Flashpoint: The 10th Anniversary Omnibus

The Flash by Geoff Johns Omnibus

by Geoff Johns

Barry Allen is a hero. His work for the Central City Police Department saves lives, and he has solved numerous criminal cases. As the Flash, he protects the innocent and battles evil. He is the Fastest Man Alive! Or he was...

Barry Allen wakes up to a world that is not his own. A place where his mother was never killed...and the Flash never existed.

The history of Barry's life is not as he remembers it, and the people he cares about most are now strangers, vanished, or worse. This altered universe is on the brink of a cataclysmic war. No human has ever wielded the Green Lantern's light, and no one has ever heard of Superman. Batman has as much blood on his hands as his enemies do, and America's last hope is Cyborg.

Powerless and alone, Barry Allen desperately tries to hold on to his memories of the reality that once was. If there is any hope of setting things right, he must convince this world's strange, dangerous heroes to help him fix what was broken.

Collects Booster Gold #44-47, Flash #9-12, Flashpoint #1-5, Flashpoint: Reverse-Flash #1, Flashpoint: Abin Sur the Green Lantern #1-3, Flashpoint: Emperor Aquaman #1-3, Flashpoint: Batman Knight of Vengeance #1-3, Flashpoint: Citizen Cold #1-3, Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint #1-3, Flashpoint: Deadman and the Flying Graysons #1-3, Flashpoint: Deathstroke & the Curse of the Ravager #1-3, Flashpoint: Lois Lane and the Resistance #1-3, Flashpoint: The Outsider #1-3, Flashpoint: Secret Seven #1-3, Flashpoint: The Canterbury Cricket #1, Flashpoint: Wonder Woman and the Furies #1-3, Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost #1-3, Flashpoint: Project Superman #1-3, Flashpoint: Frankenstein & the Creatures of the Unknown #1-3, Flashpoint: Green Arrow Industries #1, Flashpoint: Grodd of War #1, Flashpoint: Hal Jordan #1-3, Flashpoint: The Legion of Doom #1-3, and Absolute Flashpoint #1.

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels, Batman, Fiction, Comics Manga, Comic Book

1504 pages, Hardcover

First published April 20, 2021

About the author

Geoff Johns originally hails from Detroit, Michigan. He attended Michigan State University, where he earned a degree in Media Arts and Film. He moved to Los Angeles in the late 1990s in search of work within the film industry. Through perseverance, Geoff ended up as the assistant to Richard Donner, working on Conspiracy Theory and Lethal Weapon 4. During that time, he also began his comics career writing Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. and JSA (co-written with David S. Goyer) for DC Comics. He worked with Richard Donner for four years, leaving the company to pursue writing full-time.

His first comics assignments led to a critically acclaimed five-year run on the The Flash. Since then, he has quickly become one of the most popular and prolific comics writers today, working on such titles including a highly successful re-imagining of Green Lantern, Action Comics (co-written with Richard Donner), Teen Titans, Justice Society of America, Infinite Crisis and the experimental breakout hit series 52 for DC with Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid. Geoff received the Wizard Fan Award for Breakout Talent of 2002 and Writer of the Year for 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 as well as the CBG Writer of the Year 2003 thru 2005, 2007 and CBG Best Comic Book Series for JSA 2001 thru 2005. Geoff also developed BLADE: THE SERIES with David S. Goyer, as well as penned the acclaimed “Legion” episode of SMALLVILLE. He also served as staff writer for the fourth season of ROBOT CHICKEN.

Geoff recently became a New York Times Bestselling author with the graphic novel Superman: Brainiac with art by Gary Frank.

Reviews

[Paganraul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Years before reading this story i watched the movie which is NOTHING compared to this story it’s mind blowing the things i read it changed everything in a way that changes your whole perception on characters you are used to it was mainly dark which is not my type of story but this definitely is one of my favorites now Geoff Johns keeps making history each time!

