Before The Flash speeds into theaters with its own take on Flashpoint, let’s slow down a minute to revisit how the recently ended TV series tackled the iconic comic book storyline.
Directed by Andy Muschietti (of the IT films), the standalone Flash movie — nearly nine years in the making — finds Barry Allen (played by Justice League‘s Ezra Miller) using his superpowers to travel back in time in
order to change the events of the past. But when Bar’s attempt to save his family inadvertently alters the future, he becomes trapped in a new reality — one in which General Zod (Man of Steel‘s Michael Shannon) has returned, threatening annihilation.
In the movie, Barry in order to correct this paradox must coax a Batman (played by Michael Keaton) out of retirement and rescue an imprisoned Kryptonian (though it’s not Superman, as in the comics, but Supergirl, played by Sasha Calle). The film’s cast also includes Ron Livingston as Henry Allen, Kiersey Clemons (Fairfax) as Iris West, Antje Traue (reprising her own Man of Steel role of Faora-Ul, and Ben Affleck.
Understandably, the Flash TV series’ approach to Flashpoint could not be as grand in scale as the film’s, let alone the comic book arc that spanned more than 60 issues. But it still was comprised of some of the 184-episode Arrowverse series’ best episodes, as detailed below….
-
Part 1: 'The Race for His Life'
Image Credit: Courtesy of The CW The Flash‘s Season 2 finale revolved around the climax of the Zoom threat, with the sinister speedster (played by Teddy Sears) challenging Flash to a race. Of course, Zoom’s ulterior motive was to use the energy generated by the two-speedster race to power a magnetar with which he could rip Earth-2 (and an infinite number of Earths, for that matter) in half.
Bar, still running hot (no pun intended) from his father Henry’s very recent murder at Zoom’s hands, is poised to accept the challenge, so Iris and the rest of Team Flash lock him in the pipeline to cool down. But when the team’s plan to send Zoom back to whence he came — Earth-2 — accidentally also knocks Joe into the alternate world, Wally frees Barry to rejoin the fight.
Barry winds up racing Zoom, but pulls a page from his rival’s playbook by creating a “time remnant” version of himself to help save Joe along the way. The remnant also reverses the polarity of the energy pulse being generated, shutting down the portal to Earth-2 and rendering the magnetar useless. The time wraiths that Zoom had been dodging since coming to Earth-1 then show up to haul him away (and give us a Black Flash tease that was never followed up on).
Back at STAR Labs in the aftermath of this big win, Harry and Cisco figure out how to remove the iron mask from the Earth-3 speedster, Jay Garrick, that Zoom had kidnapped, imprisoned and leached speed from. When Barry sees that Jay is his recently killed father’s doppelgänger, he freaks out. So later, after kissing Iris for the first time (again), Bar sneaks off to do something he feels he must do — speed back to the past and stop Reverse-Flash from slaying his mother Nora!
A torturous summer hiatus followed….
-
Part 2: 'Flashpoint'
Image Credit: Netflix screenshot Season 3 picks up months later, with a happy-go-lucky Barry enjoying his “new” life. He’s no longer The Flash (a new speedster dubbed “Kid Flash” has been out there saving the days), his mom and dad are now both alive again (if itching for their grown son to move out), and he just got elementary school classmate Iris West to agree to go out on a date for… iced tea?
But all is not quite perfect. Detective Joe West is a bit of a slacker prone to day drinking/late starts. Kid Flash aka Wally has no “team” behind him, just his sister Iris. (Cisco, meanwhile, is a billionaire running his biz out of the old STAR Labs building, and Caitlin is a pediatric ophthalmologist.)
Plus, Barry is starting to be waylaid by painful flashes of his old life and his previous relationships with the familiar faces he runs into.
Courtesy of Everett Collection Did we mention that Barry is holding Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash prisoner in some abandoned industrial garage, ever since he stopped the speedster from killing Nora? Diagnosing Barry’s painful flashes, Thawne gloats that it is a side effect of the new “Flashpoint” timeline he created by changing the past. Barry is forgetting his previous existence little by little — and soon will remember none of it.
