This is Entry 279: I've got Disappointment with The Doctor!

*sigh*

I’m a bit disappointed in your Doctor Who. There was something… rather something not in your latest episode that is making me disappointed in you.  At the end of Episode 7 (Kill the Moon): Clara seemed to be really, really mad at The Doctor for the events of the episode & past episodes. It’s looks like she has sworn off any further travels in the TARDIS. The preview at the end of the episode made it look like she was not going to be in next episode which would be understandable.

I assumed she wouldn’t be in an episode or two. Like The Doctor isn’t sure about human emotions but he knows enough to give her time away from the blue box. Maybe she would be seen in a few short scene without The Doctor while he is out there doing stuff but as he did then he might find out that needs her. So we get a “make up” scene a few episodes later on where they are both better people for it?

NO! It’s the very next episode  (Mummy on The Orient Express) & We have the TARDIS, The Doctor & Clara. WHA HUH? Why is she there? If I was super mad with someone I would not agree to go on an adventure in time & space with them. Why is she there? It’s no like 6, 9 months later for Clara (how long it’s been for The Doctor is unknown) & she seems to be ok with it. Or she seems to be half way ok with it all. 

Am I ok with it? NO!  You, the writers/producers of the show don’t get to skip over that part of the story. She doesn’t get to be mad in between episodes. We, the viewer, would want to see some of that. It adds to character. On both ends. Actions have consequences. We don’t get to skip over them. Yes I understand this is a TV show with many fantasy elements but some of the fantasy needs to be roots in reality for us to get a crap about it.

Just skipping over the period of time that Clara was mad at The Doctor feels cheap to me. Why have it happen if you not going to show the fall out from it? Why bring it up & then skip over it. We get the resolution of sorts at the end of the episode which glosses over the who thing. “I was mad before but now I’m not” 

WHY? Answer me this? Maybe I’m just dense but why Clara suddenly ok with it? Did her magic phone with Danny make it ok? 

Futures End UPDATE

Welcome back to the long awaited second part of Days of Futures End!

yeah…. Not sure how many people have been waiting for this things. My original plan was to review DC’s weekly series Futures End in a small chunks as it came out. Like 2 or 3 issues at a time. What actually got posted was a review of issues 0 & 1 back in May. I did start in on a review of issue 2 but given that issue was a bit boring & I really did not have anything to say about that issue or then the artist apparently has never Seattle at all.  I never finished that review & never wrote any reviews for the other later issues.

Today, Wednesday October 8th Issue 23 has come out. Will I go back & review the other 22 issues: no.  BUT this is what this post is about: It’s an update! I’m not going to go through it issue by issue or every really skim the plot for series here. I doubt I can really. It’s kind of all over the place. Even reading it weekly I sometimes get lost. There is a lot going on in a few different time & places. At times there are 3 different time periods going on & in those times you might get 2 or 3 different locations.

If you really want to know my opinion of the series. I can sum that up in 1 sentence: Cool stuff is sitting next to some really stupid stuff.  For every Fifty Sue (yes. That is an actual character’s name), Banger & Mash (British themed sisters with super strength), The Nan-Knight (that’s the name of the spaceship The Atom built): there is things like Brainiac. Go check him out Future Brainiac looks AWESOME! Future Firestorm also looks pretty cool.

Is Futures End a must read series?  I don’t know. The end of Futures End (like the last few issues) might be. If you read into things like me DC’s seems to be prepping something for early next year that might be spun out of the aftermath of Futures End. But… is it worth reading on a weekly basis? No. Not really. There are other things you could be reading from DC or the other companies out there.

1 thing: If you only read Issue 0 or only heard about Issue 0 & nothing else: That is not what the series is like. What is seen there in that 1 issue isn’t really touched expect for a few less crudely put together scenes. Issue 0 was a crappy way to get people to read the series. It’s one of the worse parts of the series. I wanted to read the series so I pushed through it & the series did get better as it went along for the most part. It’s still that a great series. It is readable. It’s got some interesting visuals & ideas.

