Flashpoint : Age of Zoompocalypse

HadjiQuest

Owenashi wrote: »

TexiKen wrote: »

Lois Lane was good, and worth continuing despite the cheesecake art, and the Amazons are complete jerks. however I'm still confused about the main point of the Aquaman/WW war:

Spoiler:

If the Amazons took over the UK for their new Themescryia, why did Aquaman flood continental Europe instead of sending the flood the other way? Even with the Amazons doing something to UK to change its appearance a wave that can get all the way to Paris could still do some damage trying to get to London.

Spoiler:

I haven't read the issues but isn't the entire point of the war that Arthur and Diana are being tricked by people they trust and family no less in the form of Diana's aunt and Ocean Master? I'm sure OM gave Arthur some sort of reason for taking out Europe along the lines of the Amazons secretly building up more forces there or cutting them off from nearby land while at the same time giving the Atlantians more water to hide and surround the UK with. If Arthur's taking Mera's death hard, he probably didn't even need a lie that could hold water under scrutiny.

On top of that, the only thing really mentioned about it directly is

Spoiler:

That Terra is protecting New Themescryia from Aquaman's seismic weapon, which is powered by GeoForce, so they cancel out or something like that. Mentioned in FP: Aquaman 1

TexiKen

The Terra thing should have been mentioned, that makes sense then. And it seems a bit on the nose that the tough women heroes are all showing up as Amazons; Hawkgirl shows up as a Fury in Lois Lane.

Keith

TexiKen wrote: »

Kid Flash was rather generic, and I don't care to pick up the second issue. It kind of lost me when

Spoiler:

a third of the issue is a dream, and then on top of it Brainiac shows up. Back to the Future idea or not, it doesn't interest me

I enjoyed it. Gates got Bart's "voice" better than anyone else since the Impulse book, and he made use of Bart's photographic memory. Plus he explained how Bart's is susceptible to this timeline change.

Tairu

That Reverse Flash one-shot was...absolutely pointless. And according to the cover, it's a three parter now.
Liked the Lois Lane mini, but goddamn the cheesecake

Zeromus

Tairu wrote: »

That Reverse Flash one-shot was...absolutely pointless.

Right?! It was literally just Flash #8 all over again.

Munch

I'm actually kinda digging this Green Arrow Flashpoint tie-in.

The idea of using stolen supervillain technology to build super-weapons for the military, is pretty interesting.

Teriferin

TexiKen wrote: »

Kid Flash was rather generic, and I don't care to pick up the second issue. It kind of lost me when

Spoiler:

a third of the issue is a dream, and then on top of it Brainiac shows up. Back to the Future idea or not, it doesn't interest me

Lois Lane was good, and worth continuing despite the cheesecake art, and the Amazons are complete jerks. however I'm still confused about the main point of the Aquaman/WW war:

Spoiler:

If the Amazons took over the UK for their new Themescryia, why did Aquaman flood continental Europe instead of sending the flood the other way? Even with the Amazons doing something to UK to change its appearance a wave that can get all the way to Paris could still do some damage trying to get to London.

Spoiler:

There's a reason they can't sink the UK as they could Europe. It's explained in one of the other minis, I think.

TexiKen

I was recommended Green Arrow Industries by my LCS, and I liked it a lot, probably the best tie-in I've read so far outside of Booster Gold.

Pichetshote writes Ollie like a Tony Stark who doesn't completely waffle on the idea of giving up everything his company worked for, and making Ollie the baby daddy of this DCU was a nice touch. The underlying theme of what GA Industries does is also interesting without being ham fisted political messages which is what I always worry about with Green Arrow stuff. And Ig Guara needs higher profile work.

HadjiQuest

Man, I skipped that because the other one shots have all been disappointing so far.

I did pick up Project: Superman, and like I said in the MotW thread, it was real disappointing. Some dude I don't think existed before was the "Superman," and the entire book was him training. Also, I couldn't figure out how it matched up to the Flashpoint timeline at all. It skipped over a 30 year period, and it kept throwing references around to the other military-based tie-ins (Booster Gold, Frankenstein, and more).

At the end

Spoiler:

Comets wipe out Metropolis, and Kal-El's ship crashes into the facility where "Superman" is being held

Rans

I picked up the first issue of the Hal Jordan mini. Basically the Abin Sur and Hal minis could be one 6-issue mini as they are basically telling the same story but from two perspectives. Hal #1 ends in the same where Abin #1 ends, with Abin's ship crashing.

Wildcat

Maybe the last two or three Abin Sur minis will just be black panels.

tbloxham

Zeromus wrote: »

Tairu wrote: »

That Reverse Flash one-shot was...absolutely pointless.

Right?! It was literally just Flash #8 all over again.

Having not read Flash #8, I thought it was awesome. I really liked how absolutely insane the reverse flash was.

HadjiQuest

I might add one or two minis onto my flashpoint queue on this second go-around.

