"And they all lived happily ever after": (Re-) Reading the Pre-Flashpoint DCU

[chastmastr]

"And they all lived happily ever after": (Re-) Reading the Pre-Flashpoint DCU

I've been pondering some ideas (again, along the lines of the stuff in my sig) for how to read--or re-read--the pre-Flashpoint DCU in the most satisfying way, with a sense of proper closure--not leading into Flashpoint and the reboot, but simply treating it as the "last chapter" of that world. Some series really did give that sense, but others did not--and others, I think, need to be separated into a sort of pre-Flashpoint prelude and put into the "new 52" box as part of what leads up to it.

Originally, I was going to write all of these (again, see essays in sig) in rough chronological order, which would mean that the most recent reboots of the DCU would be nearly the last thing to be written--but since so many of us here on these boards seem to feel bereft of the most recent iterations of our beloved characters, I am thinking that perhaps it would be nice to do this sooner rather than later.

This is not--please, please, we already have seventy-two billion threads all about what people don't like about the new 52--a thread remotely about disliking the new continuity, or talking about what we miss from the last one (which has its own quite nice thread already). Or, for that matter, how we might like the new continuity. It's just a "how one could read or re-read the books in the last continuity to give a satisfying sense of closure to that batch of books" thread. I'm thinking more or less of the material from Infinite Crisis (which soft-rebooted the DCU, sort of) up till just before Flashpoint.

(I do the same thing with my other comics, by the by. It's all in the essays linked in my sig. You think I'm long-winded here? HA!)

Thoughts?

[Ghostbuster]

Well the ending of Brightest Day was a cliffhanger where Firestorm finds out he's going to go supernova and wipe everything out. So even if the reboot didn't happen the old DCU was going to blow up anyway.

[chastmastr]

Um, yeah, I think we could see that as a plot-point that didn't go anywhere because of the reboot rather than the best possible ending for years of stories and characterization.

[chastmastr]

Oh, here's what was going to happen with Firestorm. Dang, that could have been a good series, but one could (for example) take this as the resolution of that particular plot-point.

[Buried Alien]

Nearly all of the old DCU ended on dangling plotlines. Superman's GROUNDED was done, but everything else seemed to be cut short in the middle.

Ahead of COIE in 1985, DC rushed to bring all ongoing storylines to an end.

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[Theozilla]

Oh, here's what was going to happen with Firestorm. Dang, that could have been a good series, but one could (for example) take this as the resolution of that particular plot-point.

That really does sound good, while I don't think the current series is terrible, it simple is "not bad" and/or "okay". But not nearly as great as it could have been.

As for closure, I don't really see how that would work for characters like Batman, Green Lantern, and Swamp Thing who all are basically still continuing from pre-Flashpoint plots.

[chastmastr]

Oh, it's not perfect, but it could still make for an enjoyable read.

[Ghostbuster]

How is green lantern continuing from pre flashpoint? In blackest night it showed Hal was friends with martian manhunter for years and in the one year later story a different version of the justice league shows up. However in the new universe there was only 1 JL (the big 6 + cyborg) and Hal only knew j'onn j'onzz briefly and it ended in a battle. So unless the green lantern title is taking place in the future or in an alternate reality it's not continuing from pre flashpoint.

[Theozilla]

How is green lantern continuing from pre flashpoint? In blackest night it showed Hal was friends with martian manhunter for years and in the one year later story a different version of the justice league shows up. However in the new universe there was only 1 JL (the big 6 + cyborg) and Hal only knew j'onn j'onzz briefly and it ended in a battle. So unless the green lantern title is taking place in the future or in an alternate reality it's not continuing from pre flashpoint.

Yeah specific details are different, but the major plot points of Johns run on Green Lantern are still in continuity, Parallax, the colored Corps, the Sinestro Corps War, and Blackest Night all still happened in some form or another.

[Algus]

Some of the in-print books at the time ended really well. Others were very meh. If you were looking at where best to end those books, you might have to start thinking about whether the last few issues were worth reading or not. Some of the books didn't actually get proper endings though because the writers were pulled from the last couple of issues so they could work on New 52. This happened with Gail Simone on Birds of Prey. If I was going to try and find the proper ending to Birds, I'd probably go all the way back to #127 of the original run and suggest Vol. 2 only as "supplemental storylines." Other books like Gotham City Sirens seemed to end on a note that would set up New 52, dunno if you'd want those around either or not.

