User blog:Avatar Vasher/Flashpoint Adaptation for the CW New Universe

To begin with, the shared universe title may not be the best but I wasn't sure how else to phrase it. Having said that, I will continue by explaining the point of this blog. Simply put, I wanted to theory-craft about what the recently announced spin-off may be about. If some stuff feels familiar it will probably be because I am borrowing some ideas from multiple posts around the web but I will be adding my own ideas too while trying blend the separate ideas together. Also, I may edit this post in the future if I think of something else that make sense under my premise, could be really cool in my opinion, or both.

For starters, let's begin with what we know based on what has been anounced: Last time I checked there were only 5 actors from both Arrow and Flash confirmed as cast members. There are still several that have yet to be confirmed to have signed onto the project, not to mention the 3 as of yet unnamed DC comic characters that hadn't been cast yet, but for now the characters from both shows that are getting into the new spin-off are Ray Palmer/Atom, Martin Stein/One-half-of Firestorm, Leonard Snart/Captain Cold, Mike Rory/Heatwave and Sara Lance/The Canary.

Now I know what you are thinking, so far there has been no confirmation that Caity Lotz is playing the same character but this is where my theory-crafting begins. The fact we have seen Barry travel to the past as of the end of episode 15 and express his desire to travel back in time to save his mother combined with the fact one of the unnamed DC comic characters will be a time traveler that will try to unmake some time travel mess caused by butterfly effects or other possible alterations (the popular theory being that he will be Rip Hunter, not confirmed last time I checked though) makes me think it's highly possible the spin-off will end up being an event series designed to be an adaptation to the Flashpoint crossover event of the comics where Barry Allen saved his mother, and the timeline changed a lot for many people by proxy.

Now if you are thinking "how can they adapt Flashpoint storyline on this shared universe with several key characters to the story not established as of now in the CW New Universe?" I would probably reply first by asking, "how can the producers get away with adapting the batman storyline where Ra's al Ghul tries to make Batman his heir into Arrow and make Oliver's Batman's replacement in this instance?" The key word in both questions is adaptation. They are drawing from the source material but because of rights issues, production budgets and other sets of problems, they can't make any show an exact copy of the source material. And that is nothing new, not just on Flash and Arrow but all the way back to Smallville and beyond.

So, with that argument made, here is my current theory-crafting premise for how could they do justice to the major comic book crossover event with the additional screen time the spin-off would provide instead of leeching off time from Arrow and Flash. Feel free to add stuff to it in the comments once I am done:

The character parallels to the Flashpoint timeline adapted into this shared TV universe would start with The Atom in place of Cyborg and Captain Cold being the protector of Central City. Dr Stein would replace Batman in terms of who Barry would go to in order to regain his powers. Deathstroke would take the place of Aquaman and lead another version of his Mirakuru Army while Black Canary would take the place of Wonder Woman and lead the League of Assassins in a war for Starling City the Atom is trying to prevent. Black Canary and Deathstroke would have become enemies because Slade killed Oliver on the island years ago. Merlyn would have converted Thea into an assassin and used her in his war against the League as part of Slade’s forces before she finds out the truth and puts an arrow in Slade’s eye in the final battle. Both The Atom and the League would recruit metahumans to balance the scales against Deathstrokes army of enhanced soldiers. One key example could be Farooq/Blackout, the metahuman that could siphon electric energy from Flash’s episode seven as a nod to his exclusive comic book counter-part that as far as I know only appears in the comics during that altered timeline. Merlyn would have an improved version Earthquake machine from Arrow season one, as a doomsday weapon that could destroy Starling City and much of the USA. The machine is under the control of Deathstroke who has rigged it to blow if he loses to Black Canary and the League. Its when that device goes off that Harrison Wells reveals himself and taunts Barry with the knowledge he was the cause of this destruction. When the Flash restores the timeline with the help of Rip Hunter, he wakes up in a world that seems back to normal but reads a paper that has stories of Supergirl and The Titans operating in public, as being regular events that seem normal to everybody else because while his main timeline, the time travel ramifications merging with that of Supergirl and the Titans alternate realties into the prime shared universe. The story ends with Barry in the “Arrow Cave” telling Oliver about the strange events that happened and handing him a last letter from Black Canary.

So, what does everybody thinks? 