Flashpoint (comics)/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Broken Aesop: Sean Ryan intended for the Grodd Of War oneshot to be an allegory for how the Western world doesn't care about what happens in Africa in terms of all the needless deaths taking place there, and have Grodd be the mouthpiece... but this is undercut by the fact that Grodd himself was the one who killed the vast majority of them. In the story he's pissed that Cyborg or Captain Thunder (any heavy hitter really) is too busy with the European War to try to stop him. Grodd wants attention because he thinks his campaign is too easy and unchallenging to him, he probably expected the world's superheroes to try to band up against him and didn't expect the events in Europe to completely overshadow him like it has. For some readers, the attempt to apply a moral and real world comparisons to it fell pretty flat.
  • Complete Monster: Most of the villains of the saga. Seriously.
    • Special note goes to Heat Wave, here a sadistic murderer with absolutely no moral boundaries (as opposed to his normal DCU portrayal).
    • Penthesilea starts off with arranging Diana's assassination, which actually ends up killing Hippolyta, her own sister. After that, in Flashpoint #4, the moment Captain Thunder is separated back into his six component children by Enchantress, Penthesilea kills Billy Baston without hesitation. Even Diana herself was stunned by the fact that Captain Thunder was just a child (well, multiple).
    • The Joker AKA Martha Wayne. Like the main DCU Joker, she has a freudian excuse (although much less vague than Joker's) but her horrific, sadistic treatment of her child captives (and it's implied this is far from the only time she's done it) take her so far beyond the Moral Event Horizon it's frightening.
    • Gorilla Grodd is a genocidal mass murderer in this timeline.
    • General Nathaniel Adam (known in regular continuity as Captain Atom) who is probably one of the worse human villains in the story.
      • And don't forget Lionel Luthor in Project: Superman # 2: he leaves his son Lex to be devoured by Krypto (whose mind had been tampered with by Subject Zero to get angry) while he runs away to save his sorry hide.
    • Reverse Flash counts too, although not for his actions in Flashpoint (where he's barely appeared until the final issue). He's been set up as one since his recent origin issue in The Flash.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: In terms of the various miniseries. Batman: Knight of Vengeance is the real breakout.
    • The Flashpoint universe version of Batman/Thomas Wayne himself is the breakout character of the main series with most fans talking about how awesome he is and not really caring much about the main plot.
    • Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown has been getting alot of praise as well.
  • Like You Would Really Do It: DC really, REALLY wants fans to think that this storyline will have a HUGE impact on the the structure of the DC universe. Thus far writers are apparently not allowed to discuss "what happens after Flashpoint" and right now Flashpoint #5 is the only August 31 issue DC is soliciting because of its impact on the DC Universe. As shocking as it would be for the status quo of the DC universe to be substantially altered or maintain much of the status quo of the Flashpoint universe its simply unlikely DC would facilitate such a huge change for all their titles through a mini-series with separate tie-in mini-series that DC stresses are optional and the ongoing series tie-in being in the for of Booster Gold.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Michael Desai, the Outsider. He's perpetually two steps ahead of the most powerful heroes and villains in the Flashpoint verse despite never appearing before his tie-in mini.
  • Memetic Mutation: Almost as soon as promotional material (saying things like "The spaceship never crashed [dead link]") popped up fans started doing their own versions.
  • Misblamed: With the sudden cancellation of the ongoing JSA All-Stars, Freedom Fighters, R.E.B.E.L.S., The Outsiders, Batman Confidential, & Doom Patrol monthlies, a number of disillusioned fans blamed Flashpoint and it's MANY miniseries as being responsible. (That or that Dan Didio cancelled them for no reason). The real answer was that while they got good buzz, the numbers for each book weren't enough to keep them in production. It was sort of like the Blue Beetle all over again.
  • So Okay It's Average: Seems to be the general opinion on the main series.
  • Narm: The ending of Batman Knight of Vengeance #2 "MARTHA!" It comes across in almost "Goddammit Martha, not this shit again. sort of way.
  • Unfortunate Implications: It's still too early to make any final judgments since the series is ongoing and some story elements have yet to receive full explanation, but several things related to the series have caused controversy.
    • Much head-slapping ensued when the Flashpoint world map was released and people saw that most of Africa is listed simply as "Ape-controlled." Apparently no one at DC thought this might be taken badly when applied to a continent overwhelmingly populated by black people, given the historical tendency for black people to be likened to monkeys and apes in racist propaganda. For the record, "ape" in context refers to Gorilla Grodd, a previously established Flash villain who is literally a gorilla, but the fact that this is the only information we had on the entire continent (besides the fact that a large part of Northern Africa is missing due to the same war that destroyed most of Europe) was the real unfortunate part, and the fact that Batman: Incorporated had done something similar with the "Batman of Africa" (falling into an unfortunate tendency to treat the entire continent like it's one country) a few weeks earlier did nothing to help.
      • Amusingly enough, the Grodd one-shot actually seems to pull a Lampshade Hanging on the last part since he's pissed that no one cares about what's happening in Africa (though see Broken Aesop for why this falls a bit flat since it's technically his fault).
    • The fact that the same map lists an "Asian Capital" was also criticized.
    • Some also took issue with the idea of the Amazons castrating captured men, especially since this brings back memories of another time the Amazons committed gratuitous violence against men and plays into the "scary Amazon" idea that fans of Wonder Woman tend to loathe whenever it shows up. Though these fans acknowledge that at least Flashpoint has the Cosmic Retcon excuse for the warlike Atlanteans (who are willing to sink continents to destroy their enemies) and the Amazons (who as mentioned, kill and castrate men) while Amazons Attack didn't.
    • Additionally, the fact that both Hippolyta and Mera have been Stuffed Into the Fridge to motivate Wonder Woman and Aquaman respectively has drawn comparisons to Women in Refrigerators, especially after a variant cover was released that showed Wonder Woman holding Mera's decapitated head that edges perilously close to Gorn (ironically said cover is speculated to be a homage to a similar cover of Crime Suspenstories that was used as an example of bad taste that eventually lead to the creation of the Comics Code).
      • Then that cover is automatically AWESOME.
  • The Woobie: Superman. He crash-landed in Metropolis as a baby, accidentally killing thousands. Then he spent his entire life locked in a lab where he was no doubt experimented on for decades. Rockets for Krypto & Kara eventually arrived, but from the looks of it, they've faired worse than Kal-El (KRYPTO IS DEAD & A FREAKING SKELETON WHEN BARRY FINDS HIM!!). He has never known any human kindness nor contact and is so skinny & pale from NEVER seeing the sun.
      • He did have some Human kindness in the form of General Lane who treated him as a son and more than an experiment, and also Kyrpto. But then Krypto was killed after mauling Lex Luthor as a kid, and General Lane was pulled into the Phantom Zone by Subject Zero who Kal helped free, while he protected Lois. He was then put back into the cage by General Adams and told he would live the rest of his life there, only coming out at certain times for tests, while he scribbles a picture of Lois on the ground.
    • Selina Kyle, Oracle. Almost totally paralyzed from a vicious attack by the Joker, she's unable to even wipe the tears from her eyes as she relives it.
    • Harvey Dent's son, who gets kidnapped by the Joker along with his sister, then has to watch his sister get killed by Jim Gordon because she was dressed by the Joker. And later, he has to watch the Joker kill Jim right in front of him.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: The Joker, A.K.A. Martha Wayne.
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