On Saturday morning at San Diego Comic Con, Warner Bros dropped a bomb when they unveiled their upcoming movie focused on the fastest man alive would be called Flashpoint.
The name definitely had my ears standing straight up. Flashpoint was a five-issue series in 2011 by Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert. It kick started an entire line of DC Comics known as The New 52 that ran from 2011 to 2016. In fact, The New 52 is still the current continuity in DC Comics despite a number of the heroes now questioning it.
Flashpoint follows Barry Allen’s quest to save his mother. In order to do so, Barry travels back in time and prevents her murder. However, by going back in time and preventing his mother’s murder, Barry creates an alternate world where heroes are villains and villains are heroes. But the worst part is the brutal war that wages between Wonder Woman’s Themyscira and Aquaman’s Atlantis causing the deaths of millions and is on the verge of bring the world to total annihilation.
What does this mean for The Flash
It allows the Flash to break away from the Justice League albeit we haven’t really seen him with them just yet. But he can step outside of the shadow of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman.
One of the key components of the comic version of the story is Barry’s loss of powers. A Flashpoint movie can really focus on the basic human struggle with loss. We saw Batman struggle with loss in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and how he turned his loss into rage and anger. Barry Allen’s struggle could be something completely different focusing on his compassion.
Flashpoint can also introduce Barry’s main rival Reverse Flash and showcase a truly despicable villain who warps the idea of love and admiration into jealousy and hate.
What does this mean for the DC Extended Universe?
It would allow Geoff Johns who now helms DC’s movie output to have total flexibility on any number of DC movies. We could have a completely different Wonder Woman set in the Flashpoint universe where she is brutal and savage.
One of the biggest things this story would allow could be the return of Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Bruce Wayne’s father, Thomas. In Flashpoint, Thomas dons the cowl and becomes Batman after Bruce is murdered by a mugger in an alleyway. And he is a very different type of Batman, much more like the 30s pulp character, The Shadow, who is not afraid to put down the bad guys once and for all.
Flashpoint could also allow Warner Bros much more flexibility if there are any cast changes, potential continuity rewrites, or even changing the direction of the entire movie universe moving forward.
And maybe not the biggest benefit, but something that could be extremely interesting, would be the introduction of The Watchmen into the DC Universe which Johns himself introduced into the comics just last year with his epic Rebirth, a story line he aims to continue in Doomsday Clock! While the chances of this actually happening are slim, Warner Bros already has Zack Snyder, the director of The Watchmen, in their stable.
What do you think? Do you want to see a true to comic form version of Flashpoint on the big screen so soon within the DC Extended Universe time line?