Flashpoint has really lowered the bar for DC. While they have certainly done quite a bit to anger fans in the past, it hasn’t been this bad since “Amazons Attack!“.
But first let us take a second to figure out what Flashpoint has in common with “Amazons Attack!“
- A fundamentally flawed premise: For Amazons, it’s the concept of them killing many innocent people over what could have been a resolvable conflict. For Flashpoint, it’s the fact that the Flash being taken out of the picture causes the world to become edgy and extreme.
- Terribly written stories: In Amazons Attack it’s the conversations and the action. None of it works. But for Flashpoint something scarier happens. Have you ever had the urge to read a story where Batman is Bruce Wayne’s Dad, Thomas Wayne, and Bruce’s mother is the Joker? I didn’t. But just so that you don’t have to read it I’ll spoil it for you. Batman makes out with the Joker after roughhousing, then the Joker runs away and falls down a hole. I just saved you some confusion and anger.
AHAHAHAHAAHAHA. SERIOUSLY? AHAHAHAAHAH.
- A deep disrespect for classic characters: Amazons Attack pretty much ruined any credibility Wonder Woman had left by making her and her mythos into a joke. Flashpoint is a new farce on a grand scale. Do you like Plastic Man? He’s an evil jerk who swallows things whole with sharp plastic teeth. It’s like all the best characters get their own Rise of Arsenal!
There comes a point where you've gone too far, and we have clearly passed it.
So what exactly is wrong with Flashpoint? Well everything is wrong with this event. It’s a cash grab with horrible writing that re-imagines characters in stupid ways. Why are there people who praise it? They are either paid off or absolutely stupid.
Now I’m being more than fair to this event. There are a few books such as Captain Cold, which is halfway decent, mediocre Secret Seven and the Outsider which is simply boring. It’s not horrible all the way around, but it only gets up to the point of being passable. Please do not support DC while they are having this event.
I don’t think it’s that bad actually. I like the expolration of Thomas Wayne becoming Batman. It makes sense that he would try to prevent what happened to Bruce from happening to others be becoming a vigilante and I find the idea that he would use something that Bruce was afraid of to scare criminals. He’s still a real departure from the Bruce incarnation of Batman. Martha Wayne being the Joker…that felt forced to me. There’s really no reason WHY she would be the Joker rather than any other serial killer or just a distraught mother or hell, a plain drunk.
As for Flash being the only reason things are edgier…I didn’t get that. I got that Zoom there fucked with all their pasts. After all Flash had NOTHING to do with Bruce’s origin and would have been Batman regardless. Only through Zoom altering everyone in the Justice Leagues timelines could he have done what he did and THAT I think is the real flaw. They never address that and in the end when Flash goes back in time to set things right he doesn’t really DO that. It seems that he just fixes his own timeline and really it needed to be more than that in order to explain ALL the changes. I really noticed while reading the issues that they SEEMED to be trying to place an emphasis on the Flash as an important character in the same way as they did in the JLU animated series. When Lex killed Flash it made the future into a darker more extreme place. THAT however made more sense in that the point where he was killed WOULD have effected the other members of the JL. This however was more of a “What if Flash never were” and I just don’t see how his never being there would have altered so many other heroes origins at ALL.
Well I respect your opinion, but I despise anything that makes established heroes “edgier”. Since most of them are done just to make them edgier instead of better. Flashpoint felt to me like that was all they were doing.