Last month, DC flashed every book forward 5 years to show what their characters are doing in the main future time period of the series. This was this year’s anniversary lenticular event. Are these one-shots worth reading? Depends, do you read  any of those series? If no then no. You don’t need to read them to understand the main series. Of the ones that I looked at (in my local comic shop) very few of them tied into the main Futures End series. There are some “interesting” things in the one-shots. 2 Highlights:

1. Luchador Batgirl. Yes. you read that correctly: a Luchador Batgirl. She who heads a team of other 3 Batgirl (Stephanie Brown, Cassandra Cain, and Tiffany Fox). The Batgirl of the Future has given up the ways of the Bat & has become a now former (by the time of the comic) apprentice of Bane. Most people focused on the fact that Stephanie & Cassandra were back in a comic. I focused on the Luchador Batgirl which we sadly don’t see much of in the comic. At least full shot of her in her costume. It’s awesome in all the worse ways.

2. Harley Quinn in the Suicide Squad one-shot. I’ll just leave you all to find check that out for yourself.

Of all the books that came out there is only 1 book that I think is worth picking up or at looking at is the Booster Gold one-shot. His book was the only 1 not connected to a series & seemed to fore tell of future events. Most likely what ever is coming next year.

Another book that came out today is Earth 2: World’s End, which is connected to Futures End. FE tells us the end of the story where as E2:WE will tell us the beginning. The End of the story is during some sort of battle/war/event, Earth 2 becomes unlivable for the people of that Earth. The heroes of Earth 2 escape from their World in giant flying Arks to Earth 1. The way Future End reads in Earth 2 isn’t just unlivable, it’s not there anymore.

Do you need to read Earth 2: World’s End if you reading Futures End? at the this point it's a toss up. With Issue 1 it does help if you were already reading the Earth 2 book.  It skims over the various past events from the book but does not explain what many of them are. Not sure how much Earth 2: World’s End with tie into Futures End or the main Earth 2 book.

And that's it for this update. I will most likely make another one at...  THE END!

Until then Stay Jazzy everybody!

Sliding to the Edge of the Spider-Verse

As has been stated in a pervious post I don’t much care for Spider-Man. It’s not that he is a bad character, it’s just that I find him boring. There isn’t much to get me invested in him. This is not to say there has been things that I have not liked involving Spider-Man. I own a number of Spider-Man comics. A large chunk of those are from the 80’s but that’s mostly because they feature the character Black Cat in them. The 1990's Spider-Man cartoon is awesome & I'll gladly put it up there on the lists of great comic book adaptation cartoons. Heck, even the current Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon is half way decent (At least the few episodes I've seen have been half way decent). The Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends cartoon can be good for a laugh.

But why am I bringing this up? I’m going to talk about a Spider-Man comic. One that does feature something I do like: alternate realities. This should be no surprised. I just posted a post celebrating the 20th anniversary of Zero Hour, a series with an alternate reality element. I’m half of the way through an issue by issue review of Age of Ultron that has at least 1 alternate reality contained in it.

What am I going to be talking about? Superior Spider-Man #32, the prologue to the prologue series (Edge of Spider-Verse) to the main event (Spider-Verse). But didn't that book finish it run? Yes but the event of this issue & maybe other parts of the series take place during the run of the series. 

Imagine it’s October of last year. Ok, you got it? Well… forget all that since it being last October has no baring on the story. But there is some backstory you need to know which the first page fills you in on just in case the readers of said issue didn’t know what was going on. I did... sort of.

