The Flashpoint Paradox

 The Flashpoint Paradox is a 2013,  direct to DVD, PG-13,  Justice League 
release which fell far below the radar,  but delivers one of the best DC comic 
stories committed to their ever growing library of less than child oriented,  
animated movies. This tale begins with the building pace of a feature film and 
moves forward at a tempo worthy of speedster Barry Allen.  

   Based on the 2011 graphic novel by Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert of the same 
name,  screen writer Jim Krieg sculpts a chronicle of the Flash which starts 
fast by familiarizing the audience with Barry Allen as the Flash as he foils a 
Flash themed museum heist, attempted by all of his most famous foes;  including 
Captain Cold, Captain Boomerang, Heat Wave, Mirror Master, and Top to name a 
few. 

   This also provides the footing for the films notoriously do Gooding hero's, 
the Justice League, to step in and save the day.  We are given but a quick 
glimpse of the benevolent League's driving will to serve justice, providing a 
stark contrast to the corrupted group in the deviant reality.  A reality created 
by one simple, temporal mistake made by Barry. 

   For the Flash, what starts out as an innocent desire to fix a personal, past 
mistake after accidentally disobeying the laws of time during a faster than 
light, emotionally fueled run, leads us to an almost unrecognizable world in the 
current time line. 

   For upon reawakening in the present ,  Barry sees that the past changes made,  
facilitated by a child's love for his mother,  grew into apocalyptic death and 
destruction.  We are confronted with a world where Barry never had that faithful 
lightning bolt flash which gave him his fantastic powers,  a world where 
Superman was found,  not by the loving Kent family,  but by the conspiring 
government and kept locked away under a malnourishing,  red sun-lamp,  and a 
reality where Joe Chill never killed Thomas Wayne,  but his only child Bruce, so 
many years ago. Events leading still to the Cape and Cowl patrolling Gotham,  
but with the vengeance of Thomas Wayne who is not afraid to us a gun and kill a 
criminal or two.  

   This movie takes us along a uniquely explored time paradox,  as explained to 
the Flash by his polar opposite Doctor Zoom.  Any change to the time line 
creates a ripple effect,  like a stone dropped in water,  effecting events both 
before and after the Paradox. 

   Though most of all,  we are given an original Flash centered story,  with the 
problem and solution worthy of only the Flash and an opportunity to show the 
world why the fastest man alive continues to win the race as one of the most 
recognized and followed heroes in comic book history,  parallel or otherwise. 

by john SMITH