The Other Flashpoint

Nightwatch #2
“Flashpoint”
Writer: Terry Kavanagh
Breakdowns: Ron Lim
Finishes: Al Milgrom
Letters: Jon Babcock
Colors: Kevin Tinsley
Editor: Eric Fein
Group Editor: Danny Fingeroth
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco
Cover by: Lim and Milgrom
Released: March 29, 1994

“The Flash” movie arriving in theaters today may look like a Batman story except for the name, but it's actually based in part on “Flashpoint,” the 2011 limited series and event that, to be fair, also heavily featured an older Batman. Flashpoint was a landmark event in that it launched the New 52, without which we wouldn't have had Gail Simone's Batgirl, Geoff Johns' Aquaman and 753 subsequent DC reboots and restarts, which may or may not be continuing today.

But the story itself... I don't know. It had its moments, including the big reveal, which I'll avoid here for those of you who haven't read it or don't remember if you have.* But to me, it's not much different from a lot of other alternate timeline tales.

Besides, I like to go for more obscure or unusual tie-ins. I don't know of an odd Flash moment or story involving a toilet, but a while back, while digging through back issue boxes at a local comic shop, I did discover another comic with the word “Flashpoint” on the cover, albeit 17 years older and from Marvel.**

“Nightwatch” was a series about a guy called Nightwatch who teamed up with Spider-Man, even making an appearance in the classic Maximum Carnage video game. His origin seems to have involved being bitten by a radioactive Spawn comic.

Actually, the Cliff Notes version of Nightwatch's origin, as I recall, is pretty cool: An armored superhero died in front of Dr. Kevin Trench, who removed the man's mask to find... his own face. Only 10 years older. I grabbed the shiny first issue of his series somewhere along the way, but couldn't immediately put my hands on it this week.

Luckily, “Nightwatch” #2 was published in the era of informative, concise recaps, so while the backstory is confusing, I knew in short order that Trench is believed to be dead, he's been in hiding for a while and he got his probably-not-from-Hell armor off of his apparently future corpse.

Before that, we meet Lt. Travis Slaine, a Navy SEAL with a pending court martial who some shadowy government types enlist to obtain a fragment of a meteorite for Operation: Flashpoint. They give him an anti-radiation suit, a high-tech hockey mask and a crew to help recover the “star shard” from the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New York City. Slaine ignores warnings about the shard absorbing energy sources they're using, resulting in the death of his crew and an explosion that gives him the power to absorb all sorts of energy as well. It also enhances his strength and lets him emit energy at dangerous levels.

Nightwatch, meanwhile, is trying to track down his old flame, Ashley Croix, who he believed died in an explosion that other people thought claimed his life (I think). But she's apparently alive and working for Morrelle Pharmaceuticals, which has something to do with the knots of mystery surrounding Nightwatch's past and/or future.

He breaks in to her heavily fortified penthouse, but instead finds a housesitter who gets trapped by the lasers of the apartment's security system. Nightwatch frees her while also helpfully demonstrating his armor's self-healing properties for new and lapsed readers. The only intel he gains is that Ashley now has a son.

Before he can process this, his armor picks up a radiation trail leading him to Flashpoint, who is searching for the other meteor shards, two of which are being stored at a Morrelle facility. The energy leaking from his costume and his own powers (he can absorb kinetic energy as well, a favorite '90s ability) keep Flashpoint from being hurt by Nightwatch and damage Nightwatch's gauntlets and cape instead.

Nightwatch deduces that all the energy Flashpoint is taking in puts him in danger of imploding and taking a chunk of the city with him. So he leads him to a relatively open area in Central Park and breaches his suit with the other meteor shards. The resulting explosion fails to stop Flashpoint, who emerges from the crater for Round 2.

Word of the battle reaches Ryker's Island, and a prisoner with an eyepatch who orders the Megamorph Agenda to launch immediately and target Nightwatch. I don't know what that means either.

This is a pretty standard comic here, nothing overly memorable, other than the Flashpoint name and my continued curiosity about Nightwatch and the fact that his look didn't Spawn a lawsuit. That's not to say it's bad by at all. The completionist in me wants to see what happens next, but I'll have to dive back into the bins to do that as only two issues of the series have made it to Marvel Unlimited, both featuring Venom.

* - Hey, it happens.

** - That's right, a major new DC movie and I'm writing about a Marvel character. At this point, you shouldn't be shocked.