BACK STORY TIME: Otto Octavius, the villain also known as Doctor Octopus, was dying of something. Let’s say Butt Cancer. Otto doesn’t want to die so he figures out a way to go all freaky friday on Spider-Man. They swap bodies. Not sure what happens to the Octavius body but now Doc Ock in Spider-Man's body (who I'll be calling Octo-Spidey) changes to a darker kind of cool looking costume & proclaims himself to The Superior Spider-Man. This of course sets up the formation of an awesome comic book “Superior Foes of Spider-Man” If you haven’t reading it: correct that & do so. It’s awesome & you don’t have to worry about any of the Octo-Spidey stuff. You just get a fun team book.

Getting back to Octo-Spidey, in his *new* secret identity Otto-as-Peter works at a company called Horizon Labs where science happens. According to the recap page, There was a “temporal distortion” which I’m going to blame on Wolverine (see Age of Ultron #10 for more info on why). The distortion brings Miguel O’Hara, the Spider-Man of 2099 to 2013. He had a mission & not sure if he completed it or not (the comic doesn’t say). I guess he decided to stick around since he’s now hanging out in the present doing thing in his own series (which ties in the Edge of Spider-Verse event).

During the distortion, Octo-Spidey went missing for 24 hours & this comic tells of what he did. He did a lot. It all starts with with Octo-Spidey going to THE FUTURE! How? Giant explosion!  As he travels through time he apparently travels through Hypertime, the not much used but liked by Me DC Comics concept from the early 2000’s. He’s falling through a whirlpool which one can see reused art work from such past alternate reality stories as: 1602, Earth X, Future Imperfect, something involving Deathlok, Days of Futures Past & Old Man Logan.

Octo-Spidey falls out of the whirlpool & lands on a rooftop. He’s a bit woozy & stands up to find out that he’s 5 years too late!  No… wait… wrong comic book. That’s Futures End.  Octo-Spidey stands up & then crouches down in an odd pose to find out he’s in 2099! You can tell that’s 2099 since a reader board in the back says so & there is a billboard with the word Alchemax on it. 

On the next page I think there is a minor Blade runner reference in the background. If I remember the old Spider-Man 2099 comics they seemed to be very Blade Runnery. Octo-Spidey is web slinging around. What is that web connected to? I don’t know. The top of the panel I guess! While he slings around Octo-Spidey thinks to himself “Gotta get some some sweet future tech. Just think of what my giant brain could do with all that sweet future tech!”

About here I came to 1 conclusion:  Octo-Spidey is a giant Douche! He continues to be a big one through out the rest of the comic. I would assume that this was a theme in the book: Spider-Man is a giant Douche Bag! But apparently no one caught that he had been brain swapped. Or at least I heard about that being the case in a number of comics. As I have said: I haven't been reading Spider-Man but I hear things.

Back to the comic: I guess being in a costume is a no no since the police or what I guess passes for it in THE FUTURE tells Octo-Spidey he’s under arrest. Possible reason: First Degree Douche Baggery.

We have a minor fight scene (it’s 1 panel) & then Octo-Spidey meets up with the brother of Spider-Man 2099. He has a flying car. Flying Cars are cool. There is a bit of “I’m not who you think I am? You are exactly who I think you are?” but not really. Brother Guy (Gabriel O’Hara) assumes this is still Peter Parker & not the body swapped Otto Octavius. The reason Gabriel knows Petter Parker is the 2 Spider-Men had met before. Gabriel flies off in his cool car back to Spider-Man 2099's apartment. There they met up with a “holo-agent”, a hologram that is the user interface for the computer. Gabriel says the holo-agent use to have a personality but had been reset back to it’s baseline form (vaguely male & is colored yellow or green depending on the panel).

Shortly there after Octo-Spidey kicks Gabriel out of the apartment so he can do science. Octo-Spidey asks the hologram where he can get him some sweet future tech so he can himself a time machine. There are 2 choices: 1 from Stark/Fujikawa & the other being from Alchemax (which I guess is the company that Horizon Labs becomes). Octo-Spidey also wants hologram man to call him “Doctor”. I guess his ego isn’t big enough to have it call him “Master”. 1 quick 2 page spread of a montage later we see a bit more douche baggery (actual line of dialogue: If this is the future, I am not impressed). 

