Bart Allen

## Bartholomew Allen

**Bartholomew Allen**, also known as the Fastest Man Alive, is a character on The CW's *Smallville*. He first appears in the fifth epiosde of the fourth season. He is portrayed by guest star Kyle Gallner and has the alter ego **Impulse**.

## History

### Early Life

In the 31st century, a reformatted Metropolis citizens wear jet packs to adjust to their new environmental gravity atmosphere. Superman encounters a mother trying to apprehend her son who has an obsession with speed and running the mother mention his name as "Bartholomew Allen" which causes Superman to shed a tear.

### 21st Century

At some point Bart gets hit by lightning which not only gives him amnesia, but also wakes him up in 2004, with the ability to super speed. His only memories are the names Jay Garrick, Wally West and Barry Allen. Bart found it difficult to cope with his new-found powers, feeling like an outsider, even at home and ran away. He began life as a petty thief to get by and soon began working for people who bought goods off of him. Leading him to live an extravagant lifestyle, often using false names along the way.

In 2004, Bart worked with a fence named Hanison, although Hanison often cheated Bart out of the stolen goods' true value. Bart happened to be in Metropolis when Jonathan Kent was about to get run over by a drunk driver. Before Clark Kent could rescue him, Bart rescued Jonathan at super-speed but also stole his wallet. Clark tracked his father's credit cards and located the hotel room in which Bart was staying. Bart said to Clark, "I'll be a thousand miles away before you can even blink," and Clark replied, "I don't know, I can blink pretty fast." They had a "race" in which they seemed to be almost evenly matched in speed until Bart took off over the water, while Clark hesitantly stopped at the water's edge. Bart was amazed to find another person with super powers, just as Clark was to find someone with powers who was not from Smallville. Bart and Clark bonded (Bart even took to his friends, flirting with Chloe), but they argued because Clark tried to make Bart believe that stealing for any purpose was wrong. Bart believed that he only stole to buy food and shelter and that he wasn't harming anybody because the company canceled the illegitimate charges. Later, he followed Clark to the Luthor Mansion where Lex Luthor showed Clark a valuable Russian manuscript. Bart later returned to the mansion and stole the manuscript while Clark was reading it and took it to Hanison, where Lex tracked it down. Hanison was willing to kill Bart over the manuscript but Clark saved him. Bart wanted to make a getaway with it, even after Clark asked him if he still thought that his thefts hurt no one, but was reminded of Clark's warning that he should use his gift nobly. In the end, he returned the manuscript and left Smallville to find other special people like himself and Clark. As they parted ways, Bart demonstrated vast super speed, during which he outran Clark.

Two years later, Oliver Queen found Bart stealing a meal in Star City. Oliver believed Bart was a good kid, but just needed a little direction and offered him a job. Bart joined Oliver's group of heroes and Oliver gave him the codename "Impulse" for his impulsive nature. Bart traveled to Mexico to infiltrate a LuthorCorp facility for Oliver. He returned to Metropolis in time to save Chloe Sullivan from getting shot by Dr. Caselli. Bart then got back in touch with Clark after a small race. He told Clark that he had really learned what he tried to teach him and declared that he had quit stealing. Clark soon learned that Bart had in fact stolen information from LuthorCorp, but Bart did not tell him that he was working for Oliver. Bart left to do another job for Oliver, but fell into a trap set up by Lex Luthor. Lex put him in a chamber and forced him to run at super-speed or risk being electrocuted until he agreed to talk. It is later revealed that after he was pushed into running faster than he had ever imagined by Lex's torture, it was the first time he had tapped into the Speed Force. That was also the moment he caught a first glimpse of a terrifying dark creature, running parallel to him just on the other side of the cage he was trapped in. Clark rescued him from the cage, while also unknowingly saving him from the creature as well. After this, Clark was incapacitated by refined kryptonite. Oliver donned his Green Arrow garb and along with his other team members Cyborg and Aquaman, infiltrated the lab, saved Clark and Bart, as well as blew up the facility. Bart left with the "Justice League" and continued working to stop other 33.1 facilities around the world.

