In this version, Flashpoint is caused by the Reverse-Flash. After a confrontation with the Reverse-Flash, Barry Allen finds himself in a world where the Justice League doesn’t exist, he doesn’t have any powers, and the Amazons and Atlanteans are at war with one another. It’s a strange new world, one that’s about to get a whole lot worse through a major confrontation between the two warring factions.
Like in the comic book story, everything is flipped on its head here. Thomas Wayne is Batman, Superman is a prisoner of the government, and so on. The changes are wide spread, and it’s up to Barry Allen to figure out how to fix them. Naturally, his first inclination of find Batman, who might be the only person who would believe him about what’s going on.
And while Thomas doesn’t exactly believe all that’s going on, the fact that in Barry’s world, his son is alive, motivates him alone to help Barry. So they attempt to recreate the experiment that lead to Barry getting his powers in the first place. To say it fails spectacularly is an understatement. The attempt leaves Barry burned and scarred to the point where he looks like a mummy with all of his bandages.
But that isn’t enough to stop Barry. So they try again. This time, as one might imagine, it works. Gaining his powers allows Barry to heal fully, and get back in the action. They need to find a way to reverse the effects of the timeline change before either Wonder Woman or Aquaman end the world.
Even though Batman figures heavily into the story of Flashpoint, I do wish that they delved a bit more deeply into his side of Flashpoint. In this version, not only is Thomas Wayne Batman, but Martha Wayne is the Joker. It’s an interesting twist, but one only briefly touched on in the animated movie. I get that they only have seventy-five minutes or so to tell their story, but it still would have been a fun exploration.
Easily one of the more fascinating elements of Flashpoint is their interpretation of Superman. In this world, the ship that carried baby Kal-El crashes into the heart of Metropolis instead of the fields of Smallville. Because of this, the government scoops him up and keeps him as lab rat. So instead of the muscle bound savior we’re used to, we find a shriveled, child like Superman kept at bay by red sun radiation. It’s a striking visualization.
The rest of the story goes how you would imagine. The heroes group up in order to try and stop the war from ending the world, while the Flash works to try and travel through time. The problem is that Captain Atom is being used as a literally bomb, a last resort war weapon by Aquaman. There’s a little ticking time bomb.
We all know how the story is going to end, but that doesn’t make it any less exciting. The action, especially between the two warring factions, is fun to watch. The animation quality is top notch, easily one of the best looking animated films DC has produced.
The movie ends with the Flash racing the Reverse-Flash in order to prevent further damage to the timeline. The Flash wins, but in doing so, fractures the timeline in a different way than it was before. This is what causes the Flashpoint timeline we know now. Everything feels somewhat the same, but only on the surface.
But before the big battle on the old timeline, Thomas Wayne gave Flash a letter. He wants Flash to give it to Bruce when he the timeline corrects itself. It presents one of the best scenes in the movie when Flash gives Batman that letter. It’s one of the few times that we see Batman express some kind of emotion other than apathy.
If you’re looking for a fun crash course into what Flashpoint was for in the comic books, and to see what DC is pulling from for the third season of Flash, Flashpoint is totally worth a watch.
Written by Peter Freeman, Animated Movie Review -- Click to read Peter's posts
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