Sometimes a book comes together so beautifully that you can’t help but to smile throughout it.
What They Say:
FLASH QUESTION: Will Flash and his new allies be able to fix the world?
The Review:
After two interesting setup issues and a number of miniseries and one shots that I’ve read through, the third Flashpoint issue is the first one to really feel like it’s a very strong piece of work. We’ve had the necessary material to fill us in on the back story of this particular world and what’s involved, the small changes and the big ones, and it’s teased a lot of it as well. Not all the side books have been good, but I’ve found myself enjoying a lot of them while waiting for the main series to really come together. And it does so in this book, following up on Barry’s attempts to get his powers back by having Batman hook him up. It was a strong moment in the second issue, but as we learn here, it didn’t really happen. In fact, Barry’s just heavily burned and in rough shape yet he’s still demanding that Thomas helps him run the process again in order to achieve the real goal.
When things do happen, in a fairly dramatic and predictable way, it’s enough to get Thomas to start really helping him achieve his goals. The motivations are good in how Barry talks about how he’s starting to lose his memories and become one with this timeline and the things that he fears losing. It all resonates well with Thomas with the loss of it all and the way Barry speaks so clearly and honestly. What it leads to is quite good as well as Barry talks about what Thawne would have done to prevent Barry from fixing things by changing the timeline with his close friends. With Hal not having the ring and being unable to help, Aquaman and Wonder Woman engaged in a war and no sign of Superman, there’s no way for him to form the league. What he can do is to start to track down his best hope in Superman though as something did happen in the past that Thomas clues him in on.
That brings him into contact with Cyborg, which has a very amusing moment as Barry comments on how Cyborg seems a bit taller and broader overall. With the government giving up on getting the heroes to help, Cyborg finds himself now in the position of going against them to help Thomas in order to gain his overall support. Since it has him breaking into files and into a government facility, it’s challenging him in a lot of ways, but with both Barry and Thomas offering him a lot of revelations about his world that he couldn’t have imagined, it’s proving to be engaging. In particular, the whole Project Superman reveal has him going pretty far, even if it is just to get Thomas on his side.
And what a revelation. The facility located below Metropolis isn’t exactly impressive in some ways with the night time skeleton crew there, but it’s what’s inside. Well, after the canine remains from Subject 2 that they came across. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg and I loved the big reveal about Subject 1 that’s been kept in seemingly absolute isolation, apparently not even seeing humans often if at all. He’s so gaunt and pale, there’s that nervous and scared look about him that makes it easy to understand why he’d take the first opportunity to get out of there no matter who showed up. Things aren’t exactly going to plan, but I love the way it brings things together quickly but naturally here, putting Flash, Batman and Cyborg together to start working the team and going after the other necessary pieces, only to see how things aren’t making sense like Barry hopes they might.
Digital Notes:
This digital edition of the book from Comixology is the regular version that includes three covers. The first has Flash, Cyborg and Batman shot together with them discovering the secret of Projcet Superman while the second cover is the pencil rough version of the primary cover which looks great and detailed here. The third one gives us a good Aquaman cover as he swim through the ruins of Rome with quite a few bodies floating about. Also included are five pages of costume design notes for the new characters introduced here. A deluxe version of the book is also available that includes the full issue in pencil and ink version.
In Summary:
While I’ve been enjoying Flashpoint both in the main series and the miniseries that have come out, I’ve found myself more interested so far in the little books that you wouldn’t think would be all that interesting, like Deadman and even the Canterbury Cricket to some degree. The main book offers some interesting things, but the stage dressing so far has been dominant and I’ve appreciated the way they’ve gone into showing so many aspects of it. With this issue of Flashpoint though, the core storyline really comes together quickly with the return of Barry’s powers and bringing in both Batman and Cyborg to his cause, though to varying degrees of knowledge. It’s this point in reading all the books that it feels like the energy is really starting to ramp up and it’s coming together as the big guys are getting more directly involved. This is the issue that has me eagerly looking forward to the next one.
Grade: A-
