Season 5 of The Flash has been a real slog. Last season wasted a lot of time but I was still mostly invested but this one really struggled to engage me outside of a few episodes and I can comfortably say there was maybe five truly great episodes out of this twenty-two episode run and that’s pretty shocking. I’ll get to my final thoughts on the season as a whole later, but for now let’s talk about some highlights of this episode.

They actually explain the time travel shenanigans and I’ll admit that I was being pretty stupid not to figure out something so simple. It totally makes sense for Thawne to play the longest game to get himself out of prison, very Machiavellian, as he was in season one!

Hell, his whole escape is just wonderful, we haven’t seen some good villain speedster kills since… season two of Legends? Geez, that was a while ago… Yeah, they walked it back but it was still kinda satisfying to see Thawne turn the tables on his sadist warden.

Thawne double-teaming Barry and Nora solo is a great way to establish how much of a threat he is, even to two West-Allen speedsters but then seeing Team Flash kick the absolute shit out of Thawne was a brilliant tables turn moment too. He even had nice things to say to everyone! That’s the Thawne we love to hate!

I’m in two minds on Nora snapping; because on the one hand, her becoming a reluctant Reverse Flash would actually be interesting (even if this show couldn’t pull that off as it is) but her actions finally coming to bite her in the arse is really good.

All of this planning Thawne did and he still found a new way to mess with Barry because Nora’s whole mission lead to her being erased from the timeline! And Thawne just twisting the knife to echo the same kind of sentiment he did when he killed Cisco way back when is fantastic. Okay, okay, I’ve talked about Thawne enough, Tom Cavanagh killed it and we’ll, in his own words, see him next Crisis so onto the big huge moment of the show; Nora’s death.

It hits harder than a truck, honestly. For all the shit I’ve given to the show this season, the moments it does best are the ones that make Grant Gustin cry because for as much of a bell-end, that deserves everything he gets, Barry Allen is; it still hurts to watch him lose Nora. Candace too, to an extent, but it’s Grant that carries emotional moments like this and it’s sweet to see Nora truly learn from her father’s mistakes and pick “heroic sacrifice” over “stupid decision that will no doubt kill someone down the road.”

In the same vein of sad departures, after all the off-screen romancing of new girlfriend Kamilla, Cisco comes to the decision to not only reveal his double-life but to also take the meta-cure himself. It’s a very understated swansong to Carlos Valdez but, at the very least, it was a sweet scene between Cisco and the most important person to him there; Caitlin/Frost.

It’s sad but he leaves with a smile and a gift for his best girl(s). Cisco, seemingly, made a super-suit for Caitlin/Frost and they both seem to like it so we’ll probably see that next season.

We also get a great scene with Captain Singh, whose actor also appears to be leaving, as he hands over Captaincy to Joe and acknowledges that Barry is The Flash and he knew all along. Man, I’m going to miss Patrick Sabongui, he was always a great addition to any episode.

In a montage during Nora’s farewell video she left in her diary, we also get a shot of Ralph getting back into the private eye game and picking up a case file with the name Dearborn. Hmmmm… Now that’s clearly foreshadowing for his one true love interest if ever I saw it…

And in the stinger; Gideon announces an incoming time flux and we see the infamous newspaper… change. With the year settling on 2019 and the rest of the date obscured, this is clearly foreshadowing the upcoming Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover and I can’t wait!

This season really took it out of me and while I’ve threatened it before, I’m following through now. Discounting the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, this will be the last season of The Flash I will be covering on Flash Facts. I feel the series has run it’s course and the production crew have shown a real unwillingness for major shake-ups and that’s lead to the show on the macro scale being stale and boring to me.

I had fun with certain episodes and there’s been a few great moments this season but it’s not nearly enough to justify my time watching anymore, let alone reviewing. Thanks for everyone who stuck with this column and I hope you’ll join me again later in the year when the skies turn red, when worlds will live and worlds will die…

But until then, just remember:

Well, this was originally going to be two separate reviews but DOOM had some log-in issues so I couldn’t post until today (mucho thanks to Editor-in-chief John for fixing the issue) so I guess it’s another double-bill of reviews but I did write a full review last week so I guess I only have to do half the work?