We next find Octo-Spidey is hard at work in the surprisingly still mostly intact but abandoned Empire State University campus. The lab he is in looks surprisingly clean given how things look outside. Also why is the campus still there? There are clearly more futuristic buildings built up around it. Why is it still there? Also, why is he there? He had the usage of the apartment. He didn’t need to go there. But he is & is hard at work at the machine Quinn Mallory made in the show Sliders. 

As Octo-Spidey works on what the holo-agent calls a “portal” we see that he has changed it’s form into that of a little girl who is colored yellow here but later on is colored pink. Why? I don’t know.  I might if I read the comic before this but I didn’t so it’s just something kind of weird. He turns on his portal & has the holo-agent girl download themself into his gauntlet. Not sure how a computer program from 86 years into his future downloads herself into his wrist gauntlet. Maybe she is backwards compatible?

They walk through the portal & end up in… an alternate universe first shown to us way back in 1977 in the first issue of What If. Here we see a world where Spider-Man joined the Fantastic Four (they became the Fantastic Five) but we see the four members (yes, four. It doesn’t show where the Invisible Woman is & given the story she might not even be there) are found dead amidst a destroyed building of some kind.  Alternate Spider-Man is found dead with 2 big holes in his chest. On finding the dead spider-man, Octo-Spidey figures out that this is not his home time period. Even Holo-Girl confirms this. They are at the wrong “vibrational frequency”. So we are working on the same level of science that 1960’s DC Comics did for dimensional travel which is the best kind of science for made up dimensional travel!

On the next 2 pages we see Octo-Spidey travel to 3 other worlds. The opening monologue for early seasons of Sliders is basically this issue so far: What if you found a portal to a parallel universe? What if you could slide into a thousand different worlds? Where it was the same year, and you’re the same person, but everything else is different. And what if you can’t find your way home?

In those 3 worlds we see 2 worlds based of House Of M & Civil War. The third has flying police cars & a Spider-Man is a suit of armor (like the one he got in Web of Spider-Man #100). All 3 are dead, all 3 have chest wounds. All 3 are also surround by destruction. Octo-Spidey has started to collect data on the dead Spider-Men. He & Holo-Girl find out that each have been “suffused with the same exotic energy” but that energy is not native to any of the universe they have visited. We flip the page to see the Spider-Man (from the Spider-Man: India comics) fighting with some masked man who is wearing a kind of cool (minus the stupid looking helmet) retro looking outfit.

It’s Morlun. This “big mystery” was ruined in the images & text released to hype the Spider-verse event. They sold the series as: Morlun travels to alternate realities to kill the Spider-Man of that world but the various Spider-man team up to stop him. If this masked man is not reveled to be Morlun, it will be someone working for him.  As Indian Spider-Man fights Morlun, Octo-Spidey comes into help. While Morlun is distracted, He is trapped under a building that Indian Spider-Man pulled down on to him.  Instead of finishing the fight, Octo-Spidey takes Indian Spider-Man away. Morlun frees himself & knows Indian Spider-Man is gone. Where have they gone? Octo-Spidey is collecting Spider-Men across the multiverse to fight against Morlun.

We end this story with Indian Spider-Man & Octo-Spidey meeting up with other alternate Spider-People. Presented there are a six armed Spider-Man (which could be from the Mutant X universe or a few other places), Ashley Barton (Spider-Man’s grand-daughter & Hawkeye’s daughter from Old Man Logan), Spider-Man (from the What If? one shot “Spider-Man vs. Wolverine”), Spider-Monkey (from Marvel Apes) and the Spider-Man from the Spider-Man: Noir books.

There is a second story in the issue but it’s how Octo-Spidey recruited the Spider-Man from the What If? one shot “Spider-Man vs. Wolverine” from 2008.

FINAL THOUGHTS: A part from the general doucheness of Octo-Spidey it’s a good issue. I look forward to the rest of the event.