When Clark and Lex disappeared from the arctic in the Fortress of Solitude, Bart and Victor Stone searched the entire southern hemisphere for them and found nothing. Later, Oliver mentioned that Clark went on a JL mission with Bart in Keystone City and he is seen along with A.C., Victor, as well as Dinah on Chloe's computer screens in the Isis Foundation. Bart and Dinah were called to the Kent Barn to help Clark and Oliver battle Doomsday, Bart brought schematics of the Geothermal LuthorCorp facility for Clark to help him with his plan to defeat Doomsday. Clark explained that they had a tunnel that was a mile deep under earth and he planned to bury Doomsday there before the tunnel was destroyed. He then gave Bart the Black Kryptonite and explained that it would separate Davis Bloome from Doomsday. Even though the two learned that Oliver killed Lex Luthor, Bart still sided with Oliver to take Doomsday down for good. Clark was at his desk when Black Canary told him via audio message that they had located Chloe and Davis and he used his super-hearing to find them. He super sped off and found their car with Black Canary and Impulse waiting for him. They told him that they're doing it for him when Green Arrow shot him with a Kryptonite dart. Clark collapsed and told them they're making a mistake. Chloe awoke at the Geothermal facility to find Green Arrow, Impulse and Black Canary standing over an unconscious Davis. Bart told her he knocked them both out at super-speed and they brought them here. She realized they wanted to kill Davis and she noticed the Black kryptonite in Bart's bag and when the league tried to get rid of Davis, Bart was punched out by Davis in mid-transformation. Chloe used the black kryptonite on Davis, splitting him from Doomsday. A fight presumably took place, when Clark arrived they were all down and when he was going after Doomsday he asked the league if he could still trust them. After Clark trapped Doomsday under Earth's surface, Bart attended the funeral of Jimmy Olsen to pay his respects. Following the funeral, Chloe told Clark at the new Watchtower base, that Bart, Dinah and Oliver were all missing.

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

* **Enhanced Speed:** Bart's ability is that he can run, exercise, react, or move his body at overwhelming superhuman speeds. Bart Allen can run faster than lightspeed, so he can run on water, catch bullets in his hand, pass through objects and is faster than Clark Kent, even when he was younger Clark still couldn't catch him when he was jogging backwards. When they raced, Bart initially held back and let Clark believe that catching Bart might be doable. After jogging backwards for a while with a smile on his face he finally let loose and accelerated to such a velocity that even Clark could only perceive him as a flash of light. In fact, based on the outcome of Clark Kent's past attempts to "catch" him, it's clear that Bart is much faster than a fully-powered Kryptonian in its prime and it is likely that Bart's top speed relative to Clark, is comparable to Clark's top speed relative to the average human and possibly even faster. When Clark uses his speed Bart almost perceives him in slow motion.
	+ **Intangibility:** According to Toyman's files, Bart can move fast enough to pass through solid objects.
* **Enhanced Stamina:** Bart can run and exercise for very long periods of time without getting too tired. However, this endurance is far from unlimited and running too long can overtax his body to the extent of nosebleeds. His durability is enhanced, but he's still as vulnerable to common weapons, such as tasers and side arms, as any non-powered human would be.
* **Enhanced Metabolism:** Bart can consume vast quantities of food without gaining weight. This is because he burns off the food considerably faster than normal people due to the speed he runs, meaning he also needs to eat and drink more than other people to keep himself from being fatigued.

### Weaknesses

* **Overuse of Powers:** When he uses his ability too long, his nose begins to bleed and when he is severely depleted of energy and is unable to use his super speed, although it is revealed that this is because he was pushed into running faster than he had ever imagined by Lex's torture.
* **Hyper-metabolism:** He is also shown to have a supercharged metabolism that requires an abnormally high caloric intake.
* **Mortality:** Although Bart is a metahuman and can run at incredible speeds, he isn't invincible as he doesn't possess any invulnerability and can be hurt by humans, tasers and electrocution. This is evident when he tried to steal LuthorCorp information regarding Level 33.1 and was tricked and knocked unconscious by an electric charge.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 "Justice"
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 File:1020BartAllen.png
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 *Argo*
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Run"
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Doomsday (Episode)"
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "Haunted"
7. ↑ "Prophecy"