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Comic Book / Flashpoint (DC Comics)

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"Everything you know will change in a flash!"

What would you do if you woke up one morning and discovered that everything around you had changed, so much so that even the familiar is so alien, they are almost unrecognizable? And not only that, but this new world is teetering on the brink of superpowered war? This is the world which Barry Allen finds himself in; this is the world of Flashpoint.

Superman is nowhere to be found; in his place, Cyborg is the world's greatest hero. Likewise, Barry's enemy Captain Cold - or rather, Citizen Cold - has filled his spot as Central City's protector. Hal Jordan never became Green Lantern; Abin Sur remains the protector of Sector 2814. Batman, who is now Thomas Wayne, rather than his son, is uncharacteristically brutal. And most pressingly, Wonder Woman is at war with Aquaman with the former conquering the United Kingdom and the latter sinking the rest of Western Europe into the sea; if left unchecked the Amazons and Atlanteans will devastate the world.

Flashpoint is a Crisis Crossover published by DC Comics, written by Geoff Johns and penciled by Andy Kubert; the series details an altered DC Universe in which only Barry Allen seems to be aware of very significant differences between the regular timeline and the altered one he awakes in. Consisting of a limited five issue run, the series also involved sixteen 3-issue mini series, four one-shots, and a tie-in arc in Booster Gold. It was preceded by four issues of "The Road to Flashpoint" in The Flash #9-#12.

This event led to a complete reboot of the DC universe starting with Justice League #1 on August 31st 2011. Most notably, Flashpoint's conclusion served as the starting point for DC's company-wide relaunch, New 52. It subsequently led to two other major events, the first being Convergence, where Braniac allows the three main iterations (and then some!) of the DC Universe to finally meet (though not on pleasant terms), with these encounters leading to all three universes being able to co-exist, and DC Rebirth, where it seems another party got involved with Barry's actions. The Button, a 2017 crossover between Batman and The Flash, serves as a sequel to Flashpoint as well as a continuation of the story that began in DC Universe: Rebirth #1.

A sequel miniseries called Flashpoint Beyond began in 2022 that focuses on the alternate-timeline’s Thomas Wayne returning to his native timeline.

An Animated Adaptation as part of the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line titled Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox was released July 30, 2013. A low-key Lighter and Softer version of this storyline was used as the premiere of The Flash (2014) Season Three. The Flash (2023) also serves as a loose adaptation of the story.

Not to be confused with the TV show nor the Elseworlds story of the same name, Flashpoint (1999) (though that also involves the Flash).

    Titles 

Main titles

Three-issue miniseries

One-shots

Flashpoint provides examples of:

  • Adaptation Expansion: Flashpoint allows for Abin Sur's character to be expanded upon significantly, unlike his regular universe counterpart who died in his first appearance and was only seen in flashbacks following afterwards.
  • A Day in the Limelight: This series is for Flash what Blackest Night was for Green Lantern. Other than that, though, many of this universe's major heroes are second stringers (Cyborg is practically this universe's Superman), or in the case of the Green Lantern Abin Sur and the Batman Thomas Wayne, are dead in the main DCU.
  • All There in the Manual: As issue 5 explains, Barry went back in time to try saving his mother. In the previous Flash series that had ended just before this event started, he had been motivated to do this by a special mirror the first Mirror Master had created, which had been designed to infect Barry with his heart's desire until he couldn't ignore it.
  • Alternate Timeline: One where everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong, and then some.
  • Amazon Brigade: Yes, even the Amazons have one. The Furies are an elite group of female warriors who serve Wonder Woman in her conquests. They include the likes of Artemis, Wonder Girl, Hawkgirl, Huntress, Cheetah, Starfire, and Vixen. Also present is Terra, whose powers have allowed the Amazons to keep New Themyscira (the British Isles) out of the reach of the Atlanteans.
  • Anime Hair: Subject Zero's hair becomes increasingly longer and pointer as he becomes more powerful. By the time he escapes from his prison with Kal-El's help, he looks like he's gone Super Saiyan 3.
  • Anyone Can Die: This, of course, being much of the fun of alternate time lines.
  • Apocalypse How: The world already suffered through a Class 0 caused by the war between Atlantis and the Amazons, which caused England to be taken over and most of Western Europe and part of North Africa to drown, resulting in 32 million and 100 million casualties respectively. The rest of the world isn't doing much better. Before Barry fixes things, the world heads for a Class X thanks to the Atlanteans
  • Area 51: What "Project: Superman" functions as. It's a top secret, heavily protected government facility located two miles beneath New Metropolis devoted to studying three alien "subjects" that arrived on Earth by rocketship. By the events of Flashpoint, Subject 1 – Kal-El – is the only surviving alien specimen, having spent his entire life within the facility.
    • Project: Superman also functions as a storage locker for “Subject 0”, Neil Sinclair, a jaded, failed first attempt at a super-soldier program.
    • Even further below it are the remnants of “Project M”, the military program which spawned the Creature Commandos during WWII. Once the war was over, Frankenstein and the rest were all forced into stasis and locked away to be forgotten, much like Subject 0.
  • Argentina Is Nazi-Land: Or South America in this one. The alternate timeline dubs all of the continent, centered in Brazil, as "Nazi-occupied".
  • Armor-Piercing Question: As the world collpases around them Barry meets with his mother one final time. He breaks down and admits that he caused all of this to try and prevent her death but still wants to try and save her. She finally ask how many people have died so far because of this and Barry has to admit millions.
  • Arranged Marriage: Wonder Woman and Aquaman were supposed to be in one, before things went to Hell.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The Outsider considers having his home attacked and his employees killed inconvenient, but ruin his suit and there will be hell to pay.
    Outsider: You've attacked my home. You've killed my employees. And you've ruined my suit. YOU HAVE GONE TOO FAR!
  • Artistic License – Sports: Hall of Doom flying super-prison just misses crashing into Joe Louis Arena during a Red Wings game. An establishing panel shows the ice level, where each team has eight men on the ice, nobody's wearing a helmet, the goaltenders don't look like goaltenders, and there are no officials visible. It can't be justified with an Alternate Universe since the NHL rules were codified decades before the point of divergence.
  • Badass Biker: Zatanna.
  • Been There, Shaped History: Frankenstein killed Hitler.
  • Berserk Button: Don't mention Mera around Aquaman.
    • Also, don't mess with the Outsider's suit. Ever.
  • Beware the Superman: Not necessarily with Superman himself, but it appears that his "predecessor" in Project Superman, Lt. Sinclair, has let his incredible powers go to his head.
    • In general, the Flashpoint universe appears to have had to deal with a lot of this, what with such matters as the Atlantean / Amazonian war which has seen Western Europe submerged and 100 million killed (except for the United Kingdom — which has been occupied by the Amazons, with 32 million dead) and various other horrific superhuman battles and wars and such.
  • Big Bad: Though Aquaman and Wonder Woman are the more immediate problem, the Reverse-Flash seems to be the bigger threat. Subverted in that Reverse-Flash didn't cause the altered timeline, Flash did.
  • Big "NO!": Deadman gives a big "NO" once he realizes he's now a ghost.
  • Black-and-Grey Morality: Brion Markov, king of Markovia and known in the regular continuity as Geo-Force, was willing to form an alliance with Aquaman after Wonder Woman and the Amazons took over England. This was despite the implication that Arthur was the one responsible for the assassination of Diana's mother, Hippolyta, on their wedding day. In the conversation with his advisers, Aquaman and Wonder Woman wound up being compared to Josef Stalin and Adolf Hitler, respectively.
    • This attempt at an alliance failed SPECTACULARLY, as the Atlanteans kidnapped Brion to use him as the power source for a geo-pulse cannon, which was then used to sink all of Western Europe underwater in an attempt to destroy the Amazons. The Atlanteans were always planning on doing this to Brion, starting with Mera "saving" Brion from renegade soldiers in order to gain his trust. Aquaman had apparently wanted to go in a different direction, but went with the plan after Mera was killed.
