Flashpoint #5

Story: Geoff Johns

Art: Andy Kubert

Publisher: DC Comics

Publication date: August 31, 2011

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

The good: The issue does a decent job at wrapping up all the stories of Flashpoint into one place, despite quick and messy demises of some key characters. It even makes Superman's appearance useful, even if incredibly brief (although I'm still processing how he could intervene with something magical in such an efficient way). It gives us some moments of weight between Barry and his mother, and Barry and Bruce. Artwise, not many complaints here, since I have enjoyed the consistency of the main book in terms of art whereas Falshpoint tie-ins seemed rished in that regard.

The bad: As all things need to come to an end, I expected a decent explanation for the new DCnU. Instead we get a rushed merging of "timelines", and changes in outfits through a crucial yet absurd spread. Calling the three merging imprints a set of three timelines makes no sense at all, as if there had not been other timelines previously or concurrently. Also, hadn't Brightest Day already done part of the job of merging certain aspects of this (John Constantine, Swamp Thing)? This is what irritates me the most of this mediocre explanation through Flashpoint. That this merging done by Barry somehow is responsible for Swamp Thing entering the DCU, or Sinestro being on the wrong side of the law to a Green Lantern (thus negating his growth and the event s of War of the Green Lanterns that led to that).

The ugly: I think the most unfortunate aspect of it all is that this reboot was a chance to stop making the event books (anything with the word "Crisis" in its title, Blackest Night, etc) and doing away with the writing style for the sake of setting a seed towards the next "big event". This was an opportunity to do Justice League 1 from the get-go witha fresh new take on it. This was an opportunity to start characters like Aquaman from #1 into hundreds of great issues if written properly. Instead, we get the seed of the unknown character, we get the "impending arrival" of some evil presence who apparently had planned separating the "timelines", and we get whispers about the "cost" that will be eventually paid. Basically continuing the horrible tendency of Geoff Johns to write while planning on the next big event (something I hoped the new DCnU would avoid) instead of focusing on good writing and good characters. This is NOT a new way of making comics, it's precisely the old one.

The grade: C-