Flashpoint Beyond #0 – Geoff Johns, Writer; Eduardo Risso, Artist; Trish Mulvihill, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: One of the trickiest things in comics is when a character takes off like a fireball right after being introduced. Sometimes, like Punchline or Spider-Gwen, the company takes the baton and successfully turns them into a headliner. Other cases, like the Thomas Wayne version of Batman, are much trickier. The character was killed off conclusively in Flashpoint with no one expecting him to appear again. From there, there was a completely different version on Earth-2, a bizarre villainization in Tom King’s Batman, a redemption arc in the multiverse, and seemingly another death. And now… the cycle begins anew, as Thomas wakes up in the Flashpoint universe, with no evidence that anything he did made a difference.
Geoff Johns being back in charge of the character is interesting, as in many ways this feels like a direct sequel to some of Johns’ recent stories. It’s been ten years since Flashpoint, but only a few since Doomsday Clock—and the appearance of Mime and Marionette is a surprising swerve. Now aware of the multiverse and desperate to escape the hellish world he comes from, Wayne is now the newest holder of the complex dry-erase board that Booster and Rip used to use. But he’s not being left alone to investigate—Harvey Dent is out for vengeance over the death of his daughter and his wife’s descent into madness, and is threatening to charge Thomas with the murder of Joe Chill.
This leads Thomas to seek out his only link—a milquetoast version of Barry Allen who lives an unremarkable life without his powers. Wayne kidnaps him and attempts to recreate the accident that gave him his powers—but things go horribly wrong as it becomes clear there may be a hidden hand sabotaging this world. We get quite a few interesting hints about what’s become of other heroes and villains from the Flashpoint world, and Eduardo Risso’s art is no less compelling although it seems filtered through a more traditional comic book lens. Johns is the solo writer on this one, but the upcoming series will pair him with other writers. It’s an intriguing start, but the tangled web of Thomas Wayne’s story means he has a lot of heavy lifting to do to make this the definitive conclusion.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
