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.

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.