Max Mercury - Tumblr Posts
New AU: Inertia does indeed get Sungirl pregnant; however when their allies begin making plans for how to use the baby and its powers to further their own goals, the two choose to flee. On the run from the law, Thawnes, and Deathstroke, Thaddeus is forced to seek sanctuary with heroes.
Barry finds out he’s getting his first great- grandchild after Helen and Max call him about the teenage supervillains who turned up at 3am.
Impulse #34
I love this scene because it shows how both Max and Bart are out of place in the time they live in.
Max still thinks he can fix just about anything with a toolkit and some elbow grease, while Bart struggles to follow and understand the complexities of a process that was streamlined and simplified in his time and could produce better results.
The technology of the nineties is too advanced for max but too primitive for Bart. It’s a great moment of characterization for both of them.
My 3 pages contribution to the Relay Race: A Flash Zine by @flashfamevents : Out of Time.
I'm not crying, you're crying...
Impulse (1995) #62
Every time I read this makes me want to cry.
pérez doesn't seem to know bart's supposed to be older than fourteen any more than deodato did but spurrier is in my good books for now for the fact alone that he's aware of how important max and bart are to each other.
The Flash (2023) #7
Bart Allen and Max Mercury fans we are winning with this new flash run.
…
AAAAAAAAAAAA
little rabbit // max + bart // wc: ???
small baby!bart & max preview below : ) it is very much in the beginning stages but i made a little progress so i wanted to share
Max was used to Bart ending up in precarious situations. It was better to predict that Bart would get into some mishap than to assume he’d somehow stay out of trouble for once. So Max often relied on the assumption that by the time he got home each day Bart was either already in over his head or something terribly wrong had happened to prevent Bart’s misadventures. Thus, Max was prepared whenever he spent a decent amount of time away from Bart, mentally arranging solutions in his brain for when he’d check on Bart. But when he walked in the door, Max felt a feeling was over him that something was awry. The strangest reason being that the house seemed completely empty. If Bart had gone out with friends or did something after school he would’ve definitely checked in with Max about it beforehand. Well, he couldn’t be that worried, could he? Maybe Bart just forgot to tell him he had something this afternoon? That was the thought Max was leading with, walking maybe an inch or two forward when something rammed into his legs, not enough to knock him back, but enough for Max to be slightly surprised and look down to see what it was.
“Huh?” Max’s gaze was met with something completely unexpected.
Well, there Bart was. Looking up at Max like a deer in the headlights of. At first, at least, until some sort of familiar comfort took over the boy and most of the fear and confusion was replaced with…love? Probably the only way Max could really interpret it. But what was so strange in this given situation was that Bart was not his normal size, nor his normal age, his normal anything. Max was met with his mentor; his now very, very tiny mentor.
Max was stumped. However, staring down at Bart like an idiot certainly didn’t do anything to help either of them in this situation. Besides, Max had a strong feeling the moment he took his eyes off little Bart, he would wind up in even worse of a situation, if there was one. So he bent down and plucked the baby off the floor, in a motion that seemed a little too natural when it was much out of the blue. He had picked Bart up a few times before if the teen was injured and honestly? He never weighed much. But it still was weird just how different it seemed. As Max tried to process what was going on and how he was going to take care of this peculiarity, Bart just sort of melted against Max’s chest, huge eyes focused on Max without a care in the world. Seemed like the little dude was on cloud nine, not even miffed by his sudden morphological change that would leave most verging on a breakdown. Either that or he hid it really well. Who knew? Max sure didn’t.
“And this is why I can never leave you alone.” Max slowly shook his head, his free hand resting against his temple as he took a very brief moment to inhale and exhale, trying to sort out his thoughts. This would be a very difficult situation considering whatever Bart knew about his current state was really limited. And though he had no doubt at any age Bart was capable of much more than a normal person, he wasn’t sure how much that potential could be used if Bart had the attention span of, well, a baby. Getting Bart to cooperate normally could be a struggle. Imagine how bad it could be now.
