Bullet Points special: Flashpoint #5, Justice League #1

Flashpoint #5

And so ends the DC Universe as we knew it. Not with an epic battle that shows the worlds greatest heroes at their best, but, sadly more like an overextended death-rattle. Flashpoint‘s been a tough read and this final issue unfortunately does not deliver, either as a satisfying conclusion to the Flashpoint story or as a goodbye to the way things were. As this final issue opens, the war between Atlantis and the Amazons is in full swing in the ruins of Britain and there’s a messy showdown involving all the altered DC characters and a few new faces. The most memorable part is that the Enchantress is squashed like a cockroach by Superman. Urgh. The Reverse Flash reveals that he actually isn’t behind the new timeline, and it was all down to a change made in the past by, gasp, Barry Allen. Then, in a confusing sequence, Barry travels back in time to stop himself interfering in the first place, and is drawn back into the timestream again by an unknown woman who forces him to join together three different timelines (which look like Vertigo, Wildstorm and the traditional DCU) and create a unified timeline; the new 52. Let’s look at what she says…

“Because the history of heroes was shattered into three long ago. Splintered to weaken your world for their impending arrival. You must all stand together. The timelines must become one again. You can help me fix that, Barry Allen, but at a cost.”

And that’s what’s behind the new 52. An unseen threat that comes out of nowhere and last minute meddling from a Harbringer style character we know nothing about. It’s incredibly weak. And from the last few pages of the book, it’s unclear if any characters even remember what happened. Flashpoint, for all that it changed, ironically does not appear to have had any consequences.

I can’t help but think there must have been a better way to  get to this point. Was there any need at all for the world of Flashpoint? Was there much gained from five issues and multiple tie-ins? What’s most disappointing  is that the traditional DCU really did deserve better than that. The characters we’ve known for decades, after everything they’ve faced and everything they’ve been through, were quietly done away with off-panel. Why not allow them to go out in style? Instead Flashpoint as a whole was a bloody, violent, and mostly forgettable mess. Almost twenty years ago, Zero Hour did things much better.

2/5

Justice League #1

Maybe it was all a conspiracy? Maybe Flashpoint was deliberately bad to make extra sure that Justice League felt great in comparison. It doesn’t matter in the end, as happily this rebooted and reimagined Justice League is a great read. Five years ago in the new timeline, the world didn’t know what to make of super-heroes. An outlaw Batman is investigating an alien threat in Gotham, when Green Lantern pops up to help. They decide that the creature may have something to do with Metropolis’s very own alien, and travel to the city to question him. It’s there that we get our very first look at the all new Man of Steel…

Most of the issue is extended banter between Batman and a very cocky Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), and it works well, clearly defining who they are and the different approaches they have to crime-fighting. Writer, Geoff Johns, has had fun in the past with the rivalry between the two characters and it’s nice to see that continued, albeit in a milder form. Jim Lee on pencils does a reasonable job. It looks good, without being too showy and Green Lantern’s constructs have a nice otherworldly look to them. While in some ways an extended origin story for DC’s premier superteam is disappointingly routine, and obviously written for the trade, there’s a clear sense that DC is really making the effort with this book. There’s an undeniable feeling of quality from every page.  Superman’s last minute appearance is an intriguing preview of his own reboot in Action Comics, and with only a couple of lines of dialogue, we’re left in no doubt that this is the edgier and arguably more interesting Superman we were promised. At the end of the day, this was a fun book that more than lived up to the hype.

Definitely a good start then for the new 52. Lets hope this is the shape of things to come.

4/5

Next Time: A change of scene with Clive Barker’s Hellraiser…

The new 52: Justice League to The Fury of Firestorm

A little later than planned, but lets crack open the preview book and take a look at some of the titles shipping under the Justice League banner.

 

Justice League

The old is new again and Geoff Johns brings back the traditional line-up of Superman, Batman (Bruce), Flash (Barry), Aquaman, Green Lantern (Hal) and Wonder Woman. He’s not in the preview art but joining them is Cyborg, fulfilling much the same function as Steel in Morrison’s run. There’s nothing terribly exciting about the choices here, but Geoff John’s has transformed Hal, Arthur and (to a lesser extent) Barry in recent years and seems to understand how to make them cool. In that regard, Justice League holds a lot of promise: Johns might finally give us a version of the Big Three that works. And no-one needs that more than Wonder Woman at this point.

