Imagine waking up at your job and you hear that your nemesis Captain Cold is a law-abiding citizen? Or what about Thomas Wayne, Bruce Wayne's father being Batman and alive? Superman not being around and cyborg is the national hero? Abin Sur never died, so Hal Jordan never received his power ring? Aquaman sinking Western Europe and Wonder Woman taking over England as New Themyscira...and yet there both fighting each other? What about your dead mother...being alive and well? And weirdly enough, you don't have your powers here!
This is the setup for Barry Allen, AKA The Flash, who wakes up unknowingly to this unique place/timeline at the beginning of this new world, called Flashpoint. Flashpoint is set in a modern world that is an accumulation of the DC, Vertigo, and Wildcats Universes--but altered, with many characters having various arrays of different properties, either it be personalities, ideologies, looks, or all of thee above. Characters like Thomas Wayne, who is very much like Bruce, but is more ruthless about taking justice out to his enemies, to the point he's willing to kill them. Cyborg is the new Superman of this world, where everyone looks up to him as a hero and trusts his word. Even SHAZAM is called Captain Thunder here, who is made up of six different teenagers with conflicting opinions. Added to all that, Aquaman and his Atlantians and Wonder Woman and her Amazonians are at war with each other, which could very well destroy this new place that The Flash just got stuck into without any prior knowledge of how he got here. Even worse, is that Barry has to get out of this universe soon or else his prior memories from his universe will be over written into new memories for this new Flashpoint universe. Talk about being stuck up a creek!
Put simply, Flashpoint is a Back to the Future Part II-type story. Now since Flashpoint is similar to that concept of alternative timelines, with that in mind, one should expect to have various questions regarding this story. I'll try to keep it spoiler free for people, if I haven't already.
First of all, Flashpoint is a DC wide Event focused on changing year's worth of DC continuity into the current New DC 52 timeline. First, one event is made up of the main storyline itself, called Flashpoint. This very book is the center of the event that will lead into the New 52 timeline, and focuses primarily on relationship between The Flash and Batman (Thomas Wayne). This event also has fragments of the Flashpoint world, so the main event should be treated like a commentary track to the entire event. You don't need other books to complete this, but the event is rather shallow without the finer details. Then there is "The World of Flashpoint" books, which are books that go into greater details of the supporting characters involved throughout the flashpoint event. These books are not necessary, but add depth and layers to the overall event. Put simply: Flashpoint is the essential story, while everything else under the "World of Flashpoint" titles are supplemental, and not necessary for enjoying the main title. For example SPOILERS: In the flashpoint title, Lois Lane is feeding information to the Resistance. The Resistance is led by Grifter, who finds Lois Lane in London. They show up later in the book with Resistance at the fight between the Atlantians and Amazonians for 1 page. After that we never see them again. Now this might seem like useless filler and be confusing to include in the main title, but I don't mind this. I get the idea there are multiple fractions across the globe fighting off Aquaman and WW's armies, so seeing a snippet of those forces doesn't through me off the main story. It's just a small fragment of the whole event, without taking me out of the main plot. Now if you want to expand upon what happened with Lois Lane and what the Resistance have been doing, as well as how they got to the Altantian/Amazonian fight, just pick that WOFP book to learn more. Another example is Hal Jordan. Hal never received his ring in FP, so he never became a Green Lantern, so he's still the Air Force. He is the first pilot of the US forces to lead the attack on Aquaman and WW, but is killed in action. I get the fact of who Hal is now, what he's doing, and what becomes of him in 1 page of the FP main title. I don't really need further explanation, BUT...you can choose to further expand on his other endeavors in his WOFP book. That's the beauty of FP: the main title stays within its boundaries, and WOFP simply adds layers to event, while not being necessary to read. It's not like Blackest Night, where it needed Green Lantern: Blackest Night to fill in the holes to make it complete.
The only confusing aspect you should look out for is...sorry if I seem like I'm giving things away, but the main villain is Reverse-Flash. He makes himself known he's behind this event in issue #2, but you won't find out why until the very end. Anyway, his explanation near the end is rather confusing unless you've been following The Flash titles, and even then, you might have to re-read those titles to understand how he's even here and how he's become who he is.
Flash Vol. 2: The Road to Flashpoint (Flash (DC Comics)) ends with the setup to Flashpoint though, but other than that, FP is self-contained enough of an event where you really don't need to read that(just to let you know).
Now just because I feel the main event is self-contained, doesn't mean some people might not feel that way. Many might feel the WOFP books should still be put into the FP title to be cohesive and make a complete title. But since those books are long and, again not essential to the main story, I'm fine with this book as it is.
The other thing people might have an issue is the length. Flashpoint is a mere 5 issue collection. For an event that has to do something this radical, like changing 70+ years of DC story telling into a new era...people might feel let down. Even I felt 5 issues were too short. The first 3 issues are slow buildups (with issue 3 getting a certain sub character out of prison, which is another weird sub-plot in the main title) with issue 4 getting into a world war and issue 5 concluding the event. I felt it should have gone another issue (maybe a 7th issue), considering the event sort of hurdles along after issue 3. An event this big could have done some more proper length, but a part of me enjoyed the shortness of the event. Looking back on titles like
Crisis On Infinite Earths Infinite Crisis and
Final Crisis which were long and about cleaning up years continuity, it felt sort of nice to keep things not so long. And unlike those titles, where they had to explain loose ends to go into other new territories, FP keeps it simple by starting out in an alternative timeline and wipes the slate clean going into the New 52. Coupled with the fact FP stays on the topic of the main story of Barry and Thomas Wayne throughout, makes the book that more on track and enjoyable. But again, opinion toward who feel the grandeur of FP should be longer and ambitious, as opposed to those (like myself) who feel its short and to the point will vary.
Now for my verdict: I would have given the book 4 and a half stars, but couldn't. It doesn't quite deserve 5 stars because some might not like the event and how it feels shallow without all the other WOFP books, as well as being a little too short for a book changing years of DC legacy into a new timeline. Plot lines introduced that probably didn't need to be introduced here also bring the score down.
But Flashpoint, even with the majority of my review focusing on the length and the importance of main title being essential to the whole FP event, I felt it was a fun book. It should be treated as Flash/Batman story with everyone else being secondary characters that fill in the world much better (if you want to expand upon that in other books). It tells the important aspects of the story when needed too, without over doing side stories and stays on topic. And the best thing I saved for last, and is easily the best thing about this book is the ending. The last 6 pages where the story hits emotionally for Flash fans and especially Batman fans is worthy of picking this book up alone. It's just amazing. Even I had a moment where I had to pause and take in the two different scenes. But you should pick this up for the importance this book has ushering in the New 52. Who knows? This might be a template for years to come when one era of comics went into another era. How graceful it turns out years from now will vary greatly.
