Let’s be honest, I don’t think anyone or almost anyone in the room had any hopes for ‘The Flash’. Above all after both production nightmare (changes of directors almost every year) as with all the scandals surrounding its leading man, Ezra Miller. However, everything has changed with three minutes of trailer.
I was slightly disconnected from the movie so the poster already baffled me. It was unusually good for the average we have with blockbusters. (not just superheroics). The trailer, beyond the nostalgic touch of seeing Michael Keaton again in the Batman suit, showed a story that is ambitious on the one hand and, on the other, appeals to the fandom with Marvel’s own tricks.
Beyond marketing issues, the film by Andy Muschietti points out that it can be a pleasant reconciliation for those who, like me, did not agree with Zack Snyder’s vision of the DC universe, of which ‘The Flash’ is the clear heir.
Flashpoint as a point of no return
In fact, that gloomy tone is seen a bit when presenting us with that alternative universe that creates Barry Allen, this Flashpoint, trying to save his mother: a world without superheroes, without people who inspire humanity. But a more optimistic, luminous tone is intuited.
The fact that we are facing a sort of film version of Flashpoint, the event that defined DC comics for the past decade, may indicate that ‘The Flash’ has the “mission” to sweep the house and usher in the new DC Universe by James Gunn and Peter Safran… and also that there are alternate versions (DC Elseworlds).
Flashpoint was at the time quite a blow on the DC table, that I decided to erase enough of the canon that had been active for a quarter of a century, since ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ (and some retcon here and there). Traveling back in time to save his mother, Barry Allen sparked an alternate universe in a story written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Andy Kubert.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about this alternate universe, at least as described in the comic, It’s the absence of DC’s inspiring Holy Trinity: Batman is much more violent and dark; Wonder Woman’s Amazons are at war with Atlantis and there’s no sign of Superman.
Here it seems that things change moderately, especially when from what we see in the trailer neither Batman is the violent Thomas Wayne nor is Superman locked in a laboratory. That person Kryptonian is Kara Zor-El. The costume, in fact, looks more like Superwoman’s than classic Supergirl’s.
Prologue for the new DC
The history led to this new DC universe and in the cinema it could be the excuse to, in fact, propose a curious bridge between previous adaptations and those to come from Warner’s superheroes. As a sample, at the end of ‘Flashpoint’ the universes of WildStorm and Vertigo were merged into the DC Universe. One of the projects is ‘The Authority’, belonging to WildStorm.
What is clear is that if Warner did not get rid of ‘The Flash’ when it seemed canceled based on the controversy with its protagonist. They strongly believe in this movie and they have conveyed it perfectly with their impressive first trailer. Now it’s time to wait until June 16 to see the result.