Well, if you wanted something half-arsed, look no further than Gone Rogue because OH BOY, the good will that was going to run out eventually. For a split second, I thought something dramatic was going to happen but here we are; a couple days late and little-to-no motivation to continue this show outside of obligation.

Did you know that this episode is the first of this show to feature the word Rogue in the title and not have Wentworth Miller? Because I certainly felt his absence! These jobber Rogues (yeah, I love Troy Jones/Phil Lamarr as Ragdoll but still…) aren’t really a threat and for saying she’s on a dark path, Nora still acts like she’s a lost puppy.

The one moment I actually applaud the episode for is when Cisco is laughing in her face at this pathetic excuse of a heel turn and she goes full ThawneWells vibro-hand on him. That is good stuff! She’s using knowledge of a former ally’s trauma to get her way in the most sadistic way possible! It’s great character work and it’s fucking wasted in this episode!

It reminds of that one scene with FutureBarry/Savitar where it seems like he might actually be open to being talked down but then he reveals it was for shits and giggles (and padding to fill out the episodes) and I’m feeling just as pissed because Nora hasn’t turned heel at all. She’s just using these techy Rogues to rob a place with a meta-dampener.

Flash Fact: McCulloch Technologies, and the Mirror Gun, is a reference to Evan McCulloch, the second Mirror Master. Additionally, the Jenni Ognats identity is a reference to the comic incarnation of XS who is a member of the Legion of Super Heroes.

So yeah, naturally the Rogues betray Nora forcing her dad to step-in and save her in, admittedly, a fun twist using image inducers. The Rogues are beaten and jailed and, naturally, the West-Allen family are reunited and now using Thawne’s plan to stop Cicada II.

Speaking of; Cicada II is related to this episode in a way because she steals the meta-cure from frozen base Cisco developed it in. I can’t remember how she knew where it was but they were more focused on making light of Ralph’s original status as Caitlin’s love interest before Danielle Panabaker put the kibosh on that plot.

But yeah, the meta-cure, coupled with the ice mcguffin from last episode, can be used to spread the meta-cure across Central City and we see Cicada II modifying the device to do just that… while her beloved uncle watches on. I honestly didn’t twig this was just her psychosis until this week’s The Girl With The Red Lightning.

The penultimate episode of the season starts to kick into maximum over-medium pace and we get the final confrontation with Cicada (can’t believe I didn’t come up with ‘Shecada’ or that it took this long for the show to) as she tries to activate her ultimate weapon that will kill every meta in the country.

It’s a pretty small-stakes end to the season-long big bad but everyone on Team Flash gets to have a go and there’s a couple interesting choreographed spots but the aftermath is the real meat.

Also, shout-out to Killer Frost with the best burn of the season!

Throughout the episode, Ralph is wondering aloud about what Thawne’s plan is because if “his plans have plans”, then what the hell does all this mean? And it’s a legit question, shame it’s brought about AFTER we see that Thawne’s timer has run out so it’s obvious that this has all been to spring him. I’m shocked. SHOCKED.

Well, not that shocked. But I’ll probably need this plan explained to me because this time travel plot is ropier than Avengers: Endgame’s explanation! Ha! Topical…

Nora with the Good Lightning is a better episode than Gone Rogue objectively but I was still mostly non-plussed, as all this rushed build-up reeks of last season’s fucking about until the penultimate episode formula. Which is a shame because I should be hyped for Thawne’s return but that was always inevitable and I’m certainly not invested in the Nora/Shecada plot soooo…

I dunno, next week’s finale is going to be an interesting watch. I have to wonder if they’ll finally go back to a speedster villain season since these two were interesting premises that ultimately fell on their respective arses and with a lot of chatter with people leaving after this season, we’ll have to see what the future holds and what will become of The Flash’s Legacy.