    • And it turns out that Hippolyta was murdered by Artemis, acting under orders from Hippolyta's sister, Penthesilea. Her intended target was actually Diana, but Hippolyta shielded Diana from the harpoon. Artemis stole Garth's (Tempest in the regular universe) armor in order to frame him, and he was then killed by Penthesilea herself. Penthesilea was working in an alliance with Orm, Aquaman's brother.
  • Black Dude Dies First: Heatwave desires to be a part of the Firestorm matrix, but in order to do so he figures he must kill either one of the two people who currently share it: Jason Rusch (black) or Ronnie Raymond (white). Guess whom he kills?
  • Bond One-Liner: Batman/Thomas Wayne gives us one when he kills Professor Zoom.
    Doctor's advice: When you're in the middle of a war... Don't stand still.
  • Broken Aesop:
    • Sean Ryan intended for the Grodd Of War oneshot to be an allegory for how the Western world doesn't care about what happens in Africa in terms of all the needless deaths taking place there, and have Grodd be the mouthpiece... but this is undercut by the fact that Grodd himself was the one who killed the vast majority of them. In the story he's pissed that Cyborg or Captain Thunder (any heavy hitter really) is too busy with the European War to try to stop him. Grodd wants attention because he thinks his campaign is too easy and unchallenging to him, he probably expected the world's superheroes to try to band up against him and didn't expect the events in Europe to completely overshadow him like it has. For some readers, the attempt to apply a moral and real world comparisons to it fell pretty flat.
    • The Reveal introduces an even bigger one: If Barry trying to undo the Reverse-Flash's meddling only makes things worse, then essentially the DC Universe is fine with a villain mucking up time to destroy innocent lives, but breaks down completely at a hero trying to save them and undo the damage the villain causes. In other words, the universe itself is on the villains' side! The aesop here is more or less "You can't do the exact same thing the bad guys did and expect different results just because you have noble intentions. Especially when you do it in the timestream and cause a paradox when the guy you kill is also travelling though time at a different point in his life".
  • Bystander Syndrome: Batman's opinion of everything outside Gotham.
  • The Caligula: Without anyone challenging him Grodd has turned into this, and turned most of Africa into one mass grave after killing half of the human population.
  • The Cameo: Revealed in Lois Lane and the Resistance, Grifter was The Leader of his own version of Team 7, a paramilitary squad that counted with members like John Stewart, Kate Kane and Frank Rock, being the only survivor in a mission during the Afghanistan War.
  • Canon Immigrant: Grifter is a member of Britain's resistance. And it's implied that Neil Sinclair, a.k.a. Subject Zero, is Apollo from The Authority. The WildStorm 'verse as a whole was incorporated into the DCU in the relaunch (as was the Vertigo Comics 'verse, but that was based in the DCU to begin with).
    • As seen in The Cameo, Grifter also was part of his own Team 7 years before the event happened.
    • Technically there was/is no regular Vertigo universe. The characters that made up the first books when Vertigo became an imprint were still a part of the regular DCU, for the most part. A good chunk of their adventures were relegated to Canon Discontinuity due to conflicting portrayals in the regular DCU.
  • Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Subverted. A plot point Johns established back in The Flash: Rebirth was that this was why Thawne had never outright killed Barry. As the living generator of the Speed Force, killing Barry would only derail not only Flash history, but Eobard's own timeline (which naturally pissed him off and forced him to compensate by making Barry's life a living hell). However, thanks to the Flashpoint, Thawne's timeline's been removed from the new timeline; he's a walking paradox. So, that means Thawne can kill Barry now with impunity and without worrying about the temporal consequences (and indeed tries to do so until Thomas Wayne skewers him).
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Element Woman, who is first introduced exclaiming how happy she is to be invited to a team-up. In a later issue she asks if anyone would like a juice box she brought with her.
  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience: It's telling that this universe's Aquaman wears blood red instead of his usual orange.
  • Continuity Nod: Clayface is a member of Deathstroke's pirate crew. In regular continuity, the second Clayface, Matt Hagen, tried to make a living by discovering sunken wrecks and pilfering whatever was inside. This is how he came upon the protoplasm that would (temporarily) turn him into a shapeshifter.
    • Slaughter Swamp, where Frankenstein and his team are headed, played a major part in Seven Soldiers, where Frankenstein was introduced (though Frankenstein himself didn't go there). Also known as the "birthplace" of Solomon Grundy in the regular DCU.
  • Cool Old Guy: Thomas Wayne as Batman must be at least in his fifties at this time, yet he easily chases down young criminals and earns the respect of all the other heroes in the Flashpoint timeline.
  • Cosmic Retcon: Not the Flashpoint universe but the one after it. DC used this event to relaunch the entire DC universe and had 52 issue ones. The in-story explanation is that when restoring history, Flash is told by Pandora to integrate the WildStorm and Vertigo Comics timelines as well.
