- Recap: The episode begins in a snowy, ash coated landscape, where a man wearing a Belle Reve collar is helping a red headed teenager build a mysterious device. The convict says that he wishes that he can go with him, but the red headed boy grimly says that it only seats one...
Meanwhile, in Mount Justice, Nightwing has just finished translating the information that they stole from the aliens way back when before their island exploded. He explains to Robin and Beast Boy that they were abducting humans in order to find something in their DNA, something that they call a Metagene (the thing that causes superpowers in the DCU, which no other species has), though Dick says he's not entirely sure what it is. Suddenly, an alarm sounds and a voice warns of an unknown type of energy building up in the base. The team prepare themselves, only for a strange metal box to materialise out of no where, out of which springs... Bart Allen, aka Impulse!
Title sequence.
Bart takes the name Impulse for himself after Gar said his appearance explains the unknown energy impulse, and he starts running around the place like an idiot while Gar and Tim try to stop him. This is after he disturbs Dick with his apparent knowledge of their names. He evades or defeats the two pretty much by accident while he's touring the place at top speed, at least until Dick ninjas up to him and punches him in the stomach. After handcuffing him, he lets the other two know he's secure and Bart starts to feel that this trip to the past might not be as fun as he implictly thought it would be.
Meanwhile, in Tibet, Cheshire and Red Arrow are on the look out for the real Roy Harper still. Roy is incredulous over the fact that Chesh has managed to get leads to where the real Roy Harper is after the Justice League literally spent years looking and turned up nothing, to which she replies that she looks places where the Justice League aren't willing to go. She says that she needs Roy to get over his "fake and real Roy" thing so that he can be a good father to their daughter Lian, and just wants to get the search over with.
Back in Mount Justice, Bart has apparently explained to Tim and the others that he's a tourist from the Future, but naturelly Robin doesn't buy it. Bart says that he shouldn't be so surprised as half the people at ComiCon are from his era (HA!) and goes on to explain that he's the grandson of Barry Allen, the current Flash, which they don't believe either. Dick tries to trick Bart into getting a DNA sample from Bart, who then accidentally reveals that he knows their real names as well, to Gar's bemusement that Tim's called Tim and that Nightwing's real name is "Dick". After confusing Gar for a bit with his Future Slang, Bart then vibrates through the handcuffs and ankle restraints that Dick put on him, and then runs off. Gar tries to chase him by turning into a peregrine falcon (which the Bat Folk know wouldn't be fast enough, even if it IS the fastest bird) but Dick is able to trace Bart's movements anyway due to the fact that he drank a tracker in the glass of water that he offered him earlier. They see that Bart is heading to Central City (home of the Flash) and Dick rings someone to give them a heads up...
Meanwhile, in Central City, Barry Allen and Iris West are throwing a 70th Anniversary party for Jay Garrick and his wife Joan. Yay legacy characters that no longer exist in an interesting form in the comics at the moment! Then Bart shows up, and introduces himself to everyone. Barry says, with annoyance, that Bart can't be his grandson, from the future or otherwise, as he and Iris don't even have any kids. This causes Iris to sheepishly says that actually they are, as she found out that she was pregnant this morning and was going to tell Barry later in private. Bart then reveals that Iris is going to have twins, which causes Barry and Iris to freak out even more. Wally shows up, it seems that Dick called him, and he tries to remove Bart from the scene, but they're interupted by Iris' mobile going off, which Bart tells her not to answer. Turns out that a new supervillain is smashing things up down town, and is calling for the Flash's blood.
Bart tries to convince Barry to let the League handle it, but he changes into his costume anyway and heads off, saying that he'll be "Back in a flash!" Bart asks the assembled people whether he says that often, which gets a collective sigh and an admission that he says it too often. Barry shows up and does his hero thing, and Bart assists, but it seems that they're at a standoff, as although the villain, called Neutron, can't hit them with his energy blasts, he's also emitting pulses that prevent them from getting close enough to defeat him. While this is going on, it seems that some more aliens in a warehouse elsewhere in the city are observing the fight, and from their comments it seems that they may have been behind Neutron's metagene being activated or something.
