Wednesday Comments – The Impact of Flashpoint

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The internet is a abuzz with speculation about DC’s plans Post Flashpoint. Some people are saying that Flashpoint is going to be used as a sort of rest button for the entire DCU. Others are saying that every title is going to be relaunched with a brand spanking new #1 issue. Still others think that nothings going to happen at all.

I’m betting that Flashpoint is indeed going to shake up the DCU. I think it’s going to have huge retconning ramifications. And I’m basing strictly on one thing; the absence of the new Who’s Who in the DCU.

Well I guess technically the absence of something isn’t “something” but you get what I’m saying, right?

Look, way back in 2009 DC announced that they were going to be doing a new Who’s Who in the DCU. Being the collector that I am I was ecstatic. I’m pretty sure that I’ve got every issue of DC’s Who’s Who. I cherish my issues of the original series and the subsequent updates. Who’s Who in the Legion was my guide to DC’s 30th Century. I tracked down every issue of the loose-leaf early 90’s version of Who’s Who, even the Impact issue. Plus I’ve got a ton of Secret Files & Origins.

I literally could not wait for this new edition of Who’s Who in the DCU. But months passed and it never came out. It was announced alongside with DC Universe Legacies and that miniseries ended months ago, yet still no Who’s Who in the DCU.

And then we have the hugely important miniseries/event Flashpoint after which the new Who’s Who in the DCU is set to be released. Doesn’t that sort of speak to the wide ranging impact of Flashpoint?

When the original Who’s Who in the DCU was released back in 1985, it ran concurrently with Crisis on Infinite Earths. That meant that in the issue featuring Batman it profiled the Pre Crisis Batman but by the time Superman was covered his bio was decidedly Post Crisis.

As a result of the concurrent release schedule, by the time some of the characters were profiled in Who’s Who their bio information was no longer accurate. That’s one of the reasons why the series received an almost immediate update.

Can you imagine if DC printed a book that was immediately obsolete in the current climate? They would be mocked mercilessly.

It seems to me that DC is waiting to pull the trigger on the new Who’s Who in the DCU until the continuity altering Flashpoint is wrapped up so that they don’t have a similar egg on their face.

That’s also why their doing a Who’s Who as opposed to a Secret Files & Origins like they did for Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis; Flashpoint is going to reverberate across the entire DCU and those reverberations will be documented on it’s pages.

And honestly that has me worried. But those worries will be saved for a future column.

I’ll also toss this out there as a guess; Sterling Gates, chum of Geoff Johns and a guy who used to write Supergirl is working on a “secret project.” Could he be working on Who’s Who in the DCU, funneling the information from Geoff on changes to continuity directly to the page?

Who knows? That’s just pure speculation.

But the withholding of Who’s Who in the DCU seems like a pretty good indicator that Flashpoint is going to be an important book for the DCU for years to come.

I for one can’t wait to see how things shake out.