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I'm stepping away from one event comic with a crappy alternate future & a time travel element to it to talk about an event comic with a crappy alternate future & a time travel element to it. I'll be looking at DC's latest event Futures End. But you maybe asking why am I calling this review Days of Futures End?
Well… Partly because I'll be talking about this for days. Futures Ends is a 11 month long, weekly series. Why only 11 months & not a whole year, I don't know? But that roughly come out to be 40+ issues. In September, DC will be putting out a series of tie in issues that show their present day character will flash forward 5 years. This will 2014's anniversary gimmick, like 2013's Villain's Month (they'll even have the lenticular covers, too) & 2012's Zero Month. That makes Futures End now almost a 100 issues. There will also be a tie in series coming out. So….. there is a bunch of comics coming out for this thing. I doubt I'll be reading all the tie-in issues (much of what is out for the New 52 doesn't interest me). I'll probably be reading the tie-in series since it will be a companion series to another series I already read from DC: Earth 2.
But I'm also calling it Days of Futures End to hijack a title of a much better storyline that Futures End reminds me of from DC's other many competitor Marvel. Futures End starts out in a crappy future & then tries to avert that crappy future. This has been a stable of Marvel comics for the last 30 some odd years. Probably one of the earliest examples is 1981's Days of Future Past, which ran in Uncanny X-Men #141 & 142. It's written by Chris Claremont, drawn by John Byrne & was inked by Terry Austin. Due to it's success, it's set of a series of crappy futures. Pretty much any future involving the X-Men in the last 30 years fits this mold. Most of the non X-Men futures Marvel has put out fits this mold.
But over all DC's future predictions don't. To my knowledge, DC has not done a truly crappy future on this scale before. Yes. They exist but where Marvel is all Terminator about the future, DC was all Star Trek about their futures. The future was so bright, DC had to wear shades. Even the one crappy future shown in 1996's Kingdom Come doesn't look all that bad partly due to the fact that the art is painted by Alex Ross which makes the aftermath of a nuclear bomb look quite picturesque. The Legion of Super-Heroes of the 30th century for most of it's run as a thing has been a bright & shiny hope for the future. Booster Gold who is from the 25th Century lived in a nice, non post apocalyptic crappy future (his own personal "present" was crappy which cause him to travel back to the 1980's to start over his life as a super hero). Even in the far flung future of the 853rd century shown in the 1998 event comic DC 1 Million: it wasn't crappy. Yes, there were problem like an evil sentient sun but it wasn't crappy like how most of Marvel's futures were.
Futures End is. As of this writing there are only 2 issue out: Issue 0 & 1. Let's talk about them shall we.
ISSUE 0
We open on a Central City 35 years in the future.
QUESTION: What is it with DC & the number 5? When the New 52 started out 3 years ago it stated that they were working on a time frames of having the heroes only being active for 5 years. This jumps us forward 35 years & we'll see by the end of this that the series takes place mainly in 5 years from now. Why 5 years? Why not work in whole decades?
In the year 2049, the moon had a giant HAL 9000 like eye on it & the sky is red. This is our first "glimpse" of Brother Eye, the big baddie of the event. Is he really behind this all? The comics & DC says yes at the moment but I've read enough to not always take these thing at their word. With the red sky & the Moon giving us the evil eye. It makes me think of Solaris, the evil Sun from DC 1 Million & the "red skies" were a sign of an oncoming Crisis level even in the DC comic of old. Sadly I doubt that Futures End will be as cool as any of those comics. Another thing, Brother Eye's eye on the moon reminds me a bit of the Death Star (That's no Moon… That's Brother Eye!).
There are also lots of bug/spidery things crawling about the city. You don't get a good look at them but they kind of remind me of the bugs/spidery things from the 90's reimagining of the 60's TV show Lost in Space movie from 1998. This makes the third reference I've made to something from the 90's. This seems to be a common theme I've been seen over the last few years with DC's New 52: It kinds reminding me of things from the 90's, most of the them not in good ways.
We cut to a bunker of some kind where there are huddled masses (and one guy who kind of looks like Spock). There are 4 men: one guy by the door, 2 gun wielding guys by the huddled masses & Captain Cold. 1 guy calls out to the guy by the door to close it. Cold wants it open because someone is coming. Maybe it's Winter? He is Captain COLD. He then says that a transmission from Budapest said that "He" is on his way. Maybe this "He" is Hawkeye? He could be there with Black Widow & they were doing cool spy stuff? no… wait… this is a DC comic, not a Marvel comic.