The man supposed he should start from the basics. See if Bart knew who he was, where he was, what was going on. When he could get a feeler for the situation, perhaps a clearer answer would follow suit. So Max fixed his posture, sitting on the couch, adjusting Bart in his grip to sit comfortably in his lap, Bart still lost in his own abstract thoughts but in-tuned with Max’s movements enough to simply rest his head against the man’s chest, finding comfort in the old man’s heartbeat. Max took a quick look at it and was honestly sort of surprised at how calm Bart was for how bizarre this was. Maybe the kid was just so used to weird antics that this sort of thing was a walk in the park. The uncertainty made Max’s usual mighty disposition only very slightly waver. But he had been through worse, will be through worse - it was just the sort of life Max had gotten used to. So this? It might have not been ideal or common but that didn’t mean it would break him so easily. And since it involved Bart, a boy he considered family, he would do anything to sort this out and protect him, especially in such a fragile state.
“Okay…” One more balanced breath came from the man before he addressed Bart, placing a grisled hand beneath Bart’s chin and gently guiding the boy’s gaze up to his face so they could get this whole situation sorted out as fast as possible, “Bart, do you know where you are?”
Golden eyes studied Max’s face. Like before, as Bart processed what was asked, his eyes seemed to light up as his brain’s gears churned and chugged. He tilted his head ever so slightly, bottom lip pursed, eyes shifting left and right trying to think. When the answer hit him, his eyes lit up once more and Bart triumphantly nodded his head in excitement, sitting up a little and holding onto Max’s shirt with small fists. The smile on the kid’s face was super irresistible but Max was somehow keeping his composure. For the time being.
“Okay, I suppose that’s progress.” He was decently surprised by that alone. Maybe Bart wasn’t as illusioned as he thought he was? Still, Max thought it important to assume Bart had little idea what was going on until he had much solid confirmation Bart was all there. Time to continue the questioning. Max seemed to hesitate if only for a moment or two but this was probably the more important of the two questions to aks right away so he’d have to even if he was unsure what the answer might be. But if Bart knew where he was, he was 75% sure the answer to this one would be just as encouraging. He drew his attention back to Bart, who in the span of maybe 30 seconds, ended up completely focused on something else, catching something in the corner of his eye and causing the baby to dip forward and try to chase after whatever it was. Maybe something as small as a dust bunny. Max wasn’t sure. But Max reeled him in, not even phased by it really, if anything, at this size and capacity, it made more sense for Bart’s inattentiveness. It could be forgiven much easily here than it could normally, at least, if you didn’t know the boy that well.
“Hey, no running off.” Max’s rough voice caught Bart suddenly, Bart looking back up at Max sheepishly but with a ever increasing smile. He seemed to have no care in the world. It was…a little too cute. But Max could refrain. Somehow. No one else would be able to resist those eyes so easily. “Focus, Bart. I know that may be hard. You know you’re home, yes?”
Max intently looked Bart’s way. Bart slowly nodded in confirmation. Max finally offered a small smile. Bart responded extremely positively to it, gasping at first and making a happy squeal, satisfied with the action. Oh boy, this took all of Max’s restraint to not become putty in his tiny hands. How did he say no to Bart so frequently? It’d barely been 10 minutes and he was losing his rigidity. Yet again, Max searched Bart’s eyes for something, anything other than pure love, which he would appreciate in any other scenario had they had less questions to address. But right now, he needed some sort of SIGN. And this wasn’t enough.
“Do you know who I am?”
Another nod full of vigor from Bart. This seemed promising. Max raised a brow, hitching a ride on that lead, “Okay, who am I, then?”
Bart’s smile grew wider, somehow, eyes radiating warmth. And though it took him a second or two, Bart leaned closer to wrap his arms around as much of Max as he could, before answering, “Papa..”
Max’s heart skipped a beat. Bart seemed thrilled, satisfied with himself, but Max? He didn’t really know how to respond. Should he be worried Bart thought he was his dad? Was this some sort of biological wiring gone wrong? Or was it due to their relationship being blurred by Bart’s young mind? Was this how Bart viewed Max when there were no barriers keeping things in check? Max, for once, stumped, didn’t even realize Bart seemed to catch on that Max wasn’t happy, and he seemed to quiet down, looking at Max unsurely and gently patting Max’s stomach until he came back to Planet Earth.
“Bart…I…no, I’m not…” Max sighed, brows furrowed, “I’m Max. Your mentor. Not-”
“Papa.” Bart reaffirmed, frowning, searching for some sort of warmth in Max’s face or tone but not finding much there. It was clear though that Max’s response to this all was upsetting Bart. But Max wasn’t sure he could put it aside. Not right now. Not when this had JUST happened and they had to figure everything out.
“Bart…”
The Flash Family in all their glory by Francis Manapul!
