The World Of Flashpoint Featuring Wonder Woman Is The Best Of The Peripheral Flashpoint Books!

The Good: Interesting characters, Great plots, Decent artwork
The Bad: Some mediocre artwork, Overall irrelevant, like most Flashpoint-related books.
The Basics: The World Of Flashpoint Featuring Wonder Woman is an impressive, if impermanent graphic novel.


When it comes to the Flashpoint Saga, it seems pretty obvious that the perfect marriage of my interests would be in The World Of Flashpoint Featuring Wonder Woman. After all, three years ago, when I began studying a single character from comic books and graphic novels each year, my very first subject was Wonder Woman. So, as I race toward the end of my Flash Year and go through the multi-title crossovers that started with the Flash in Flashpoint (reviewed here!), it seems perfectly reasonable that The World Of Flashpoint Featuring Wonder Woman would be high on my reading list.

The World Of Flashpoint Featuring Wonder Woman is the essential supplemental volume to understand the events surrounding Flashpoint. In Flashpoint, the shattered world altered by Barry Allen is coming to a boiling point, a conflict that seems to have no rational resolution. While the war between the Amazons and Atlanteans is a background event in the main Flashpoint story, it is one of the most intriguing incidents in Flashpoint. That conflict is the centerpiece of the stories in The World Of Flashpoint Featuring Wonder Woman. As a result, The World Of Flashpoint Featuring Wonder Woman is one of the most cohesive volumes in the Flashpoint Saga!

Opening with “Wonder Woman And The Furies,” The World Of Flashpoint Featuring Wonder Woman explores the Amazons in the new world. Fourteen years before the events in Flashpoint, the defiant Princess Diana builds a boat and sets sail to explore the world. That impetuous event brings the attention of a Kraken, who attacks Diana. Diana is rescued by Arthur Curry, King of Atlantis. Years after the rescue, Diana and Arthur move to a marriage of convenience as they announce the presence of the Amazons and Atlanteans to the world. Unfortunately, more conservative elements on both sides arrange for the murder of Diana during the wedding, an assassination attempt that takes the life of Queen Hippolyta instead. What follows is the degeneration of relations between the Atlanteans and Amazons. When the peace talks are attacked by an unknown force, Diana destroys Themyscira and part of the Atlantean fleet. The air force of Themyscira takes the UK and Wonder Woman consolidates power by surrounding herself with loyal female metahumans. Fending off an assassination attempt by Mera, Diana and Arthur Curry move into position to destroy the world they once sought to save.

“Wonder Woman And The Furies” is an entirely political story and it is well told, well-paced and presents two intriguing characters whose best intentions continually come under attack until they are manipulated fully into the worst actions their characters could take. Rendered with brilliant artwork that presents a number of characters clearly and with a wonderful sense of movement, “Wonder Woman And The Furies” is like reading the probable history of the disintegration of the Cold War into an all-out armed conflict. While the characters are initially well-established, it quickly becomes clear that the principals are manipulated from all quarters and that makes this one of the best and most tragic stories in the Flashpoint universe. The real success of it is that, while the plot points are mentioned in virtually every other chapter in the Flashpoint Saga, it still makes for an exceptionally good read and an engaging, well-paced story that is thoroughly engrossing.

“Emperor Aquaman” begins eight month before Flashpoint with Aquaman investigating Rome after the Atlanteans had sunk most of Europe off the map. His tale chronicles the Atlanteans allying themselves with King Brion of Markovia in an attempt to sink New Themyscira. With flashbacks to Aquaman’s origins, his story retells the conspiracy between his brother Orm and Diana’s aunt.

The change in perspective offers a few minor character enhancements, but little else. Still, the story is interesting and the artwork is wonderful, with rich colors. The only problem here is that in a few of the fight scenes, the sense of movement in minimized and, as a result, lacks some of the impact one would like from a graphic novel.

The World Of Flashpoint Featuring Wonder Woman continues with “Lois Lane And The Resistance.” Fleshing out the events alluded to only as background information in the Wonder Woman chapter, “Lois Lane And The Resistance” chronicles Lois Lane’s survival and uncovering of the dark machinations of the Amazons. In Paris covering fashion week when the Atlanteans sink most of western Europe, Lois Lane is rescued by Amazons, witnessing their indifference to men and Christians. She spends thirty-two weeks contained and set for Amazon re-education, gathering information for Cyborg. But, when she is scheduled for conversion to Amazonian, she uses the opportunity to escape and join the Resistance in New Themyscira. Rescued by Penny Black, Grifter, Etrigan, Godiva, Hyde and the Canterbury Cricket, Lois Lane joins the Resistance on a mission to recover Penny’s Britannia armor suit. Betrayed from within, the Resistance runs headlong into a trap that puts Lois Lane’s life in jeopardy!

