Why bad idea based on a bad comic will lead to a bad movie.
In case you missed it, the DC Comics Cinematic Universe is in trouble. Wonder Woman was great and exceeded expectations. The problem is as good as Justice League was, it didn’t perform as well at the box office as expected. Warner Bros has does some evaluating and changed the upcoming movie slots. In a smart move, they have removed Zach Synder from the films, as he was a huge part of the problem.
Some films were not on the new list like Harley Quinn or Nightwing, but we are still getting a Flash movie. That’s a good thing, but here’s the problem. They want the film to be based on the alternate history storyline called Flashpoint.
Written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Andy Kubert, the comic series Flashpoint was truly one of the most overhyped stories ever to come out of DC Comics. There are so many people that actually think this story is good. Personally, I feel it’s isn’t. It’s God horrible.
Let me summarize Flash’s history in comics. During the Golden Age of comics, there was a fast-moving hero named the Flash. At the start of what is considered the Silver Age of comics, comic creators Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino came up with a new Flash. Completely different from the Golden Age version. Forensic scientist Barry Allen was the new Flash. For years he triumphed over evil and had some defeats as well.
In 1985, during the Crisis on Infinite Earth mini-series, Barry died and the legacy and name of the Flash was taken up by his protege/sidekick Wally West. Wally was formerly Kid Flash, and for the next 20 years, the fastest man alive.
In Wally’s own Flash book, there were a lot of incredible stories that were written by Geoff Johns. Wally became his own man and surpassed Barry. And then DC decided to do something very stupid and let Grant Morrison have full reign on a mini-series called Final Crisis. Morrison decided to bring Barry back to life. And in true Morrison fashion, he never really bothered to explain how.
Geoff Johns now jumped at the change to write Barry, and dropped Wally like a hot rock, even though he wrote Wally for about 6 yrs. Johns being a fanboy, felt that all DC superheroes needed to be orphans. So in the Flash: Rebirth series, Johns pulled a reboot and killed off Barry’s parents. Honestly, there was no need to do this, but then Johns also killed off Jonathan Kent because he died in Richard Donner’s 1978 Superman film.
With the reboot, Barry’s mother is killed by Professor Zoom, the Reverse-Flash, and Barry’s father is framed for the murder. That’s what leads us to Flashpoint.
In the series, Barry decides to go back in time and stop his mom from being killed. Of course, this action does have a ripple effect, but Johns makes the Butterfly Effect go just insane. Bruce Wayne is killed instead of his parents and Thomas Wayne becomes Batman. The Amazons and Atlantis are at war with each other, and the conflict has taken its toll on the Earth. And there is no Superman. Reverse-Flash reveals that the Flash’s actions caused this alternative history. The Flash eventually “corrects” time and returns. The problem now is while some things are the same, there is a lot that is different now. This entire series was just a bad lead-in for the New 52.
Even though I dislike the story, at least there were about 75 years of comic history to draw upon. It was also turned into an animated movie, but this was directed more towards the comic book fans. The Flash TV show also did their own version of Flashpoint for series 3, but again the TV series had 2 years of storylines to draw off of. With the movie, we only have 1 movie that has included the Flash, well most of the rest of the Justice League.
This entire thing just reeks of Geoff Johns’ influence. The last time there was a huge Johns influence in a DC Comics movie was Green Lantern. The film was too catered for Green Lantern fans, and it truly suffered because of it. The average moviegoer was lost because of all the comic references. That same thing could happen with the Flash film.
If Warner really wants to make a good Flash movie then they should look at other Flash comic storylines. Not just by Johns, but also Mark Waid, Mark Millar, Francis Manapul, Mike Baron, Robert Kanigher, William Messner-Loebs, Gardner Fox, and many others.
As for a villain, I’m torn if it should be Professor Zoom. While I think he’d make a great villain for the film, I also feel due to the Flash TV show, he’s been overdone.
That being the case, the villains of the films should be the Rogues: Captain Cold, Mirror Master, Weather Wizard, Heat Wave, Golden Glider, and the Trickster. The film could focus on the Rogues being tired of being defeated by the Flash and team up to beat him once and for all. This would also be an easier plot for a regular audience to follow.
Any way you look at it, Flashpoint is the wrong direction for a Flash movie. I truly wonder if Warner Brothers is really that foolish to try this. As long as Geoff Johns is in the driver’s seat, we most likely will see Flashpoint as a film, and it will most likely fail. It’s time for another change with the DC movies and that one is to remove Johns.
Only time will tell what happens with the Flash film as well as the rest of the DC Cinematic Universe, but unless something changes, the patterned will keep repeating.
Dan Kleiner