FINALLY I CAN TALK ABOUT MY AU
This has been rotting in my head for like a year at this point, and I am not gonna do justice in this one post but!! Let's talk about Percy's Mercury!Bart Allen Au.
So the idea of Bart taking Max's mantle is not my own original idea, I see it all the time on comic book twitter and tumblr and it's a very common concept and it makes a lot of sense. Given how Bart failed Terrifically at being the flash, and so if he were to grow out of the Impulse title and role, I think this would be that story (if that makes any sense??). Cue: my rambles
So there's a lot of parts where I could start this AU, but hear me out, what if we start with an alternate ending to Mercury Falling? Inertia pulls a rotting Max Mercury into the speedforce and Impulse barrels through to try and save his parental mentor figure. Bart canonically wants to save both Thad and Max, and I think at the state Bart was with his training meant that the ability of him saving either of them when all chaos breaks loose in the speedforce is incredibly thin. In a good ending Bart ends up saving Thad and Max and there is a possible start of Thaddeus redemption arc, in the real ending we got Bart saves Max and Thad poofs into speedforce dust, and in a bad ending Bart watches Thaddeus and Max fade in front of him.
Can you take a guess at which one I'm gonna pick for this AU? What can I say, fuckers love angst (I am fuckers).
Ok so Bart crawls out of the speedforce, torn in shambles and in front of him is Helen and Max's colleague who was attempting to treat him. They all stare at each other with thick disbelief of what had just happened, and neither of the adults can find it in themselves to ask the quivering teen in shambles the thick details. All they can manage is to pick up the boy and comfort him, rest assured he is safe at the end of the day. The rest of the details follow out similar to the end of Impulse, where when Max goes missing the Allen family decide to assign Jay Garrick as Bart's caretaker since he can continue mentoring him and be the best fit. When Bart moves in with the Garricks, across the country and away from his school friends and Helen, he is still injured and recovering, which he shouldn't be injured since speedsters usually only take like what? a few hours and they're back on their speedy feet? Jay speculates Bart still has broken bones because they not only settled in the wrong spots, making it impossible to make a proper recovery (unless he wants to repetitively break the same bones until they set them in the right spots) or because the injuries forming in the speedforce threw the body and metabolism in for a loop.
Either way, from this point on the canon stays loosely the same. Bart stays with Jay, learns with him, and some Young Justice shenanigans ensue. Up until we get to around the Flash Rebirth comic, I'm gonna mess around with this point. Wally notices that when Barry comes back the speedforce is acting very strange again, and so does Barry as they both hear the souls of Max and Johnny Quick in the speedforce. This peaks Bart's curiosity, and just like when he was a younger kid he's gonna try to make a run back into the speedforce to check it out. Everyone advises Bart not to run back into the speedforce, a whole dictionary's worth of reasons why it's not a good idea, but Bart will stay stubborn and keep working his way up into breaking that barrier.
Bart eventually enters the speedforce looking for Max, and he enters the speedforce a handful of amount of times before finding him. He treats these visits like entering a containment zone, enter for only a short time and once anything feels funny evacuation ASAP. When he finds Max, on his seventh run through, the man is ethereal, what was a conduit of the speedforce is now a spectral image of what the speedforce captured him as. The two manage to hold conversation in a thick maelstrom of kinetic energy, which now limits their time as Bart is starting to get battered up for being a freshie to the intense form of travel.
It was obvious that Max couldn't go back to earth with Bart, as his body wasn't the same and it would put the two in a whole bunch of unnecessary issues. When it's getting to that point where Bart is hitting that upper limit of speedforce exposure, he asks Max if he could see him soon. In the typical always cryptic Max manner, he just laughs and puts a phantasmic hand on Bart's shoulder and tells him that he'll know where to find him. This is what I'd consider to be the transfer of "zen speedforce master" powers to Bart, and it kinda fucks him up you know, it's a lot of beyond radioactive energy being transferred into one of the most unstable conduits. He's gonna knock out and wake up on the floor of Jay's basement with the ability to feel everything moving, and at what speed they're moving.
The shuffling of Jay and Joan cooking dinner together is magnified in a sense that even Clark Kent couldn't understand it, he could clock down Wally running to the Titan's tower, he could feel Tim Drake grapple building to building. It's a lot to take in, but he could also very faintly feel a swirling force in him, a very soothing force that reminds him so faintly of that house in Manchester, Alabama.