Snow Pack does a fairly decent job of carrying on with the good will last week’s episode earned with me. Granted, I don’t care about Caitlin’s family drama, no matter how much of a proxy it’s meant to be for Barry’s situation, but it’s not terrible and everything outside of the Snow Family plot is great too.

Plus Thomas Snow spends most of the episode looking like TV’s Frank and that genuinely amuses me.

Flash Fact: The title of the episode and Thomas Snow’s pet name for his family is a homage to the Mud Pack, a collection of the various Clayface characters from Batman’s rogues gallery.

The immediate fallout between Barry and Iris is great, bad in context for them as a couple, but great for me because this is an actual issue that they have to argue about and I’m eating it up like it’s tiramassu! Yeah, it’s fixed by the end of the episode (strangely, by Thawne urging, no less) and while I do agree with Barry’s stance, it’s brilliant to see Iris take him to task and be just as wrong as Barry at the same time.

I’m wondering if Thawne is actually being genuine or if corrupting Nora was the plan all along as Barry fears because, damn it, Thawne is a charismatic MFer.

He does seem sincere in his words to Nora and Iris but every time they’re not looking at him, he looks like he’s barely keeping in a shit-eating grin. I know I rail on Tom Cavanagh being in the show too much but I’ll stan his Thawne performance all day long!

And we get Nora turning full heel and travelling back to the present by tapping into the Negative Speed Force, using her darkest emotions and all her pent-up anger. I would say that this is unnerving but look at that eye effect, it’s so goofy looking, and it’s not going to improve when we see her change-up her look for something a little darker next week.

Just a quick chat this week because, honestly, I’m knackered from work and the stream I used was a ball-ache to get running but I liked this episode overall so it’ll be interesting where we go with seemingly two big bads in the form of Nora and Cicada II.

They’re not gonna team-up just yet but we are getting the ropiest assortment of Rogues next week as Bug-Eyed Bandit, Weather Witch, and Ragdoll join Nora because she’s Gone Rogue.

Welcome back to Flash Facts, everyone! I don’t know about you guys but it’s been one helluva month for me with starting a brand new job! I’m currently writing this high on painkillers so maybe that’s having an influence but I think Godspeed was a fantastic episode and a very strong directorial debut for our resident snow queen, Danielle Panabaker!

Picking up immediately after the last episode, Team Flash is still reeling from the revelation that Nora has been working with Thawne since the beginning and, naturally, pretty much everyone is more pissed with Sherloque for revealing the secret. Okay, that’s not entirely true but it was certainly true of Iris. She kinda walks that back by being the one to let Nora out of the pipeline to explain herself though.

The majority of the episode is set in 2049 via flashforwards as the team reads Nora’s diary and the setting isn’t especially fantastical. A very grounded take on the future, befitting a TV budget. Little details here and there show the advancement of technology but the architecture is largely the same as every other CW show set in the present.

The origin of Nora is pretty interesting, expanding on the details we knew but throwing in a lot of time with Nora’s best friend/girlfriend Lia (A possible nod to the Flash of Earth-9?) and how their investigation into a new speedster results in not only Lia’s death but Nora travelling back in time.

Speaking of the new speedster, having Godspeed tie back into Zoom and the Velocity 9 subplot is an effective way of manufacturing a speedster to act as a foil. I don’t know much about this guy since he’s relatively new but it’s a cool design and he’s voiced by BD Wong and that’s also pretty cool!

Nora’s interactions with Thawne are pretty cool, very The Silence of The Lambs, and really lends credence to why Nora puts her faith in him as a mentor. Because, despite objectively being a monster, Thawne is both charismatic and a damn good teacher and there’s a nice symmetry to him teaching Barry’s daughter the ropes. Hell, there’s a lot of homages to The Flash’s pilot episode that draws a lot of parallels between Barry and Nora.

Once Nora’s full origin is explained, we actually get the unexpected; Barry sticking to his guns and sending Nora back to 2049! I can’t believe he didn’t forgive her immediately and just dumped her ass back in the future and even warned her that if she tried to come back, he’d know. Properly laying down the dad law! That going to come back and bite him in the arse when Iris finds out though… Oh boy, that’s going to be the whole episode next week, isn’t it?