“Lois Lane And The Resistance” is plagued with inconsistent artwork, especially as the second volume drags on. The story is dragged down by the most sensible type filler the writers could come up with: full backstories for characters like Grifter and Britannia. The thing is, knowing that Grifter and Penny Black are essentially one-shot characters, it is impossible to get emotionally invested in them and care who they are and where they come from, even in the Flashpoint universe. I respect the writers for trying to be thorough, but when Lois Lane has a knife to her throat, it seems a pretty inorganic digression to get Penelope Black’s personal history (or care about it!).

Given how Lois Lane’s emergency broadcast plays an essential role in the main Flashpoint story, where this chapter is going is no real surprise, but it offers some redemption to the Wonder Woman character as we see how Lois gets to where she is headed. This chapter reads as a “necessary evil” chapter in the book.

The final chapter in The World Of Flashpoint Featuring Wonder Woman is “The Outsider.” Seen briefly in Flashpoint as one of the metahumans Cyborg is desperately trying to enlist to save the world, “The Outsider’s” chapter in the book tells the complete story of the unique-to-Flashpoint character. Starting with his mystical birth in Chandigarh in 1960, the story of Michael Desai (the Outsider) is chronicled. Eager to capture Blackout to power all of India, the Outsider is attacked and begins an investigation to find who exactly it is who wants him dead. Confronting Teth-Adam (Black Adam), the Outsider fights to discover the person who wants him dead.

I did not care about “The Outsider” section – at all – until the revelation of the Outsider’s enemy. The villain made me realize exactly who from the DC Universe was missing in all of the Flashpoint crossovers and it was a very clever use of the missing character. In fact, I felt a bit stupid given how important the missing character who appears in “The Outsider’s” chapter was to one of my recent favorites, the Brightest Day Saga. While this chapter (I think) should have been in the World Of Flashpoint Featuring Batman to be more relevant, “The Outsider” turns interesting pretty late. The artwork in the chapter is erratic, but when the villain of the chapter is revealed, the identity of the Outsider becomes subtly obvious and the chapter has enough depth to be enjoyable, if not at all relevant in this book.

Ultimately, The World Of Flashpoint Featuring Wonder Woman might well be the best of the World Of Flashpoint books because it enhances the very simple story presented in Flashpoint with interesting characters and engaging plots.

For other Flashpoint-related books, be sure to check out my reviews of:
The Flash: The Dastardly Death Of The Rogues
The Road To Flashpoint
The World Of Flashpoint Featuring Green Lantern
The World Of Flashpoint Featuring Superman
The World Of Flashpoint Featuring Batman

7/10

For other graphic novel reviews, be sure to visit my Graphic Novel Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Back Bench Of DC Universe Heroes Comes To The Forefront With The Worthwhile Justice League: Cry For Justice!

The Good: Generally wonderful artwork, Good tone, Interesting character moments.
The Bad: Gaps in the story, Elements of the resolution are very unsatisfying.
The Basics: Justice League: Cry For Justice finds the DC Universe in chaos following Final Crisis, leaving Green Lantern and Green Arrow to do some of the heavy lifting.


I quickly realized just how good Justice League: Cry For Justice was when my local library managed to get a new Flash graphic novel in for me via interlibrary loan. I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the next Flash book as part of my Flash Year. Even so, I found myself pleasantly engrossed in Justice League: Cry For Justice and unwilling to stop reading it before I started the new book. I am, by and large, glad that I did.

Set in the darkened world that followed Final Crisis (reviewed here!), Justice League: Cry For Justice has the superhero community reeling still from the loss of Batman. Illustrated with paintings, much like the style of Kingdom Come (reviewed here!), Justice League: Cry For Justice was an unlikely story to captivate me, though I do tend to enjoy many of the stories set in the DC Universe that do not involve the main members of the Justice League. Justice League: Cry For Justice only has the big members of the superhero universe peripherally involved and as a result, has the sense throughout that the heroes who are involved easily could fail.