[Christian Zamora-Dahmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

After so long I finally got to read the entire Flashpoint event without skipping a tie-in, and following one of those very well curated reading order lists that you can find online. The result was impressive.
The reimagination of the entire DC Universe was so well crafted. Each character was placed into a spot that made sense, while being coherent with the whole character’s history. And at the same time, shocking us with versions that we weren’t expecting. It was such an enjoyable journey.
All of my kudos go to the planning of this Flashpoint universe. Just, as usual, the development to each one of the tie-ins were placed into individual hands and the results were various.
So, as much as I loved the entire construct of the Flashpoint universe, I will dwell briefly on what we got on the minis and one-shots.
THE EXCELLENCE: This is where BATMAN KNIGHT OF VENGEANCE should be placed. The spin to the character was so powerful that even today it resonates. And I’m not dropping spoilers because I don’t want to. It doesn’t matter that over 10 years have gone by.
THE IMPRESSIVE: This is where the most relevant minis should be placed. Whether because they were meaningful, or just because they were so well portrayed that they deserve a place of honor. Emperor Aquaman, and Wonder Woman and the Furies, which are essential to the understanding of the story; Project Superman, Abin Sur Green Lantern, Deadman and the Flying Graysons, and Hal Jordan; all beautifully told stories.
SPECIAL MENTIONS: Booster Gold, and Kid Flash Lost. These were the only two books that tied into the old continuity, somehow representing us as we found out about this new world. Both had their own things going, and brought some fun reading.
MEANINGFUL ONE-SHOTS: While they didn’t add much, they were fun to read and gave a deeper look into this Flashpoint world: Green Arrow Industries, Grodd of War, and Reverse Flash.
THE SURPRISE: Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this much this mini-series. it was a strong and powerful story. It was so nicely put together that it can be enjoyed all on its own.
THE POTENTIAL: Lois Lane and the Resistance. It started nicely, but it ended up in the middle of a pointless unresolved fight. It focused a lot on this new British character, Britannia, that just looked ridiculous. And to add harm to the book, the story actually ended in Project Superman. I will also include Secret Seven in this section, because it had the wonderful talent of George Perez, and the magnificent plotting of Peter Milligan. But the story was just off, it lead nowhere, it just made no sense. It was just character assassination for mere shock value.
THE NICE OVERVIEW: The World of Flashpoint. With such a title you’d expect so much more, but it just took some time to explore some unseen characters. That’s what actually mattered. Traci 13’s drama wasn’t that well cooked.
THE FORGETTABLE: Legion of Doom… What was it about?
THE WEIRD: Canterbury Cricket. This is where things get bizarre. I never understood what this book brought to the main storyline, or where the character came from. it was just plain weird and uninteresting.
THE BORING: Yeah, Flashpoint had that too, in the form of THE OUTSIDER. Now that was painful to read. I’m so glad the character never resurfaced (or not that I noticed).
THE UGLY: Citizen Cold. While Cold is always an interesting character, Kolins’ take on him was not my favorite. Cold is a villain with depth, but this mini just showed him to be a one-sided villain with not much else to see. The art didn’t add much to it, either…
THE DISGUSTING: Deathstroke & The Curse of the Ravager. Deathstroke is a weird character, because most often than not, he is written as a 10 year old macho kid trying to pose as a much older man. I guess the character does have its audience, he just doesn’t resonate here.
On a side note, I know marketing needs to fracture such an event into many small pieces to get the most sales out it. But when you want to get the whole story in an order that actually makes sense, you have to go out of your way to find it. Including the usual mistakes you find along the way. Still, it shouldn’t be that difficult to follow such an event. When you read a book, for example, you don’t get every chapter under different covers and titles. And that’s my one pet peeve about comic book events in general.
Finally, I have to say that I really enjoyed Flashpoint, more now than at the time, when everything was so crowded with what the New 52 was going to be. It tanked, by the way, but that doesn’t mean Flashpoint wasn’t a good story.