Zero Hour 20th Anniversary Fan Retrospective

The year is 1994. It started on a Saturday.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is established. Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed in the right leg by Jeff Gillooly, ex-husband of her rival Tonya Harding. Harding is later banned from the sport of Figure Skating. Lorena Bobbitt is found not guilty of "dismembering" her husband. China gets The Internet. Apple releases the first Macintosh computers with it's new PowerPC microprocessors. The largest High School arson happens somewhat ironically in Burnsville, Minnesota. Nelson Mendela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president. John Wayne Gacy is executed. The O.J. Simpson murder trial starts. The Lion King is released. Microsoft announces that they will stop selling & supporting the MS-DOS operating system. It's revealed that former president Ronald Reagan has Alzheimers. Jeffrey Dahmer is beaten to death in prison. The Sistine Chapel is reopened to the public after a 10 year restoration. Martin Lawrence is banned for life from Saturday Night Live due to sexually explicit jokes. Star Trek: The Next Generation has it's series finale. The Independent Film Channel (IFC), Home & Garden Television (HGTV), the Game Show Network & DirecTV launch. The first Old Navy locations are opened in Northern California.

Harry Styles (of One Direction), Dakota Fanning, Moisés Arias (Rico from Hannah Montana) & Jake T. Austin (from Wizards of Waverly Place) are born. Kurt Cobain, Cesar Romero, Harry Nilsson, Telly Savalas, Dinah Shore, Jack Kirby, John Candy, Richard Nixon, George Peppard, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis & Peter Cushing all past away.

A very emo looking photo of me circa
the early 90's

I am 11 & am unaware that most of this was even going on. One thing I was a bit more aware of: Comics.  What was happening in comics in '94?  Scott Summers & Jean Grey got Married. Rick Jones & Marlo Chandler also got married (but not to Scott & Jean). The soon to be over long, confusing Clone Saga starts in the Spider-Man comics. The Phalanx Covenant starts in the X-Men comics & sets up the new status quo for that line of books. But that's all Marvel. What is happening over at their Distinguished Competition?

Bruce Wayne is back being Batman after the almost year & half long Knightfall saga. Bart Allen (also known as Impulse who goes to be Kid Flash & even the Flash for a short time) is introduced. Kyle Rayner is introduced & becomes Green Lantern. What else was DC doing? 

Oh yeah…. They spent most of the month of July & the first 2 weeks of August wiping out their entire comic book universe & replacing it with a slightly altered version. What did they call this annihilation? 

And my friends, it is AWESOME! Zero Hour will never be a “was” to me. This event was partly a sequel to last time they wiped out their entire comic book universe & replaced it with a slightly altered version in 1985's "Crisis on Infinite Earths".  Zero Hour's tagline was "Crisis in Time" after all.

As far as I can tell the two main reasons for Zero Hour:

A. To clean up some of the messes caused by aforementioned Crisis on Infinite Earths. As DC gradually rolled out the new versions of characters, some of the old (Pre-Crisis) versions were still being featured in their books several months to a year later. These old versions were interacting with the new versions of characters. Zero Hour attempted to help clean up the history of a number of characters like Hawkman (his New/Post-Crisis version didn't show up until 1989 but a "Hawkman" had been used in comics during 1986, 1987 & 1988) and the Legion of Super-Heroes (LSH), the teenage super heroes from various planets in the 30th Century. The LSH's history had to been drastically changed due to the events of the first Crisis. Their inspiration (Superman's adventures as Superboy) didn't exist in continuity anymore. Their history has been kind of messed up ever since. The LSH have been rebooted at least a half a dozen time (pretty much ever decade since has had at least 1 reboot of the LSH). There had had also been a number of other retcons (Retroactive Continuity) made to help fix the problems that had popped up in DC's comics over the almost decade in-between the two events.