  • Covers Always Lie: Amethyst appeared in her original costume on the cover of Secret Seven #2. She didn't appear like that anywhere in the story.
    • Played with in a cover for the fifth issue of Flashpoint: it features Batman being impaled on a sword by the Reverse Flash. In the comic, Batman is the one impaling Reverse Flash on the sword.
  • Crapsack World: Let's see... Wonder Woman has invaded the United Kingdom with 32 million casualties. Aquaman has sunk the entirety of Western Europe under the sea, with 100 million dead. They seem poised to break the world. Brazil is occupied by the Nazis, and Alaska is apparently the "Land of the Undead".
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Heatwave vs. Buddy Baker. Buddy didn't stand a chance against the ruthless, suicidal Heatwave.
  • Cursed with Awesome: The Canterbury Cricket was once an ordinary university student who was caught up in the middle of the Amazonian invasion of the U.K. and, for reasons he still isn't fully sure of found himself as a giant cricket thing with superpowers. It's unknown even to him if he can turn back, but he has decided to use his situation to try to help the U.K Resistance against the Amazons.
  • Cycle of Revenge: The Atlantis/Amazon War seems to be this. To reflect this the covers for the #3 issues of Wonder Woman and Aquaman's focus series feature them beating up the other.
  • Daddy's Girl: Implied. Raven more closely resembles her father Trigon, with red skin and four eyes. But given the fact that he was a member of the previous Secret Seven, and she's a member of the current one, he may not have been as evil in this world as the mainstream one.
  • Darker and Edgier: Many of the DC heroes in this altered timeline.
    • Wonder Woman and Aquaman are both fierce warlords attempting world domination against one another and committing massive genocides for varying reasons.
    • Batman has no qualms over killing people; it's hinted that he has a habit of offing criminals who don't give him information. And it turns out his wife also survived that night and became The Joker...
    • Instead of crash-landing in a small, rural field in Kansas, the rocketship containing little Kal-El crashes right in the middle of Metropolis, along with a meteor shower, pulverizing the city to rubble and killing thirty-five thousand people.
      • In addition, instead of a passing motorist rescuing him and putting him in an orphanage, the government got its hands on Kal-El and formed Project: Superman. They later took Krypto and Kara Zor-El as well when their rockets arrived on Earth. Currently, Kal-El is barely alive, but free from captivity thanks to Flash, Batman, and Cyborg; Krypto has withered away into a skeleton; and Kara's fate is unknown, though some throwaway dialogue hints that she did not survive either.
      • They also found an entombed Doomsday, and attempted to use him as a weapon. It worked about as well as could be expected, really.note 
    • After years of being tormented through experimentation and abuse at the hands of The Outsider and others, J'onn J'onzz has become a cold-hearted leather jacket-wearing mercenary, willing to kill anyone who stands in his way.
    • The Legion of Doom mini-series both averts and subverts this. Regular Flash Rogue Heat Wave becomes protagonist, as we follow his intense hunt for revenge against this universe' main hero, Cyborg. He willingly and brutally slaughters any and all in his way to get revenge against a hero, who wronged him, whilst saving hundreds of lives from unnecessary deaths.
      • Plastic Man as well; normally a Reformed Supervillain, his Flashpoint incarnation is a sociopath mercenary, who performs some rather... graphic acts during his employment under Heat Wave.
  • Dark Magical Girl: Traci 13 in this universe. As well as Zatanna and Raven.
  • Death of a Child: Bruce Wayne, Traci 13's younger brothers, Harvey Dent's daughter, Lex Luthor and Billy Batson.
  • Death Seeker: Grodd keeps making intentionally risky decisions (surrounding himself with untrustworthy subordinates, engaging in pointless fights to the death, etc.) because he wants a Worthy Opponent to kill him.
  • Decapitation Presentation: A variant cover has Diana (wearing Mera's helmet) holding up Mera's severed head.
  • Decomposite Character: The original Outsider character was Alfred Pennyworth after he Came Back Wrong during the Silver Age. The initial design and power set of the Outsider was taken from Alfred and given to a brand new and completely separate character called Michael Desai.
  • Delayed Ripple Effect: Cut off from the Speed Force, both Barry and Bart have had the consequences of history's changes catch up with them - Barry getting memories from the Flashpoint timeline and Bart starting to fade from existence.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Even after the murder of Hippolyta and the destruction of Themyscira, Aquaman remained extremely reluctant to declare war upon the Amazons and had desperately attempted to seek peace with Wonder Woman. But then Diana killed Mera. This tipped Arthur over the edge once and for all and prompted the sinking of Europe.
  • Determinator: His entire body scorched to a crisp and bandaged like a mummy after a failed first attempt to regain his powers, Barry Allen immediately insists on attempting the lightning accident again... Thankfully it works the second time.
  • Disguised Hostage Gambit: The Joker pulls this on Jim Gordon, causing Jim to shoot one of Harvey Dent's kids.
  • Downer Ending: The end of Booster Gold #47, which depicts Booster slowly losing his memories, just able to find Barry before his attempt to help forces him to Vanishing Point with all of his memories of the old DCU completely forgotten, and Alexandra reduced to chronal energy who can only try to warn Booster by writing information about Flashpoint on Rip Hunter's chalkboard before vanishing into nothingness as was shown at the start of Booster's tie-in.