[Michael Torres · Rating 3 out of 5]

Previously I had only read the main Flashpoint event, and Batman tie in issues;reading this entire omnibus has revealed how lacklustre many of the side storylines were.

The main event itself is very well written and tugs on the heart strings. Barry going back through time in order to save his mother, and inadvertently screwing up the timeline, causing catastrophic changes to the DC universe. Seeing him have to give up his mother and reverting the timeline to the way it was, is an emotional moment.

Reverse Flash, as usual, is a stand out villain. His powers compliment Flash’s, and his want to make Barry a better hero by causing trauma to him is such a unique MO. In the main event he shines, but throughout the omnibus itself you rarely see him, so when he pops back up it feels disjointed.

The majority of the tie ins feel like they’re ripped out of the 90s and trying to be extremely edgy and kill off a bunch of the heroes we knew because, why not, it’s not canon anyways. It feels over the top and doesn’t mesh with the story well. The Batman tie ins with Thomas Wayne, the Aquaman tie ins, and the Wonder Woman tie ins, all add to the story though and are well implemented into the Flashpoint event.

Overall the main Flashpoint event is a 4/5 with the tie ins severely dragging the rest of the book down.

[Thezachespinoza · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was hard. Yes, I did cry at the end. Yes, very few books have ever made me truly cry. However, the way this book was mapped was a bit annoying to me. Sure, the 56 tie-in stories enhance the world in which our story resides, but, rarely did they ever move the needle forward in regards to the plot. That only came from the actual Flashpoint story itself, which, is all of 5 issues. The prequel to Flashpoint, the Booster Gold series, and the Flashpoint event itself were what saved this book.

[Gus Casals · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tengo un montón para decir sobre este libro. Es, estructural y hiatorietisticamente mejor que lo que esperaba.
Pero en cuanto a tono, punto de vista e interpretación de personajes es un anatema a todo lo que me interesa y me gusta.
Obviamente la intención de redundar en los nu52 estaba desde la primera viñeta.
Probablemente me explaye más y mejor sobre esto en otro medio.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before going to far I want paraphrase something longtime DC Comics writer/artist Dan Jurgens said a long time ago. He said that every five years the company would have to do a continuity reset to fix all the errors made since the last reset (this was in the context of his work on Zero Hour at the time, a fix for the roughly five years earlier Crisis on Infinite Earths).

Add to that Flashpoint's sequel started this week so I binged through the series (pretty much down to Convergence now out of the resets I have not read). Like most of these series there are some hits and misses among the various spinoffs, and there is a plot twist that I am not going to spoil here.

Part of what this does do is show the strengths of DC Comics IP (see the recent news articles about the just concluded Discovery/Warner Media sale). The Batman and Superman characters make for such strong archetypes that it is difficult not to want to play with them. Recasting Thomas Wayne as Batman, but fueled by a different need for vengeance, and Superman being a victim of abuse (essentially) made for good reading. It doesn't hurt that the respective writers were Brian Azzarello and Scott Snyder two people who are more than capable at their craft (when they're on).

The other strength that the the goal of The Flash and Batman are to correct the time reset that had caused this timeline to come into existence. They want to restore a world of hope, where heroes help people and an Amazon/Atlantis war has not decimated the planet. More so than Marvel Comics characters DC characters tend to be a lot more about hope, and less angst (you want angst go read Spider-Man)

Some characters are such D-List characters (ex: The Outsider, Penny Black) that the creators had pretty much free reign and gave us something entertaining. Others such as Deathstroke, well they could have easily been binned in my opinion.

BTW, I know its popular to trash Geoff johns nowadays, but his plot twist is a redeeming feature of this series.

[Hugo Emanuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a was a very solid read. I was already familiar with the main series, but hadnt read any of the prologues, tie-ins, and related series.

Most of the series actually add alot to the main Flashpoint event, and are a good to great read. It's a very well organized event, and most of the minis did a great job of fleshing out that world, and add to the main series. There are, however, some somewhat dull and inconsequential minis, which I might skip over next time I read this omni, or leave them to the end.

