Actually, it appears the Sun might enter in a period of "no solar flares" anymore for about ~70 years.
Anyway, the problem with Elenin isn't if it's a comet, it's if it is a brown dwarf. That's basically a failed star and has huge gravity. It could do a bunch of stuff to us. If it's a comet we could enter it's debris field... and you know the rest of that story.