No./2 The event that could change DC forever
Michael Keaton’s return as Batman in the FLASH movie means all bets are off. We ponder five glorious ‘what-if’s
THE CASTING OF Michael Keaton as Batman in the long-awaited Flash movie has caused shockwaves. It was announced at Comic-con 2017 that the movie would be based on the hugely influential 2011 Flashpoint comic book, where Barry Allen/the Flash (Ezra Miller) uses his super-speed to travel through time and save his mother’s life, breaking the timeline and fatally changing reality. But what could the film look like — and how might it impact the DCEU?
MULTIPLE BATMEN!
Keaton will apparently return as Bruce Wayne, building on the continuity of his two Tim Burton films. That’s a change from the Flashpoint comic, where Barry meets a grizzled Thomas Wayne version of Batman, who took up the cape when his son was killed; his wife Martha went mad and became the Joker. Reports suggest Keaton’s Bruce will take a Nick Fury-like role in future DCEU films, playing mentor to younger heroes. This indicates WB may be tying these films together more closely. But what does this mean for Matt Reeves’ The Batman, with Robert Pattinson? And is there room for George Clooney and his Batnipples to return? Expect more than one canon, going forward.
GOOD GUYS GONE BAD!
In the hellish reality of Flashpoint, Queen Diana annexes the UK to create ‘New Themyscira’ and scars Shazam for life. Meanwhile, Aquaman floods Western Europe after declaring war on humanity — and then throws down with the Amazons when Diana beheads the assassin he sends for her. Maybe he shouldn’t have sent wife Mera. It’s hard to imagine Gal Gadot rushing to play this bloodthirsty take, or indeed Momoa going postal on Paris, but DC has shown with the likes of Joker that it’s not afraid to explore a dark, gritty alternate universe.
WEEDY SUPERMAN!
In the comic book, Superman’s lived as a lab rat after crashing in Metropolis instead of Smallville, and being imprisoned underground without a hint of sun. He’s therefore scrawny and underpowered — and entirely bereft of human contact. Will he still have enough of a moral code to help? Will Henry Cavill be able to slim down that much, or are we looking at a new Supes? In the comics, Cyborg is humanity’s bright hope here, so we have to hope that Ray Fisher will be back in that role to help Flash and Batman set things right.
TV CROSSOVER!
It’s no longer as unlikely as it sounds. In the recent Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover event in The CW’S Arrowverse, we saw nods to Keaton’s Batman in a newspaper and a surprise scene which saw TV Flash Grant Gustin briefly come face-to-face with Ezra Miller’s Movie Flash, which went down a storm with fans. There’d be a pleasing symmetry if they returned the favour and invited the Arrowverse gang along for the ride — and when the multiverse is opened up, anything goes.
A TOTAL RESET!
When the comics’ Barry attempted to restore his world, he saw that the timeline had been fractured into three pieces long before (actually the comics’ DC, Vertigo and Wildstorm imprints). Putting those realities right led to ‘The New 52’, where the entirety of DC continuity was reset. Is this likely, with the current iterations of Wonder Woman and Aquaman still going great guns? It’s not impossible. The ripples in reality created by Flashpoint could allow the recasting of major roles, new origin stories, reborn bad guys and more, and for the DC Universe to either spin off in multiple directions or coalesce in one cohesive unit. It’s a whole new ballgame! Or, should we say, Batgame.