Back in Tibet, Chesh and Roy manage to break into the monastery where they think that Real!Roy might be hidden, they manage to sneak past the guards without a sound, but happy cry from Lian causes them to be instantly surrounded by dozens of armed guards. This makes Roy mutter that they should have left Lian with Chesh's sister for this mission. And back in Central City, Wally is back in his costume and is talking to one of the cops who have made a perimeter around Neutron. The cop mistakes Wally for Speedy, only for Bart to show up and correct him, though he says he's not entire sure why the other guy had the name in the first place. Turns out that Bart knew the name of the villain in advance (this doesn't bode well), and he and Barry hatch a plan to defeat the bad guy. They spin around and around to lift him off of the ground, which has the unintended side effect of causing his energy levels to build faster than they can be dissipated. And eventually, to the surprise of the aliens as well as the Flash Family, Neutron blows up. Barry and Bart end up carrying Wally to safety as he's not fast enough to escape the blast, and once they're at a safe distance Wally manages to see that the guy has pulled a Dr Manhatten and is rebuilding himself at an atomic level.
Neutron turns out to be both confused as to what's happened to him, as well as a lot younger than previously thought. Hm, he most be one of the kidnapped runaways. The aliens say that their control device was destroyed in the blast, and that they have to abort the test, so they leave, exploding their warehouse observation post while they do so. The Flashes watch Neutron from their vantage point, and Wally says that without his suit not only is Neutron a lot less stable, but he's also likely to explode again, this time even more violently. Barry borrows Wally's goggles and he sees that there is a fluctuation in the energy dispersal field around Neutron, which Bart smugly says Wally couldn't see as he doesn't have the Allen Family Eyes. Barry says that if he runs at near light speed, then he can grab Neutron and run him into the desert where he'll be less likely to hurt anyone if he explodes again. Barry tries to stop him, but he runs off again, giving his catchphrase as he does so. Bart tries to keep pace with him, but he instead trips up, knocking his grandad over, but they're saved from the next blast by the timely intervention of Jay and Wally, who carry them to safety. Wally yells at Bart for nearly killing Barry, though the older Flash admits that he might have saved his life, as Neutron's explosions where accelerating so he wouldn't have been able to get him to the desert in time. While he's explaining this though, Bart nips off to drop a piece of future!tech into Neutron as he reforms again, which deactivates his powers, leaving a bewildered and nude teenage behind. Barry fetches him a blanket and promises to help him find out what's happened to him.
Back in Tibet again, Chesh and Roy are just finishing punch out the last of the monks. Lian gurgles happily, making Roy ask whether he should be concerned over the delight their daughter appears to have to witnessing ultraviolence, getting Chesh to dismiss it as genetic. They open the door to the most secret part of the building, where they find the real!Roy still in his cryotube. And he's alive, hurray!
The episode closes out in Mount Justice, where Dick confiirms that Bart is indeed Barry's grandson. He then says goodbye to everyone and tries to leave but it appears that the machine is busted, so he's stuck in the past... present... whatever. The scene then returns to the future, where it seems that despite Bart's protestations, he can both build a time machine and understood that it was only good for one trip. It turns out that the ashy, wintery backdrop is actually Mount Justice forty years in the future, where it appears to have been exploded from the inside. The old con turns out to be an older Neutron, who gaves Bart the means to both cure him in the past and save Barry's life by stopping his attempt to carry him into the desert. Bart disappears, reality flickers, and Neutron is a regular person again... but Mount Justice is still a burntout hellhole, to his despair. From what he says he thought that Bart and his mission to the past would have changed this future to the better, but all it's done to the timestream is turn him into a regular person without a history of violent destruction that his former condition visited upon him. Huh.
- Review: Well colour me surprised, this episode actually went in a lot of different directions that I wasn't expecting. For example, Bart's whole personality being an act while he carries out a pseudo-Terminator scheme out to fix the past from the present (complete with Terminatory synth cords once his plan was revealled at the end of the episode) was surprising, and hopefully will make the character a lot less grating than if his "I'm from the Future! MWAHAHAHA!" personality was being played straight.
The conclusion to the Search for Roy story was a lot more abrupt than I expected, though I have a feeling that it's going to continue in some other form, with Roy not really knowing what to do with himself now that he's found the "real" him and stuff. Kind of getting a feeling that Original!Roy is going to get a robot arm and call himself Arsenal though. Roy, Chesh and Lian's interactions were both fun and cute, and I hope that they continue on as the show progresses.
Hm, just had a thought. Maybe the reason why Booster Gold or the Legion haven't left appeared in the show is due to the disaster that occured that appears to have blanketted the world in a nuclear winter 40 years from now? I mean, if they were to show up, the world being reduced to a post-apocalyptic landscape is something that it'd be hard to come back from, even if they are from the year 3000 or so. Anyways, interested to see where the show goes from here.
No comments:
Post a Comment