In the stinger, we get a confrontation between Thawne and Barry and Thawne comes across as the bigger man while Barry looks like a petulant bitch. His anger is warranted, mind you, but Thawne telling him not to be angry with Nora is just perfect. With less than ten minutes to go before Thawne’s supposed death, I wonder how much more we’ll see of him and if death will actually stick this time!

Overall, I highly recommend seeing this episode because it’s one of the best of the season and really went a long way to endearing Nora to me again. Be sure to come back next week when we’ll see the fallout of Barry’s decision and an unexpected reunion in Snow Pack!

Now this was a great episode! We don’t mess around by having Thawne establish that shit’s gone off the rails thanks to the new Cicada showing up and that there’s no more time to change things.

With Nora facing a difficult situation (whether or not to tell her dad she’s been helped by the dude who killed her grandma for the past year) naturally we spend most of the time with a meta du jour, with Orlin and Future-Cicada, and with Cisco struggling to keep his work and private lives separate.

In fairness, Cisco’s dilemma is legitimate and this new relationship (shame we never got to see ANY OF IT DEVELOP) is untainted by his life as a superhero so why wouldn’t he want to protect it? Ralph is there to needle him into telling Kamilla the truth with minimal talking-to and it’s all very under-developed as is to be expected.

The dynamic with Orlin and Future-Cicada is really interesting. Barry’s fatherly approach seems to have worked as Orlin is horrified to see what his influence has done to the sweet innocent girl he vowed to protect and goes a long way to redeeming himself in the end with some great acting by Chris Klein. Y’know, before Future-Cicada mercs him like a badass. I’m also glad they didn’t have spend too much time with a mystery and Team Flash know it’s Grace by the half-way point.

And finally we come to Nora’s secret coming out. Oh, she doesn’t reveal it because she’s a massive coward. No, Sherloque has been diligently transcribing and translating Nora’s diary and finally gets the piece of the puzzle he needs by going through Thawne/Wells’s possessions. With all of the theatricality you’d expect from this old detective trope, he reveals that she’s been acting under the orders of Thawne since the Enlightenment.

Hurt/betrayed/thinking clearly for once, Barry wastes no time in throwing Nora into the pipeline. Given Barry’s history with Thawne, best not to take any chances and yeah, maybe he could have listened to her but it’s good to see him act like a damn father and put his misbehaving kid into time-out. With a deadlier Cicada on the loose and Nora’s secret revealed; what else could possibly go wrong for Team Flash?

I really liked this episode and I was all ready to keep this ball a-rolling but apparently the next episode isn’t until April 16th so that’s a bummer. But we are getting Danielle Panabaker’s directorial debut, and that’s pretty neat, so join me then when hopefully we’ll be hitting Godspeed.

And it’s still just as filler-y as before! Two weeks worth of the Scarlet Speedster and there’s only a couple things I want to talk about because Primus knows the Cicada plots not going anywhere.

So let’s take about the major topic; Thawne and Nora. Thawne appears to be on death row or, at the very least, is going to lose his life in a short amount of time. It seems to be less than an hour and it’s unclear how long Nora has been going to see Thawne but it’s weird, and kinda cyclical, that he appears to be in the same kind of mentor role as he was with Barry.

What’s stupid is that Nora didn’t know Thawne killed Barry’s mother. I know The Flash Museum kinda white-washes a lot of Barry’s past but jaysus, that’s kind of a big detail to miss out. But yeah, the theme of the episode is if someone bad can become good so we’ll see if this redemption sticks. Probably won’t.

Nora’s become increasingly frustrating as a character to watch because despite apparently being a massive Flash fan, she knows next to nothing about his tactics, abilities, or his ethics. She’s really kinda shitty and the fact that Team Flash still hasn’t sent her stupid ass back to the future is infuriating.

On a more fun note, look at Grant Gustin’s stupid face. For all the BS surrounding the character, Grant is still a treat to watch when he’s given more direction than “look pensive” and “gaze at Candice”.

