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This one I’ve been waiting for. The entire line up of the New 52 will be featured in the omnibus, and you can now own every first issue from every new series, if you don’t already. Don’t believe me? Here are 3 reasons why you need to get it:
Continue reading Comic Rack – The New 52 Omnibus, Creative Team Changes, & A Fond Farewell
So this is it. The last comic in the DC Universe we know until the new 52 starts, which just so happens to be today with the only other DC Comic to be released this week in Justice League #1. But let’s start with the end of Flashpoint.
Last time we saw it was definitely end game time with all the major players in action. Cyborg, Batman and Flash squaring off against Aquaman, Wonder Woman and Thawne, the Reverse Flash. It’s definitely a little confusing with all of the time travel stuff and I have to admit it sort of ended with not so much of a bang. It felt a little rushed, but had a nice little touch at the end which I enjoyed. It reminded me of Back to The Future actually… Now don’t go on if you don’t want to spoiled because there are spoilers aplenty.
As Flash and Thawne square off it is not only revealed that Thawne was not the culprit behind the alternate timeline, but it was Barry himself! DUN DUN DUN!
So let me break it down…. Thawne could never kill Barry Allen as you may well know because then he could never be in the 25th century. But when Barry went back in time and pulled the Speed Force entirely into him to stop Thawne from killing his mother he basically reversed their roles and shattered the timestream into what we’ve been experiencing in Flashpoint. Thawne was running through the timestream when Barry altered it and was basically turned into a walking, talking paradox as he now existed outside of it. All the times Thawne tried to kill Flash, it would never work because with no Barry Allen from the past to create a Speed Force to carry on into the 25th century, Thawen would never have been the Reverse Flash. If you ask me, the guy was a paradox before and I wasn’t getting the logic of Barry not being able to kill him, but it’s ok because Thomas Batman Wayne took care of that problem. I would think with Thawne existing outside of the time stream even Barry could kill him. But enough of this because my head is hurting.
After Thawne is finished it’s up to Barry to go back and make right his wrong! He travels through the timestream saying a final farewell to his mother before catching up with the Barry who went back to save his mother and stopping him from screwing up time. As he is running Barry is told by a weird looking broad that the time streams had been splintered into three to weaken the heroes for someone’s impending arrival and that the three must be turned back into one. Overall a very confusing ending. Is the New 52 going to be made up of three different realities? Who is going to arrive? Darkseid?
My favorite part of the issue was involving Bruce and Barry. Before Flash went to go fix everything, a dying Thomas Wayne gave him a letter to give to Bruce when he sees him. Barry gives the letter to Bruce after explaining everything that happened to him in the other timeline. I admit I got a little teary seeing Bruce cry over the letter and was glad that he got a little bit of peace from losing his parents even if it was his father from an alternate timeline.
Overall I give the issue a 3 out of 5. It was a little confusing as far as time travel stuff goes but still enjoyable. The only thing that stopped it from getting a higher score was how rushed and quickly wrapped up it was and it makes me think that the New 52 thing was decided upon after Flashpoint already started. But who knows. Either way, bring on the new 52 and let’s see how long it all lasts!
I hope at this time everyone is loving the crap out of Flashpoint and even the tie in issues that have released so far. There has been a massive amount of tie ins so there had to have been at least one everybody has liked. One of the more debatable ones in my opinion had to be Grodd of War, which as you probably guess stars the Flashpoint equivalent of Gorilla Grodd.
There isn’t much to review about the comic. All that I can say is if you like violence and Grodd then you will no doubt love the living shit out of this comic. It basically shows that Grodd is a merciless SOGB (son of a gorilla bitch) and goes around looking for fights to further challenge himself. The whole one shot is just an excuse to have Grodd and his army enter the mix in Flashpoint proper as at the end of the comic he decides to go to war with Aquaman and Wonder Woman.
Overall I give the comic a 2.5 out of 5 bears. I’m not a fan of Gorilla Grodd so I wouldn’t recommend it to the casual reader, but it was a simple story (which is good sometimes) and has some pretty decent art. It will actually be a welcome sight to see Grodd and his minions enter the fray against Emperor Aquaman and Wonder Woman.
Renumbering. It’s a tried and true method of bringing up sales, as well as introducing new readers into the story. Renumbering a popular title is most often done when a high-numbered series is receiving a new creative team, new storyline etc. Spider-Man has done it a few times, The Ultimate Marvel line has done it a few times, but DC has remained relatively unscathed by this trend.
Until now…
I always love alternate universe/timeline stories in comic books. You get to see characters die that you normally wouldn’t and characters are alive that have been dead for ages. Sometimes you get role reversals where certain heroes are scum ridden pieces of trash and occasionally the villains may be a hero or someone not as bad as their real universe counterpart. Then you also get to see how the world map is drawn differently, such as in the Age of Apocalypse in the Marvel Universe. The evil mutant Apocalypse is ruler of all the United States in that universe, dividing up the country to his Four Horsemen.
Things are no different in DC’s Flash-centric Flashpoint storyline where things are completely ass backwards. Wonder Woman and Aquaman are at war with one another, resulting in the death of millions, because in this timeline they are not the superheroes we know and love. Check out the map below: (thanks IGN)
The Black Adam protectorate? I hate that guy! And it would appear that Brazil is currently… Nazi controlled? What the hell. At least the Aussies were able to sit this one out, but one can only wonder when some super hero turned genocidal villain will set their sights on them! If you haven’t checked out Flashpoint yet, then go pick up the first issue! I promise you won’t be disappointed!
Flashpoint is here and it did not disappoint one bit. Thanks to Geoff Johns for that once more and especially Andy Kubert’s fantastic art! Now to the story of Flashpoint. At the end of the Road to Flashpoint, a three part arc taking place in The Flash ongoing series, it was revealed that the Reverse Flash is the one behind aging people beyond their years and that he is the anomaly messing with the timeline that Hot Pursuit was searching for. Unfortunately they do not catch him by the end of the arc and he settles for killing one Barry Allen (Hot Pursuit) since he can’t kill the real one. Hot Pursuit was a Barry Allen from on the alternate Earths and he is now a pile of dust thanks to Reverse Flash. At the end of that arc a bolt of lighting flashes and everything changes. It was very reminiscent of House of M to tell you the truth, just as the Scarlet Witch changed reality.
Barry Allen wakes up at work at the beginning of the issue, with his co-workers calling Captain Cold, Citizen Cold and a hero. They’re also puzzled by who “The Rogues” are. Flash hears there is a shoot out going on involving this “Citizen Cold” and the Pied Piper and instantly gets up to go investigate “Flash” style. He notices his ring is missing and then succeeds in promptly falling down the stairs… quite literally at the feet of his mother. You know, his mother who was killed by the Reverse Flash? Yeah, instant jaw drop for him but also a touching moment for us to watch as he embraces someone he hasn’t seen in years.
Grizzly Bomb 