These issues are collected by order of release date, which seems odd at first, but considering how they eventually connect and catch up timewise, it does make sense.

I would recommend a reader to get the main Flashpoint series first, read it all, and then, if he loves what he read, only then consider picking up the omni, as there are many series issues in between the main event, which somewhat drowns out some of its impact.

I really had no idea how utterly terrifying a villain Reverse Flash was. After reading this, he strikes me as a very terrifying menace, indeed.

The gargantuan omnibus collects the follwoing mini-series, one-shots and tie-ins:

Reverse Flash Rebirth - 8/10
The Road to Flashpoint - 8/10
Flashpoint - 8/10
Booster Gold - 6/10
Abin Sur - 6/10
Batman Knight of Vengence - 9/10
The World of Flashpoint - 5/10
Secret Seven - 3/10
Emperor Aquaman - 7/10
Citizen Cold - 2/10
Deathstroke - 5/10
Frankenstein - 7/10
Deadman and the Flying Graysons - 6/10
Wonder Woman - 7/10
Grodd of War - 6/10
Legion of Doom - 4/10
Reverse Flash - 7/10
Lois Lane and the Resistence - 7/10
The Outsider - 4/10
Kid Flash Lost - 4/10
Canterbury Cricket - 4/10
Project Superman - 6/10
Green Arrow Industries - 6/10
Hal Jordan - 7/10
That's alot of content, most of it well worth one's time.

[Ronan The Librarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oof this is a big boy. So apparently Flashpoint gets flak for not being good from some, but I personally rather like it. I like the emotional battle of Barry Allen, as well as seeing this alternate universe where one action changed so many things. With all the tie-ins, they're not all gonna be winners. In fact, unless you really love this storyline, I wouldn't necessarily recommend getting this omni. I liked it, but about half the tie-ins are bad, some ok, and a few good. I do like fleshing out this world though, and it adding some depth (like Dianna and Arthur not being a complete tyrants, or the background of Flashpoint Superman, for example). I think there might've been a better way to collect this (though idk what that would be) as timelines and such got confusing at times, but overall it filled some gaps that were satisfying to fill. Worth a look if you're a big Flashpoint fan.

Very Good: Core Flashpoint story

OK to Good: Reverse-Flash, Road to Flashpoint, Booster Gold, Abin-Sur, Batman Knight of Vengeance, Emperor Aquaman, Wonder Woman and the Furies, The Outsider, Project Superman

Meh to Bad: World of Flashpoint, Secret Seven, Citizen Cold, Deathstroke, Frankenstein, Deadman and the Flying Graysons, Grodd of War, The Legion of Doom, Lois Lane and the Resistance, Kid Flash Lost, The Canterbury Cricket, Green Arrow Industries, Hal Jordan

[Shelby Fielding · Rating 3 out of 5]

The specialness of "FlashPoint" comes in the heart of its story, a boy capable of running faster than time being unable to outrun his grief, and everything else is comic book glee. There's a glossiness to this story, a shiny spotlight of what makes a multiversal story that now feels commonplace and tropic. Then, it may have felt different, a bit of palimpsest that felt nuanced by a character that somehow remained undiscovered by his audience. For the achievement that it is, and the vibrancy in the art that pops and powers itself with an acute knack for light and sharp edges that keep all the energy of the story nailed down, it's worth rereading. That said, I can't help but wonder what it could be now if unrestrained by a major publisher's demand. What style might encapsulate the multiversal synapses firing in a story that maintains its sturdy ethos but, overtime, watches its fresh coat of paint slowly begin to chip and dim as the stories it helped to inspire, raise the antics. It's a tough feat, I'm sure, to chart a story that felt so original then, that now feels lessened by its age. That's the gambit, and not every story can out run time.

[boofykins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm conflicted as to whether I should rate this a four-star book or a five-star book. I feel like 4½ stars would be the correct rating for my tastes.