Another plot running through these two episodes is the idea of a metahuman cure and if reading X-Men for decades has taught me anything, cures for powers never work out and often make things worse. Granted, this may play a big part towards the finale, but for now it’s just being used as a sore point for Cisco and Killer Frost.

Frost’s motivation to stop Caitlin working on the formula is pretty solid character development and their current symbiotic relationship must be fun for Danielle Panabaker to play.

The only other thing I have to talk about comes in Seeing Red when the tables turn on Cicada and Barry lays some hands on him and it’s nice to see more of Barry’s darker edge. Yeah, he’s a goodie-two-shoes but in the comics, Barry has killed Eobard Thawne before for trying to kill Iris. Broke his neck, it was pretty metal, and this righteous anger is something I hope we see more of. If nothing else, it gives Grant more to do.

Sorry I haven’t got more to say but these two episodes where pretty light on stuff I want to talk about but I’ll be back on a decent schedule next week and I can’t wait to see what the futures holds when we take a trip inside Nora’s mind in Memorabilia!

The inclusion of ‘Back in Time’, not once but twice, is one of the greatest moments this show has ever had and I will gladly fight anyone who disagrees. It’s perfect for the situation, perfect that Ralph would choose it, a 100% belter of a song. Fight me.

The concept of Barry and Nora travelling back through time to collect all the pieces needed to build a power dampener for Cicada’s dagger is really cool and offers a whole host of interesting scenarios and afford some cameos by previous villains which is pretty dope.

Granted, Tom Cavanaugh is not only still on the cast but is directing the episode so it wasn’t hard to get him but Teddy Sears and Tony Todd returning as Zoom and Zoom’s voice was a nice little surprise!

But yes, Tom Cavanagh returns to reprise his role as Eobard Thawne/Wells and Tom knows what to do with his best role and it shows. Between a fantastically sadistic Thawne, to enraged…

To this delightful little wink to the audience (fuck you very much, Tom)… Tom does a fantastic job and I can’t wait to see what his future role means for The Flash, long-term.

I’ve had a sneaking suspicion that Nora had some involvement with Thawne for a while, since she seems to showcase an ability similar to his; slowing down time around her rather than accelerating to super speed like Barry. I’m sure someone has already suggested that she’s really Thawne’s daughter but I think that’d be a bit too simple for this show. Stupid enough for someone to have suggested at one stage though.

And Nora’s presence throughout the episode is pretty damn good, seeing first hand that her dad got his shit rocked on multiple occasions by guys smarter, faster, and deadlier but still come out the other side. It still shakes her but hopefully this means she’ll be less of a nark about Barry being a hero.

Naturally, the plan goes to shit when Cisco breaches Cicada’s empowered dagger into orbit rather than another dimension but hey, it’s the middle of the season, we can’t get rid of the big bad this early so we’ll make Cisco utterly stupid, instead. Thankfully, Frost reemerges (despite appearing last week) and puts the snow boots to Cicada, her powers unaffected by Cicada’s dagger.

It’s cool that Frost will probably be the lynchpin in the plan that will take out Cicada but we’re gonna have to wait a while. Cicada scampered, probably sensing the upcoming crossover (which I will be covering, don’t worry).

Speaking of, a post-credits scene has popped up throughout this week after Supergirl and Arrow and now The Flash, showcasing the aftermath of a huge battle featuring a lot of familiar heroes with one left alive…

Oh my god, it’s finally happening! That’s John Wesley Shipp, in the original costume from the 90’s incarnation of The Flash! I marked out super hard for this because A) he looks great and 2) we’ll get at least one good Flash suit in the crossover!

So yeah, Earth-90 (Heh.) is royally boned thanks to the appearance of Mar Novu, the Monitor. The Monitor is a guardian of the multiverse and comes from a race similar to the Watchers in Marvel’s cosmos, though the Monitors can be a little more hands on, as this one appears to be. Along with another party, he appears to be the main antagonist for the three-part Elseworlds crossover next week. I’m really looking forward to it!

