Impulse #28
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeImpulse #28 is the first appearance of Cissie King-Jones as Arrowette, the second character to carry that name in DC history — a debut that would have lasting consequences well beyond the Impulse series itself. The issue's core conceit, a controlling 'stage mother' forcing her daughter into dangerous costumed heroics, gave DC's late-1990s teen-hero corner a rare social edge, blending suburban comedy with genuine child-welfare stakes in a way that distinguished the Impulse book from its contemporaries. Cissie would go on to become a central member of Young Justice, eventually retiring from superheroics in a storyline widely praised for its emotional honesty — a trajectory that began here. The issue therefore marks not just a character debut but the planting of a narrative seed about the costs of forced vigilantism that writers would harvest for years afterward.
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The issue was written by Tom Peyer, a former DC/Vertigo editor who had served as assistant editor on Neil Gaiman's Sandman before moving into full-time freelance writing. Peyer contributed this stand-alone chapter as part of his run on the Impulse title, with interior art by pencillers Craig Rousseau and Sal Buscema, inks by Keith Champagne and Barbara Kaalberg, colors by Tom McCraw, and a cover by Jeff Matsuda and Wayne Faucher. The book was edited by Paul Kupperberg with Jason Hernandez-Rosenblatt as assistant editor, and it went on sale June 12, 1997, carrying an August 1997 cover date. Notably, Peyer introduced the character under the name 'Suzie Jones' in this issue; the now-familiar name 'Cissie King-Jones' was established later by Peyer himself in Secret Origins 80-Page Giant #1 — a continuity wrinkle that writer Peter David subsequently addressed and folded into Young Justice canon.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Arrowette (Cissie King-Jones), the second DC character to use the Arrowette identity, created by writer Tom Peyer and penciller Craig Rousseau.
- The character's mother, Bonnie King (a.k.a. the original Miss Arrowette), also appears in the issue as a guest-star — reuniting an obscure Silver Age character with the modern DCU.
- Story title: 'Arrowette vs. The Spazz'; the villain Spazz is a bullied junior-high student who was accidentally transformed into a super-strong monster after being pushed into a chemical vat at S.T.A.R. Labs.
- Max Mercury, Bart Allen's guardian, threatens to report Bonnie King-Jones to child welfare authorities for exploiting her daughter — a plot point directly resolved in subsequent issues when Cissie is removed from her mother's custody.
- The issue is a self-contained, done-in-one chapter within the Impulse ongoing series (Volume 1), which ran from April 1995 to October 2002 and was distinguished by its light-hearted, character-driven tone set in the suburban town of Manchester, Alabama.
- Interior credits: pencils by Craig Rousseau and Sal Buscema, inks by Keith Champagne and Barbara Kaalberg, colors by Tom McCraw, letters by Chris Eliopoulos; cover art by Jeff Matsuda and Wayne Faucher.
- Editor: Paul Kupperberg; Assistant Editor: Jason Hernandez-Rosenblatt. On-sale date: June 12, 1997; cover date: August 1997.
- Cissie King-Jones went on to join Young Justice as a core member, was adapted into the Young Justice animated series (voiced by Kelly Stables), and has appeared in DC Rebirth-era comics including Dark Crisis — making this issue the origin point of a character with a multi-decade publication and media footprint.
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