Just before the door guy closes the door because "If the bugs get in, we're all dead!" a red blur with various lightning bolts around it comes in. In the next panel we see The Flash in the ground. He looks like he is about to either pass out or throw up. He has seen the world of Futures End & if he has to throw up that could be a bad things for us the readers.
In the next panel we see that Flash 2049 has a beard. So… Futures End is going by "Superman: at Earth's End" logic: If it's a crappy future your hero has to have a Santaesque beard. Flash 2049 is not in fact wearing the dark blue costume he wears in 2034 which is currently being shown in The Flash's own series. Not sure if those 2 futures are along the same timeline. Also I guess Flash 2049 & Captain Cold 2049 are friends now, they seem like friends. Captain Cold 2049 does not have a beard sadly. Flash 2049 is the only hero/villain shown to have a beard. One of the gun welding guys has a beard but that's about it for Beards of THE FUTURE!
Flash 2049 had been running all night (from Budapest?). He was out there searching for anyone else. It sounds like he didn't find anyone else. Just bugs. Then the door is knocked down & squishes Door Guy (RIP Door Guy we hardly knew you). Into the bunker waltzes cyborg bug versions of Wonder Woman & Hawk (of Hawk & Dove fame). Pretty the only parts left of the woman who was once Wonder Woman is her upper torso (because boobs?) & her head but that has some cyborgy parts to it also. They are full on Borg & want assimilate them all into their collective.
Flash 2049 & Captain Cold 2049 try to save their huddled masses earning to not be cyborg buggy things. We find out how does one become a cyborg buggy thing? It's something called an "Eye Seed" which implanted in a person somehow (WW stabs a guy with one of their massive blades that now work as her arms). I guess this seed takes over from there & it works quite quickly. Flash 2049 fights Robo Hawk while Captain Cold 2049 takes on Cyborg Wonder Bug Woman where she promptly disarms him (she cuts off his hands) & implants her Eye Seed in him. This causes Flash 2049 scream a lot & to beat the crap out of her. After he's done that more cyborg buggy things are seen coming up from behind him. They are stopped by Frankenstein 2049 from doing anything. He has a brief monologue about how Flash was once somebody he use to look up to. He then gives Flash 2049 two options: Submit or Perish. He tells the monster to go to hell. Frankenstein 2049 does not say he's all ready been there which I totally thought he was going to say & I feel this is a missed opportunity for a joke.
Franky shows off his latest addition: It's the very shocked/confused looking face of Black Canary sewn into his chest. Kinky. He also has Canary's vocal cords & use uses her vocal powers on Flash 2049 as he continues to speak with his own. Does that mean he has 2 sets of vocal cords? Why implant her whole face & part of her scalp if you only want her voice? Are you just being creepy to be creepy, Frankenstein 2049?Do you have an other heroes parts sewn into you?
With the blast from Canary, Flash 2049 & his beard are dead. We are 4 pages in & the on panel death count is currently 5 but the actual death count is probably a lot higher. Also I was totally looking for the words "after Byrne" somewhere in the panel where Flash dies because it looks a lot like like the panel where Wolverine dies via blast from a Sentinel in the Days of Future Past storyline. This panel is almost posed exactly the same.
We flip the page to have Frankenstein 2049 monologuing over a montage of panels showing us how crappy the world 2049 really is. Not sure how many times I've used the word "crappy" so far but it's defiantly fits. Everybody in 2049 be all buggy & stuff. We see Batgirl no longer has a lower body. That has replaced by the Bat signal (the Bat symbol has been replaced by Brother Eye's Eye symbol). She also a gun for a arm. Is she just stuck on the rooftop now? Is her not having legs anymore a reference to her being Oracle in the pre-New 52 version of the DC comics?
We see a panel of London, where John Constantine is a buggy cyborg but still has a cigarette in his mouth because…. a mindless killing machine thinks it looks cool? I say Mindless since nowhere in this issue does it relay to me that any of the taken over heroes/villain have any free will of their own or retain any of their past personality/knowledge.
Brother Eye's logo is also on the clock face of Big Ben also. Brother Eye sure does love plastering his symbol on everything. The bugs have it, the cyborg bug people have on them, it's are on various buildings.
