: sobbing over the friendship dynamic and every bit of life this panel give me.
Also me: Bart’s going to be taller than them one day, laugh now.
who is sobbing? not me i’m not crying over fictional friendships
Young Justice vol 3 #17
Boys of Flashfam connections but as D&D alignments.
Barry and Wally: Lawful Neutral. They share the same need to serve justice And Wally’s the “golden child”.
Wally and Bart: Chaotic Neutral. Bart annoys Wally, Wally makes Bart consider murder, at the end of the day they tolerate each other at most.
Barry and Bart: Chaotic Evil. Barry doesn’t believe in Bart, Bart’s trying his best and he will throw hands with his grandpa. Barry is just a tyrant. They have some kind of feud because Bart is also related to Eobard.
Barry and Jay: Lawful good. Ever heard the expression apple doesn’t fall far from the tree? In this case it’s more like that tree was genetically cloned to make a new tree and those two trees make it Hell for the apples trying to roll far away from them.
Wally and Jay: Lawful neutral. They have a decent standpoint on each other. Jay sometimes has old man wisdom but ehhh well-
Bart and Jay: True Neutral. Oh boy where do I begin. Outside if the suits, they are just like a boy living with his uncle. In suits, it’s like a constantly angry bird telling off another smaller bird for wanting to fly.
Bart and Max: Chaotic good. This, this right here is father and son. They have wholesome and domestic lives and a dad trying to teach his kid about heroism. Nothing to see here.
Wally and Max: True Neutral. Max babysits the kids sometimes. They have nothing against each other but they’re also not close. No one’s as close to Max as Bart is.
Barry and Max: Chaotic Neutral. Picture if you will. “Hey old man I hardly talk to. I know you’re basically retired and all but take this kid that’s my grandson, raise and teach him.” Says Barry dropping off Bart like he were a puppy. Sorry Max, Barry can’t teach Bart cause he doesn’t feel like it.
Bart Allen is an edge lord, too.
Jason Todd is impulsive.
What more do you want from me?
Excuse, of what comic is that last image that you put in the last ask, Bart looks buff and bigger as hell lmao.
I'm sure he's a bit more little lol, why that artist make that?
You mean the one of Buff impulse that someone said looks like the fairy general from fairy odd parent’s? For reference, I’ll put the photo again.
This image is from the comic “Sins of Youth: Kid Flash & Impulse #1”
In it, Bart is now an Adult and tales on the Flash legacy as Impulse, and Wally is younger than him, still a teenager, and becomes his sidekick as Kid Flash. It’s a really interesting storyline and the comics can be super funny! I really do suggest it.
If you want the rundown of the comic, I can supply that as well.
Wait, Bart had a big jawline???
He actually had a very square face with sharp features. A very handsome maturity. It really depends on the issue and art style you read, but his features are very refined.
As seen here, he’s always had some definite face shape to him.
I couldn’t help myself. Theres also a discord server! https://discord.gg/g7cg9rZC 💕✨
I need Y’all to understand
Bart Allen is F E R A L. He's the kinda 'Grey Morals' that is unkempt and unpredictable, and otherwise dangerous.
He's the kind of person that can Lie to Batman's face. And he has. Multiple times. And got away with most of it. Bart will litterally throw hands and that is fact. He has made death threats on a lotta people. That image circulated widely in the meme community of a plush duckling carrying a knife? That's Bart energy. Cute, will be nice, unless you give him reason not to and then his entire persona is just poof, replaced with a wolf. His entire families morals are "We can solve all our problems with friendship" and Bart's morals are "I can spit in the face of death and you can quote me on that". He's better suited for the Batfam than the Flashfam (cept when he's with Max: Max Mercury Supremacy). Hell, he's better suited for the rogues than with Flashfam. He's unafraid to die, will protect what he loves at any cost, and most likely will become unhinged. His friends can only keep a collar on him for so long before he becomes wild and I love that. I love his character cause it's deep, deeper than the developers intended to make him, and he's filled with so much baggage and emotions that he carries like a pro. Sure, Wally's the fastest, Barry's the beloved son of central, but Bart? Bart is one of the strongest heroes, not just for his unwavering will and strength, but his urgency to do the right thing, even if it's the world against him. He loves to laugh, so he does. He doesn't like reflecting on his trauma, so he doesn't. And he comes out okay because he knows time is always moving forewards and things are only in the present. He's a time anomaly, and yet he doesn't mind at all. He doesn't need to belong to a timeline, he belongs with his friends. He knows what needs to be done and he does it.
Bart Allen is the strongest hero and I will protect him.
Bart Allen’s eyes.
That is all.
No thoughts. Only adult Bart.
Plz- his E Y E S. He’s so pretty??? Gorgeous boy. Best Boy. Reckless? Yes. Smart? Also yes. A little violent? Always. Love him so much 🥺
Just another Bart headcanon
Bart has no idea what boundaries or gender roles are and that includes what it means to cover skin.
Great fashion sense. All really bright colours. Like neon green fishnet shirts. Baby blue bows in his hair holding it up in a ponytail or messy bun. A bright yellow skirt with kneehigh mismatch socks. Occasionally some eyeshadow of pinks at the corners of his eyes. He likes wearing things that will bring out his yellow eyes.