Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox

Summary: The Flash goes back in time and creates ripples that disastrously alters the Universe. Losing his powers along the way, he must figure out a way to restore everything back the original timeline before the world is destroyed by the war between Aquaman’s Atlanteans and Wonder Woman’s Amazons.

Marking the end of all DC titles and transitioning on to The New 52, we get the animated movie based on the comics crossover Flashpoint dubbed Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox. The New 52 is basically a revamp and relaunch of all DC titles, having both minor and major changes to certain key points of the titles to entice new readers, as well as make the characters more modern and accessible. Light spoilers ahead.

Central City- After stopping an evil ploy concocted by Professor Zoom or otherwisely known as Thawne or the Reverse-Flash, whilst using Captain Cold, Captain Boomerang, Heat Wave, Mirror Master and The Top as pawns, Thawne left The Flash a.k.a. Barry Allen a disturbing pre-going to jail quote that would lead to the events pertaining to the movie’s primary dilemma: “Enjoy your petty little victories, Flash. But no matter how fast you run, you can’t save everyone. Not the ones that matter to you.”

This hit a nerve in Flash as he remembered how his mother was murdered in his early childhood. He also remembered one of the most valued lessons his mother taught him:

“Accept the things you cannot change, have the courage to change the things you can, and have the wisdom to know the difference.” -Nora Allen

Have the courage to change the things you can? Oh, you know it. Flash goes back in time to prevent his mother’s murder via vibrating through dimensions. I’ll just leave the quantum-something explanations to you.

He wakes up, and finds his aged mother doing well. One problem though- he also doesn’t have his speedster powers anymore in this world, as well as seeing some supervillains be superheroes instead on the news.

What’s more, Cyborg looks as badass as ever! He is revealed to be working directly under the US President to instill peace and order throughout the nations of the world. Our Flashpoint Batman also seems a bit off.

That’s because it’s not Bruce Wayne who’s under the cowl. It’s actually Thomas Wayne- Bruce’s supposed-to-be-deceased father. In this universe, it was Bruce who died in that alleyway and not his parents. This forced Dr. Thomas into severe depression eventually turning him into the crime-fighting vigilante. Coincidentally, Bruce’s death caused his mother to go nuts, thus becoming the Joker later on.

Through this lucky turn of events, we’re finally given fanservice visuals of a gun-toting bat!

And not just any gun-toting bat- a bat willing to kill with full conviction! Brutal.

A lot of changes would have happened and explained in this universe, but let’s get back to the main story- The race of Aquaman, the Atlanteans, and Wonder Woman, the Amazons, made a peace treaty to each other.

Such political actions of course led to both leaders making interracial (or interspecies?) love.

Queen Mera, Aquaman’s wife, somehow saw through this adultery, and tries to assassinate Diana. TRIES.

So yeah, both super-powered races declare war on each other, and what better place could the perfect battlefield be than on Earth’s surface. With the humans caught in the middle and no Justice League to save them, they put in their best effort to end the war, to no avail.

Seeing any familiar faces? Lol.

Here’s Superman, which I won’t spoil to you why he looks like a wimp.

I was quite surprised as a lot of superheroes and supervillains ended up dead in a blink of an eye as the war raged on- this isn’t what’s usually portrayed in a Justice League movie, or series episode at that, but I guess it’s okay since we’re in an alternate universe. It’s safe to say it has a more mature theme in it.

So what happens to the Flash after causing this Armageddon whilst losing his superpowers in the process? No other way than to watch this 80-minute masterpiece from DC to find out!

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