What I'm reading so far:
-Batman
-Aquaman
-Frankenstein
-Wonder Woman
-Superman

Any suggestions? You could probably sway me to pick up almost any of them.

Tairu

Citizen Cold

Keith

HadjiQuest wrote: »

Man, I skipped that because the other one shots have all been disappointing so far.

I did pick up Project: Superman, and like I said in the MotW thread, it was real disappointing. Some dude I don't think existed before was the "Superman," and the entire book was him training. Also, I couldn't figure out how it matched up to the Flashpoint timeline at all. It skipped over a 30 year period, and it kept throwing references around to the other military-based tie-ins (Booster Gold, Frankenstein, and more).

At the end

Spoiler:

Comets wipe out Metropolis, and Kal-El's ship crashes into the facility where "Superman" is being held

I liked Project: Superman a lot, actually

Spoiler:

He's not Superman; he's Doomsday (although Project Six is the Doomsday in Booster Gold). The whole point of the project is to make a hero that's iconic and human and they can't do it. Then Kal-El crashed in Metropolis, which will (probably) lead to them realizing that you don't need to be human to have humanity.

The proof is in Project Zero's mantra that "attachment leads to suffering", which is about as inhumane as you can get.

Robos A Go Go

"Attachment leads to suffering" is actually one of Buddhism's Four Noble Truths.

You calling the Buddha inhumane?

HadjiQuest

Robos A Go Go wrote: »

"Attachment leads to suffering" is actually one of Buddhism's Four Noble Truths.

You calling the Buddha inhumane?

Yeah.

The Dharma is probably my favorite theological (or non-theological, in itself) life philosophy, so I was kind of soured on that.

Solar

Both suffering and attachment are very human to be honest.

But anyway yes that does sound like an unhealthy motto.

TexiKen

Flashpoint #3 reveal, as in the dude smoking on that Lois Lane and the Resistance cover, it's not who we thought:

Spoiler:

it's Grifter

Algertman

Flashpoint Joker is a sumbitch

Keith

Holy shit, Batman: Knight of Vengeance #2

Furu

Holy shit

Macro9

Yeah, joker and the reveal at the end was a punch to the gut.

Keith

The pacing and tension was just so good

Keith

TexiKen wrote: »

Flashpoint #3 reveal, as in the dude smoking on that Lois Lane and the Resistance cover, it's not who we thought:

Spoiler:

it's Grifter

It was a neat reveal, but

Spoiler:

it lost all of its impact from new DCU announcements. It would have been pretty great if it was unknown

HadjiQuest

Ohh man, I just read Flashpoint 3.

So good. So, so good.

Spoiler:

Superman/boy is Miracle Man.

Poor, poor krypto.

TexiKen

Cyborg is going to become the new Oracle. I also liked Cyborg's "made in America" tag. But the issue just felt too much like it had stuff to show before the final act, and shot itself in the foot having about 6 splash pages that ate up space that could have been used to get more exposition across. The Lois Lane scene seemed a bit superfluous other than to show that reveal mentioned at the top of the page.

Issues 1 & 2 were paced well, this one not so much. The next issue teaser is what's making me pick up #4, though if that fails I could care less about the conclusion.

HadjiQuest

OHH MY GOD BATMAN 2

OHH MY GOD

MastaP

HadjiQuest wrote: »

OHH MY GOD BATMAN 2

OHH MY GOD

I know right.

TexiKen wrote: »

Cyborg is going to become the new Oracle. I also liked Cyborg's "made in America" tag. But the issue just felt too much like it had stuff to show before the final act, and shot itself in the foot having about 6 splash pages that ate up space that could have been used to get more exposition across. The Lois Lane scene seemed a bit superfluous other than to show that reveal mentioned at the top of the page.

Issues 1 & 2 were paced well, this one not so much. The next issue teaser is what's making me pick up #4, though if that fails I could care less about the conclusion.

Yeah Cyborg is probably being set up in an information role. But we did see Flashpoint's Oracle in Batman today.

Tairu

I didn't like how they basically invalidated the ending of Flashpoint Issue #2....

Spoiler:

Apparently he just needed a bigger lightning bolt to gain his powers back? I was assuming, based on how all the Speedsters had seemingly lost their powers (Kid Flash lost his powers, Barry lost his powers, it was mentioned that Jay never joined the JSA), that Zoom had fucked up the Speed Force at it's source somehow, which led to a butterfly effect on the entire DCU. Instead Barry just kinda made a mistake. It would be really cool if Zoom had a sort of lingering presence in every issue, like how he was like a ghost behind Barry Allen's mom in the first issue.

Also one line in the issue really bothered me.

Spoiler:

Barry says, "no matter where he was raised, he's a good person" talking about Superman. I hate that! One of the coolest things about Superman is that he could have easily gone evil, but he didn't because he had a good upbringing.

HadjiQuest

Tairu wrote: »

I didn't like how they basically invalidated the ending of Flashpoint Issue #2....