Comic books always have unresolved plot threads, so that doesn't worry me to much. Every time writers change on a book, it seems like some threads are left dangling in the wind.

[chastmastr]

Yeah specific details are different, but the major plot points of Johns run on Green Lantern are still in continuity, Parallax, the colored Corps, the Sinestro Corps War, and Blackest Night all still happened in some form or another.

I thinlk that's the thing. For me, for instance, the characters and personalities and relationships rather than the broad brushstrokes of battles and the like are more significant, so (for example) Hal and J'Onn being friends or not makes the division between pre- and post-Flashpoint much greater than whether or not they all teamed up to fight X.

[chastmastr]

Some of the in-print books at the time ended really well. Others were very meh. If you were looking at where best to end those books, you might have to start thinking about whether the last few issues were worth reading or not.

Absolutely. Booster Gold, for instance, I would end several issues before because I seem to recall things concluding on a pretty satisfying note at that point.

[chastmastr]

Been very busy, but I still plan on doing this.

So far we can see...

Superman: At the end of the Doomsday storyline, he and Lois are happy together, and at end of Grounded, we see that he has inspired some kind of heroic legacy going into the future. (This is more what I would have liked to see happen to everyone, honestly.)

Batman: Technically still going on in Grant Morrison's upcoming Batman, Incorporated, if one chooses to read it that way: " I think it's hopefully going to dodge the question of the weird continuity problems. Hopefully we'll be able to dodge that entirely. [Laugher] So when Grant's full Batman run is completely done, you'll be able to read it all from start to finish and the "Flashpoint" thing won't even register." Works for me!

Wonder Woman: In an ideal world, I'd snip this run off at the end of Simone's run and wholly ignore the Straczynski run, but apparently it gets referenced in enough other books that this is hard to do, so I can be content with the end of the Straczynski run in which (apparently) the Amazons, Themiscyra, Hippolyta and Diana are all returned to normal.

[chastmastr]

Going on to the next tier, as it were:

Flash: There are really two options, I'd say, for where to cut Flash (mainly Wally but also Barry) off. My feeling is that Geoff Johns' 12-issue pre-Flashpoint Barry Allen series was more of a lead-in to Flashpoint than anything else, so I'd actually put it as a sort of prelude to Flashpoint, which leaves either Flash: Rebirth or the final issue of the previious Flash series. However, I think Flash: Rebirth is still setting up story beats which come up in Flash, shoving Wally a bit off to the side, and the like, so I think I'd put that as part of that Flashpoint prelude, and conclude the Flash run with the last issue of the Flash series, which has Wally's kids cured of their speed problems (despite what later happens in Flash: Rebirth) and Wally taking some time off to spend with his family (rather than just sort of being shunted off to the side forever). Barry is back, but it isn't anything angsty, and I think that's a fine place to leave everything.

Green Lantern: This one is tough, mainly because there's no good stopping place for him and the Corps. Everything seems to lead into some other thing--Final Crisis into Blackest Night into Brightest Day. I would honestly end it where the series ends just before Flashpoint, and perhaps this explains why Earth's Green Lantern in the not-too-distant future is a blus whale in the Last Days of Animal Man series. But I still would have preferred something different for Hal.

[Buried Alien]

Flash: There are really two options, I'd say, for where to cut Flash (mainly Wally but also Barry) off. My feeling is that Geoff Johns' 12-issue pre-Flashpoint Barry Allen series was more of a lead-in to Flashpoint than anything else, so I'd actually put it as a sort of prelude to Flashpoint, which leaves either Flash: Rebirth or the final issue of the previious Flash series. However, I think Flash: Rebirth is still setting up story beats which come up in Flash, shoving Wally a bit off to the side, and the like, so I think I'd put that as part of that Flashpoint prelude, and conclude the Flash run with the last issue of the Flash series, which has Wally's kids cured of their speed problems (despite what later happens in Flash: Rebirth) and Wally taking some time off to spend with his family (rather than just sort of being shunted off to the side forever). Barry is back, but it isn't anything angsty, and I think that's a fine place to leave everything.

I think it would have been a great, emotional bookend with COIE if, in some transitional story, Wally, in full Flash costume, met with a civilian-attired Barry, removed his Flash cowl, and gave it to Barry, giving a brief, emotional speech to Barry that he was proud to have followed in Barry's steps as the Flash, but now wanted/needed to spend more time with his family, and thus now officially giving the Flash role back to his returned mentor/predecessor.

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