  • Distaff Counterpart: Element Woman to Metamorpho. Barry even thinks it's him right before they properly meet.
  • Dude, Where's My Respect?: Part of Grodd's troubles is that no matter how successful his expanding empire is, everyone is too focused on the Amazon-Atlantean War to give him any time of day.
  • Dynamic Entry: Subject One enters the battle royale between Amazons, Atlanteans and heroes by crushing Enchantress' head to a pulp with a single super-stomp, having discovered his powers after finally bathing in the sun.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Plastic Man, after helping Heatwave brutally murder every mook standing in their way of taking over Queen's Prison, is shocked when Heatwave reveals his intentions to crash the prison into a packed city full of innocent people and tries to stop him. Heatwave melts him, but he gets better.
  • Expendable Alternate Universe: Played with; Flash is, understandably, rather eager to restore the universe back to its original state as opposed to the rather sucky place it has become, but comes to realize that there are still real people living and dying here and is willing to help save the world as it currently is. Batman, however, inverts this; although he's part of the Flashpoint universe, he's even more eager than Flash to wipe this version of reality away and replace it with the original reality so that his son can live, even knowing that he himself will be dead in that reality.
  • Expy: Michael Desai, the Outsider, bears a very close resemblance in character to another bald, Machiavellian corporate mogul. Except he has superpowers. He also physically resembles the main timeline's Outsider, Alfred Pennyworth (it's a long story; needless to say, Alfred looked different at the time).
  • Fifth Week Event: Of a sort. The final issue shipped on a fifth week, and DC hyped up the fact that it (and Justice League #1, the first relaunched title) were the only comics they published that week.
  • Flash Sideways: Traci 13, who gets glimpses of her life in the main DCU.
  • Follow in My Footsteps: Thomas Wayne a.k.a. Flashpoint!Batman telling Martha about the timeline where it's their son and not them who survives the mugger.
    Martha: Tell me about Bruce. What does he do, after we're dead?
    Thomas: He... he follows in his father's footsteps.
    Martha: He's a doctor?
    Thomas: No.
    Martha: Oh God...
  • Frame-Up: The murder of Queen Hippolyta by Artemis. The Amazon had disguised herself as an Atlantean with the intention to assassinate Aquaman, but Hippolyta sensed the attack and took the fatal blow instead. Upon being discovered by Garth, Artemis beats him senseless and frames him for the death of the queen, instigating the bad blood between the Amazons and Atlanteans.
    • Also apparently one of the Outsider's tactics.
  • Framing Device: The narration of the main 5-issue comic series is a letter from one Batman to another.
  • Freak Lab Accident: Barry tries to replicate the one that made him the Flash. Not only does it not work, it horribly injures him to boot. Of course, then he tries it again and it works.
  • Friend to All Living Things: Abin Sur.
  • Gambit Roulette: Though Barry's decision to save his mom touched off the event, a mysterious entity is manipulating the event behind the scenes to mash together one timeline out of three that will have the right heroes to combat a threat.
  • General Ripper: General Nathaniel Adam (known in regular continuity as Captain Atom) who is probably one of the worse human villains in the story. Surprisingly averted by General Sam Lane, who actually treated Kal-El (or "Subject 1") as an actual child in a complete reversal of his DCU counterpart where he was one of the worst human beings ever portrayed in recent memory.
  • The Ghost: Or rather, ghosts. The previous members of the Secret Seven, Trigon, Klarion, Simon Magus, Stiletto, and Miss X are never shown, unlike their teammate Black Orchid, who appears in all three issues for various reason despite being dead. Trigon could be briefly seen in a warped flashback Shade suffers in #1, though.
  • Glasgow Grin: Martha Wayne gives herself this after Thomas says he misses her smile because of her grief. This solidifies her madness and turns her into the Joker.
  • Go Mad from the Revelation: Both the Waynes after witnessing their son Bruce's death, Martha much more so than Thomas... however, she despairs completely after her husband describes an "Elseworlds" version of what would've happened that night in Crime Alley had they died and Bruce lived, specifically after hearing that Bruce would have followed in his father's footsteps, and not by becoming a doctor...
  • Grief-Induced Split: In this alternate reality of the normal DC universe, Joe Chill's robbery of the Waynes in Crime Alley goes from tragedy to spectacularly wrong when his bullet strikes and kills a young Bruce Wayne. Overcome with grief, Thomas transforms into an even more ruthless Batman, while Martha's sanity shatters, turning her into this reality's version of Joker. While they may still be married on paper, it's pretty clear the two are no longer together.
  • Heel–Face Door-Slam: For a brief moment, Wonder Woman manages to earn Aquaman’s trust again as she explains her discovery of the conspiracy behind their war. Arthur even calls off his Geo-Pulse Cannon to hear her out. His traitorous brother Orm then secretly detonates several Atlantean war vessels, causing Arthur to reorder the sinking and invasion of New Themyscira with a vengeance.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Bart Allen/Kid Flash and Hal Jordan both give their lives for the greater good.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Iris West freezes Citizen Cold with his own freeze gun as revenge for him killing Wally.
    • Professor Zoom boasts to Barry that Barry can't kill him or he'd break time again. Thomas Wayne Batman promptly runs him through with a sword.