With the Justice League of America licking its wounds, Hal Jordan decides he has had enough. With evidence that supervillains are congregating, Jordan decides that he and the others ought to bring the fight to the villains. With Oliver Queen at his side, Hal Jordan departs to start dispensing justice. Soon, though, Hal is not alone. Ray Palmer, the Atom, has resurfaced and he is hunting for the supervillain Prometheus, as are Bill the Gorilla (formerly Congorilla) and Starman (Mikaal Tomas). When Prometheus assembles villains in Gotham, the various heroes on his trail meet and decide to team up. Joined by Supergirl and Shazam, the heroes narrowly survive an assault by Clayface.

With all of their leads pointing to the need for backup, Hal Jordan and his team journey to the Justice League Watchtower to ask for help. Aboard the space station, Red Arrow is brutally attacked and Prometheus finally makes his appearance. But when Prometheus cuts through the ranks of the heroes, he inspires a debate about how far is too far and what level of conflict will actually net justice!

“Justice” is, naturally, the buzzword of Justice League: Cry For Justice. Various characters debate through the tome just what the real meaning of justice is and how best to achieve the goal of getting justice for fallen heroes (and dispensing it upon villains). Justice League: Cry For Justice oversteps any murky gray area in the debate, though, by utilizing Ray Palmer as a torturer. Rather troublingly, there is very little debate over how ethical it is for Palmer to enter the bodies of villains and give them headaches until they confess what little they know. Fortunately, author James Robinson is just sophisticated enough to acknowledge that torture is not a reliable source of information, as most of the villains Palmer assaults know nothing the heroes can use.

What is refreshing about Justice League: Cry For Justice is how effectively the second-run heroes actually manage to step up during the crisis. James Robinson takes characters few will care about, most notably Gorilla Bill and Mikaal, and makes them surprisingly vital throughout Justice League: Cry For Justice. With all of their friends slaughtered, they form a reasonable pair of heroes who are quickly challenged to define their own borders as they work unaided by any of the big heroes of the DC Universe. And, late in the book, it was enjoyable to see Donna Troy enter the narrative (this might be the book I’ve read that actually gave her a substantial role!).

From almost the moment Hal Jordan walks out on the Justice League, Justice League: Cry For Justice does something few other books set in the DC Universe do; it reminds readers that Superman is not the absolute good or most powerful individual in the DC mythos. While Supergirl enters the story and events involving Krypton are referenced without any explicit explanation, the book focuses largely on the power of Green Lantern and the principles of Green Arrow. Together, they set a new course and it is a remarkably sensible one.

Justice League: Cry For Justice has Hal Jordan actually policing Earth the way he is supposed to as a Green Lantern. When Superman, Wonder Woman and the Flash leave the narrative, Hal Jordan assumes a rightful mantle of leadership. Even as Green Arrow expresses concern over leaving Dinah and her Justice League to strike out with Jordan, the decision seems like a good one for all concerned and the book presents Hal Jordan as an unconflicted, natural leader. That’s a pretty sensible characterization for a man whose innate power is his willpower.

With art by Mauro Cascioli and Scott Clark, Justice League: Cry For Justice looks exceptionally good. Panel to panel, this is one of the nicest looking graphic novels I have read in a long time! Unfortunately, the panel arrangement is not always the clearest and there are some stretches where the book seems very disorganized. Justice League: Cry For Justice finishes with “bonus features,” vignettes that explore Prometheus’s rise to power and origins of some of the heroes who participate in Justice League: Cry For Justice.

Ultimately, Justice League: Cry For Justice is a worthwhile graphic novel that stylishly overcomes what could be a pretty mundane plot by presenting deep, relevant themes and character events that shake up some very interesting, if second-string heroes!

For other team stories that involve the secondary characters from the DC Universe, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Justice
I Can’t Believe It’s Not The Justice League
Birds Of Prey: Dead Of Winter

7.5/10

For other graphic novel reviews, be sure to check out my Graphic Novel Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Brightest Day Story Without Characters I Care About: Justice League Of America: Dark Things Flounders.

The Good: Moments of character, Moments of artwork
The Bad: Most of the characters are so obscure as to be boring, Story is light on plot, Some of the artwork is more sketch-like than I enjoy.
The Basics: Justice League Of America: Dark Things follows the Jade storyline in Brightest Day and disappoints even readers who like characters far from the mainstream.


I worked at a comic book shop earlier this year and in the three months I worked there, I am pretty sure we never once sold an issue of Justice Society Of America or, if there even is one, Justice League All-Stars. The only experience I had with the Justice Society Of America was through their tangent story in Blackest Night: Black Lantern Corps Vol. 2 (reviewed here!) and not knowing the hero set was a serious detraction to me for that book. That said, it ought to be noted that I have no aversion to tangent stories or characters who are not the frontrunners in the DC Universe. To wit, the last graphic novel I actually bought was Justice League: Generation Lost – Volume 1 (reviewed here!). And part of the appeal of Justice (reviewed here) for me is that the a-list heroes are taken out at the beginning, forcing the b-list heroes to rise to the occasion.