Spoiler:

Apparently he just needed a bigger lightning bolt to gain his powers back? I was assuming, based on how all the Speedsters had seemingly lost their powers (Kid Flash lost his powers, Barry lost his powers, it was mentioned that Jay never joined the JSA), that Zoom had fucked up the Speed Force at it's source somehow, which led to a butterfly effect on the entire DCU. Instead Barry just kinda made a mistake. It would be really cool if Zoom had a sort of lingering presence in every issue, like how he was like a ghost behind Barry Allen's mom in the first issue.

Also one line in the issue really bothered me.

Spoiler:

Barry says, "no matter where he was raised, he's a good person" talking about Superman. I hate that! One of the coolest things about Superman is that he could have easily gone evil, but he didn't because he had a good upbringing.

Spoiler:

See, I think what happens is that Barry says that and then we're going to see that it's in no way true. I think there is a reason why his design is so similar to Miracle Man's. And why we never saw him in the first issue of his own tie-in.

Keith

Tairu wrote: »

I didn't like how they basically invalidated the ending of Flashpoint Issue #2....

Spoiler:

Apparently he just needed a bigger lightning bolt to gain his powers back? I was assuming, based on how all the Speedsters had seemingly lost their powers (Kid Flash lost his powers, Barry lost his powers, it was mentioned that Jay never joined the JSA), that Zoom had fucked up the Speed Force at it's source somehow, which led to a butterfly effect on the entire DCU. Instead Barry just kinda made a mistake. It would be really cool if Zoom had a sort of lingering presence in every issue, like how he was like a ghost behind Barry Allen's mom in the first issue.

Spoiler:

I don't think it invalidated it. Of course the ending was used as a twist/cliffhanger, but it also shows just how dedicated Barry is to all this.

Lucascraft

I think it would've been a neat twist if Barry went the whole series with no powers, and only got his speed back at the end after things were set right.

Of course, a story like that would be an entirely different story than the ones that Johns wants to tell.

As for the Superman thing, didn't Red Son basically prove that point? Even in soviet Russia Superman is still a good guy?

HadjiQuest

It could go either way. FP: Project: Superman 2 will probably show us

Spoiler:

Whether it's the man who is super or the superman who is destroying the city. Whether generic super soldier guy can find his connection to humanity again, or whether Supes really is always good no matter what.

Edit: Because it sure sounded like one of them was finishing the job on Metropolis.

Tairu

Lucascraft wrote: »

I think it would've been a neat twist if Barry went the whole series with no powers, and only got his speed back at the end after things were set right.

Of course, a story like that would be an entirely different story than the ones that Johns wants to tell.

As for the Superman thing, didn't Red Son basically prove that point? Even in soviet Russia Superman is still a good guy?

Didn't he land into the care of a different kindly couple, though? And even then, while he was still good, he was also very controlling. World in a bottle, etc etc.

cr0w

HadjiQuest wrote: »

OHH MY GOD BATMAN 2

OHH MY GOD

That was the single most amazingly shocking issue I've read in years.

Gank

HadjiQuest wrote: »

OHH MY GOD BATMAN 2

OHH MY GOD

God damn! I mean god, fucking damn! Honestly did not see that coming.

Keith wrote: »

Tairu wrote: »

I didn't like how they basically invalidated the ending of Flashpoint Issue #2....

Spoiler:

Apparently he just needed a bigger lightning bolt to gain his powers back? I was assuming, based on how all the Speedsters had seemingly lost their powers (Kid Flash lost his powers, Barry lost his powers, it was mentioned that Jay never joined the JSA), that Zoom had fucked up the Speed Force at it's source somehow, which led to a butterfly effect on the entire DCU. Instead Barry just kinda made a mistake. It would be really cool if Zoom had a sort of lingering presence in every issue, like how he was like a ghost behind Barry Allen's mom in the first issue.

Spoiler:

I don't think it invalidated it. Of course the ending was used as a twist/cliffhanger, but it also shows just how dedicated Barry is to all this.

I liked that

Spoiler:

Barrys hypothesis was 'not enough lightning'. That's good comic science.

"You've got 3rd degree burns over 75% of your body, lie down man!"

"MOAR LIGHTNING!"

MastaP

Spoiler:

That Scene really read like it was more there to develop Thomas than it was to make sense.
It showed that he used to be a doctor, and the absolute lengths he's willing to believe in order to get his son back

It's also how Johns explains why Barry can't run back in time yet.

Of course, this title or Kid Flash Lost MIGHT explain this later, but let's not hold our breaths.

Lux

So, can Barry basically give anyone super speed if all he needs is chemicals and a shit ton of lightning?

Also Batman 2:

Spoiler:

WHAT THE FUCK

Part of me thinks, "That's ridiculous, that's just a ridiculous twist for the sake of being crazy, you might as well reveal Darkseid is Alfred in this dimension."

But it's a small part. 90% of me is going OH SHIT.

Robos A Go Go

I liked how the Bat-Computer seemed like a Dell with a dial-up connection.

I bet Thomas' e-mail address is Batman1@aol.com