  • Hurricane of Puns: DC has pulled out quite a few plays on the word "Flash", starting with the title and going from there.
  • I Am Not Left-Handed: Sinestro cuts off one of Abin Sur's hands in an attempt to sever his connection with his Green Lantern Ring. The ring simply goes to Sur's other hand instead.
  • I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: "Slaughter Swamp" is where Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown must go in hopes of regaining their humanity... (It's not very nice in the main DCU either, being the place where Solomon Grundy was created.)
  • I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: Flashpoint!Deadman tells Flashpoint!Dick Grayson they're "circus performers, not soldiers". Dick argues they became soldiers the day the war started and "just didn't know it until now".
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Batman does this to Professor Zoom.
    • Later subverted in Knight of Vengeance #3, where Batman revives Harvey Dent's daughter after she's shot, although it's unknown how long she stayed alive, given she needed immediate medical attention.
  • In Spite of a Nail:
    • Seems to be the case with Batman, who despite all of the alternate history shenanigans, up to and including Batman actually being Thomas Wayne, not Bruce still exists and shows there will always be a Batman, which echoes the ending of Whatever Happened to The Caped Crusader? by Neil Gaiman and other stories that have played with the same concept.
    • This also seems to apply to Oracle, whose role here has been filled by Selina Kyle rather than Barbara Gordon, who was never even born in this timeline.
    • Jason Todd still died and later came back to life despite never having been Robin, although he ended up becoming a priest instead of the Red Hood. The details of his death and resurrection are left unknown.
    • As shown in the Deadman and the Flying Graysons miniseries, Dick Grayson still outlives his parents and Boston Brand still dies and becomes a ghost invisible to the living whose only means of interacting with the physical world is through possessing people.
  • Kick Them While They Are Down: After the Atlanteans submerge Western Europe, the Amazons rescue any survivors. But Lois Lane witnesses the Amazons reject rescuing a Christian priest because he follows a "false god", and then in New Themyscaria (the former U.K.) all male survivors are separated from female and made slaves in chains.
  • La Résistance: The Resistance against Amazon occupation of the U.K. (which they call New Themyscira), an underground organization of humans and meta-humans alike. Led by Grifter, its members include Etrigan, Godiva, Ms. Hyde, The Canterbury Cricket, Count Vertigo, Kid Devil, The Question, Lois Lane, and Doctor Fate aka Dick Grayson.
  • Lady Land: Citizen Cold implies Wonder Woman has turned the U.K. into this.
  • The Mole: Enchantress for the Amazons. Ms. Hyde is a subversion, because her human side sided with the Amazons because they promised her a cure from the monster within her, but the monster itself is still on the Resistance's side.
  • Monster Mash: Frankenstein and his commandos, who include a vampire, a wolfman, and a fishwoman. Oh, and Frankenstein's Bride.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Seen in the two-page view of Gotham - there's apparently a Green Lantern movie in theaters.
    • Mary Batson (Mary Marvel in the normal 'verse) is seen holding a rabbit, a reference to Hoppy the Marvel Bunny.
    • Most of the spinoffs are grouped under titles beginning with "Whatever Happened...?", referencing the Superman pre-Crisis sendoff Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?? and the later Batman eulogy Whatever Happened to The Caped Crusader?.
    • Also a more literal mythology gag is the letter Flash delivers to Bruce Wayne from his father. Making him a messenger like Hermes, the god the original Flash is sort of patterned off of.
    • The Citizen Cold miniseries has Mr. Freeze's head detach from his body and move on robotic spider legs, much like what became of him in The New Batman Adventures episode "Cold Comfort".
  • Nasal Trauma: Animal Man gets his nose bitten off by Heatwave in the Legion of Doom miniseries.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
    • According to Zoom, Barry broke the time stream when he saved his mother in the past from a time-traveling Zoom.
    • Nice Job Breaking It, Villainous Advisers: The whole reason there's an Atlantean/Amazon war is because Aquaman and Wonder Woman's primary advisers, Orm and Penthesilea, are working together to assumingly (it's never clearly explained) get Arthur and Diana killed so they can take over. Except by the end of the story, the war and its weapons have gotten so out of control that a throwaway background line suggests the world is rapidly heading towards an inescapable complete shattering due to out of control tectonic manipulation. Well done, you yahoos. WELL DONE.
  • Noodle Incident: What caused the death of the original Secret Seven.
  • No Sympathy: A key difference between the regular Aquaman & his Flashpoint counterpart is that Tom Curry attempted to raise Arthur with a sense of kindness, patience, and humility. Regular Aquaman took it with his heart. Flashpoint Aquaman saw it as weakness, especially since his father's virtues couldn't help him from being killed by Atlantean soldiers.
  • Off with Her Head!: Diana beheads Mera, takes her helmet, and sends her headless body to Aquaman. Though it's not revealed what she's done with Mera's severed head, it's likely Diana kept it as a trophy.
  • Oh, Crap!: Barry Allen realizing his Flash ring is missing before tumbling down a flight of steps.
    • Again, Barry the split-second before realizing his attempt to recreate his Super Hero Origin to recover his speed isn't working and has instead burned all of his skin off.
