The Button - Cheap Thoughts

I've talked about DC Rebirth in the past, DC's relaunch of all of their titles, combining the prior universe with The New 52 and also setting up the introduction of the Watchmen to the DC Universe. Well, nearly a year since Rebirth, we've had our first major step forward in the story. We've certainly inched closer with things being set up and foreshadowed in other books, but DC are certainly taking their time with this "mystery" and honestly I kind of love that. They're not rushing into anything, they've used this past year to re-establish the status quo and only now when everything is comfortably placed and Rebirth has been a bonafide success have they progressed the story.

The Button is a 4 part crossover between Batman and The Flash where they make the first bit of progress in months after finding the mysterious Watchmen button in the Batcave, as Reverse-Flash shows up and claims to know where the owner of the Button is, however, he quickly returns a burnt up corpse with one dying statement "I...Saw...God.". Thus, Flash and Batman have to travel through the speed force to try and find out what happened to him and end up coming across Flashpoint, as well as Golden Age superhero Jay Garrick.

This is really a story to take issue by issue when it comes to analysing it, because all 4 issues are very well produced and have stand out moments, but for different reasons. Issue 1 written by Tom King is excellently paced, taking place over the course of one minute as Batman simply needs to stall the Reverse-Flash, knowing he can't take him in a fight, he uses all the tricks he has to keep him there until The Flash arrives. Because while Batman is a genius and an excellent fighter, Reverse-Flash could kill him in less than a second, but the man's an ego-maniac, he knows he's going to take his time to gloat. Which is not to say Batman doesn't get a few good punches in, but it's all just a distraction until Flash can show up. But what really stands out about this issue is the panel work. Jason Fabok subtly pays tribute to the Watchmen nine-panel layout throughout most of the issue, only breaking this structure to emphasise particular events.

Then we move onto issue 2, and each issue from here on out is written by Joshua Williamson, who is I had to pinpoint one of his strongest features as a writer, it's nailing emotional dilemmas between characters. The way he writes people feel so honest and open, the weight of a moment is always felt. But that's more of a discussion for issue 3. This issue however, while arguably has the least momentum in the story, still moves things along nicely, with Batman and Flash travelling through the speed force we have them acknowledging the real origins of the Justice League, and we also get some beautiful colouring for the speed force from Hi-Fi Colouring, really gorgeous to look at.

Then we have issue 3, which is where Williamson's skills at emotional weight come into play. Batman meets his Flashpoint counterpart, Thomas Wayne, his father. The conversations between these two are so simple yet so elegant that so much is said in just a few words. "There was one thing I wanted to tell you above anything else. You're a grandfather. I have a son." Damn if that doesn't hit you where it hurts. But then they have to go and top that emotional wallop by having Thomas give his son one last piece of advice before he disappears "Don't be Batman." Telling his son to give up the life and just be a loving father to his son the way Thomas wishes he could have been to Bruce. For the longest of time Bruce has been written in a way that suggests he does what he does out of some desire to please his parents, whether it be out of survivors guilt, honouring a legacy or whatever your interpretation is, there's always been that connection. Yet recently, in Tom King's run he's been challenging that idea of Bruce doing this just for the sake of his parents and how true that statement is, and now hearing it from his father's lips, that is surely going to complicate things. In face in the final issue we see Bruce watching over Gotham when the bat signal turns on, Alfred asks him if he's going to answer it and he simply looks down in doubt.

Then the final issue which is where we come full circle, we get a little bit more of how Reverse-Flash died, plus Jay Garrick comes back...sort of, he returns for a minute in a similar style to Wally West, but in this case Barry was not his anchor, so...guess he's just stuck in the speed force still. In all honesty this final issue left me slightly disappointed because it felt like not a whole lot had been achieved, the characters are no closer to knowing what's happening, we just got a lot of set-up and reaffirmation of things we already knew. But still, that doesn't change the fact that the journey getting these was one heck of an emotional roller coaster.

Within these 4 issues we get great character moments, emotionally gripping storytelling, very well done artwork and for the first major event in Rebirth, i'd say it delivered, even with a slightly lacklustre ending. 8/10.

-Danny