We cut over to Paradise Island (home of Wonder Woman) where we see the skeletons of Deathstroke & some Green Lantern on the beach. We then cut to Metropolis sewers where John Stewart (the Green Lantern not the the host of the Daily Show) with Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes, not Ted Kord). They are going to be a distraction so 2 other character (Amethyst & Grifter) can shut down something called a Firestorm Battery. Yes, the Firestorm Battery is powered by Firestorm. We see on a later page that the Battery is a giant tower with a Firestorm encased at the top. The Tower is also on fire.
FUN FACT: The Sewers of Metropolis 2049 are big enough to easily walk through & are littered with skeletons, lovely.
The two of them rise up out to the sewer via a conveniently placed giant hole to confront the mindless buggy masses along with Cyborg Bug versions of Amazo (didn't know he had been reintroduced into the New 52) & Booster Gold. One would think a guy from the 25th Century would have been able to help prevent this. I know Booster wasn't a history scholar but I think if I was from the future I would have known about the time the Earth was taken over by Brother & everyone turned into Bug Cyborgs. This would mean that Booster's timeline was the same timeline as this one.
Cybooster Gold Bug inserts an Eye-Seed into Blue Beetle (because Booster Gold was the friend of past version of Blue Beetle? Did the Ted Kord as Blue Beetle version even exist in the New 52?). This leaves John Stewart to take them all down but he's distracted by cyborg bug Superman! We don't know it was Superman who distracted him until we flip the page. This series as a lot of people talking off panel to have you flip the page to see who it is. Frankenstein did that with Flash 2049 & Superman has done that with John Stewart 2049. Superman only has 1 hand, the other arm is a gun. That seems to be a running theme with a bunch of of these cyborg bugs. The designs for the Cyborg Bugs look a lot like the designs you'd see in the 90's but then do do a lot of designs for characters in the New 52. He look like the left over unused parts of 90's era costuming. Sadly no one seems to be saddled with massive amounts of pouches.
Just before the Eye-Seed has taken he over, John Stewart 2049 says that when Superman went missing they feared the worst. Hmmmm…. Superman gone missing & has returned evil? That seems like what is going in the Earth 2 & Injustice: Gods Among Us comic books. Hurrah for over used tropes! We cut over to Amethyst & Grifter. Even without their distraction they attempt to go ahead with the plan. Grifter is talking with "Batman" over a headset of some kind. But they are stopped from using Amethyst's magic because now that John Stewart is on the side of EVIL! He then kills them but not before Grifter can tell "Batman" that the mission is a failure.
9 Pages (minus ads) in, 9 in panel deaths.
We cut over to what they say is "Wayne Manor" but there isn't a house there anymore. Not sure what is there. There is 2 big floaty discs. The discs are shooting a laser point straight down in a hole. The laser is most likely aimed at the Batcave. This is where we find Batman & Batman, Bruce Wayne & Terry McGinnis from the "Batman Beyond" cartoon. He also has a comic book currently but in researching this series I found that this Terry is a different version from the one in the series (why? I don't know). If we go by the show's timeline Terry started as Batman in 2019 which means Terry has been Batman for 30 years. This means that in the New 52 timeline, Bruce Wayne wasn't Batman for very long, just a little over a decade. But in looking for an mention for when Terry became Batman in the comic series I didn't find any mention but since this Terry isn't the same Terry from the comic series I'm not sure when he became Batman it's could have been last year for all we know. Also, If this is in continuity with the show (which I guess it's not) then Superman is wearing the wrong costume. I liked that costume.
The Batmen are talking about what is at stake. They are also talking about time travel. In the conversation it's brought up that Batman has once more had a hand in Brother Eye. They also tell us that Mr. Terrific is somehow involved. So… It's not completely Bruce's fault this time. Bruce wearing a kind of cool looking Batsuit put on his helmet. Bruce is the only Hero in this issue that wears a completely different suit then the one they wear in the current comics. Why design a new suit for him that I'm not sure we'll see past this issue? Will we see it in future issue via flashback?
The Batmen are about to go off on an adventure throughout time & space. But that laser from before has finally broken into the cave & cyborg bug version of the Batmen of All Nations/Club of Heroes invade. A fight of course breaks out. The cyborg bug version of Batwing cuts of one of Bruce's arms but thankfully no the one he had his wrist mounted time machine on. Terry beats his way over to Bruce's dying body. Just before dying he hands off the time machine to Terry & gives some last words of advice: Don't contact past Bruce Wayne because he won't believe you & will try to stop you. He also says don't contact Superman for similar reasons.
