DC Maps the 'Flashpoint' Universe

Surely there must be someone at DC who can tap an editor or two on the shoulder and say "hey guys, if we put out a map of the world that says Africa is controlled by apes, it might make us look a bit racist". How does the TimeWarner corporation feel about one of their subsidiaries putting out something like this?

I'm fine with the concept of Atlanteans causing massive flooding that remakes the map. But just in the eastern Atlantic? How did they keep rising water levels from impacting the rest of the world--force fields?

Wow. Someone just had to have a side of impotent rage with tomorrows impending doom.

OK on the Comic Shoppe radio show I am a part of with a couple of my friends, I addressed my anger at this (Ape Controlled Africa) like this1 month and a half ago: You see everything other continent, outside of Africa with some other faction within it however Africa with its 50+ countries and 300+ major tribes TOTALLY controlled by apes. I wouldn't have been so mad if some attempt by DC had been made in establishing some African presence in the mainstream universe other than Gorilla City.

I have the same problem now after seeing this map with a South America totally controlled by Nazis. As if the native countries are weak or something.... You know it "simplifies" the alternate world but back-handily treats the continents' populaces and their strengths. I guarantee native comic fans are looking going "what...the..heck?"

Especially when you consider that the Amazons took out most of Europe but Nazis control South America, which a LONG way across the ocean? Huh?

i seriously have to wonder what kind of person immediately jumps on the phrase "Africa - Ape Controlled" and reads THAT subtext. I mean really, why would you make that assumption, why would that be the first thing you go to. No really why

Umm... Aren't we all missing the point on the whole "Africa (Ape Controlled)" thing? The real issue for me as a black man is that DC hasn't had any truly compelling superheros of African descent pushing or having important roles in any of their major flagship story lines. I don't think anyone at DC is racist (at least they don't say the n-word when I'm around). I think in a situation like this, people write what they can with what they're given. In this case there are no great African or Black American heroes who could go to Africa and set up shop to protect it from God knows what that would make us as readers say, "Yeah. That makes sense." It's more a symptom of a fantastical world so dependent on its early roots that no true change in the broader pantheon of characters is able to reflect sufficiently new or diverse ideas, tropes, themes or even faces. Am I the only person who thinks it would be reasonable to see a Black New Gods like character in Superman or a Hispanic Robin for Batman. In our ever more diverse world, this seems like it might be simple logic. I don't want to change the status quo, but I wouldn't mind adding to it to make it better.

Them Amazons, on the other hand, are some crazy chicks. They be man-hatin' and stuff.

I appreciate all the backing up of my comments but not one person has elaborated on the fact that you guys are freaking out abut stuff that we don't even know the context for yet. In situations like this I really feel like people are freaking out about nothing and it comes across as them looking for reasons to be pissed off.

Guys its an alrenate world, there is always going to be something different about an alternate universe that invariably pisses someone off. Did 1984 piss people off with the vision of a mostly white dysptioan future? Did age of apocalypse piss people off with its portrayal of japan being destroyed by a villain named Holocaust? Were people pissed off about house of m and its blatant portrayal of racism against human beings? The world of flashpoint appears to be a world in chaos and being taken over by villians, a more extreme power hungry amazon race and gorilla race makes sense in that course. But taken out of context and when you are just looking for a reason to find something to be piss off about I can see how it could be taken as offensive.

And the whole "capital of asia" being offensive thing is completely uncalled for when you look at the context of the story. Its a world in chaos, of course the nations of Asia are going to unite against the common evil.

Stop looking for reasons to be pissed off and wait for the actual context of these changes to appear, just flipping out about 3 words on a map with no more context than that is completely ridiculous. Grow up.

I don't think Geof Johns is a misogynist. However, Amazons in DC Comics have been consistenyl portrayed as one dimensional, overly aggressive man haters for a while now, both in alternate realities like this one and in core continuity events like Amazons Attack. I'd like to think that a society of women, even a society of women warriors, has better things to do with its time than constantly wage war and castrate people. I'd like to see a story about diplomatic interactions with Themyscira, or one where the Amazons ally with the rest of the world to fight the villain of the summer.

I vote that the editors move Gorilla City to Serbia in order to avoid any further confusion/outrage. There is NOTHING more insulting than psychic, hyper-intelligent gorillas living in a place where gorillas live. NOT COOL BRO

What would the reaction be if DC had a story line in which the it is set in the future and the majority of the heroes were different ethnic groups? Wouldn't it makes sense given that whites will be a minority by 2040 or sooner? I guess that fact makes the whole Legion of Superheroes things sound stupid.