Jim Lee’s costumes are strictly ok. Flash, Batman and Aquaman do well. Superman’s high collar stands out more than the others and may take some getting used to. Hal’s new shoulder armour hints at something a little more substantial. Right at the bottom of the heap is poor old Wonder Woman. Her costume really doesn’t look right. Diana’s always been more than the sum of her wardrobe, and while her traditional costume was probably a little goofy, it sure as hell didn’t matter and boy was it iconic. This new one just makes her look boring. She could be Donna Troy for all we know and no amount of “W” shaped accessories is making up for it. The preview art has her in black leggings and while I understand that when the book ships she’ll be in something closer to her traditional bikini shorts (albeit black), but everything about Diana at this point feels desperate.

Telling the story of how Batman got the team together at the start of the new 5 year DCU timespan, John’s Justice League is arguably the most important of the entire line and could be essential if we’re going to understand how the rest of the universe fits together. I think I’ll be picking this one up.

Justice League International
The terribly serious looking JLI seems to have dumped the jokes and taken on the same role as the Global Guardians in the One Year Later storyline of a few years ago: a United Nations funded superteam to promote cultural unity and protect the world against super-powered threats. It’s not clear where in the timeline this fits but possible concurrently with the Justice League relaunch at the dawn of superheroes. We might assume that the JLI has more global legitimacy than the Justice League. What is trickier is what the heck Batman is doing on this team. Does it have anything to do with Batman Incorporated? He doesn’t seem to fit at all here. In any event, he joins the traditional JLI roster of Rocket Red, Ice, Fire, Booster Gold (looking very serious again), and Guy Gardner. New to the party is August General in Iron from Chinese superteam The Great Ten, who might shake things up a little. Finally, there’s Animal Man knock-off, Vixen. Nothing about this character inspires. She was awful in Justice League and her presence here just makes the team seem even more mediocre. A UN-sponsored superteam isn’t a bad idea at all, but this book just isn’t grabbing my attention.

Aquaman
Geoff John’s did the impossible in Brightest Day and made Aquaman a character people wanted to read about. Can he keep that up in a new ongoing? It’s hard to tell. I really do want this book to be a success but we don’t know much of anything about it yet. Sure, Arthur has apparently renounced his throne and there’s some new bad guys to worry about (The Trench), but every Aquaman launch has had a promising start. What I want to know as a potential new reader is what Aquaman’s powers are going to be, and if they’ve sorted out the more embarrassing elements that have got in the way of us taking the character seriously in the past. Does he still need to be immersed in water every hour? Let’s hope they tidy all that up once and for all. I’ll certainly be there at the start of this book to get my questions answered.

Wonder Woman
After JMS virtually murdered the character we essentially have an all new rebooted Wonder Woman and it’s anyone’s guess what’s going to be happening. The concept appears to be something along the lines of the gods of old are real and WW is the only person who’s prepared to protect us against them. It goes without saying that WW’s massive backstory and involvement in WWII is junked. Urgh. I really do like Diana of old. I’m just not convinced that this book is going to give me that. I can’t overemphasise how much JMS’s seemingly endless Odyssey story steadily eroded my excitement in Wonder Woman. Diana just wasn’t Diana and it looks like more of the same here. Azzarello on the book is the last straw. No thanks!

The Flash
I have to be honest and say that Flash has never grabbed me as a character in anything but team books. I’m not familiar with the new writing team, but it’s not enough to make this one stand out for me.

The Fury of Firestorm
Firestorm’s been through a hell of a lot of changes recently. A major player in Brightest Day, there’s still a sense of excitement and unpredictability about him. The relaunch seems to stick reasonably close to where we left Jason and Ronnie, but the preview art is quite mysterious. We seem to have Jason and Ronnie in completely different Firestorm costumes. Will they be separate characters? Taking control of the matrix in turns? And what’s with the crazy looking third Firestorm towering above them both? (Maybe we haven’t seen the last of Deathstorm). It’s all anyone’s guess and with Gail Simone and Van Sciver on the writing chores, I want to check this out to see just what the hell is going on!

That’s enough from me on the new 52 for today! Next up…. Captain Atom to Mister Terrific!