In other words, I was not inherently biased against Justice League Of America: Dark Things when I sat down to read it. I picked it up because Jade was part of the Brightest Day Saga and was one of two characters in that storyline whose tale I was completely ignorant of. Reading Justice League Of America: Dark Things changed that and I cannot say it was honestly worth the experience.

Batman and Donna Troy are helping to train Bill the giant gorilla and Starman when the orbital Justice League Watchtower is rocked. Not attacked, the Watchtower just happened to be in the way of a meteor of a glowing green material. When the meteor crashes to Earth, the near-dead Alan Scott floats toward it and the rock reveals Jade, his daughter. But their reunion is short-lived as Alan Scott is transformed by the rock, a large piece of the Starheart that the Guardians created, and disappears with Obsidian.

Soon, the Earth is rocked by natural forces out of alignment and metahumans like Power Girl going berserk. Under Batman’s guidance, the Justice League takes charge of the situation. While Batman takes the heroes least likely to be affected by the Starheart to Alan Scott’s new base on the moon, the others remain behind to try to keep Earth from tearing itself apart. Jade goes with Batman to confront her father and brother, deeply concerned that Alan Scott, even if only because the Starheart has possessed him, will destroy the world.

Justice League Of America: Dark Things makes a pass at character issues, as Jade finds herself jealous of the prior relationship that Donna Troy appears to have had with Kyle Rayner. Part of the problem with this, though, is that by the time Kyle Rayner entered the narrative, I had already lost interest. The book oscillates between repeating itself – as it does when the captured Justice Society Of America characters make an observation about who is truly in control on the moon – and feeling like it is skipping over important character or plot points.

Nowhere is the feeling that something important is missing more true than when the Brightest Day crossover occurs explicitly. Very near the end, Jade suddenly hears her mission again and within three pages does what she has to do. Part of the irksome aspect of this is that she did not talk about any of the problems or concerns she had in regard to having been resurrected prior to her suddenly becoming a White Lantern again. Sure, she whines about how she did not go see her father after she resurrected, but she does not have the sense of being a person on a mission. In other words, she seems pretty much oblivious to the Entity’s demands upon her.

Most of the artwork looks good, though there are several places – mostly big battle scenes – where characters look far too much like other characters, making it easy to become confused. By contrast, the coloring is rich and engaging and helps the story to flow well. The cover gallery at the end of the anthology book is quite nice.

But in the end, Justice League Of America: Dark Things suffers because of what it actually is and that is an ultimately pointless story. The Starheart is supposed to be an exceptionally powerful cosmic artifact and it takes over the character who is nicknamed the most powerful human alive. That being the case, the ultimate resolution between Alan Scott and the Starheart is vastly unsatisfying. Instead, the book just seems like it is mostly an excuse to fill up panels with a Green Lantern reminiscent of the artwork from Kingdom Come (reviewed here!). While I truly dug that book, it does it a disservice to have it tied to this, lesser, story.

For other Brightest Day works, please check out my reviews of:
Brightest Day - Volume 1
Brightest Day - Volume 2
Brightest Day - Volume 3
Brightest Day: Green Lantern
Brightest Day: Green Lantern Corps - Revolt Of The Alpha-Lanterns
The Black Ring - Volume 1
Green Arrow: Into The Woods
Justice League: Generation Lost - Volume 2

2/10

For other book reviews, please click here!

© W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Blackest Night: Black Lantern Corps – Volume 2 Is A Fractured Volume.

The Good: Moments of story/character, Moments of artwork
The Bad: Stories that require a lot of intimate backstory knowledge, Much of the artwork.
The Basics: Despite having some interesting stories that are important to the overall Blackest Night Saga, Blackest Night: Black Lantern Corps – Volume 2 is way too fractured and poorly presented to recommend.


Some of my regular readers who follow my reviews might think that because my Wonder Woman Year is over, I would have no cause to continue reading DC Universe graphic novels. The truth, however, is that I have such a serious backlog of graphic novel reviews from 2010 that I have yet to post or write that I am still continuing to post reviews based on works I did read last year. One of them is Blackest Night: Black Lantern Corps – Volume 2 and because last year was my Wonder Woman Year, this was one of the anthologies I was most excited to be reading. I had seen the Blackest Night action figure series well in advance of the trade anthology books being published, so I had been eagerly awaiting Wonder Woman’s Blackest Night story. That story is contained in Blackest Night: Black Lantern Corps – Volume 2; it is also a great example of how the graphic novel falls down.

