Review Shooter: Flashpoint Tie-Ins

With all the focus on the current DC reboot, it seems easy to forget that we are in the middle of a big event. One that is at the epicenter of the whole reboot ordeal to begin with. This won’t be a review of the Flashpoint series yet, that earns a full-on review. Instead, this will deal with the tie-ins that have come out recently.

Now, I could have done a review for each of the tie-in series to date, but each of them would offer the same core review. Talk about how they are a tie-in series, how it makes little sense if you don’t follow the main story, and some more pointed words. Instead, I’ll talk about each of them and how it related to the main, Flashpoint story. And of course, if they are worth the investment.

Abin Sur: The Green Lantern Now this is one of the most interesting tie-ins I’ve read so far. As it doesn’t directly tie-in to Flashpoint (yet anyhow), but shows us events that transpired from a different vantage point such as The Blackest Night. It is also nice to see Sinestro on the side of good and more of Abin Sur as a Green Lantern.

As said above, it really doesn’t fit into the Flashpoint story so far. Other than the Guardians hiding the white entity on Earth, and ordering Abin Sur to retrieve it before the planet tears itself apart in the Aquaman/Wonder Woman war.

I’ll continue checking it out because it was a fun and interesting read. I recommend at least reading the first issue.

Batman: Knight of Vengeance– What would a DC event be without the big three? We know what Wonder Woman is doing, even if we haven’t seen her in the story yet, and we have yet to get word on the big S, but Batman: Knights of Vengeance gives us insight into the world of The Dark Knight. If you haven’t read Flashpoint proper (you shouldn’t be reading the tie-in!), we know that Thomas not Bruce is the man in the cowl. But that isn’t the only thing that’s different in this Gotham. Batman is just a bit more ruthless. His methods a bit more questionable, as he has an partnership of some sorts with The Penguin. What hasn’t changed is the Joker remains his greatest threat.

The series serves more as a Flashpoint universe primer as Batman is a focal point in the proper universe, this allows us to see what has changed in Gotham to lead to this Batman and his personality.

I’m a Batman whore so there is no doubt that I’ll continue reading it, but it helps that it is one of the strongest tie-ins so far, and has a killer ending that needs to be seen!

Citizen Cold– I have a thing for DC villains. I love (and am sadden by its cancellation) Secret Six, really dug the Rogues’ Revenge tie-in to Final Crisis and so much more so of course I had to check out Citizen Cold, which deals with one of The Flash’s greatest foes. This is an interesting title to be sure, the writers make sure you know that Citizen Cold really isn’t a hero. Its a point that is driven home throughout the course of the book, and can kind of get tiresome. But we get some cool moments with Iris and more importantly Wally West.

This is one of the most direct tie-ins to Flashpoint we’ve gotten so far. First because it deals with the immediate Flash-universe and the problems caused without the emergence of the first Flash. Second, it deals with Citizen Cold who was an important character in the first issue of Flashpoint. Third, it deals with well another Flash in Wally West or I guess another man who would be The Flash.

I mentioned before I did DC’s villains, and this book seems to be building towards a fun confrontation so I’ll continue checking it out.

Deathstroke and The Curse of the Ravager– Now this is a fun little book. It deals with staples of the DC universe, but in a completely new light unless I just don’t read enough Deathstroke. This is part pirate, part meta-human, all fun adventures on the high seas. He is accompanied by a variety of colorful personalities as well.

This tie-in is pretty direct as the end of this issue is the beginning of Flashpoint 2, so there’s the obvious connection. It also helps build the world around the Aquaman/Wonder Woman war.

I recommend checking out the book, and yes that is why was extremely vague with details.

Emperor Aquaman– Two of the biggest mysteries surrounding Flashpoint (at least for me) was what happened between Aquaman and Wonder Woman to cause the huge events at the backdrop of the series. This comic helps to answer one half of the equation (though we still have Wonder Woman to deal with), and it really does make for a very interesting read. The dynamic and build-up to the start of Flashpoint are extremely interesting. The weapon of destruction is both cruel and intriguing at the same time.

Of course, dealing with one of the center stories of the series, of course this tie-ins in hugely with the proper series. I would probably call it essential reading to understanding the world of Flashpoint not so much the story as I feel its been pretty straight-forward so far.

Its hard NOT to recommend a story that I feel is essential to the entire experience, and it was a fun read.

Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown This is a most interesting story, as I had no familiarity with any of the characters before this book, and after one issue I kind of want to see a full series. But getting ahead of myself. This is an interesting Flashpoint tie-in in so much that most of the story takes places decades before the start of Flashpoint. Essentially, the story serves as an origin of the team and stuff, and then skips ahead at the end to current day Flashpoint timeline. With that, it makes little sense in the Flashpoint tie-in series since it doesn’t deal with a universe that was changed since we don’t know what was changed, nor does it focus on characters or story that is central to Flashpoint. As it is, a weak tie-in, but a fun little monster story.

I recommend checking it out, but really hard to recommend as part of the Flashpoint tie-in series.

Secret Seven This is just a case of terrible naming scheme. I assumed this would be the Flashpoint equivalent of the Secret Six series, but that isn’t the case. Actually, I don’t know what this is replicating from the DC Universe proper, and that was the most taxing question on my mind as I read it. As we seen with other books, they either focus on showing us a new side of a character or a world that has been changed due to the events of Flashpoint or they have dealt with story elements from the centric-series. This comic seems to do neither of those things. I have no idea who the main players are nor do I feel like they will be important to the story as a whole. I may be wrong, and sadly I won’t be sticking around to find out, but this seems like a tie-in series that exists solely to exist.

As you may have noticed, I didn’t cover the Booster Gold issues that have released because while they are tie-ins, I feel they are treated slightly different. In that sense, also feel they need their own review like I did with the first issue.

These aren’t all the Flashpoint titles either. There are still about half that haven’t been released yet, and some which just didn’t look that appealing to me so didn’t purchase (hey, we work out of pocket!) so if you wanna add your thoughts just drop us a comment below!

Earl Rufus

The owner of this little chunk of the internet. Enjoys having a good time and being rather snarky!

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