Today marks the first day of the brand new DC comics relaunch. For months now you’ve most likely heard or seen the barrage of publicity surrounding this whole thing, but here’s the “cliffs notes” for those of you that haven’t. Back in may DC started their big summer event Flashpoint which saw an alternate DC universe due to someone changing the time stream. In this world the only person who remembered things the way they were was Barry Allen, The Flash. Also Aquaman and Wonder Woman are at war, which threatens the whole world, Hal Jordan never became a Green Lantern, Cyborg is Americas greatest hero, and Batman isn’t Bruce Wayine. Throughout Flashpoint we see Barry trying to work with “alternate” versions of the heroes we know and love to fix the timestream. In June DC had announced that everything in the DC universe will change as a result of the end of Flashpoint. Not all of the continuity will be wiped, however it will be compressed into about 5 years worth of time. Also the characters will be slightly de-aged and some of the history will be toyed with, I’ll come back to that later.  Before I get into Flashpoint #5 and Justice League #1 let me warn you that I will try to stay as spoiler free and vague as possible, but I will be talking about what happens in the books so there are bound to be some spoilers. This is your warning to not read anymore if you don’t want anything potentially spoiled!

Flashpoint #5:

The finale of Flashpoint begins with Barry Allen confronting Professor Zoom, who has been portrayed as the one who caused the alternate universe. However very quickly we find out who the real “villain” of the story is. There is a big fight, a heartfelt moment, and then the world is changed into the new DC universe. This issue flowed very nicely between all of those ups and downs and wraps the series up in a nice way. There are two scenes that really stole this book for me. One is between Barry Allen and his Mother. His mother is alive in the Flashpoint world and dead in the regular world and its basically him saying his goodbyes. The other is a scene between Barry and Batman after everything is back to “normal.” Geoff Johns wrote the hell out of these two scenes and even got this big softy to  choke up a little. As far as the art goes I’m a little torn. There are some moments when Andy Kubert’s pencils really shine. However there are a few panels here and there that look a little rushed.

The big part of this book is the transition into the new status quo. Its not too sciency and I don’t think that it will go over anyone’s head. There is a double page spread that shows how we get from the Flashpoint universe to the relaunch. It answers how the Vertigo and Wildstorm characters end up in the DCnU. There are some questions raised in this, and I have a few theories that I will explore in more detail in a future post.

All in all I enjoyed Flashpoint #5 and think it is a proper sendoff the old DC Universe!

Story – 4 out of 5 / Art – 3.5 out of 5

Justice League #1

This first arc of Justice League shows us how they first came together.  Its’No longer is Starro the reason Batman, Superman, and the rest join forces. There is a darker threat that brings everyone together. Issue 1 is kind of a buddy cop story. It is the first meeting between Batman and Hal Jordan, both early in their time as super-heroes. Hal is very arrogant and Batman is very pissy. This makes for a great combination and some awesome back and forth dialogue between the two. There is a mystery to be solved that involves alien technology so the two track down the only alien that they know of, yet neither have met, Superman. It seemed to me that Geoff Johns was just having fun writing this, which in turn caused me to have a blast reading it.

The art in this issue was nothing short of perfection. Jim Lee KILLED it on this book! There is so much detail in every panel. However, I don’t think Jim should get all the credit. I think the reason the art in this issue is so good is that it is the perfect blend of pencils from Jim Lee, inks from Scott Williams, and beautiful vivrant  colors from Alex Sinclair.

Justice League #1 is a great jumping on point for those of you that have stayed away because of the intimidation of years of continuity. Guess what? This is a brand new beginning, this is the DC Universe from the beginning. You can tell a lot of love and care has been put into this book, and it should! This is Justice League! It’s supposed to be the flagship book of the entire DC line and for too long has been a mediocre to awful book. Geoff Johns and Jim Lee have breathed new life into the Justice League and it’s already got me begging for more. For those of you that were on the fence I’d definitely say this is worth getting. And if the rest of the books in the “New 52” have the same energy and excitement as this, then I think DC has grand slam on their hands!

Story – 4 out of 5 / Art – 5 out of 5

I will continue to review all of the first issues of the new 52 through the rest of September. Here are the books coming out next week.

Action Comics #1

Animal Man #1

Batgirl #1

Batwing #1

Detective Comics #1

Green Arrow #1

Hawk and Dove #1

Justice League International #1

Men of War #1

O.M.A.C. #1

Static Shock #1

Stormwatch #1

Swamp Thing #1