The World of Flashpoint Featuring Wonder Woman

Every character in this timeline is different from who they are in the main DC Universe. Wonder Woman is no different.  Diana is like Moana and she is obsessed with seeing what is beyond the Island.   She grabs a boat one day to sail beyond the mist shielding their home.   A kraken attacks and this brings Wonder Woman face to face with the first man she has ever met in Aquaman.  They remain friends for years going forward and even plan on getting married.  When tragedy strikes at the wedding Diana's mother is struck down by an Atlantian spear thrown by Artemis and Garth is framed for it.  This is truly a Game of Thrones styled story.  Diana sacrifices her homeland and destroys Themyscira in hopes of killing all of the Atlantians along with Arthur.  Because they are a people without a home the invade England take it over as New Themyscira.  Meanwhile Arthur and Atlantis come up with a plan to get revenge and showcase their power.  They sink mainland Europe but the Amazons raise the British Isles up high.  Mera discovers where Diana is going to be and set out on her own to end this war.  But Wonder Woman beheads Mera and and keeps the helmet as a trophy.  This drives Aquaman mad leading these two to the final showdown in battle.  It was revealed that Artemis did not act alone in creating this conflict but that she and Orm have been manipulating one another's sides to bring us to the point of madness.  By the time Wonder Woman and Aquaman find out the damage is already done.

This volume also showcases the origin of Aquaman in this new reality.  It starts off with how the Atlanteans came into the possession of power that can sink and entire continent.  We have seen the death of Mera from multiple points of view in this story and it truly reminds me of Game of Thrones as a mentioned earlier because we are shown the emotions and motives from both sides of the conflict; the drama is high here.  Aquaman's origin is different in that he is not raised entirely on land like in the main DC Universe but instead as soon as he becomes a teenager Atlanteans barge into his home and kill his father and take him away.  This reinforces that a lot of what made Aquaman the hero we know and love today needed that influence from his father.  The Aquaman and Wonder Woman stories are mirror images of each other and work quite well together painting a complete picture. 

The next story is titled Lois Lane and the Resistance.  Lois Lane is always in the wrong place at the wrong time and in this case nothing has changed.  Lois and Jimmy are in Europe when the disaster strikes and Jimmy is washed away.  The Amazons arrive to rescue female and child survivors if you are male you are S.O.L.  Great Britain has been turned into an occupied fortress by the Amazons.  The refugees are taken to detention camps and brainwashing centers assimilate the refugees.  Right away Lois sees that there is something wrong with this and goes looking for answers.  She comes into to possession of a piece of tech that she thought was from Jimmy but was really from Jimmy but was really from Cyborg.  This leads her to the resistance in Britain.  The resistance is a group misfits that is lead by Grifter.  This group and Lois Lanes story is quite intense and interesting.  In the end one of England's greatest heroes returns in Britannia.  Britannia has her showdown with Wonder Woman while Lois Lane puts out a call to all of the heroes for the final showdown.

The final story in this volume is about the Outsider.  This book gives us the origin of the Outsider  This is an interesting story because of who the Outsider is, he is a villain.  Seeing how the Terrifics  are portrayed in this story and how the DC Universe is twisted is just amazing.  Black Adam plays a prominent role in this story as the Outsider is going on a quest to see who has set him up and is playing him.  At every turn you expect one of the other characters to take down the Outsider because of the prior knowledge.  But at every turn he comes away unscathed even when he goes up against Martian Manhunter.  All of this takes place between the call that Cyborg made to the heroes at the beginning of Flashpoint and the final showdown.

The World of Flashpoint Featuring The Flash

Again this story delves into the story behind the Reverse Flash and how he struck at Barry's mother in the past.  This is one of the most unique and terrifying villains of the DC Universe.  This tale is key to how the Flashpoint timeline came to be.  The following story is about Captain Cold in this new reality.  He is a a criminal who is playing hero to hide in plain sight as the savior of Central City.  He goes by the name Citizen Cold and starts off with a showdown between him and Mr. Freeze.  If you think the DC Cinematic Universe is dark and soulless the Flashpoint timeline is just as dark.  Cold kills freeze easily.  Cold is trying to romance Iris West while worrying about whether anybody has recognized.  Meanwhile the surviving rogues are attempting a jail break and revenge on Citizen Cold.  Wally is working with a mystery character and Iris.  He finds out that Cold is really Snart and the body count rises some more.  If this story proves anything it is that Cold is by far one of the most dangerous Flash characters because of how crafty and tactical he is.  In the end when the truth comes out and most of the rogues are dead the real downfall of Leonard Snart is his own ego.  The death count is high in this but we are only halfway done.