    • Enchantress gets this just as she on the verge of killing the heroes then looks up and notices something coming her way fast. It's Superman and his landing turns her into a bloody smear on the pavement.
  • Old Shame: In-Universe, Black Orchid's death to Shade. She's the only member of the original Secret Seven besides Shade who's ever fully shown in all three issues, implying that her death hit him the hardest.
  • Papa Wolf: Deathstroke, who in this reality is a pirate captain, is searching for his missing daughter, Rose Wilson. It's implied that this reality's Deathstroke hadn't stooped to the same level as his regular continuity counterpart did in order to control her. When she's finally shown, the two actually appear to love each other in a way that's no longer possible for their mainstream counterparts.
    • Also Sam Lane, in what has to be an entirely GIGANTIC reversal of his previous portrayal in the mainstream DC Universe. Despite the underlying feeling that he's looking towards Kal as the son he never got (instead he got Lois - and Lucy, too, but she's never seen or mentioned), he refers to them both as "my children" when he goes up against Subject Zero in order to prevent any harm towards the two.
    • Batman immediately decides to help Barry to restore the "proper" reality, erasing the Flashpoint one, all of this to let Bruce alive and safe in the original timeline even if Thomas himself didn't survive the alley.
  • Person of Mass Destruction: This series shows just what Aquaman could do if he wasn't so nice. Mainly, kill millions of people. Wonder Woman has been implied to have done the same thing to the people of England in order to turn it into New Themyscira.
  • Point of Divergence: This seems to be the main theme of the series, with Barry Allen trying to find out what changed history so radically. It becomes increasingly apparent over the course of the series that it's much more complicated than that; with Zoom's description of the changes resembling a full-on Time Crash.
  • Plot-Irrelevant Villain: Professor Zoom turns out to be this. The new timeline was caused by Barry Allen, not him, and he spares no opportunity to gloat about it.
  • Raised in a Lab: Clark Kent was captured as a child and raised in a lab. Before the Flash and his allies freed him, Clark had never even seen sunlight.
  • Raygun Gothic: Rac Shade's superiors.
  • Reaching Towards the Audience: The cover for issue #12.
  • Red and Black and Evil All Over: Batman is still a crimefighter, but he's way darker and has black and red as his main color motifs.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Batman of the Flashpoint timeline is not a nice guy.
  • Red Herring: We're lead to believe that Element Woman might be the mole in the group as she constantly keeps claiming she wants to help and is a bit touched in the head. However it turns out that Enchantress was the real mole later on.
  • Red Is Violent: This brutal version of Batman incorporates red to the costume, including the cape, the symbol and the red eyes. The warlord version of Aquaman wears red-orange scalemail rather than his usual orange-gold.
  • Regional Redecoration: The Amazon/Atlantean war saw Aquaman sinking Western Europe into the ocean◊ after the Amazons conquered England, resulting a combined total of 132 million casualties.
  • The Reveal: In Flashpoint issue 5 it's learned that Professor Zoom didn't cause the alterations to the timeline, but Barry Allen did when he attempted to prevent Zoom from killing his mother.
  • Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Barry, Booster Gold, Kid Flash and Hot Pursuit. Though Barry was only partly immune without the Speed Force, as he was getting memories of the Flashpoint timeline. In fact, it's the gradual failure of this that causes Barry to forget that he caused all of this in the first place.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Traci 13 discovers Circe, trapped in the Antarctic. She was imprisoned because she tried to warn Diana of her aunt's plot to kill her, but because the Amazons effectively turned their backs on her she's decided to leave them to their fate when Traci saves her.
  • Sequel Hook: At some point before Barry broke history and completely unrelated to this mess, some villain split the DCU into three timelines (main, WildStorm, and Vertigo) to keep its heroes from uniting against him/her/it. However, later stories never followed up on this until it was later revealed the DCU hadn't been split up in the first place. This was a lie created by Doctor Manhattan so he could use Pandora as his scapegoat for creating for the New 52 timeline.
  • Series Continuity Error: Batman in his own miniseries already knows about the original timeline where Bruce survived, as he tells Joker!Martha. However, in the main series after Flash meets Batman and tells him about the timelines there is no point in time after this where you could squeeze the events of Batman's own miniseries.
  • Set Wrong What Was Once Made Right: After seeing how badly his decision affected the world, Barry resolves to go back in time and stop himself from saving his mother, resulting in a Close-Enough Timeline.
  • Shout-Out:
    • One of the casino locales is called "Wayne's World".
    • The Joker's design, with the long hair and trench coat, rather resembles Heath Ledger's portrayal. This version also has similar facial scars.
    • The monochrome-and-red coloration of the flashbacks in Batman: Knight of Vengeance references the flashbacks in (Briand Bolland's coloring of) The Killing Joke. This is done because both flashback sequences tell Joker origin stories.
    • Talky Tawny's transformation from a regular tiger to a huge sabretooth in armour when the Shazam kids transform into Captain Thunder is rather reminiscent of Battle Cat.
  • Signs of Disrepair: When Thomas Wayne goes to kill Joe Chill at the Gotham Arms Hotel, the sign flickers to "H ARMS HOTEL".