This omnibus is basically a gigantic Elseworlds event. A war, really. The main Flashpoint event is a pretty heartfelt and emotional ride. I really enjoyed the tie-ins to this event, myself. I felt the omnibus was well mapped and the tie-ins added something to the overall story, whether it be fleshing out the World of Flashpoint as it pertains to the war between Aquaman's Atlanteans and Wonder Woman's Amazons or directly affecting Flashpoint itself. The tie-ins also help clear up how some of the characters seemingly pop-up out of nowhere during the climax.

Some of the tie-ins in particular were pretty fantastic on their own in my opinion. I really enjoyed Project Superman #1–3, Batman: Knight of Vengeance #1–3, Deadman and the Flying Graysons #1–3, Kid Flash Lost #1–3, Citizen Cold #1–3.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be fair: I only made it a third through this. I imagine for someone wanting every ounce of this event, it’s all here in one place. I thought that is what I wanted. I have other event omnibuses, and I often enjoy tie in stuff. That was what broke me on this one.

Flashpoint was one of the comics I read that got me into comics along with Blackest Night.

So it’s with sadness to say I didn’t care for anything here beyond the core story.

The threads and expansion here blew up way too far beyond necessity, in my opinion. So many individual titles don’t seem interesting or relevant to the flashpoint event. Many of them don’t answer “what would a world without flash look like” in any interesting ways. Many don’t even feel like a direct result.

So on this one I think I’m good with just the core event.

[Jim Minteer · Rating 5 out of 5]

First off, this book is a behemoth! It’s over 1500 pages so I’d classify it as thicc. Yes, with 2 Cs. With that said, it collects every issue of the DC catalogue that had anything to do with Flashpoint. It’s quite extensive. I knew the basics of the story because it’s 10 years old and has been adapted in CWs Flash series, The Flash movie, and its own animated movie. It’s gritty and raw and fun to look at what the DC Universe could be through a new lens. I’m glad I read it and it looks great on my shelf.

[Dean Olson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Flashpoint - ****
Emperor Aquaman - ***
Wonder Woman and the Furies - ***
Booster Gold - **
Abin Sur The Green Lantern - ***
Batman Knight of Vengeance - ****
World of Flashpoint - **
Secret Seven - *
Citizen Cold - ***
Death strike and the Curse of the Ravagers - *
Frankstein and the Creatures of the Unknown - **
Deadman and the Flying Graysons - **
The Legion of Doom - *
Lois Lane and the Resistance - *
The Outsider - *
Kid Flash Lost - ***
Project Superman - ****
Hal Jordan - **

[Robert Pickering · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought I would enjoy this omnibus more than I did. I give the actual 5 issue Flashpoint a full stars. But for the most part I found the crossover stories blah and uninspired Elseworlds stories. I’ll be trading this book away and keep my copy of Flash vol 3 by Geoff Johns, which also includes the Flashpoint story.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main series is great fun, and most of the spinoffs are great as well. The organization is dreadful here. It doesn't make a lot of sense chronologically, and each series is so divided up that it's hard to keep engaged in any individual one.

[Andy Kramer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Story you don't need to be a Flash fan to enjoy it. The mapping is by order of release and not chronologically so there will be cliffhangers and it jumps around a lot. To me, it is still a great read and I would recommend it.

[DayDay · Rating 4 out of 5]

The event itself isn’t the problem, I think it’s amazing ! It’s the way they ordered the issues in this omnibus that knocked it off a star for me. They should’ve put all the mini-series together at least instead of splitting them so far apart in between the main story event issues. But other than that, one of my favorite DC events ever.

[Bruvydsb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Majority of the tie ins add to the overall story. Most importantly, the build of the book is perfect (meaning in proper reading order). Well done DC (for once).

[Elizabeth Boycourt · Rating 5 out of 5]

71 issues in the whole Flashpoint event, what a great alternate timeline story!