The next story is titled Legion of Doom and is a Heatwave centered story.  Shock value from the get go as Heatwave  kills half of Firestorm until he is brought down by Cyborg.  Once in prison he starts making a plans for an escape and his plan involves an evil version of Plastic Man.  But even with all of the odds stacked against him Heatwave takes out vengeance on individual  cellmates brutally with an homage to American History X.  All of this brutality and mayhem to escape and crash the prison into Detroit so he can take out Cyborg.  But in the end Heatwave didn't accomplish his goal and was sent back to prison.  While in his cell Plastic Man returns.  In another story Gorilla Grodd has taken over the majority of Africa and become a Planet of the Apes style African warlord.  But Grodd is not satisfied with is life and he is looking for meaning and purpose.  

In the final story of this collection Kid Flash is lost.  Bart Allen remembers everything from the previous timeline like Barry Allen.  However he has been captured by Brainiac because he is an anomaly.  However he is not the only anomaly in the timeline there is a new Hot Pursuit who is a female.  Throughout the story we learn that Bart Allen is disappearing like Marty McFly in Back to the Future and it turns out that the new Hot Pursuit is Patty Spivot.   Bart Allen discovers that he has a mission to save Barry Allen and to due that he has to run he runs so fast that he disappears into the speed-force similar to the way Barry Allen died in Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Flashpoint

Flashpoint is a DC Comics event similar to Marvel's House of M, something has happened and the world that these heroes knew no longer exist.  This was an okay event I think it could have been executed a little better.  You are thrown into this world with our hero the Flash but you don't know what caused this new reality and that is the mystery.  

Barry Allen wakes up and realizes the world has changed first off he has no super speed, his powers are gone.  He is still at the police station but then he is hit with a second shock to the system, his mother is still alive.  Barry is running around losing his mind because of all of the changes but it isn't just the physical changes to the world but his memories are also starting to change.  In Barry's quest to get his powers back he seeks out the Batman of this time.  

This version of Batman was truly a twisted take on the character.  Thomas Wayne has become the Batman of this time because of the death of his son at the hands of gun violence.  Thomas Wayne helped Barry get his powers back by having him struck by lightning twice.  Now that Barry has his powers back he has a plan to right all of the wrongs of this timeline.  He knows the Reverse Flash is behind it but he just doesn't know how he did it.  Barry's one thought is that since Atlantis along with Aquaman are tearing the world apart while they war with Wonder Woman and the Amazons.  Europe is underwater and many of the heroes of that the world used to have are no where to be seen.  In fact the most well know hero of the United States is Cyborg.  

The Flash along with Batman and Cyborg have set out on a mission to rescue Superman from a government project.  Barry believes by bringing the Justice League together they can stop Aquaman and Wonder Woman from fighting. There are other characters who make their appearances in this series such as Element Woman, Shazam or should I say Captain Thunder and even Hal Jordan as just a pilot no powers.  With the help of some of these other heroes the Flash arrives in the middle of a battle where Aquaman and Wonder Woman are about to kill each other.  Enchantress turns out to be a double crossing bitch and we see the death of Shazam.  Billy Batson is by far not the only death in this timeline of a prominent character, there are lots of them.  It is only during this battle that the Reverse Flash arrives.  I have to say I love the Reverse Flash as a concept and a villain he is in some cases the most horrifying villain in all of comics he is definitely up there with the likes of Norman Osborn, the Joker, many others.  

The big reveal of having the Reverse Flash show up is not because he created this reality but because Barry did when he stopped the Reverse Flash from killing his mother.  Imagine if Batman stopped the gunman or Spider-Man stopped the death of his uncle how would their worlds have been changed.  This is where the event is stronger than House of M because unlike House of M the person behind the problem is the same person trying to fix the problem.  The Reverse Flash is ecstatic because in this new timeline he can kill Barry without erasing himself from existence.  But before he can do that Batman kills the Reverse Flash.  As the battle is raging on around them Superman shows up to balance the scales and Barry sets off running as fast as he can.  He runs so fast that he shatters three different timelines and those three lines mold together into one which becomes the New 52.  If Barry's sacrifice gave us the modern age of the DC Universe in Crisis on Infinite Earths.  His running gave us the New 52 proving again when the time stream is involved Barry Allen is the greatest hero of the DC Universe.

