Flashpoint #1-5

Flashpoint #1-5

Originally released in 2011

Written by Geoff Johns

Art by Andy Kubert

Given that Flashpoint was adapted at least three times in the past ten years (an animated movie, the TV series, and the Flash's only live action movie), I'm not sure if it's really good or if Geoff Johns had way too much influence over DC's multimedia projects, so I'm reading it today to get an idea of which one it could be.

The basic premise is that Reverse Flash went back in time to kill Barry Allen's mother, and when Barry discovers that Reverse Flash is responsible for his mother's death, his attempt at stopping it leads to an alternate reality where everything is much worse.  Atlantis is at war with Themyscira, with large parts of Europe being underwater as a result.  Bruce Wayne was shot dead in an alley decades ago, while Superman no longer exists.  I won't be covering tie-ins for this, as from what I can tell, there are a LOT of them, so I'm guessing plot points that aren't expanded on in the main series are covered in there.

As a result of the changes made, the Flash and the Reverse Flash are the only ones who remember the old timeline, but Barry has lost his powers. When he encounters Thomas Wayne (the Batman of this reality) and informs him that Bruce is alive in his old universe, Thomas immediately agrees to help Barry fix the timeline and get Barry his powers back.

Naturally, this involves strapping Barry to an electric chair, surrounding it with chemicals, and waiting for lightning to strike.  Given the darker tone that this story takes, it's a minor miracle that he doesn't wind up dead. (the first time doesn't work, leaving him in a state that one would expect a person to be in after they're struck by lightning and doused with chemicals)

Cyborg also plays a major role in this, building up a team of superheroes and supervillains to stop Wonder Woman and Aquaman before their war destroys the world.  I'm guessing this was intended to set him up as being a major figure and founding Justice League member in the impending New 52 reboot, as he's specifically the only superhuman that the public trusts in this world.

Once Barry gets his powers back, he and Thomas set out to find Superman.  Rather than crash-landing in a field in Kansas, a rocket crashed in the middle of Metropolis and was subsequently taken by the US government, who studied it under the codename of "Project Superman".  When Cyborg states that two other rockets landed on Earth, I had a bad feeling that it was General Zod and his two minions from the movie Superman 2 rather than Superman himself.

This was quickly revealed to not be the case, with the second rocket apparently belonging to Krypto.  Superman himself is basically skin and bones, kept out of the sunlight, but after being freed, he flies off almost immediately, so he's not as much help as Barry would have liked.

Throughout the series, Barry assumes that Reverse Flash was responsible for the altered timeline, with the Justice League no longer existing because he intentionally prevented their origins.  This leads to my big problem with the series - Reverse Flash can seemingly alter time however he wants (aside from needing Barry alive, since if Barry doesn't become the Flash, Thawne will never become Reverse Flash and get the ability to travel through time), but Barry making any changes to the timeline causes an apocalyptic event.

Even the act of Barry going back in time to prevent himself from changing the timeline (which should have undone everything that just happened and returned things to normal) seemingly causes the New 52 universe to come into existence, overwriting everything that Barry knew.  Eobard is even immune to having his memories overwritten, unlike Barry.

It just seems weird that the message of the story is that you shouldn't alter history when the entire story is kicked off by Thawne doing that and suffering no consequences whatsoever. (He gets stabbed in the chest, but considering that he appears alive and well in later stories, that seems like a minor inconvenience) It could be looked at as being a story about grief, loss, and accepting that death is inevitable and we should appreciate the time that we have with our loved ones, but when that death didn't happen originally and was caused purely by time travel, it raises some logical issues.

There are some touching moments near the end, where Barry talks to his mom before trying to fix his mistake, or where Barry gives Bruce a letter from the Flashpoint universe's Thomas, but when it comes to Geoff Johns-written DC events, I preferred the Sinestro Corps. War.  I get why it gets used so often (it's an effective reset button, or a way to change things by saying that Barry didn't quite bring the universe back to normal, and it's a lot simpler than something like Crisis On Infinite Earths), but that seems like it's because DC/Warner Bros. keeps screwing up the continuity of their movies/shows/comics rather than because of the quality of Flashpoint's story.