Flashpoint: Blame The Flash

Are you unhappy with the New 52 relaunch DC did this past fall? Blame the Flash. Last year’s Flashpoint crossover set up the new continuity and it was all the scarlet speedster’s fault.

As critical as I can be about Geoff Johns, this was an awesome story. A lot of the Flash’s life is tied to the death of his mother and the subsequent framing of his father. This led  Barry Allen to pursue a career in criminal investigation to prove his dad’s innocence, and we all remember how he got zapped by lightning  in the police lab one night.

Flash has a seemingly fool-proof plan to make everything in his life great; he will go back in time (since, you know, he can run through the timestream) and save his mother. Unfortunately, Flash messes up big time. Flash shows up in a new war-torn reality where there is no Justice League, and there is a looming Atlanteans/Amazons war. Allied with the Batman of this world–Thomas Wayne, since in this it was only Bruce’s father who survived–Flash attempts to fix the continuity. He battles with his arch-enemy Professor Zoom, who is a bit of a red herring as to why everything has happened. The villain reveals that everything was Flash’s doing, which causes our hero to go back in time and stop himself. This causes everything to be reset and now we have the New 52.

What I liked best about this was the whole Thomas Wayne as Batman subplot with him being this super vengeful hero, but I guess it isn’t to be. The ending is really touching, as Flash returns to the New 52 verse which is the new normal. He shares a letter with Batman from his father. Awe…