B. Zero Hour was there to realign DC’s personal timeline. It's heroes were getting old. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman & others had been around for about 50 years. They had decades of adventures behind them & yet still were only be in their 30's somehow. Zero Hour comes into attempt to fix that problem by condensing the universe! DC had already pretty much thrown out their heroes’ adventures from the 40's & 50's by saying that their heroes had started out in the 1960's. But that was still 30 years worth of time! So Zero Hour rejiggers the timeline to have their heroes have only been around for "about 10 years".

SIDE NOTE: This is twice as long as the Heroes have been around after DC once more wiped out their entire comic book universe & replaced it with a slightly altered version in an event known as The New 52. Even this time scale is murky given various conflicting bits of information in regards to The New 52.

So… in the comic book it self: what is Zero Hour exactly about?   Time is unraveling at both ends. The past & the future are slowly disappearing. Massively old character characters like Vandal Savage (he started out life a caveman): GONE! People from the future in the present like Booster Gold (originally from the 25th century) & Bart Allen (originally from the 30th century): GONE!  There is a wave of white "nothingness" slowly making it's way through time (This is similar to the waves of Anti-Matter that destroyed various alternate realties in the first Crisis). Also, the walls between the various realities are breaking down allowing people to more easily cross between them. Yes, even though Crisis on Infinite Earths had "done away" with the Multiverse, it was still there 9 years later. As seen in a bunch of other books after this one: the Multiverse never left, it was just harder to travel between. The people of the DCU just plain forgot about the existence of the multiverse until certain events reminded them that it was there (how much of a multiverse is actually there has fluctuated widely over the years). This eating of time from both end was seemingly being controlled by a character called Extant, a character who part of an earlier time traveling themed series called Armageddon 2001 (from 1991). But Extant was just the harbinger of the man in charge: The villain known as Parallax who in a snazzy new costume was also SPOILERS ON A NOW 20 YEAR OLD SERIES: Hal Jordan the Green Lantern!!!!!!!!!

Hal Jordan revealed as Parallax & the man
behind the events of Zero Hour in
Zero Hour #1

Hal had become overcome with grief & gone a bit cray cray over the destruction of his hometown: Coast City. This happened as part of the aftermath of  "The Death of Superman" storyline which ran from October 1992 to October 1993. Hal's road to crazy town was mostly told in "Emerald Twilight" a storyline in his own book which came out earlier in 1994. Yes, Zero Hour is a follow up to a lot of things partly due to the trend in the 90’s comics to have them connected to each other (gotta read & buy them all!).  How did Hal become Parallax? Hal went on a killing spree of pretty much anyone connected to the Green Lantern Corps. He took all their powers, the power from the Central Power Battery on OA (which he also destroyed) & had a bit of a Highlander moment. Once there was only one Green Lantern: He had enough power to do what he wanted.

What was that? Go to Disneyland? no. Drive cross country rediscovering America one person at a time? already did that. Solve all the world’s problems? well… sort of. He sets about trying to destroy THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE! Why? So he can remake it again but this time his hometown back in place & everyone one who was living there won't be all dead & stuff. As nice as that sounds, the Heroes are having none of this! They try to stop him but MORE SPOILERS ON A NOW 20 YEAR OLD SERIES:  Hal does end up erasing the whole universe on August 2nd, 3:32 pm (most likely eastern standard time). This highly specific time of day was revealed in a DC “house ad” for the series which showed up in DC’s books 3 weeks after the destruction happened. August 2nd is also the day when the 2nd to the last issue of the event came out & when Hal’s destruction is presented. Why the ad came out so late I’m not sure.

The ad that mentions the date & time
when the DCU was destroyed

Hal may have erased the universe but is stopped from creating his new universe (That's Jim Shooter's job!). It’s on August 9th when a slightly altered version of the DCU is put back in it’s place & no one seems notices the changes. This is basically what happened in Zero Hour & I have glossed over a whole bunch of things. They were important things but not to the story’s larger picture.

