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A review by lanternatomika
Flashpoint by Geoff Johns
3.0
If you were to disregard the IRL context around this book, there's not a lot to dislike about Flashpoint. It's not anything mind-blowing, but it's a pretty decent storyline.
Though the story takes place in an alternate timeline, I did enjoy the fact that the 'real' Barry Allen got some character development here. There's also a bit of a knock on effect on Batman which I'll cover up because spoilers, even though we all already know what happens in this storyline. At the end of the day, this is a pretty typical Geoff Johns comic, with his blockbuster writing. It's just lacking certain elements that elevate his best work, like the Green Lantern stuff.
A big weakness of Flashpoint is the Flashpoint universe itself. The core story is just five issues long, and Johns lands in an awkward space between completely pushing the details of this world into the background and expounding upon it in loads of detail. Now, I know that there are like 50+ tie-in issues that shed a lot of light on this world, but reading the main miniseries hasn't convinced me that it's worth the time.
The truth is, the Flashpoint world just isn't that interesting. I was never particularly curious about why Atlantis and Themyscira were at war, or why Cyborg is everyone's favorite hero. The characters that actually matter to the story were good, though, and I think that's enough. You don't always have to complicate things.
As a smaller event in Geoff Johns' Flash run (which I haven't read, but I probably will at some point), I think Flashpoint is enjoyable. But there's more to it than that, isn't there?
DC Comics' decision way back in the day to peg their massive reboot of the DC universe on Flashpoint has put a lot of emphasis on it, and I don't think this story deserves it. You'd think that this would be a Crisis level event, but the odd reality is that the 'old' DC universe ended through a storyline that had nothing to do with the actual DC universe at all!
It's weird that this 'just another day in the life of The Flash' storyline has become a bedrock of the modern DC universe, but hey, at least the storyline has some merit to it. If nothing else, it gave us the Batman and Flash friendship which is really cool, and other storylines used elements from it.
Though the story takes place in an alternate timeline, I did enjoy the fact that the 'real' Barry Allen got some character development here. There's also a bit of a knock on effect on Batman which I'll cover up because spoilers, even though we all already know what happens in this storyline. At the end of the day, this is a pretty typical Geoff Johns comic, with his blockbuster writing. It's just lacking certain elements that elevate his best work, like the Green Lantern stuff.
A big weakness of Flashpoint is the Flashpoint universe itself. The core story is just five issues long, and Johns lands in an awkward space between completely pushing the details of this world into the background and expounding upon it in loads of detail. Now, I know that there are like 50+ tie-in issues that shed a lot of light on this world, but reading the main miniseries hasn't convinced me that it's worth the time.
The truth is, the Flashpoint world just isn't that interesting. I was never particularly curious about why Atlantis and Themyscira were at war, or why Cyborg is everyone's favorite hero. The characters that actually matter to the story were good, though, and I think that's enough. You don't always have to complicate things.
As a smaller event in Geoff Johns' Flash run (which I haven't read, but I probably will at some point), I think Flashpoint is enjoyable. But there's more to it than that, isn't there?
DC Comics' decision way back in the day to peg their massive reboot of the DC universe on Flashpoint has put a lot of emphasis on it, and I don't think this story deserves it. You'd think that this would be a Crisis level event, but the odd reality is that the 'old' DC universe ended through a storyline that had nothing to do with the actual DC universe at all!
It's weird that this 'just another day in the life of The Flash' storyline has become a bedrock of the modern DC universe, but hey, at least the storyline has some merit to it. If nothing else, it gave us the Batman and Flash friendship which is really cool, and other storylines used elements from it.