Analysis Notes
| General |
Only pages 1, 3-9, 12-13, 16-19, and 21 are dealt with here. The rest of the issue involves Max Mercury battling Kalibak, a ploy by Inertia to keep Max from intervening in Inertia’s attack on Impulse. |
| 1, etc. |
The technoplasm does not count as an appearance by Craydl. |
| 3:2 |
Note that in his next appearance (Impulse #62-66), Inertia does pose as Impulse. |
| 4:2 |
Observe the ring on Inertia’s hand. This was introduced as a plot point in Impulse #52, and shows up again on page 13. |
| 4:3 |
Oppressed? By which Allens? According to his origin related later in this issue, he spent hundreds of years in his cocoon/womb. It is unlikely that Inertia has ever really been oppressed by anyone. |
| 5:2 |
The kids are Wade, Preston, and Mike. |
| 5:3 |
The other three kids are Ayana, < >, and Carol. Preston is the one whose feet can be seen. |
| 6:1 |
The speaker is Mike. |
| 6:5-6 |
These count as appearances for Impulse. |
| 7:2 |
The stories in Kurt Busiek’s Astro City invariably end with a “You are now leaving Astro City” sign akin to this. |
| 7:2-3 |
These count as appearances for Inertia. |
| 7:3 |
This club is presumably in a ritzy suburb of Manchester. |
| 8:2 |
This would seem to indicate that Inertia may think that he himself is a “hero”. |
| 8:3 |
This scene is from The Flash #148. While the flying man is Cobalt Blue (actually a descendant of Barry Allen rather than Malcolm Thawne), the Thawne here is Professor Zoom, in yellow. |
| 8:4 |
This presumably occurs prior to President Thawne’s dealings with the Cobalt Blue cult which presumably led to his downfall; it probably occurs in conjunction with his part in the deaths of the Tornado Twins, which occurred shortly before that. |
| 8:5 |
Since this lab is presumably the same one seen as parts of Inertia’s base, we shall consider this equipment to be part of Craydl. |
| 9:1 |
“Eons”? It’s probably intended, then, that Inertia hails from the 40th century (or perhaps beyond). Assuming that this lab is on Earth, that probably precludes any Terra-destroying explosions like in the preboot, although a floating city could always survive as before. |
| Although is isn’t stated, a possible subtext here is that Thawne started the Inertia project and was never able to finish it, presumably because of the Cobalt Blue affair or whatever else took him out of the Presidency and presumably resulted in his death. Ergo, Inertia’s slowed growth and “honed” abilities were a mistake: the system was intended to create a duplicate, pliable version of Impulse, but when Thawne didn’t return, it simply held steady for hundreds, even thousands of years, until some failsafe or glitch in the program released Inertia. (Perhaps Craydl developed sentience over time and decided to complete Thawne’s project on its own?) |
| 9:5, 10:2 |
Since this laboratory is probably what Inertia still uses as his base, the machinery here is presumably Craydl. |
| 12-13 |
The caption in 12:1 indicates that Impulse and Inertia are already vibrating so as to pass through people and objects. The actions in 12:3-13:2 therefore seem strange, at odds with the captions. The apparent intention, though, is that there are a wide range of frequencies which allow the pass-through, but Inertia needs Impulse to be using a specific one (or a narrow range) for his ring to work. By hopping on Impulse’s back in 12:2, he is able to use his powers to interfere with Bart’s and leave only a narrow vibratory range available for Impulse to use. |
| 13:2 |
This counts as an appearance only for Impulse, since Inertia’s color scheme is not present. |
| 13:3 |
Translation: “Was that… Superman?” |
| Tin Tin is the boy detective creation of Belgian artist Hergé. The shirt shows Tin Tin and his dog, Snowy. |
|
Piñol is the artist who created science-fiction character Cels Denbrough. |
| 13:5 |
Note that the orange spiked thing from Inertia’s ring is now missing. It has presumably injected something into Impulse’s bloodstream. Pity we’re never told just what it did; best guess is that it enabled the capture and imprisoning of Impulse in Inertia’s next appearance, Impulse #62-66. |
| 16:1-2 |
We can see Inertia’s left hand in both of these panels, sans ring. He must have tossed the ring somewhere between Italy and China. |
| 17:2 |
This is Abu Simbel, a temple dedicated to Horus; the statues are of Ramses II. |
|
This counts as an appearance only for Impulse, since Inertia’s color scheme is not present. |
| 17:3 |
This is Gotham City; that is Batman’s boot. |
| 18:1 |
We are now presumably back near the Manchester fairgrounds, where the battle started, but this could be just any wooded glen. |
| 18:4, 18:6 |
Batman revealed that information to Impulse in Impulse #50; presumably the jaunt through Gotham City is what brought this up in Bart’s mind. |
| 19 |
Neither the technoplasm nor the t-hoop on this page count as appearances for Craydl. |
| 19:4 |
“Grandma”: Iris Allen |
