Haven’t we seen this before?

“Everything you know will change in a Flash”

The DCU is set for a major revamp after their summer blockbuster event, Flashpoint. There had already been rumors that all current in-continuity DC titles will be scrubbed and 52 new titles will be relaunched with issue #1.

I am not sure what my stand is on this is, at the moment… On one hand I think it is a potentially bold move by DC to capture new readers who would not be bogged down by little things such as “continuity”. On the other hand, I think Continuity rules, and the necessities of capitalism has bitch slapped fanboys like myself who had doggedly followed every “relaunch” the Big 2 goes through.

But hey… it’s just me… and I’ve been wrong before… This could prove to be a launch pad for new and exciting stories with a modern sensibility… Just look at Spider Man after Brand New Day…

Anyway, Flashpoint started spiritedly enough with these cryptic messages in Booster Gold…

Along with the Flashpoint teaser montage below, I think it was a fair prelude of what was to come in Flashpoint.

So far, we’ve seen a couple of big reveals about the world of Flashpoint.

#SPOILER ALERT#

We know that Bruce Wayne was the one who was killed in Crime Alley, and because of this, Thomas Wayne became evil red eyed Batman.

We’ve learned that the Flashpoint World is without a Superman, and Cyborg, ultimate B-Lister got to step off the bench and became THE hero of this new world. Boy, you know your world is screwed when you look in the sky and see a Cyborg dropping towards you. Does he even fly?

We’ve discovered that an all out war between the seemingly villainous Aquaman-led Atlanteans and Wonder Woman’s fury driven Amazons caused most of the world to descend into madness. The war climaxed in the sinking of Western Europe – probably taking along with it the world’s last beer and wine reserve… No wonder everyone is angry.

#END OF SPOILERS#

All in all, it seems like a well stretched out Elseworlds  or “What if”s event, except for one thing… it’s set in the “Original” DC Universe… whatever that means anymore.

Does this sound familiar to other long time comic fans?

Yup… Flashpoint reminds me of Marvel’s Uber hit, the Age of Apocalypse where Prof X was killed in the past by his son Legion. He never formed the X-Men in time to defeat Apocalypse and hence a future was created where Mutants ruled through Apocalypse’s paradigm of “Survival of the Fittest”.

To a (very young) me, the series was the bee’s knees as it shows how one small event in the past can lead to a whole new set of possibilities and drastically different outcomes. A comic book lesson in Butterfly Effect.

So far, there’s been no mention of what caused the huge changes in the DC Universe.

All evidences so far point towards the Reverse Flash altering Barry Allen’s past, and in doing so, changed the course of history. At the moment, it seemed that there are too many changes in the current situation to have been the cascading effect brought on by a singular event.

But you never know… Personally, I have faith in the story telling abilities of Geoff Johns to introduce a twist to the assumption that Professor Zoom is the man causing the Flashpoint timeline. (I hope) the late release date of “Flashpoint: Reverse Flash”  would support my theory and introduce a (MAJOR) twist in the tale. I am personally stoke to see which is the milestone “singular” event that brought on this new future…

Boy, would it suck if the cause of Flashpoint is just one of Flash’s Rogues running around, changing EVERY key events of the Past just so he can screw around with Barry Allen.

Of an Ending and 2 Goodbyes

And so it ends.

For a 4 issue event, Siege lasted 3 issues too long.

I mean it is essentially ONE big BRAWL and Marvel managed to drag it out over the main “Siege” books, “Siege Embedded”, “Siege: Random Marvel character”, “the XXX Avengers” among the OTHER countless tie ins. It is paced less like a brawl than a leisurely game of Bridge played at the local old folk’s home.

Siege IS the BIGGEST damn Mess I’ve ever seen.

I speak as someone who is not above sitting through an entire M Night Shayamalam movie just for the payoff at the end. If anything. the ending of Siege was ALMOST as bad as the whole set up and premise. There was no emotional connection to the *surprise* death at the end of it all. The only thing going for the ending was how conveniently (and sneakily) Marvel (or Brian Michael Bendis) managed to tie up some loose ends in their current continuity. In one fell swoop, Marvel found a way to kill off a character that was too awkward to exist in their little multiverse and at the same time found a purpose and place for a newly resurrected one (who conveniently is gonna be starring in a movie real soon). *cough* Steve *cough* Rogers *cough*

Which brings me to the “death”.

We now have the obligatory heroes send off at the end of the mega crossover. The “send off” issue, besides milking fan boys of our remaining pocket money for the month, serves as a recap of the fine things the “hero” has done and a reminder of why people love him.

In that respect, Siege’s hero send off was staler than the sweat of the boy who had just ingested a gallon of Cheezit (trust me, I know about this subject, sadly) because there just isn’t so much to “remember” *insider nudge nudge wink wink* about this particular character!

It’s exceptionally bad when compared to the “sending off” in Marvel’s other event for the moment – The X-Men’s Second Coming (Insert your own lewd joke here)

It is MY Marvel event for now. To be honest, there is not much of a fight here. It is currently pitted against Siege and… *horrors* World War Hulks. I am a HUGE fan of the Hulk. I even semi enjoyed Ang Lee’s vision of a poetic Hulk. But a Hulked out Marvel universe is too much for me to bear. This shall be a gripe for another day…

The pacing for SC has been superb. The death was really shocking.  The emotional investment I have in it is immense. Added on the whole new team dynamics of the X-Men since the Utopia storyline. I get the feeling I always get from reading my favourite pulps – That there might not be that bright cheery ending at the end of it all. That we are watching the characters go to hell in a fast car, but it is too damn fine a ride for us to look away.

Simply awesome.

Of course, I must point out this week’s fine reference to sunny lil Singapore.

Fear the prowess of Maxwell Lord!!