Blackest Night: Black Lantern Corps – Volume 2 is broken into three essential parts and, unfortunately, some of that is broken up even more than necessary or alludes to so much outside what is in the text as to make this one of the least approachable, least readable volumes in the Blackest Night Saga. If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out my article on How To Read Blackest Night (available here!). As that article illustrates, some of the stories contained within Blackest Night: Black Lantern Corps – Volume 2 actually fall within the space of some of the panels within some of the chapters in other Blackest Night books! But, essentially, Volume 2 is the collection which includes the Blackest Night adventures of the Flash, Wonder Woman and the Justice Society Of America. And, alas, it is virtually impossible for me to write about all I read in the volume.

The storyline which contains the Flash is a three-chapter story where the artwork is so bad that it completely distracted me from what the story is supposed to be about. In his chapter, the Flash – who has been abandoned when Hal Jordan is called upon to save the universe by the members of the Indigo Tribe, removing the Green Lantern from Earth – runs to Gorilla City. There, he struggles with the undead gorillas, some of whom were former allies. Meanwhile, Captain Cold stages a jailbreak and in the process discovers undead villains whom he must protect his crew from.

Sadly, the plots of these three stories are vague in my recollection mostly because – and I feel no shame in admitting this – I had no idea what was going on. The story that comprises The Flash contains undead versions of Flash family members (which is pretty common throughout the Blackest Night Saga) and villains whom I had never heard of that seem to have essentially the same powers as Flash. The Reverse Flash comes into play and it seems the whole point of these three stories are to bring the Reverse Flash back into play (he is a relevant character in Brightest Day) and to establish the Blue Lantern version of the Flash. Either way, the artwork, done by Scott Kolins is so distractingly bad that is completely undermines Geoff Johns’ usually coherent prose. Because things like Captain Cold’s raid on the jail are so visually jumbled, it is hard for readers to tell what is going on and the section of the book is almost unreadable.

By contrast, Greg Rucka’s section for Wonder Woman is very easy to understand, save that the story is presented as three abrupt vignettes which do not tie to one another. In the first, Wonder Woman defends Arlington National Cemetary during the Blackest Night. There, she encounters the Black Lantern version of Max Lord and she has to defeat him again, only her prior solution to the Max Lord problem is no longer practical! The second vignette is an abrupt departure, featuring the Black Lantern Wonder Woman (where did she come from?!) who begins going on a murderous rampage and tries to rip apart Mera. But Wonder Woman’s gods are looking down on her and their solution to the problem of a Black Lantern Wonder Woman is actually quite interesting. That leads to the chapter of Wonder Woman’s story where Wonder Woman is given the powers of the Star Sapphire and she must use the power of love to prevent the Red Lantern Mera from killing.

Wonder Woman’s section is annoyingly lacking in cohesion, but the three smaller parts are pretty cool. The irksome aspect is that they do not add up to anything and the reader is simply left feeling like Wonder Woman is being given a token story in the Blackest Night Saga.

The book also contains the three chapters of the Justice Society Of America’s Blackest Night experience. In the story from James Robinson and Tony Bedard, JSA headquarters is attacked by the Black Lantern Lois Lane (from one of the other DC Universes). While under siege, the JSA has to deal with the undead Kal-L and that Black Lantern has to be put down by Power Girl. While Power Girl delays the Black Lanterns, the rest of the Justice Society tries to learn what they can about how to defeat the Black Lanterns and they make a discovery that none of the other heroes have made.

The artwork by three pencillers is some of the best in the Blackest Night Saga. The images have a great sense of flow and the characters look good, even if readers who are unfamiliar with the JSA are likely to not know who it is they are looking at. The character-driven aspects of these stories works well for the readers and the JSA story is surprisingly relevant to the overall Saga.

Unfortunately, it is now quite enough to recommend Volume 2. This book holds up poorly on its own and if there is ever an Absolute Blackest Night one suspects these stories will be chopped to be included in a relevant way into that tome.

For other volumes in the Blackest Night Saga, please check out my reviews of:
Blackest Night
Blackest Night: Green Lantern
Blackest Night: Green Lantern Corps
Blackest Night: Rise Of The Black Lanterns
Blackest Night: Tales Of The Corps
Blackest Night: Black Lantern Corps - Volume 1

3.5/10

For other graphic novel reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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