When a run-in with Kid Flash’s latest foe, a speedster named The Rival, leads to Wally being near-fatally stabbed, Barry realizes he must make things right by restoring the old timeline. And with Barry now unable to speed himself, Thawne gladly lugs his arch enemy back to the past, where Reverse-Flash can kill Nora all over again.
Alas, upon returning to the present after his mom’s latest death, Barry gleans that things are better yet askew in new ways. For example, Iris and Joe are not talking to each other, and haven’t been for a while. Meanwhile, Ed Clariss — who in Flashpoint was The Rival, but now is oblivious to that existence — is beseeched by an ominous voice to “wake up,” as the name ALCHEMY etches itself on a nearby mirror….
-
Part 3: 'Paradox'
Image Credit: The CW screenshot The second episode of Season 3 opens with Barry racing over to sister series Arrow’s Foundry, to seek out Felicity Smoak’s advice about what to do about his self-inflicted predicament. What’s more, during his visit with Felicity, Barry discovers that Flashpoint had other repercussions all over, such as Diggle now being a dad to a boy named John, not a girl named Sara. Short of telling Iris & Co. what exactly happened, Felicity’s best advice is for Barry — who, like pudding, is liked by everyone — to do that thing he does and just fix things.
To that end, Barry back in Central City tries to broker peace between Iris and Joe, as well as mend a deep rift between him and Cisco (which stems from the fact that in this timeline, Cisco’s brother Dante died in a car accident and Bar refused to go back in time and undo it). Along the way, Barry at the CCPD learns that he now works alongside a dickish CSI named Julian Albert (Harry Potter‘s Tom Felton).
That night, a dinner party organized by Bar to address Team Flash’s assorted tensions goes horribly sideways, and luckily is interrupted by a metahuman alert. Barry speeds off to find himself again face-to-face with The Rival, now that Clariss has been “awakened” to his true, Flashpoint potential. After the speedsters’ skirmish, Iris confronts Barry, pointing to security cam footage that shows he already knew Ed Clariss. Barry keeps mum in details, but vows to fix things. But before he can tinker with the timeline yet again, Earth-3’s Jay Garrick stops him in his speed force tracks, then lectures him on the OG timeline can never ever be quite the same.
Barry then comes clean to Team Flash, explaining in detail how he altered the timeline, and did so yet again when trying to rectify things. The disclosure that Barry went back in time to save his mom only exacerbates things between him and Cisco, though after a heartfelt appeal from Barry, Cisco later shows up with an early take on his Vibe regalia to help Barry take down The Rival for good.
With the truth now out, a path is set for Iris and Joe to make amends (they head off to Jitters together), while Cisco warms back up to his BFF (and even starts coining villain names again). As for Caitlin, Barry tells her he is relieved that she in this timeline is same as ever — though it is then revealed to viewers that she has started to manifest ice powers.
Later, we see Barry and Iris once again broach the topic of finally starting a relationship, sealing their conversation with an encore of their first, Season 2 finale kiss.
A closing stinger shows Ed Clariss locked up in Iron Heights, begging an unseen Alchemy for another chance, only to be suddenly mauled the the large, metal, claw-like hand of what will later be revealed as Savitar….
How well (and how fondly) do you remember The Flash‘s take on Flashpoint? (Those were the days, eh?) And will you be racing out to see the big-screen, bigger-scale adaptation of the comic book arc?
"TV" - Google News
June 12, 2023 at 06:00AM
https://ift.tt/esVjfc7
‘The Flash’ Flashpoint Story Explained — TV Series vs. Movie - TVLine
"TV" - Google News
https://ift.tt/hQWULYr
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "‘The Flash’ Flashpoint Story Explained — TV Series vs. Movie - TVLine"
Post a Comment