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Oh I just, just last night, I [was] recording a new animated movie...that features The Flash, it's more about The Flash, but Batman is in it as well. It's a Flash...Flashpoint! Flashpoint? I think it's Flashpoint.
...really? Flashpoint? I mean, I'm sure it sold all right, because it was a DC crossover event, and mostly because after Warner Bros. executives demanded DC had to reboot their entire universe in like three months with zero planning DC decided midway through Flashpoint was going to be the catalyst for the New 52 (and you'll never convince me this isn't what happened).
But... does anyone even like Flashpoint? Does anyone even have any strong feelings about it? I guess it makes sense in a "let's introduce the wider home video-watching audience to the New 52, but that doesn't change the fact that it's not all that important or even that interesting. Flash runs into a parallel universe, some things are different, nothing of lasting consequence happens over there, then that weird hooded chick who isn't Raven says the worlds need to be combined again and Flash pops out in Crisis on Infinite Reboots. It's not exactly the hardest sell for the New 52, is what I'm saying. (Via Nerd Bastards)
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74 comments
Flashpoint was a highly enjoyable Elseworlds tale. Because at the end of the day, that is what it was. Saying that it isn't deserving of a movie because nothing of consequence happens is like saying we shouldn't care about Red Son or Kingdom Come because they are also alternate realities.
The story was really solid and entertaining and painted a lot of recognizable characters in completely different ways. I am incredibly excited to see how this would pan out.
Just make sure Rosenbaum is voicing Flash.
Nobody even liked Flashpoint that I know of, and is this gonna somehow explain all the DC animated movies? Are they the result of Barry Allen being a jackass, which is why All Star Superman left out the suicide scene, and why Batman Year One left out the "Yes father, I shall become a bat" scene, and so on with all the boner moves left out of all the animated films that would have made them fantastic as opposed to hit or miss?
Reading your reply makes me wish that the internet would auto delete all obnoxiously long run on sentences.
(And, yes, I know the reason we don't have a Kingdom Come series is because Waid is persona non grata at DC these days and because anything written in the 90s is deemed unworthy to the 70s-obsessed Johns & Co.)
Who have nothing to do with picking these movies!! Warner tells them only films that feature Batman and Superman and to go from there. Bruce Timm is in charge, not Johns. Johns is the head of the other media but unlike Loeb (and Yost before him) at Marvel he's not very involved. His crowning moment at the job was clearing every character for use legally. That's pretty much all he's done actually. CN holds most of the power with approving show pitches (And they chose Beware the Batman over all others! So blaming him would be stupid there.), and Warner holds power over the films.
Fucking hell people need to stop blaming the man for everything...
"Johns is the head of the other media but unlike Loeb (and Yost before him) at Marvel he's not very involved. "
Well, then, someone needs to stop sucking up to the boss by picking his storylines (or using Hal Jordan in places that he obviously wasn't intended to go, like Crisis on Two Earths).
And if WB only wanted Batman or Superman-centric stories, why the fuck would they choose Flashpoint?
What storylines? The only thing even close to his was the first Green Lantern film. And even that is arguable because it was mostly original and very little really pulled from his run. Most have been either classic stories or based on older runs. This would be the only adaptation he has.
Hal and Barry are a WB thing. WB has always wanted Hal for the movie, and they've always wanted Barry for the movie. Before either were revived. There was no budging on this issue. For a mass market DTV release they want the Green Lantern that they're focusing on. The one generally in the public eye at this point. It's not because Johns wanks off to him at night, it's because WB chose him as the face of the franchise years ago before Johns even mattered to the Green Lantern brand.
They want Barry in the public eye for some reason even though by now most people accept Flash being Wally West. Bringing him back was stupid. Putting him in the live action film over Wally was stupid. But... WB was more at fault here then DC or Johns. They left them no choice. Promote some guy we don't give a shit about and alienate a future audience, or bring Barry back and hopefully grasp onto more readers.
Also as Conroy pointed out, Batman is in this film. More then likely he'll be featured heavily in promotion material and on the cover.
So what's the problem? DC animated movies have been successful and for the most part have been very good quality. Unlike Marvel. Just like the most recent DC movies which have been based off of comic stories I this one to change stuff up a good bit to stream line it.
Timm and his crew made Under the Red Hood AMAZING. A mediocre poorly written story. And they made it the best damn movie in the batch.
Give me Teen Titans: Judas Contract
Give me Legion of Superheroes: Great Darkness Saga
But no we get Superman vs the Elite! Who the hell are the Elite? I looked them up and still don't know who they are.
It was a popular story from 2001. It's a good one too. Generally considered one of the best Superman stories ever written.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W...
Judas Contract isn't happening because Warner is afraid of doing a Titans property that's not in the style of the cartoon AND because the cartoon already did it. That's why it was shelved years ago. That's why it's never happening. Also it works really poorly as a stand alone film. It was all about buildup and watching the conclusion of the Terra arc would be kind of pointless. It's a great story but it doesn't work well as a film and that's what the team looks for when doing this stuff.