Then Terry is sucked through a portal & a cyborg bug comes a long for the ride. Terry travels back in time & Bruce bemoans that this is not how he wanted to die. Not sure many people want to die laying on the ground surrounded by cyborg bug version of friends where you bleed out due to the fact your missing the lower half of your arm.
Back in Time: Terry falls out the sky & lands with a WHUMP on a rooftop. He asks A.L.F.R.E.D. a question. Apparently he has now has onboard A.I. based of Wayne's most likely now long death butler on board. A.L.F.R.E.D. probably sounds like Paul Bettany, too! Terry asks when they are & whoops! It's not 2014, but 2019 (maybe he'll run into the other version of himself just becoming Batman). It's 5 years into our future & according to A.L.F.R.E.D. what he's traveled prevent is already happening. You had 1 job, Terry. 1 job!
Terry is on a roof top in Times Square. On the billboards around him see see ads for S.T.A.R. Labs, Cadmus & Terrfitech (I guess Mr. Terrific has changed his costume & made it back to Earth 1 from Earth 2 sometime in the next 5 years). There is something called "The Fast Lane by Lois Lane" so it's could be the name of news article in the Daily Planet, a TV show or a Book. Not sure I have not bee paying all that much attention to the Superman books since the reboot. Under Lois's ad is one for the Earth Registration Authority (why would that even be a thing?). Next to Mr. Terrific's ads is one for "Ipso Facto: Aftermath. The Reunion Tour, a benefit for the veterans of E2" (What is E2? Is that related to Earth 2? Why would there be veterans of Earth 2? Is not not around anymore?).
And that's where our comic ends with a lot of questions & 10 deaths.
ISSUE 1
We open where Issue 0 left off: Terry on a rooftop 5 years in our future & he chatting with A.L.F.R.E.D. As they chat we find out Mr. Terrific created Brother Eye "seven years ago" which means that he created 2 years ago (2012), no mention of how Batman is connected to the creation. They bring up why Terry didn't go back the fully 35 years into the past: the machine was calibrated to Bruce Wayne's body mass. Bruce looked heavier/had more mass then Terry did. Since Terry has less mass then Bruce did they didn't go as far back in time. Wouldn't something lighter travel farther?
Before they can continue this discussion on time travel, the cyborg bug they brought back wakes up & attacks them. Terry asks A.L.F.R.E.D. why he didn't say the thing was still alive & A.L.F.R.E.D. corrects him since the cyborg bug doesn't have any brain functions so it's not alive. I guess I could bump up the death count from last issue since all the cyborg bug people we saw were not alive. We'd be up to triple digits. As Terry fights the bug, he is being watched by a guy looking out a window in a near by building wearing what looks like to be a pair of Goggle Glasses.
Terry also alludes to that he's not born yet in 2019, yet another hint that this Terry McGinnis is not the same as the one from the cartoon or comic series. This brings up a something: why create an alternate version of Terry if you already are using him in a different series? I've read elsewhere that this was there way of bringing him into the main fold of the DC Universe BUT it's not the version that people know & like. That version is still relegated to the pocket that his universe & stories live in.
If they needed a central character to travel back from the crappy future to prevent it from happening & have a robotic companion help fill in some blanks: why did they have to create an alternate version of Terry? DC already had a character like that & we've already seen him so far in the series. They could have used Booster Gold & his robotic flying companion Skeets! They also have the creator of said characters as one of the 4 writers on this book. Yes. you read that correctly there are 4 writers for this book: Brian Azzarello, Jeff Lemire, Dan Jurgens & Keith Giffen. This makes some sense as it is a weekly book & I doubt 1 person could write it all & keep up the release schedule needed for this thing.
Booster Gold could have easily filled this central character position & not have him be basically not just cameo in issue 0. Did they feel that Booster Gold wasn't a big enough name to have plaster all over the marketing for the series like Terry is/was? It would be a lot better use of him then to confuse the fans of Batman Beyond with an alt version of the character.
