The events that took place in The Flash Rebirth revealed that Barry Allen’s mother, Nora Allen, was killed by the Reverse Flash. Eobard Thawne revealed to Barry that he traveled to when he was a child and changed history, a history that took his mother and framed his father for the murder. If this sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the background for the updated Flash series. Geoff Johns penned Rebirth and he is also a writher for the series. What happens next helped to reboot the DC Comics universe in 2011 and seems to be the inspiration for season 3 of the show. Barry Allen traveled back in time to save his mother from being murdered. He changed history not only for himself, but a side effect was that he also changed the entire world.
Flashpoint issue 1, also written by Johns, begins immediately in the new world. Barry Allen thinks that he is the Flash except there isn’t any such person. He doesn’t have any super-powers. His mother is alive and well, although his father had died years earlier. The world has it’s own problems to deal with. There is a battle for global domination from two groups: followers of Aquaman and Wonder Woman. It’s taken millions of lives already. Batman is a much more violent defender now and it’s only the beginning. It seems that even the Reverse Flash is still ever present even in this world.
This is one of my favorite Flash stories of all time because at it’s core it’s all about him but the effects of the time change have created some of the most startling incarnations of characters that we have become familiar with. The most startling of all is the Batman of the story and with that the Joker.
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