Wow! What an issue. There were Heroes, Villains, Traitors and Captain Thunder (Captain Marvel if we weren’t in the Flashpoint). The war between the Amazons and the Atlanteans is finally in full swing on New Themiscara and the Flash may be in over his head if he can’t figure out his friends aren’t his friends anymore.

In this book we finally get a look at Captain Thunder and the S.H.A.Z.A.M. kids. In the regular DCU in his mortal form, Captain Marvel is a boy named Billy Batson, in the Flashpoint Captain Thunder is Billy Batson, plus 5 other kids, including his sister Mary. These kids are hesitant to join the fight, because they barely survived a first encounter with Wonder Woman when Captain Thunder just wanted to talk.

There is more to this issue than Captain Thunder. We have a major DCU character die, a super team attempt to form and the introduction to an all new character (the Element Woman, the worst kept secret ever).  Element Woman comes on the scene just when all seems lost for the Flash, Batman and Cyborg during their battle against the soldiers from Project Superman.

Hal Jordan is featured in this book on a couple of pages and I’m sure we will see the outcome to his story in his Flashpoint tie-in later this month. But DC’s “Man Without Fear” runs head first into the action with little regard for his own safety. Even in an alternate reality some things never change.

This issue gave us a taste of the final battle to come, and the Reverse Flash finally came face to face with the Flash. Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert and Sandra Hope, have done a great job with this story so far, and the events of ‘Flashpoint’ #5 will throw us right into the upcoming DCnU and the 52 new #1’s. I can’t wait to see how this story concludes on August 31st. I know one thing for sure; the DC Universe will never be the same when the dust settles in the aftermath of ‘Flashpoint’.

Make sure to check out this book as the DCU is ending and a new beginning is upon us, this is DC Comics storytelling at its very best.