We leave Earth for a bit to check in on the members of Stormwatch aboard their ship The Carrier. They are confused why it has been taken out of "The Bleed", which is a method of traveling between universe & is red in color. They try to figure out what is going. The Engineer who has attached her to the ship is taken over by something. Her word balloons change to red (All the times a cyborg bug person spoke last issue were in red) & a message was related that this mystery person has taken them out the bleed. It also knows who & what Stormwatch is. It's also here to prevent them from stopping it. The mystery voice has then turned on the security measures of the ship & them is using them against Stormwatch. They try to fight off their own ship but they don't get very far since the voice starts up the self destruct on the ship. Ship go Boom. The voice continues on to Earth. In 1 panel, the comic has killed off 6 people. 1 of them being Hawkman. Goodbye Stormwatch 2019: we hardly knew you!
We go back to Earth were Grifter in straight up murdering people in North Carolina. But it's ok, they aren't normal people. They just look that way. Grifter mentions this being like the movie "Invasion of the Body snatchers" & hints that that's actually what is happening: people being kidnapped, put in pods & replaced by aliens. But he got out before he was replaced & he now has the "ability to see through their lies" which makes me think of the 1988 movie "They Live" or the awesome 80's Marvel comic Rom: Spaceknight.
Grifter is down to the last alien posing a human. it's looks like a little girl. Just before he shoots it, it yells something at him in her native language. The only world that he & we the reader understand is she said his name. So… he shoots her & then as he walks he says that this is the best job ever.
We cut back to New York City. This book does a lot of cutting from place to place. This might be because there are 4 writers & they are writing the individual parts but it can cause a bit of whiplash. We are in New York, now we are in space, now we are back on Earth & in North Carolina before we speed off back to NYC.
A black guy is on his phone as he is racing down to the street, hoping the person on the other picks up. He ducks into some store called "Spot Hott" which looks to be a woman's clothing store. Fashion hasn't changed much in the five years between then & now. The black guy, who we find out is Jason Rusch, he's looking for his friend Ronnie Raymond & he knows that Ronnie has the hots for a clerk there. The purpled hair clerk says they are upstair in the stock room. Jason rushes up there & opens to the door. You turn the page to find: Ronnie & Emily getting it on. Ronnie is none too pleased to see Jason there. This breaks up the love making. Jason says that they got a distress call from Green Arrow 45 minutes ago. Ronnie says they'll be late, that GA is a super hero & can "take care of himself".
Jason touches Ronnie & by their powers combined they are Firestorm! Firestorm 2019 is sporting a different costume then the last one I saw him wearing. It does look pretty cool. The two of them, now sharing one body (Ronnie is the main person with Jason now being a voice in Ronnie's head only he can hear) fly off to Seattle. They get there in just 2 panels. They spot a fire & fly over to it. Once they get to the fire they see massive distraction. Firestorm tries to help out in in anyway he can but there isn't much he can do. He is called to come help out someone, a person is trapped under a some rubble. They were helping people out before it collapsed on them. The person has been trapped under the rubble for 25 minutes & in a reveal you could see from a mile away under all that rubble is…..
GREEN ARROW!
We see a now bearded Green Arrow wearing a outfit reminiscent of his "Longbow Hunters" get up from years ago. He is bleeding, there is a piece of rebar sticking out of his leg & another sticking out his chest. He's missing a boot. Looks like one arm is broken. Jason is yelling that Ronnie's inability to keep it in his pants cause this death & that where out issue end with only 7 death this issue.
One last question: why called Firestorm for Help if your in Seattle & they are across the country in NYC? Sure they can get there in a few panels but did not know anyone closer?
Before I close up this past of the review I'm going to try something until I run out of idea for it.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THINGS YOU COULD BE DOING WITH YOUR TIME INSTEAD OF READING FUTURES END:
- Read the Days of Future Past storyline, DC 1 Million, Rom: Spaceknight, Kingdom Come or any of DC's past Crisis events (Crisis of Infinite Earths, Zero Hour: a Crisis in Time, Infinite Crisis & Final Crisis).
- See the movie partly based on the Days of Future Past storyline that comes out later this month.
- Watch any of episodes from any of the Star Trek series that involve the The Borg and/or watch the movie Star Trek: First Contact (which involves the Borg).
- Watch 2001: a space odyssey, They Live, any versions of Invasion of the Body Snatcher or any of the recent Marvel movies.
Until next time: Stay Jazzy everybody!
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