Legion of Superheroes could happen one day. Superman was in that one right? It's been a long time... He'd need to be added if he wasn't per Warner's demands that he or Batman be in everything but it could happen one day. Today just isn't that day.
Been catching up on collections of stories pre-Flashpoint and I think Rob's right, this was pushed on DC by WB. After all that build to make Max Lord a great villain in "Justice League Generation Lost" and the promise of a new JLI, makes no sense to dump it totally. Ditto for Swamp Thing returning after that whole "Brightest Day" thing. A big thing is the last issue of "JLA" where James Robinson basically has flashbacks to what looks like three years worth of storylines he had planned in one go. It also explains why some of the bigger stories by bigger writers (Morrison's Batman Inc and Johns' Sinestro as GL) stay while everything else is shoved down. Plus, it's the only logical explanation for all the horrible costumes and stuff like Starfire, DC knows this is crap and hoping to make it bad enough for WB to forget it faster so they can do a new "Crisis" and put thing back. Hopefully, sooner the better there, I want "Booster Gold" back.
I think the reboot was out of just simple necessity to try and grab the general audience and Flashpoint seemed like the perfect point to do it and they rushed it dropping plans they had. It was all poorly planned and thought out because they had this perfect story to kick start it and then didn't want to miss it. It just seems SO RUSHED. There were designs being changed on covers (like Godiva's new design) up until it was released and other things like that. And some creative teams didn't know in time to actually finish their storylines properly. I can believe DC wanted to do it, but I can't believe they don't regret doing it the way they did. For a while DC kept saying they weren't rebooting after Flashpoint because literally every fan thought they were and that this was just the final storyline.
This is why only the two best selling characters were untouched, Green Lantern (DC's number 1 seller), and Batman (There most popular character over all). Because alienating those fan groups would be an AWFUL move. They made up a bulk of DC's sales.
To be honest, I still don't quite understand how New52 Batman has Damian as his Robin, and all that history with the other Robins, when he is only supposed to have been around for a few years as The Batman.
It just makes no sense to me to throw out all the history, but still keep all the results of that history in the stories. If they wanted to go all "New52" on Batman, they should have gone back to Dick being Robin instead of giving Batman decades of history compressed into a short existence in this remade universe.
I felt that Flashpoint was a fun read, and a good story. WIth that said, I pretty much hate the New52.
I'm going to say that I think Earth-16 is the best Earth in the current DC lineup. That's where the animated "Young Justice" takes place, and without the baggage of the primary DC worlds, it really makes for some great stories.
I really hope they don't base the animated Flashpoint in Earth-16. I like it the way it is.
The man said he use to work for Wizard. They ran a list saying Wolverine was the greatest comic book character ever. That's all you need to know.
I wouldn't put it past the execs killing DC to try and salt the Earth by destroying everything pre-Flashpoint that isn't Green Lantern and Batman. It may have been the temporary shot in the arm DC needed for a sudden burst of publicity but much like the redesigned costumes, the seams were always showing.
I rather enjoyed Flashpoint. For one thing, for being a big universe-spanning crossover, it was relatively self-contained. For another, I really enjoyed the epilogue.
SPOILERS!!
If you'd told me that I'd read a comic book where Batman cries, I would have been very skeptical that I would feel it worked. I mean, I don't think they drew tears streaming down Batman's face when Jason got blowed up. Somehow, Geoff Johns made it work. After all, what else could make Bruce break down in tears but a letter from his father? The entire event was worth it for that one scene, in my opinion.
"After all, what else could make Bruce break down in tears but a letter from his father? The entire event was worth it for that one scene, in my opinion."
THIS.
Come to think of it, Geoff Johns has actually written a few of my favorite Batman moments (including the above), none of which actually appeared in Batman-centric stories:
Not too long after Green Lantern: Rebirth, there's a scene where Hal gives Bruce his ring and encourages him to let go of his pain. Bruce says he's not ready and gives the ring back.
A little later (in the build-up to the Sinestro Corps War, if I remember correctly), a Sinestro Corps ring chooses him for his ability to inspire fear. Batman basically tells the ring to fuck off, and it does.
An honorable mention would be when, in the first New 52 Justice League story arc, Batman decides to go to Apokolips and rescue Superman singlehandedly.
I'm really looking forward to Batman: Earth One, and I'm hoping that Johns's ability to write the character isn't diminished upon making him more than a guest star.
Honestly? People were none too upset about DC abruptly ending 25 years worth of "continuity" ( I know, I know, let's not get in to that discussion,) with a "Flash takes a nap and wakes up and everything has changed and won't be coming back" story, so I don't imagine there will be any fallout from this news. It was a really decent Flash story, and should make for a really decent Flash movie.
Yeah great ok whatever DC...NOW WHERE IN THE UNHOLY FUCKING HELL IS MY ANIMATED KILLING JOKE DVD?!?!?!?!!??!?!?!?!?!?