The Flash Vol. 2: Road to Flashpoint

This second volume of the Geoff Johns Flash run with Barry Allen is one big prelude to the biggest Universe shattering event since Crisis on Infinite Earths.  We see the origin of the Reverse Flash at the beginning of this collection.  After the Flash has proved his innocence to the crime fighters of the future another time traveling cop comes to Barry Allen's timeline looking for an anomaly that has upset the time stream.  This new character is Hot Pursuit.  Someone is taking the lives of heroes stealing their life force.  There are some great character moments in this book as there is tension between Bart Allen Kid Flash and Barry Allen his grand father.  Hot Pursuit believes he is tracking Kid Flash and that he must be eliminated but the Flash feels differently. Kid Flash sets out to prove that he isn't the time anomaly but that doesn't fair to well for him as Hot Pursuit is about destroy him.  It is revealed that Hot Pursuit is Barry Allen from another time line.  Meanwhile Barry needs help to solve this case and he request Patty Spivot to help crack this case.  Patty is taking care of a child witness who can identity the stranger who is stealing heroes lives and aging them to death.  But it turns out this kid is not who he seems and he is the Reverse Flash who has tapped into a new power set that allows him to change is age and appearance by stealing other peoples lives.  Now he is about to kill Patty however right before that happens the Flash, Kid Flash and Hot Pursuit arrive on the scene having worked through their prior disagreement.  Once the Reverse Flash discovers who Hot Pursuit is he accomplishes one of his life long dreams in killing Barry Allen.  This is one of the few times where the villain escapes at the end and we are left to wonder what will happen next.

As a collected volume I thought this was a great read even though it did feel a little repetitive of the first volume but who doesn't like the Reverse Flash, Flash dynamic.  In terms of setting up Flashpoint I would have liked to see one more volume of The Flash lead into it, another six issues would have helped lay the groundwork a little more and could have fleshed out some of Barry Allen's choices when it came to that event.  All in all I am looking forward to the next adventure. 

The Flash Vol. 1: The Dastardly Death of the Rogues

Barry Allen made his return in Flash: Rebirth but he still hasn't gotten used to being back at his old life.  This volume takes place during the Brightest Day event.  Barry is wanted by the Renegades a future version of the Rogues for the murder of Mirror Monarch.  Flash believes he is innocent and has been framed for this crime.  However the Renegades wish to arrest and try him before he commits this crime.  Barry is racing against the clock trying to prove his own innocence.  While the Flash is dealing with the Renegades Captain Boomerang has returned to the land of the living and he doesn't know why he is trying to figure how to get back into the good graces of the Rogues.  This new lease on life has given Digger some new powers as well and he can't wait to show them off.  The real hero of this story is Iris Allen as she cracks the case and proves Barry's innocence and the Renegades realize that they duped by one of their own.  But back to Captain Boomerang he realizes that he doesn't need the Rogues anymore and to prove that he sets out to free the Reverse Flash.  

There is a lot to like in this volume of the Flash first off is that this is Geoff Johns writing it is a shame that Johns's is writing less and less at DC Comics I have really enjoyed everything he has put his pen to.  Also this volume is illustrated by Francis Manapul who took over the title during the New 52.  There is a scene I absolutely love in this book where an apartment building is destroyed during a fight with the Flash.  Barry runs around gathering the materials and rebuilds the building for the tenants.  I am looking forward to whatever else Geoff Johns has planned.

Chrononauts

Chrononauts is a fun read.  It is actually one of the better titles to be conceived by Mark Millar.  The tag I would give this series would be its like Back to the Future without the ethics of Doc Brown.  This book is a little like Jumper in that the two main characters can travel throughout time and space bring things with them.  This book turns the idea of being a scientist is similar to being a rock star and everything that goes with it.  The two main characters in this story are Corbin Quinn and his best friend Danny Reilly.  Both are poised to make history by being the first time travelers but they are not just traveling through but they are going to broadcast it to the world.  However like all stories that deal with time travel something has gone wrong after Corbin went into the time stream. 

Danny is going to attempt to bring him back.  When he gets there he discoveries that Corbin has set himself up as a king in the ancient world giving technology to people that haven’t developed it traveling through time to see famous events, dating girls in different time periods, using his knowledge for personal gains.  Corbin even persuades his best friend Danny to join in on this time traveling hijinks.  But as the powers that be in the present are scrambling to send a team of soldiers back in time to take out our two traveling chrononauts before they cripple the time stream.  Eventually Corbin Quinn’s lifestyle comes close to getting him killed in a very Great Gatsby type fashion but Danny comes to his aid.  However their bad luck catches up with them and Corbin’s decisions lead to the death of Danny and his exile.  However because we are dealing with time travel here be the end Corbin sets everything right and he even fixes the mistakes of his past to make his life back in the present day even more to what he had wished it had been.  I really liked this book I wish it had been it little longer because it seems like Millar rushed through the ending compared to the way it started.

