Clearly, I'm missing something. Over the past few months, I had sort of written off Flashpoint as an enormous Elseworlds, surely one that will impact the DCU in some ways, since Geoff Johns is writing it, but an Elseworlds in any case. Then the Internet popped for the premiere issue yesterday, with everyone raving about how good it is. This is just proof that I'm still not jaded as a reader, I went out and bought Flash 10-12 (to be reviewed tomorrow) and Flashpoint #1.
And? Did the issue live up to the insane hype and the even more insane number of tie-ins? Meh. It's fine, but it is an Elseworlds. There are some people in different costumes, Captain Cold seems to be some kind of vigilante rather than villain, Talky Tawny from the Marvel Family looks like a cool Battle Cat from He-Man, and a few other changes. I do like seeing Cyborg as the main man of the DCU, but if the stuff he says is correct, Wonder Woman and Aquaman are straight up EVIL.
Seriously, death on the scale described here is unbelievable, and the US could not and would not be sitting by while that type of genocide was going on. Of course, this is still an Earth in the DCU, so maybe they've grown accustomed to mass murder? Very possible.
As far as I can tell, this doesn't really pick up as the next chapter after Brightest Day or anything like that. This really seems to stand on its own. Honestly, this feels 100% like Age of Apocalypse, the story everyone thought this would be riffing on. And that's fine, I loved AoA, but I don't have the disposable income (or the space in my longboxes) to follow something like that now.
And let's not avoid my main problem: Barry Allen. The guy is boring, and centering a crossover around him is not going to do it for me.
I must admit, Andy Kubert's art is great. Alternate Batman looks cool. Battle Tawny is awesome. I like Shade the Changing Man's look and team. But I'm just not wrapped up enough to keep up with the deluge of titles for this crossover.
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6 comments:
Sounds like you're having the same problem I did with Blackest Night. Just not that good. And having read every issue of the main series, I still could not tell you what Hal Jordan's personality is, or how he is different as a result of Blackest Night.
Did you read Blackest Night and feel the same way? How does it compare to Flashpoint?
I liked Blackest Night more, because the threat felt more immediate. The Black Lanterns felt like a far-reaching threats that would affect the parts of the DCU I care about.
I was never that into Hal Jordan's reaction to the dead guys, but I wanted to see the rest of the DCU.
BN was better, I think.
"And let's not avoid my main problem: Barry Allen. The guy is boring, and centering a crossover around him is not going to do it for me."
Well, thank you for at least admitting it. The cries of angry Wally fans on blogs and message boards has (almost) reached fever pitch. It'd be funny if it wasn't so sad. The irony here is that Wally is a variation on Barry done with modern writing. A SLIGHT variation.
All the concepts and powerful ideas that make Flash one of DC's biggest characters came from the Barry Allen version: The costume, the rogues, founding the JLA, team-ups with Green Lantern, racing Superman, Zoom, marrying a reporter, etc., etc.
So all the "I want Wally, Barry is boring" is just code for, "I want my status quo from 1995 back, and DC won't give it to me!"
The Flash (whether Barry or Wally) is as interesting as the writer makes them. And to an extent, how said writer executes the same concepts laid down in the 60s.
I sort of agree with you, Anonymous. I think what is so annoying is that we last left Wally as an interesting, flawed, charismatic character, in order to restart Barry, characterized by Geoff Johns in an uninteresting way. I don't think people would be as upset if Barry were given an interesting spin. but Johns shows him as an adult man who acts like a cliche of a teenager.
I think you're missing the key component that makes Wally interesting, Anon: The Legacy.
Sure, there are a lot of details about Wally that are similar to Barry, but Barry never had to prove himself as much as Wally feels he needs to. I use the same argument with Kyle over Hal, that I'm not interested in seeing 'the best' do his thing, I would rather see 'the next guy' try to live up to that.
"So all the "I want Wally, Barry is boring" is just code for, "I want my status quo from 1995 back, and DC won't give it to me!""
well, i want bart allen back as the flash!
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