So be sure to come back on Monday for the first of my Elseworlds reviews where we’ll be seeing a Freaky Friday situation between Barry and Ollie and the long-awaited arrival of The Bat.

The day of the reboot has come. It was largely a disappointment, but I don’t really know anyone who was expecting it to be anything other than complete garbage.

I suppose I’ll start with the end, rather than the beginning.

Flashpoint #5
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art by ANDY KUBERT, SANDRA HOPE, and JESSE DELPERDANG

In a word…or three: I hate it.

This was a mess. Let me just start out by saying SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS because if you don’t know the story and conclusion of Flashpoint, you’re going to in a second. Secondly, TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE because it was everything I really wished it wasn’t.

The buildup that started way back when with Flash #1 in June 2010 was actually very good and pretty interesting. Barry Allen of the future kills the Mirror Master because he was going to kill Iris or some such. It was actually the Top whose motivations are to stop his ancestor’s criminal record from getting him barred from becoming a time cop (which he already was) and some such that I don’t really remember but it was an interesting little mystery story. The end of that 6 issue arc referenced some changes to the timestream and some things going on that made it that led directly in to Flashpoint. Now, problem the first, the changes to the timestream seemed to be limited to Wonder Woman having a different costume, Darkseid sending Bruce back in time with the Omega effect, Lex Luthor meeting Death, Deadman with the White Lantern Ring, and what looked like the Dread Pirate Roberts fighting another pirate…not a lot that spells out “TIME DISASTER!” to me. Even if you take into account the mess that was Time Masters: Vanishing Point to try to explain everything, you only get the idea that Darkseid messed something up. None of the other items belong on that board really. Does a costume change really mean a glitch in the timesteam?

Now, I suppose we’re supposed to believe that there are two, distinct timelines being viewed here, or at least 2 of the 3 mentioned in Flashpoint #5. This, however, is unclear, because in a splashpage in #5, we see what looks to be the rebooted timeline (#1), the pre-reboot timeline (#2), and the Wildstorm timeline (which is not, in fact, a timeline but is apparently another universe of some sort) (#3). I must note that nowhere in this mix is the actual timeline created during Flashpoint (#4). So that leaves us with at least 5 “timelines” (including the broken one from Flash #6 from whence Hot Pursuit came) . This is either a gross oversight by the artist, poor planning, or evidence that they don’t know what the frak they’re doing.

To quell some argument: Yes, I’m being this picky. No, this isn’t being overly analytic of the comic because Flashpoint, JLA, The Flash, and Brightest Day are all written by the same man who has a responsibility to keep his damn story straight or let somebody else take the reigns.

TL;DR: It doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Now, the book itself. The issue is mostly a huge argument between Flash and Reverse Flash about how the Flash ruined everything by trying to change time. The entire reason for Flashpoint’s existence is explained pretty swiftly over two panels. Barry Allen was sad because he learned that Rev. Flash killed his mother in the past. In a flashback that we never actually saw in comic books and is referenced for the first time on page three here, we see The Flash go back in time to stop The Reverse Flash. Apparently, Allen did some hooba jooba with the Speed Force and caused a massive timesplosion that created the Flashpoint universe.

Now, to the weakest part of the story, the part where Eobard Thawne reveals that he’s an absolute dick. He wanted Barry to remember, he could do it at any time and make him suffer in the knowledge that he caused all this. He could have done that before Barry had the help of Batman and could have done it without anyone’s knowledge and thus made the entirety of Flashpoint obsolete (because, honestly, the end of the issue does that anyways).

Rev. Flash also pointedly states that he is now immune to time…apparently. Because of the fact that he was traveling through time when Barry changed it, the rules of time no longer apply to him. To make a point, THAT’S NOT HOW TIME TRAVEL WORKS! I get it, comic books have free reign over the laws of physics and the rules of the universe. The second you travel through time, you become immune to time travel. You create infinite alternate universes every instance that you step out of the normal stream of time.By the simple act of going back in time to kill someone, you would create a universe in which you kill them, while leaving the original completely untouched.