The Flash: Rebirth

 Geoff Johns was to DC Comics what Brian Michael Bendis was to Marvel Comics.  Johns’s run on Green Lantern is still one of my favorite runs on any super-hero character.  Geoff Johns found a way to make Hal Jordan the Green Lantern again and do it in a very respectful way to the material that had been written before.  Now he has done it again with The Flash: Rebirth and he even did it again recently when he course corrected the DC Universe as a whole with DC: Rebirth.  The Flash: Rebirth is a great story as it brings back the Barry Allen version of the Flash who died back in the 1980s during the event that brought DC Comics into the modern era with Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Barry Allen has returned from the dead he has come out of the speed force and he is coping with being back.  There are some great character moments between Barry and several of his supporting cast but also the rest of the Justice League.  The series really delves into the death of Barry’s mother as that is such a pivotal moment in his history but also his connection to the speed force and other speedsters.  There are several other speedsters and each of them has a unique history which is sort of summarized in this book.  The Reverse Flash and the Black Flash play a part in this story as well.  I won’t delve into how the Black Flash fits in with the story but the Reverse Flash is essential to this story that Johns has crafted.  The reveal that he has been in a blood feud with Barry even before Barry become the Flash manipulating his life even when he was a child is just chilling.  Imagine if the Joker was manipulating Batman even when Bruce Wayne’s parents were still alive or Green Goblin going to war with Peter Parker while uncle Ben is still alive.  This is such a reveal that it reshapes Barry Allen’s origin in such a way that he has probably the worst arch enemy ever.  I really look forward to reading the Flash series that spins out of this and leads into Flashpoint.

We Stand on Guard

Brian K. Vaughan is one of my favorite authors of all time since I read Y the Last Man.  We Stand on Guard is not a sprawling epic like several of his other tales.  I wouldn't put it up there with Runaways, Saga, or Y the Last Man but it is a very intriguing read.

We Stand on Guard takes place in the near future in Canada.  The United States was attacked in a similar style to Olympus has Fallen and they believe Canada is to blame.  The opening of the book is the retaliation of the U.S. to Canada and our main character Amber is just a little girl when this happened.  Amber along with her brother survive the initial attack.  The book jumps ahead 12 years Amber is an adult now and she is on her own.  Amber is trying to survive on her own and almost gets taken out by a U.S. scout when she comes across a group of Canadian freedom fighters.  One of the freedom fighters goes on a great tangent about the origin of Superman during this long occupation war the United States has inflicted on Canada.  Its a great little story and it adds some levity to this serious situation.  It is similar to a moment in Saving Private Ryan.  The freedom fighters take out a Gorilla unit but lose a man in the process this gives Amber the chance to step up and show what she is made of.  The freedom fighter's leader is captured and we are introduced to a woman known as the American who is one of the leaders of this occupying force.  

The story is told through present day events as we join the freedom fighters along with Amber and engage in a suicide mission to stop the Americans from their true purpose for occupying Canada.  But the story also shows some flashbacks about how Amber and Tommy lived on the run.  The story culminates in a suicide mission lead by Amber and the freedom fighters against the U.S. as they try to siphon off Canada's fresh water supply.  There are a lot of great character moments in this book, but as I said before this is not about the war between Canada and the United States but this is about Amber and her place in this war.  This book is not really about the war that it portrays instead it is allegorical in that it is about war in general.  It is about war for resources, refugees, terrorism, manipulating the public opinion of war, all of these are issues raised in Vaughan's work and I like that he is exploring these ideas.  This is by far one of Brian K. Vaughan's most violent books and but I wouldn't say most offensive.  Saga can be quiet offensive at times.  If you love Vaughan's work or you are a fan of Brian Wood, I would highly recommend this book for you.

Kingsway West

This book has so much potential but the execution leaves a lot to be desired in what had a strong first issue.  This book starts off with the title character Kingsway Law who is a war hero from a war that we don’t see but only hear about through dialog.  The United States is divided up into five different empires.  Kingsway used to work for the Chinese whose capital is the Golden City in northern California; but now he is done with them and he is looking to disappear.  Kingsway comes off as an Unforgiven type of cowboy who just wants to be left alone.  But when the queen of the Golden City has put a price on his head everybody is coming out to the wild looking for him.

