In 2011, DC Comics rebooted their entire line of comic books and introduced fifty-two new ongoing titles to form what they called “The New 52 initiative.” In order to do this, they had to once again recombine all the different universes and brands into one again. Thus, Flashpoint was born. The first-ever event series centered around The Flash, Flashpoint was the story of an alternate DC universe formed after Flash’s arch-nemesis, The Reverse-Flash, traveled back in time and altered the timestream. This new universe featured Aquaman and Wonder Woman waging war against each other in World War III, Cyborg serving as the most trusted hero on Earth, and a Batman who is NOT Bruce Wayne. On July 30th, DC Comics and Warner Bros. Home Video released The Flashpoint Paradox, a new direct-to-video feature film based on Flashpoint. Just like the original Flashpoint miniseries by Geoff Johns and Andy, The Flashpoint Paradox will serve as the end for one universe, and the beginning of the new one. At the opening and close of the film, Batman is voiced by the great Kevin Conroy, who has served as Batman’s voice for nearly twenty years. It’s possible that Conroy could be reprising the role for the last time. In the past, the animated DC movies like Justice League: Doom, and Batman: Under the Red Hood, have been very standalone, and not connected by any major overarching storylines, like in the world of comic books. That being said, this is going to change with the new animated universe, which will model itself after the New 52 stories. Andrea Romano, a longtime casting director for DCU animation, has said that after The Flashpoint Paradox, the company will be focusing on more connected stories. “There is that intent, there absolutely is,” Romano said. “There will be some exceptions to that, but yes, I believe there is that intent of the powers that be, to keep some kind of continuity going as we go through.” This will be on display with the next DC animated production. 2014 will see the arrival of Justice League: War, which is based on the first story arc of Geoff Johns’ Justice League, wherein the team first formed to combat the armies of Darkseid. Jay Oliva, director of The Flashpoint Paradox, implied that something important to Justice League: War will happen after the credits roll. I’m a bit pleased with this news. I almost always enjoy DC’s animated features, and I’m glad that we’ll start to see some more connected stories. I don’t think that it’s a problem that they’ll be doing versions of their modern stories over the classics, because it seems that they’ve done most of the great ones. Not all of them, mind you. There’s still plenty of gold to mine form their back catalog. I’d love to see them adapt some of the stories from Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern run. If they wanted to go really big, they could even produce a few miniseries to get all the interlocking angles of a complex run like Scott Snyder’s Death of the Family arc. What do you think of this idea? How do you feel that the animated universe will now more closely reflect the New 52 DC Universe? Why don’t you just tell us what you think in the comments below? Source: iO9