Justice League Book Club Week 30: Crossing Over with World of Bats to Celebrate 10 Years of Flashpoint

Vroom · August 20, 2021, 8:38pm

2021 is the 10 year anniversary of Flashpoint, which is arguably the most impactful event mini-series in the DC pantheon since Crisis on Infinite Earths. In the Flashpoint continuity, there was no Justice League to save the world from the impending war between the Amazons and Atlantis, Bruce Wayne wasn’t Batman and Superman was a lab experiment.

After Flashpoint…well, as was said at the end of The Neverending Story, “That is a story for another time.”

@Jay_Kay and his wonderful @WorldOfBatsBookClub is covering the main Flashpoint series, so be sure to check that out, especially if you’ve never read Flashpoint before.

Meanwhile, I’ll be covering the Flashpoint tie-ins that star characters who were members of various Justice League teams prior to Flashpoint. You don’t have to read every series/book listed below. Simply pick your favorites and have fun!

Here’s a look at what you can race into as you celebrate Flashpoint’s big 1-0 !

Read:

Booster Gold #'s 44, 45, 46 and 47
Flashpoint: Batman: Knight of Vengeance #'s 1, 2 and 3
Flashpoint: Emperor Aquaman #'s 1, 2 and 3
Flashpoint: Hal Jordan #'s 1, 2 and 3
Flashpoint: Project Superman #'s 1, 2 and 3
Flashpoint: Wonder Woman and the Furies #'s 1, 2 and 3

Again, you don’t have to read all of the above (2,011 Cool Points to you if you do read all of this week’s books, however ) , just pick what looks of interest and go from there. Easy peasy.

Discuss:

Have you read any of the Flashpoint tie-ins, be they those listed above or those that didn’t star members of Pre-Flashpoint Justice Leagues?
What was your favorite read of this week’s selections?
Is there a Flashpoint version of a character you lean towards more than their mainline continuity version?

That’s the celebratory mission until August 31st, League! Join in the 10th anniversary celebration of Flashpoint with @Jay_Kay’s look at the main Flashpoint series, then hop into selected tie-ins over here!

Whatever you choose to read, have fun and please, don’t alter the timeline for your own benefit, m’kay? M’kay.

john.21795 · August 28, 2021, 7:37pm

I just finished reading all of the Flashpoint tie-ins. My favorite was probably Batman: Night of Vengeance. Even though it is so tragic. The idea of Joker being Martha is intriguing and it brings a different sort of weight to their dynamic, especially Batman’s refusal to kill the Joker (when this Batman most definitely kills). It’s a great twist on the whole different sides of the same coin we get with many of Batman’s rogues.

It’s not part of the listed reading, but “Lois Lane and the Resistance” was great, too. In any time-line Lois Lane is going to be Lois Lane. I also want to shout out “Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown” and “Deadman and the Flying Graysons.” All three are worth checking out if you don’t have enough Flashpoint in your life.

I don’t think there’s any of the Flashpoint versions of characters that I prefer over the normal versions. I guess Cyborg being the main hero in the Flashpoint world is pretty cool, but everyone and everything is just a little too grim for me to like it as a regular thing.

Thanks for giving me the excuse for diving back into Flashpoint! It had been a long time since I read it and I didn’t read any of the tie-ins back then. They really flesh out the world.

ajm08g · August 29, 2021, 3:17am

Hello there again Justice League Book Club Tally-Ho and World of Bats.

@john.21795 you are right in how much context they really do give to the core Flashpoint books.

Definitely some good suggestions to other tie-ins as well.

I still have a few of those that I’m making my way through.

I had not when I first read through the story and said somewhere that I would dive back into the tie-ins eventually.

Tough to pick one favorite as I found a lot of fun things in each.

Some highlights from them though.

Booster Gold

Definitely enjoyed all of Booster’s call backs to when he first took on Doomsday during the Death of Superman storyline.

Even if it was still brutal on poor Booster.

It was a nice reveal that Alexandra was also the one that wrote everything about Flashpoint on Rip’s chalk board.

Wonder if Booster ever got to meet her again?

Oh and I guess I will also start calling Booster an Atlantean as well as a Green Lantern now…

Batman: Knight of Vengeance

Talk about a crazy story with the brutality of the Waynes.

Martha as the Joker seems even scarier than the regular Joker.

Although, the reveal when Thomas told her that he could help bring back a reality where they both died and Bruce lived was excellent.

Well… At least until Thomas revealed to Martha that Bruce followed in Thomas’ footsteps…

Emperor Aquaman

Definitely interesting finding out the reason why the Earth was cracking in this story when compared to what I remembered the reason was in the movie.

Sorry Brion…

Also sorry that Arthur was too consumed by rage to listen and acted as Ocean Master had intended along with his co-conspirator Penthesilea so that they could rule the world instead of Arthur and Diana.

Hal Jordan

Definitely an interesting look at Hal and Carol’s relationship in these books.

From Hal’s antics to Carol trying to bring him back down from flying high in the sky, then to that very emotional ending… Wow.

Project Superman

Neil was definitely an interesting character.

Should be a note to anyone that sees Doomsday to not try and use Doomsday’s DNA to try and power up a human.

Also was a different look at General Lane in trying to help out young Kal-El try to reach his super potential.

Also was fun seeing how Kal and Lois met in this reality.

Sorry that this is another story where Lois does not make it though…

And what they did to poor Krypto!

I also read Lionel’s part with John Glover’s voice from Smallville as he looked very similar.

It was interesting though seeing how Kal powered up before showing up in the main Flashpoint books by absorbing all of Neil’s energy.

Wonder Woman and the Furies

These books did a nice job in filling in the gaps as to why the Amazons and Atlanteans were fighting.

Poor Terra as compared to poor Brion in Emperor Aquaman…

Oh and seeing how Mera was taken out…

Emperor Aquaman’s rage was unfortunately not going to be quelled that’s for sure…

It was a good plan though in revealing both Amazons and Atlanteans to the world through love rather than war which Ocean Master and Penthesilea wanted at the end.

Definitely also a good read before the final Flashpoint books.

I can also add the many screenshots I got as well later as it’s kind of late for me now in writing this…

This is a good question…

Can’t say that I lean a certain way either, but happy to have read through these stories with these characters.