After a gun fight with some of the queen’s guards Kingsway wakes up next to a campfire with a Mexican woman named Sonia.  The Mexicans and the Chinese have been at war in western part of the country over the mining of Red Gold.  Red Gold is a magical type of gold that can shift the balance of power to any of the empires that are vying for control of North America.

The book jumps ahead five years, Sonia and Kingsway have been living in the wild and created a life for themselves.  The wild is a beautiful place the animals that inhabit this place remind me of the book Manifest Destiny.  Their world gets turned upside down by a Chinese woman who shows up with her dragon looking for Kingsway to save her small band of rebel miners from the Golden City.  Meanwhile the engineer of the United States of New York is coming across the country looking for the mother load of Red Gold.  Strode is introduced as a winged African American scout for the engineer.  Kingsway and Ah Toy go looking for Sonia and battling the United States forces along the way at the mine they battle the Windigo what guarding the vein of Red Gold.  Strode joins the fight with the engineer and his forces not far behind.  There is a final showdown fight with all three parties where the United States of New York’s forces take out the Golden City’s guards leaving the miners and our heroes make way to the freemen’s fort in the south.  Kingway finds his wife but the ending is expected but it wasn’t executed well.

Greg Pak’s work is hit or miss with me I really like his work on Incredible Hulk over at Marvel Comics but this could have used a lot of more to expand upon.  This type of western is a grand and new concept but it wasn’t executed very the art was okay but nothing special.  Frankly I would love to see more and I would like to know more about each of the empires the world that these characters inhabit.  I also think that (SPOILER) Sonia being a ghost that Kingsway met when he was close to death and a figment of his imagination was a cop out ending or that it could have been executed better.

The Kitchen

Vertigo Comics has been going through a Renaissance of sorts and this story is part of that new push.  If you love crime noir or any type of mob movies this is a book for you.  If there is one other title I could compare this to it would be History of Violence.  The whole idea behind this book is that the wives of three Irish gangsters step up to run the business.  The three Irish hoods go to prison because they got arrested for beating the crap out of somebody.  Jimmy, Johnny and Rob go to prison but their absence has left a vacuum in Hell’s Kitchen.  Enter their wives Kath, Raven and Angie this book starts off pretty tame low level crime the wives are just collecting for their husbands while they are in prison but people keep shorting them on the payments.  This pisses off Kath to the breaking point and when she snaps she winds up putting the relative of someone in the Italian mob in a coma.  That’s not the worst of it however someone saw the whole thing go down.  But this witness doesn’t want justice he thinks that because its just a group of women that he can blackmail them.  This is where the book takes it dark turn down the road towards a life of crime.

The girl’s team joins forces with Tommy to run the Irish gang in Hell’s Kitchen.  Tommy is Jimmy’s best friend but he has just escaped a mental hospital.  The book gives very little back story to the characters throughout its tale.  We do learn that Kath and Raven are sisters but once the book takes that deeper dive into organized crime we see that Kath isn’t as in charge as we expected her to be.  Angie really changes as she becomes the enforcer for the group learning from Tommy everything that she can.  The women make deals with the Jews and the Italians over the course of the story to completely take over Hell’s Kitchen.  While their husbands have been locked up the girls reputations have surpassed their own they are released early.  What they find when they return to the streets is that the women want nothing to do with them anymore.  Raven is in deep with the Italians, Kath wants Jimmy to treat her equally as a partner and Angie has become independent.

The husbands try to take out Tommy but it doesn’t work.  One by one the husbands fall to the women as they find they don’t have the credibility on the street that they once had.  But as the girls continue to climb the higher they begin to split apart.  Raven takes control of everything Kath kind of checks herself and Angie and Tommy take off for brighter shores.  Later on Kath and Raven are talking and Raven confesses all she has done that Kath was too weak to do even killing someone she thought was going to drag Kath down over time.  This sets the two sisters to fighting and Kath is killed when she falls on a kitchen knife.  The story doesn’t end there as Raven continues to climb the ladder to success only to meet a very The Departed style end when she arrives home one night to find Tommy and Angie there.

Looking at this series as a whole I can’t say I’m impressed but I wasn’t expecting much from it anyway.  I feel this could have been longer by including lots of character development and exposition.  Probably my biggest complaint of this series was the art as a whole.  I think the colors worked really well for this story I love the whole opening scene but I have a problem with the framing and perspective of the artist’s work some of the drawings are just painful to look at.  I didn’t like History of Violence the book or the movie but if you liked either of those I am sure you will like this.