Thawne uses this new knowledge to beat the Flash to a bloody pulp (because The Flash, trained fighter with the Justice League, suddenly cannot fight worth a damn). He claims that he now has eternal double jeopardy for Barry Allen and there will never ever be any repercussions for killing him. However, Batman, once again proving to be the only effective hero in the DCU, Bat-impales him on his Bat-sword.

Some other stuff that doesn’t really matter happens. Superman/boy shows up and punches people, Flash runs really fast to stop himself from running really fast, and a creepy phantom lady head tells the Flash that he done messed up. Time hits the restart button, Barry wakes up and makes Bruce Wayne cry with a Bat-letter from his future/not-future daddy.

Rating: 5/10 (If only because Reverse Flash gets Bat-sword-ed)

FIN.

Justice League #1
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art by JIM LEE

Similarly messy to Flashpoint #5, was its progeny, Justice League #1.

Now, this story takes place 5 years prior to any of the events of the rest of the reboot. This doesn’t immediately condemn the story to being awful because you can do a few “how they met” episodes and I’ll be just fine. It didn’t bother me in Lost and it don’t bother me now if they want to show me how they first met. DC wants new fans and I won’t begrudge them the effort, but as a long-time fan, don’t expect me to fawn over another gorram origin story.

An origin story that feels terrifyingly similar to All-Star Batman & Robin. However, this is a story without the goddamn Batman and lemonade, this story has a dickish (but still kinda awesome) Batman and a jerkass Hal Jordan. It also reveals pre-Cyborg Vic Stone for 4 pages of awkward father issues, and a Superman that might need a high-five for hurtin’ the face of Johns’ baby GL. Still no sign of Wonder Woman or Aquaman, though I really quite liked the rejected sketch in the back of the issue with Aquaman’s crustacean armor.

In relation to the rest of the reboot, this book doesn’t tell us much. The world seems to be a bit more hostile to superheroes in general, which I’m ok about, I guess it explains why there are so many “covert-ops” teams in the 52. Hal seems to have a much better grasp on being a Green Lantern, which might make some interesting reading for the main GL series. Bruce is a bit of an ass (Jordan DID deserve it) but at the end of Flashpoint he seemed like an alright dude when talking to Barry. Does he soften up a bit in the 5 years between Justice League #1 and now? Does Damien warm his heart to the cold, cruel world? Do rhetorical questions ever solve anything? The answer to all is a big ol’ MAYBE.

Final Thoughts:
1) GCPD has some damn nice equipment. Gatling guns, at least three helicopters, state-of-the-art body armor and uniform decals, irrational prejudice, Stormtrooper-like aim, real karate chop action, etc.
2) WHY IS BATMAN PUNCHING THE BUILDING WITH HIS CAPE!?!?INTERROBANG?!?!
3) Alien’s fire-breath-thingy also seems to be fire-butt-thingy.
4) By removing Hal’s ring, did Batman realize that the fires all over Gotham aren’t being put out anymore.
5) Bonus: Hal Jordan’s ring constructs show a bit of imagination.
6) I get the feeling that the little boxy thingy that they pulled out of the wall is going to be a portal for Darkseid/Reverse Flash/anyone they want because its a plot loophole/Nekron to return and for Hal Jordan to get heroically whisked away into not-being-around-land.
7) I’m going to stencil “Hustle, Hit, Never Quit” on my wall.
8) Superman’s punch is strange to me. Its blue and red, so it must mean that he flew into Jordan. However, he is seen walking out of the building a second later, so it seems that he is being intentionally deceptive about his speed to hide how fast he is.
9) In the confrontation with Supes, Bruce is clearly in the middle of an open area, but in the last panels, behind him is seen building, and he’s looking at Superman who is framed by building. This new DC universe has Chia-like buildings “Just add superheroes, and watch them grow!”
10) Every individual character sketch but Superman’s has a better costume/look than the final that they went with.

Rating: 6/10 (There is potential here. Somewhere beneath the madness, there is potential)

Tomorrow, hopefully, I’ll post another bit about the books this week that I liked. Warning: there will be fawning over the ground that Warren Ellis treads.