This is the final month of DC's Flashpoint event, and as such I will keep those reviews seperate from the final regular issue reviews. Let's get to this week's books:
Flashpoint: Deathstroke #3 (of 3) - the plot of this one pretty much went as I expected. Deathstorke finds who has his daughter and mounts a rescue. My problem was the art. There were two artists on this issue and it is very obvious where it switched from one to the other. The second half of the issue was far from good. Yuck. I think that's part of what ruined this mini for me - inconsistent art. Deathstroke can be an amazingly dynamic character but if the art isn't the same it drags things down. Very disappointing.
Flashpoint: Secret Seven #3 (of 3) - art did this mini in for me too. First issue with George Perez pencils were amazing. That switched with issue two. Issue three was the worst. The art had a heavy feel to it thanks to very thick, very dark inking. This book should have been flowing and dynamic, but it turned out fat and blocky. It does set up one plot point that is important in issue 4 of the main Flashpoint mini - so I am glad I decided to read this one first. Another poorly concluded mini.
World of Flashpoint #3 (of 3) - Traci 13's adventure ends with a bang. As I predicted with issue 1, this one was kind of key to the main Flashpoint mini. We certainly get scenes from that one in this issue. However, the story does stand on its own too and we get a complete story out of it. It ends on a note of hope, something that this dark reality seems to be lacking a lot of. In hindsight, I probably should have read this one after #4 of the main Flashpoint mini but it didn't ruin it much.
Flashpoint #4 (of 5) - this is the main mini and one that continues to be enjoyable on its own. Yes, we see references to Hal Jordan, Queen Industries and events from the Atlantean/Amazon war from other minis, but you get enough that you need to know from the panels. Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert jam pack every page in this book which I liked - and was needed to move the story to where it needed to be for the finale next issue. This issue has a lot of movement and action, but the character moments are there too. You get the feel for the S!H!A!Z!A!M! kids and Element Woman (one at least will be showing up in the DCnU come September). You feel Barry Allen's frustration as the memories of the world he knows continues to slip from his mind. And you see the conflict between Barry and Thomas Wayne (that one line on page 12 shows you how much respect Barry has for his Batman). Of course, the final panel is no surprise - we all know who is behind this reality and there has to be a showdown before things can get "realligned" for September. And from all the solicitations for the next two months, we know that Barry is not going to be able to put this Humpty-Dumpty-timeline back together again completely right.
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