  • Spin-Off: Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown written by Jeff Lemire and Secret Seven written by Peter Milligan verge on this trope despite being in an alternate reality. Both feature less popular cult characters (Frankenstein and Shade the Changing Man) that are starring in new series (Frankenstein stars in Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. and Shade in Justice League Dark) as part of DC's relaunch of their entire line and are being written by the writers of their respective mini-series.
    • Frankenstein is definitely this trope - Lemire got the ongoing because DC liked the mini.
  • Stripperific: Zatanna's outfit in Secret Seven. Take a look at this.◊
  • Stupid Evil: Orm and Penthesilea basically started the war between Atlantis and Themyscira as part of some poorly thought out plan to take control of both, only said war has caused such damage to the Earth that it's likely the planet will eventually crack in two and be destroyed.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Barry Allen decides to recreate his superhero origin story, which involved being hit by lightning and bathed in a bunch of chemicals. Instead of granting him Super-Speed, he's horribly burned and nearly killed. While his second try was successful, a Tales from the Dark Multiverse issue building off from that moment adhered to reality even more with the first try outright killing him.
  • Take Up My Sword:
    • In Kid Flash Lost, Hot Pursuit turns out to be Patty Spivot, who took on Hot Pursuit's identity after the original, an alternate version of Barry Allen, died. She wound up in the future of the Flashpoint world along with Bart Allen, with her memories completely intact.
    • Lois Lane winds up taking Jimmy Olsen's place as Cyborg's contact in the U.K., after Jimmy is killed during the flooding of Paris.
    • Dick Grayson, the only survivor of the Amazon attack on Haley Circus, retains the helm of Nabu and joins The Resistance as the new Doctor Fate.
  • Tarot Motifs: The World of Flashpoint #2.
  • Tele-Frag: How The Outsider kills Martian Manhunter.
  • Time Crash: This is how Flashpoint came to be - because Barry stopped Zoom from killing his mother, he accidentally broke time.
  • Treacherous Advisor: Orm (for Arthur) and Penthesilea (for Diana), are working together undercover to let the war drag on long enough for both to die so they can take their positions.
  • True Companions: Mary refers to the Shazam! kids as a family. Freddy disagrees, pointing out that only Billy and Mary are actually related.
  • Trauma Conga Line: Credit where it's due, the story makes it abundantly clear that Wonder Woman and Arthur had to endure a lot of hardship to fall so low and do such ruthless things. A series of traitorous advisors, assassinations, gaslighting and just plain bad advice is what truly led to the war.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Father Jason Todd treats Traci 13 suddenly teleporting into the middle of his church as if it were a common occurrence. When she questions him about it, he informs her that as someone living in Gotham City, he's seen weirder.
  • Villain Protagonist: Heatwave, the Reverse Flash, Citizen Cold, Gorilla Grodd, and the Outsider in their respective side stories.
  • Villain with Good Publicity: Citizen Cold, who lampshades this several times.
    Cold: I do what I want—when I want. And they love me for it.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Martha Wayne, the Joker, after hearing what would have happened had Bruce survived while she and Thomas had died in Crime Alley:
    Martha: Tell me about Bruce. What does he do, after we're dead?
    Thomas He... He follows in his father's footsteps.
    Martha: He's a doctor? *looks at her husband with a hopeful look on her face*
    Thomas: *not looking at her* No...
    Martha: Oh, god... *runs away from Thomas, as he tries to catch her, until she jumps into the Batcave, dying while despairing over her son*
  • Viva Las Vegas!: What Batman has effectively turned Gotham into, using Wayne Casinos to fund his war on crime.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Terry Thirteen and the H.I.V.E. Council, who plan to stop the Atlantean / Amazonian war by killing 118 million people.
  • Wham Episode: Batman: Knight of Vengeance #2. Selina Kyle is revealed to be a quadriplegic Oracle, Jim Gordon accidentally shoots one of the Dent kids, and he himself gets killed by the Joker, who turns out to be Martha Wayne.
  • Wham Line: There's quite a number of them that solidifies what was changed.
    Barry: You're Thomas Wayne.
    Zoom: What did I do? Oh, Barry. My idol. My inspiration. That's the beauty of all this madness. I didn't do anything. Not a thing. You see, it turns out... You're the villain today.
    Batman (to Joker): WHAT HAVE YOU DONE THIS TIME, MARTHA?
  • What Could Have Been: An in-universe example. Jim Gordon never had kids or got married.
  • Wild Child: Beast Boy is a feral child used as an attack dog in Grodd's army. It doesn't take him long to turn on his masters though.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: The Joker, A.K.A. Martha Wayne.
  • Worthy Opponent: In a world without anyone (mainly a Flash) to oppose him, Grodd has taken control of his race of hyper-intelligent gorillas, taken control of what's left of the African continent and killed nearly half the human population on said continent. He's also incredibly bored with the situation, feeling that there isn't anything to truly challenge him. Desperate to find anyone who could challenge him intellectually or in combat, he is willing to surround himself with enemies who want to kill him and directly inspire anyone to try to seriously kill him.
  • Would Hurt a Child:
    • The Joker, who is specifically referred to as a "child murderer".
    • Wonder Woman's aunt murders Billy Batson.
  • Xtreme Kool Letterz: Trixter.

Alternative Title(s): Justice League The Flashpoint Paradox, Flashpoint

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