Why I love him: First of all, I lover superheroes, and superspeed is my favorite super power. Second of all, he's a comic relief character, especially in Young Justice- and who doesn't love comic relief characters? Third of all, I can relate to him. Though I don't think it's ever said in the comics, it's basically shown that Bart has ADHD and potentially high functioning autism. Though I myself don't have either, those traits of his means that he's constantly acting in a way everyone- both the adults in his life and his superhero friends- deem childish, and they look down on him despite the fact that he's also shown to be incredibly smart and talented. The people you're surrounded by thinking less of you because you don't act your age is something I've definitely expirienced before, and I don't think I've ever personally seen it portrayed in media aside from the Impulse and Young Justice comics. I also like the fact that, unlike a lot of other characters, Bart has a lot of confidence in himself and his abilities (in the early days of his character at least). Instead of questioning his worth when people treat him like he's an idiot, he's more likely to roll his eyes and/or stick up for himself. And also like, just look at him??? He's a silly traumatized bean who grows up into a hero despite the fact that he spent the majority of his life not even knowing what compassion was how could you not love that???
The lost generation! The best superhero team of all time! If you like teen superheroes I highly reccomend giving the original Young Justice comics a try they're so good. Anyways, Bart here is pretty much the same here as he is in his own series, which makes sense because the two are tied together (what happens in Young Justice also canonically happens in the Impulse comics and vice versa), I like the friendships he develops with his fellow teenage heroes, and I like the fact that the core four are thematically connected in the sense they're all lowkey unwanted by their families (Cassie less so, but her mother and mentor never wanted her to be a superhero so it counts). Anyways, young Justice is about the trials and tribulations of growing up and making mistakes as you grow up and changing as you grow up and, again, everyone should read it.
This is probably the only modern depiction of Bart I like. The writers overall aren't the best but unlike everyone else seems to do nowadays, they don't treat Bart like he's totally incompotent which I appreciate- he actually saves the day a lot of times! Plus, despite not being a complete idiot, he remains true to his character: the impulsive comic relief who occasionally makes poorly thought through decisions- honestly modern Flash writers should be taking notes. Anyways, this intelligence means that he's actually allowed to develop in new ways and have flaws outside of being dumb, which was cool to see. They made it so his biggest issue was that he likes to run away from his problems, which I'm not sure I'm fully on board with since I feel like the early Bart wore his heart on his sleeve and preferred to address things head on, but I can see how as he grew he might've developed that way- especially because of all the #trauma. I also wished they would've kept more of his self confidence, but again, after the things he went through in other comics I can definitly see how he might've started to doubt himself more. My biggest complaint is honestly his confusing backstory and the fact that this comic was just bad in general. Also, I know I said he's smarter here but stil, I think the writers could've made him even more intelligent- maybe just a smidge more skilled in the decision making department. I mean he's been a hero his whole life he's allowed to mess up but he doesn't have to be 'consistently trying to run away from his friend who's faster than him and passing out from exhaustion' levels of messing up. Am I asking for too much? Maybe. Whatever, in the end I'm glad the writers at least tried to understand him.
I'm convinced that 80% of modern Flash writers haven't ever read Impulse/the OG Young Justice and the other 20% have never heard of him. Sadly, I know this isn't true because apparently Mark Waid helped write ImpulsePoint??? Huh??? Did he forget all the development he put Bart through or something??? Whatever, point being, modern writers like to portray Bart as a childish idiot who never does anything useful, or if he does do something useful it's by complete accident. I specifically hate Impulsepoint because it gives him stupid powers out of nowhere because DC doesn't know what to do with him. Bleh.