Review: Flashpoint- The World of Flashpoint Featuring The Flash

Quick Summary

Pros: The majority of the book’s stories are above average. The dark tone of the storytelling helps make the whole volume feel unique. The artwork looks nice and works with the storytelling.

Cons: Some story elements are lackluster. The Kid Flash chapters are just average.

Overall: This is a dark but entertaining collection of stories. Each chapter or story arc devilishly twists factors of the mainstream DC Universe in order to create a tense and engaging narrative. These stories are all told well and have very few places where they feel too contrived or uninteresting. Readers who enjoy dark and unique takes on characters or concepts should consider checking this book out.

Story

Most of the Flashpoint (Review) tie-in volumes collect a series of unique stories that range from a little dark and upsetting, to bright and optimistic, to just plain neutral. Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint Featuring The Flash collects stories that range from dark to darker, providing a suite of grim and often shocking twists on the standard DC Universe. The tales told here deal with dramatic loss, brutal violence, and atypical moralities but do so with an engaging flair that makes them easy to read. They don’t relate back to the main event quite as often as other tie-ins, but this allows them to focus even more on developing the characters and locations they are developing. There is one arc, about Kid Flash, that is not as good as the rest and some of the points from other stories are lackluster but, for the most part, every arc in the collection offers some enjoyable storytelling. In the end, this collection delivers plenty of positives, as long as you can stomach the dark tone.

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As mentioned above, The World of Flashpoint Featuring the Flash is dark, even for a series of comics that mostly focus on a darker version of the standard DC Universe. The opening chapter has a villain rip a child out of existence, the next two have villains going around brutally murdering people, the next one centers around a gorilla obsessed with violence, and the closing arc is set in a dystopian future. Many of these stories also feature over-the-top acts of violence, such as Plastic Man ripping someone apart from the inside or Citizen Cold murdering fan-favorite, Wally West. This darkness is pronounced in every arc of this collection and helps it stand apart from both the standard DC Universe and even the rest of the Flashpoint comics.

However, these comics aren’t just dark for the sake of being dark, they also tell good stories. Reverse-Flash’s hatred of the Flash helps position him better as Flashpoint‘s main antagonist, Citizen Cold’s brutal treatment of both criminals and heroes emphasizes his self-absorbed personality, Heatwave’s crusade contrasts his ability to execute a plan with his sinister motives, Gorilla Grodd’s violence highlights his boredom, and Kid Flash’s dystopian future reminds readers that the Flashpoint universe needs to be removed from existence. These points make the stories they form better and, thus, improve the entire collection.

The downside is that there are places where these stories stumble. The romance subplot in the Citizen Cold chapters is pretty poor, Heatwave’s prowess in battle is ridiculously raised for a typically lower-tier villain, and the Kid Flash chapters are pretty weak in general. Luckily though, none of these flaws cause their respective stories to seriously suffer and even the Kid Flash chapters end up being average rather than bad.

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Art

The artwork in The World of Flashpoint Featuring The Flash is good and is definitely a positive feature for the collection as a whole. Joel Gomez’s work on the Reverse Flash chapter is gorgeous and its lighthearted and almost dreamlike approach works as a perfect contrast to the Reverse Flash’s horror. The Citizen Cold chapters, from Scott Kolins, are not quite as striking but contain some impressive layouts that are an asset to the storytelling. Rodney Buchemi’s work on the Legion of Doom arc looks nice and absolutely nails it in a few moments where over-the-top violence is called for by the narrative. Ig Guara’s successfully realistic approach to the Gorilla Grodd chapter works well in making the serious nature of that chapter stand out. Finally, the Kid Flash chapters, from Oliver Nome, look nice and feature some satisfying visual callbacks to earlier comics. In general, the artwork in this collection is positive and works in making this a better book. 

Continuity

Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint Featuring the Flash is a collection of separate tie-in comic relating back to the main Flashpoint (Review) event series. Our “Flashpoint Reading Order” explains how these comics relate to one another.

This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:

• The Reverse Flash chapter references a number of events from the Reverse Flash’s life.
  • The chapter opens with the Flash defeating the Reverse Flash. This is likely a reference to the events of  The Flash #139, collected in The Flash: The Silver Age Vol. 3.
  • His neck was broken by the Flash in The Flash #324.
  • His murder of Barry Allen’s mother is the subject of The Flash: Rebirth.
• The Kid Flash story arc heavily references Hot Pursuit’s role in and the general events from the “Case Two: The Road to Flashpoint” story arc from The Flash Vol. 3 #9-12, collected in The Flash Vol. 2: The Road to Flashpoint.