What Is Flashpoint?
Image Source: Collider
When The Flash hit theatres on June 16, it completed a project over 30 years in the making. Warner Bros Pictures first expressed interest in making a feature film about DC's fastest superhero in the late 1980s. The project went through a lot of iterations, was put on hiatus, and revived several times, and a number of different writers and directors were attached to it at various points in time, including David S. Goyer, Shawn Levy, Phil Lord, and Chris Miller, Rick Fumuyima, and even Robert Zemeckis. But it is director Andy Muschietti who finally brings this endeavor to a close, having worked with a screenplay by Christina Hodson.
Warner asked Muschietti to adapt the story to include more elements of the Flashpoint comic series: "The studio wanted to tell the story and, of course, I agreed that it was a great story," the director says. "It's basically time travel that includes the origin story, which is basically the mother and the father, and their accident. All of those elements were sort of attached to this thing. That's why in my opinion, it was like you're killing several birds with the same stone in a way. And of course, time travel is always a good idea. Batman is always a good idea."
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Still, The Flash isn’t just a movie adaptation of Flashpoint, with Muschietti calling his story more "suspenseful."
"It is a buildup to that moment, which makes probably a more emotional experience because you understand everything that's happening. In Flashpoint, it's more like Jacob's Ladder, 'What is happening? Mom, I don't have powers. My mom is alive.'"
But what exactly is Flashpoint?
The Big Reset
In May 2011, DC Comics started the Flashpoint storyline, which ran until August of the same year. It consisted of the 5-issue main storyline Flashpoint, written by Geoff Johns and penciled by Andy Kubert, which was accompanied by 16 miniseries that specifically dealt with certain superheroes, villains, or events, and four one-shots. All in all, Flashpoint was told in a massive 61-issue story arc.
The story's conclusion reset the DC comic lines, ending the New Earth continuity with all future comics being part of the Prime Earth and the New 52 continuity.
Following Flashpoint's conclusion, DC canceled all its existing titles and debuted 52 new series in September 2011 that were based on the new timeline created by Flashpoint.
Between April and October 2022, DC published a limited series sequel to Flashpoint, called Flashpoint Beyond, focusing on Thomas Wayne, the father of Bruce Wayne.
A Time-Travel Gone Wrong
The story of Flashpoint starts with Barry Allen waking up one day, realizing that the world he knew is gone and he is now part of a different reality: he has somehow lost his superpowers, and his parents, who were dead in his own timeline, are still alive. Furthermore, the Justice League doesn't exist and at first, there is no hint of Superman even existing.
But the changes to Barry's world go much further: Bruce Wayne was killed by a robber in the dark passageway as a kid, and his father, Thomas Wayne, became Batman, while his wife Martha lost her mind about the murder of her son, turning into the Joker.
Western Europe has been sunk by Aquaman and his Atlanteans, who are at war with Wonder Woman and her Amazonians, who have conquered the United Kingdom.
Not knowing who or what has caused the sudden changes, Barry tries to recreate the accident that has given him his powers, but initially fails and is left with bad injuries, but is later able to restore his health.
Image Source: Sportskeeda
When he later teams up with Batman and Cyborg to stop Wonder Woman and Aquaman from further extending their battles, he discovers a weakened Superman, who has been locked up like a lab rat, and rescues him.
In the climactic battle between Wonder Woman's Amazonians and Aquaman's Atlanteans, Barry learns that he has created the alternate timeline himself by going back in time to save his mother from being killed.
As giant waves caused by seismic activities and threatening to destroy all life on earth approach, Barry goes back in time again, hoping to restore the original timeline, but instead merging three different universes and taking away the last ten years of all living beings, thus creating a brand new timeline.
In other media
The events of the comic series have been incorporated into other media:
The CW series The Flash made several references to the Flashpoint comic series in its first three seasons. The end of season two and the beginning of season three is even a loose adaptation of Flashpoint when Barry travels back in time and creates a different timeline. Though the original timeline can be restored in the end, some differences to how it has been before remain.
These changes also came into play in several episodes of Legends of Tomorrow.
In 2013 DC released the animated movie Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, which is the closest adaptation of the comic series so far. Like the printed material, it acted as a kind of reset and the starting point for a shared universe of 15 animated DC movies released between 2013 and 2020.
Image Source: DC Database
Finally, character designs from the Flashpoint comic series appeared in the video games Injustice: Gods Among Us, Batman: Arkham Knight, Injustice 2, and DC Universe Online.
The Flash, the 13th installment of the DC Extended Universe starring Ezra Miller, Sasha Calle, Michael Shannon, Ron Livingston, Maribel Verdú, Kiersey Clemons, and Antje Traue, as well as Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck as two variations of Batman, arrived in theaters on June 16.
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Source: Comicbook.com
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