Flashpoint: A Reading Guide

DC's 2011 crossover event Flashpoint ran from May to August 2011, with tie-in issues coming in between. Most of the tie-in issues were either 3-issue miniseries, generally telling the story from the perspective of another hero in the DCU, and others were one-shots. Some of the stories served as prequels, explaining how one part of the story came to be, while others expanded on one particular aspect of the story, directly leading up to it in the main story.

Now, the story can't really be told in its original serial format. Paperbacks, physical and digital, focus on particular worlds in Flashpoint so you're much better reading the main series first, then picking and choosing the assorted tie-ins that you like. Today we'll give an overview of (most) of those tie-ins, to help you decide what you want to read!

• Flashpoint: The main five-issues series. Read this first to get the broad strokes of the story.
• Lois Lane and the Resistance: This 3-issue mini tells the perspective of how Lois managed to "infiltrate" the enemy lines of an Amazon-occupied Paris and broadcast the truth out to the general public. It directly leads to Flashpoint #5, and is directly preceded by the Canterbury Cricket #1 one-shot. You can skip this.
• World of Flashpoint: Included in this paperback are the Citizen Cold/Kid Flash Lost miniseries, and the Grodd of War/Reverse-Flash one-shots. All of them are well worth reading.
• There was the occasional tie-in that had some legs, and had potential to carry its own ongoing. Green Arrow Industries and Deadman and the Flying Graysons were two of these, in my opinion. Green Arrow is a story of redemption, much in the way that Oliver Queen's origin story turned out to be. It's a compelling one-shot that made me interested in a second. Deadman and the Flying Graysons was an adventure comic that tried to shine a light of optimism over the shadow of pessimism -- and I think it succeeded.
• I was whelmed with the Superman tie-in, Flashpoint: Project Superman, as well as the Legion of Doom. I didn't get much out of these stories for different reasons. Project Superman is about the government attempt to create a person capable of defending the world from the superheroes. It's almost like a spy thriller, but gets bogged down in uncompelling soap opera drama. Legion of Doom would be worth a read, but the tone of comedy and violent despair clashed very poorly for me.
• Batman: Knight of Vengeance works as a straight Elseworld for Batman, and also a nifty introduction to the Azzarello/Risso house of crime noir comics. I recommend it.
• Emperor Aquaman is a solid origin story for the Aquaman of Flashpoint, told in a dignified Arthurian style. The Wonder Woman and the Furies miniseries somewhat tries to do the same for Wonder Woman, but doesn't match the level of quality. The Wonder Woman one leads directly to the Flashpoint conclusion.
• Then you have the mystical ones. I did not much care to read through these, but I did read Frankenstein's miniseries, Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown. It somehow manages to tell a traditional superhero story with an extremely untraditional cast, and for that I give it my kudos.

In the end, I was impressed with the story as a whole. Editors at DC had a whole stable of characters that they had to manage and tightly synchronize for five months. It's fun to read how things tied in, in different stories, and it's a marvel that each series can stand alone, as well as contribute to the whole story. It must have been a feat to edit this whole thing, so, my hats off to DC Comics!

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