Flashpoint #5 question

[johnnystorm]

I have a question concerning the outcome of Flashpoint #5.

Avoiding spoilers, for those who haven't read it: the time triggering event occurred roughly 20-25 years ago given the newer "younger" DCU heroes.

So how does that affect the WW2 history of the JSA, Frankenstein, and the Nazis getting South America? Wouldn't history remain the same UP TO the change point (sometime in the late 1980s or early 90s)? Obviously things and people like the Civil War, WW2, Washington, Lincoln, & others "took place". So how could time be altered both forward AND backward?

[The Toyroom]

The Nazis got South America? Now that's just stupid....

[samurainoir]

That's pretty much how this entire back to the future plot gets muddled... When they throw in this bit setting up the next big crossover with the hooded woman that guides Barry and somehow he causes the DCU, Vertigo and Wildstorm to merge, because at some point in the "past" they were separated and now combined once again in order to battle sow mystery future threat.

[The Toyroom]

Someone check the Anti Monitor's appointment book....

[johnnystorm]

PLEASE don't tell me the "mystery woman" is Harbinger!

[ctc]

>PLEASE don't tell me the "mystery woman" is Harbinger!

Have they redone them books from the early 00's, where they used the name of an established character but applied it to someone completely different? 'Cos that series' version of "Green Lantern" was a mysterious, Harbinger type.

Don C.

[The Bat]

This just another "Comic Event" like Crisis on Infinite Earths, Zero Hour, Infinite Crisis, etc...what can be done, can be undone. So I say just go with the flow. If you or any other DC fans don't like it...just wait 2 years and there will be another Major Crisis.

[samurainoir]

PLEASE don't tell me the "mystery woman" is Harbinger!

That was what my thought is. You can spot her in the stands at Vic's ball game. Basically she's the Waldo of the new DC 52 launch, appearing somewhere in each of the new books. Apparently, even the artists on many of these books are not aware of her because she was drawn in after the fact.

[The Toyroom]

>PLEASE don't tell me the "mystery woman" is Harbinger!

Have they redone them books from the early 00's, where they used the name of an established character but applied it to someone completely different? 'Cos that series' version of "Green Lantern" was a mysterious, Harbinger type.

Don C.

Tangent... The Tangent universe was shown to be one of the 52 earths during Infinite Crisis. The Green Lantern of the universe was killed apparently and her lantern was shown washed up on the shore of some beach where two young kids found it...

[knight errant00]

> Have they redone them books from the early 00's, where they used the name of an established character but applied it to someone completely different? 'Cos that series' version of "Green Lantern" was a mysterious, Harbinger type.Don C.

That something else I've been thinking for a while, especially since this is possibly not a reboot but another parallel world -- why not REALLY go all in on this and create new versions of the characters, completely unfettered by past continuity? The way Julie Swartz & co. did in the Silver Age when they introduced new versions of Flash, GL, the Atom, etc. or the way Stan Lee leveraged the Human Torch and Daredevil? Give us really fresh, new versions of the characters, rather than warmed over versions that seem more like a reboot, making something like the Tangent universe the main universe.

They could have made a Green Lantern as different from Hal Jordan as Hal is from Alan Scott, or a Hawkman as similar and yet so differently grounded as the Golden Age vs. Silver Age versions. And if you've got a character who works (like the way they don want o mess with Johns' GL)? Both Marvel and DC brought Golden Age characters like Superman, Batman, Captain America, and the Sub-Mariner right into the then-modern continuity pretty much as-is. And this would be a great way to integrate some of the diversity they keep trying to shoehorn into the books now.

An approach like that would have been exciting, and I could've gotten behind at least as an attempt to do something really new with the characters.

[ShadowAvenger]

I have a question concerning the outcome of Flashpoint #5.

Avoiding spoilers, for those who haven't read it: the time triggering event occurred roughly 20-25 years ago given the newer "younger" DCU heroes.

So how does that affect the WW2 history of the JSA, Frankenstein, and the Nazis getting South America? Wouldn't history remain the same UP TO the change point (sometime in the late 1980s or early 90s)? Obviously things and people like the Civil War, WW2, Washington, Lincoln, & others "took place". So how could time be altered both forward AND backward?

Time was shattered like a bullet through a windshield and the effects spread forward and backward. It was a stretch but makes just as much sense as everything else in the series.

[jwyblejr]

This just another "Comic Event" like Crisis on Infinite Earths, Zero Hour, Infinite Crisis, etc...what can be done, can be undone. So I say just go with the flow. If you or any other DC fans don't like it...just wait 2 years and there will be another Major Crisis.

I'm waiting for Mid-Life Crisis myself.

[The Bat]

I'm waiting for Mid-Life Crisis myself.

[ctc]

>why not REALLY go all in on this and create new versions of the characters

I think that's what "Elseworlds," "Tangents" and the like were supposed to be. I think the biggest problems with actually changing stuff is that:

-it'd be a nightmare for the marketing department. "Whaddya mean Bruce Wayne has a giant robot now?!?! In the next movie he fights the Penguin again!"

-it'd be a nightmare for the editorial department who seem to still pay lip service to the oldster continuity, and have probably already mapped out next years big reboot. "Whaddya mean there's ANOTHER Batman now....AND he's got a giant robot? Where the hell do we fit THAT in?

Don C.

[Random Axe]

I haven't followed this at all except what's posted here, but I noticed something interesting a while back in a Legion of Superheroes book. I don't remember the circumstances, but someone was experimenting with looking back in time to the beginning of creation, much like Krona. One of the characters mentioned they could go back and see what happened at Flashpoint.

They actually knew an event occurred. Since it was spoken of in the past tense, like it was a passing event, it leads me to believe it's temporary. I dunno, I hate time travel stories and timeline shifts, so many variables to play with and too many "outs" for the writers to come up with half-worked plots they can easily change.

I see this entire relaunch as an experiment to see what sticks. I doubt any of these titles will go past twelve issues and I doubt they are plotted any further than that at this point. These new sales figures and fan response will determine what they do going forward when the universe we've read for the last couple of decades returns. They'll simply jettison the junk and incorporate their findings into the universe they left behind.

Of course I'm probably wrong and this is permanent. At least I have back issues and trades...