Devil Comics Entertainment: DC Comics Flashpoint HC [2011]

FLASHPOINT HARDCOVER

Geoff Johns brought Green Lantern to the forefront with last year’s Blackest Night and now he will do the same with the Flash with the upcoming Flashpoint series. Johns teased about the series back in Flash #1 as he asks the question: Whatever Happened to the World’s Greatest Super Heroes? Much like Alan Moore’s Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? and Neil Gaiman’s Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?, Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert provide and alternative history of the superheroes that started with a singular event called Flashpoint.

During Time Masters: Vanishing Point #6, a future Booster Gold explains to his son that the creation of the 52 co-existing universes caused fluctuating wormholes as a byproduct. It is their jobs to protect the timestream and make sure no one enters these wormwholes and changes time. Meanwhile Professor Zoom has been traveling through the timestream in search of the secret of the Omega Effect that Batman was inflicted with when Darkseid threw him back through time during Final Crisis.

The world of Flashpoint begins as Barry Allen wake up without his Flash ring and his mother is alive. Barry discovers the world is without the Justice League and Superman. Iris West is single news reporter without being hitched to Barry. He travels to Wayne Manor to find the only person who can help: Bruce Wayne.

Batman tracks down the twins of Judge Harvey Dent and bumps into the Cyborg who needs help. Atlantis sank Western Europe into the ocean as the Amazons claimed the United Kingdom as the New Themyscira. The Cyborg assembles an ensemble of individuals to help. After Batman refuses to join, the rest of the fight club disbands leaving Cyborg alone to deal with both Atlantis and the Amazons. As Barry arrives at Wayne Manor and finds the secret passage into the Batcave. After being confronted by Batman, Barry is told Bruce died and deduces the current Batman is Thomas Wayne. Barry decides to get his speed back and recreates the accident that made him the Flash.

The world of Flashpoint is turned on its head as Barry Allen gains a mother and Thomas Wayne loses his son. Batman is older and considered as the World’s Greatest Tactician rather than the World’s Greatest Detective. Writer Geoff Johns story is a mirror of two characters Barry Allen and Thomas Wayne setting the world back the way it is supposed to be. The climax to Flashpoint is going to be pyrrhic victory for both the heroes and the readers as DC Comics renumbers its series back to 1 in September 2011.

The series really feels like Marvel’s House of M as all the heroes gather together over the course of the story to confront the Scarlet Witch before she says the three words that change mutantkind forever: No More Mutants. DC Comics’ Flashpoint seems to be going a similar route however it is using the mini series to fill-in the gaps behind the main Flashpoint series. These will be the final crazy stories before the September relaunch like Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso’s Flashpoint: Batman – Knight of Vengeance revealing what happens if Bruce Wayne died instead of his parents.