For those that dont know,Mark Hamill really,really,REALLY wants this to be his last hurrah as the Joker. He's mentioned on both Twitter and Facebook that as far as he's concerned he's "retired" but he'd do The Killing Joke in a heartbeat. Throw in Kevin Conroy and my god......Nerdgasm to the 8th degree. Hell,I'd buy 2,000 copies of the DVD just so I could roll around naked in a pile of them....
I can see the suits at WB getting a little nervous about the content of The Killing Joke. They were antsy about releasing the un-edited version of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker to the United States because it was "too dark", and The Killing Joke is nothing but dark.
Still, I'd love to see a proper unrated, adult-oriented, animated The Killing Joke using the animation and art style from Young Justice, with Conroy and Hamill playing the leads.
Hell, I'd even settle for a "motion comic" with Hamill and Conroy reading their parts.
After seeing how well New Frontier and Crisis on Two Earths were handled, I'm ok with them tackling Flashpoint.
Hell, even All-Star Superman turned out pretty great and that was a lot to tackle in a 70 minute animated feature.
Personally, I won't consider it a total bust if they include the scene where Frankenstein kills Hitler.
I've got a brilliant idea - let's do a madlibs meets TR troll cross-over!
just fill in the blanks:
I'm not (verb-ing) the (noun) itself. Yeah, it's (adjective) and all. But I've seen this (noun) on a hundred different (noun-plural), and all of them are full of (adjective), (adjective) assholes making (adjective), (adjective) asshole (noun-plural), using this (noun) as yet another pointless, and completely ineffectual springboard to "pwn (noun-proper)" as if they're (adjective) or (adjective).All of these (noun) comments like "(a random comment)", and "(a random comment)"Please for the love of god, don't let this site be overrun with those (adjective) (adjective) (noun), too. Oh, who the hell am I kidding. You all will.
THAT'S BRILIANT.
Oh! Oh! How about everytime "someone who's name rymes with PihilismX33" posts long, pointless posts insulting everyone on TR so he could level up his internet cock, we have a TR madlibs contest?
Everyone who likes the article has fun, everyone who wouldn't normally be interested in the original topic would be drawn into the game, everyone who came to troll to increase his E-Peen experience would be mocked mercilessly...
I really liked Flashpoint. It's an interesting story but the world it built was far better than the mane plot. I would love Kevin Conroy to play as Batman: Knight of Vengeance seeing as that was my favorite of the tie-ins and that series was inspired by the BTAS and was how I read it. I think its a good idea and would definitely help sales of the trades and give people a chance to see that there was a Pre-Nu52 dc universe that could be explored.
Actually the thing that made FlashPoint Interesting for me was that it wasn't an Alternate Reality. The real villain (the cause of the event) when he was revealed made me smirk and shake my head (but not in a bad way)
I love the quote from Conroy, just because it sounds like it was an excerpt taken from an interrogation. "Enough of this bullshit, Conroy. We want to know where you were at 3:05 this morning, otherwise we might think that you're the one who beat the crap out of that poor Luke Skywalker fella' and left him tied up in front of the station..."
oh, one more thing, though.
the one problem i have with this is its about Barry. and, honestly, fuck barry.
Oh come on. For all his dullness, at least he's no Hal Jordan. Mind you, that's hardly a compliment. Hal Jordan is a character so repugnant he was more interesting and sympathetic when his origin story involved drunk driving induced manslaughter.
If we were talking Hal, I'd have more to say than to "fuck" him. Barry is alright, but I don't get why Johns has to raise up his childhood idols to such an extent when they're pretty dull leads.
No one likes Snapper Carr. NOBODY. No one EVER liked Snapper Carr. If your Grandfather tells you he loved him in the Silver Age, you slap him round his liver spotted, toothless mouth for being a shameless goddamn liar.
Snapper Carr was badass in Checkmate and the Final Crisis tie ins for Checkmate. So booya.
i will always love flashpoint. because its the last time i got to see the DC Universe. even though, technically, i had to see the Flashpoint Universe for most of it.
But its the last thing they did that had any scope. Everything now is either in "families" or self contained. There is no more DCU, and no number of Owl crossovers will convince me different.
Wether or not Flashpoint was changed midstream to birth the New 52 doesn't matter. Its the last glimpse into the world of DC i grew up with and loved before they decided to push all of that off a cliff and instead give us the Heroes Reborn nonsense we have now.
Two things to know about DC animated features, they love self contained story, and Timm will agree on a story-line if it's well pitched. It's how Red Hood got made.
Let me make the DCU very easy for everyone to understand.
Everything is Elseworlds now.
You're welcome.
DC reboots their entire universe every five years, and Marvel just retcons everything every two years. Both actions are beneath contempt.
Let me make the Marvel Universe very easy for everyone to understand.
Disney Movie Comics.
You're Welcome.