But as I said I'm 11 & I know none of this. I didn't even read Zero Hour when it came out. I didn't have access to it. Little 11 year old me didn't know of any comic book stores in my area. I didn't even know such a thing existed (give me a few years & I will). I had just gotten into super hero comics the year prior. I had been reading comics since the Summer of  '91. In 1994, I was mainly getting my comics from the magazine department at grocery stores mostly, book stores & odd locations like Sam's Club (Wal-Mart’s version of Costco). These places were not selling the limited series, just a few of the monthly books (or in Sam’s Club’s case: selling packs of comics from the past year or so back). In the random DC comics, I'd see the ads for those series so I knew they existed, I just wasn't sure how to get them (Maybe I was just going to the wrong grocery store?). Years past & these unknown comics fade into the background. My thoughts moved on to other comics. At the time comics weren't as big a part of my life as they are now & my not knowing there was such a thing as "back issue bins”: I didn't go looking for them to find out what they were. Even when I did become aware of these things, Zero Hour wasn't on my mind. I had probably forgotten all about it. Some of my first back issue bin purchases were for early 90’s Disney comics.

The nifty looking fold out timeline that set up the new
DC timeline which was included in the final
issue of Zero Hour

More years pass, I dive deeper & deeper into comics. About a decade after I started to read comics, I start to obsess over then. This is partly due to the fact that A. I got my 1st job which mean I had money & B. I knew of a few local stores so I had greater access to both past & current comics. I would say over half of my comic book collection has been purchased in the last decade or so. As I'd search these back issue bins, I'd pick up books that interested me (a guiding principal I still follow). There would be scattered books from this era of comics. I would see ads for things.  Things I had probably glossed over, forgotten about or just never seen. There were cool things. Interesting things.  Things I should search out for. In comics from this period of time, there would be a reoccurring phrase. An ad here, a mention there. This sparked something. What was this "Zero Hour" that I keep seeing?

My first "answer" to what it might be was a tie in issue to the series: Shadow of The Bat #31. There on the top of the cover with it's exploding clock of an O in Zero (It wasn't until few years later that I even realized that was even to be an exploding clock).  The cover was different then the other Batman comics in the bin around them. It looked like one from the 40's or something but it was from 1994. I bought it to find out what it was all about. I read it & it was AWESOME!

SIDE NOTE: I'm a big fan of time travel & alternate reality stories, two things that heavy factor into Zero Hour. Even more so in the tie in issues. The first series that truly followed was Marvel's What If , an anthology series revealing the various alternate takes on the events of their universe. Oddly enough some of my first issue of the series were some of the last from the second volume.

For awhile this one issue was all I had that was Zero Hour. I'd pick up other comics that had ads for the series but no Zero Hour. Each “new” Ad I’d find made me more interested in the series. As the years went on I’d pick up scattered other tie in books. Almost all of these tie in books tell you nothing of the main series or even connect to each other. Without the main series to be it's spine, they were only one off alternate reality tales for me. They might as well be listed as just Elseworld tales.

SIDENOTE: The annuals from Summer 1994 were all Elseworld themed & one of the first DC books are really gravitated to was the Superman Elseworld annual. But that is a story for another day.

Cover to the collected edition

As I got more into comics, I had started to attend comic book conventions. At the time I didn't have a big local convention (like I do now) but there were various small conventions I could go to. As I got more into comics, I would come prepared with a list. A list of "I want to read you!" books. As the years past, no Zero Hour. Zero Hour was never really on my list but it was there in there back of my mind. I couldn't even order a copy of the collected edition. It was listed DC Comics’ website but was taunting me with 3 little words: OUT OF PRINT. It had existed at one time but existed no more. Happily there is currently a collected edition once more in print & I have purchased it partly on principal. From what I can tell it is essentially the exact same collected edition as before just with some cosmetic changes (different logo, new barcode, etc.). 

A few years ago, I was at a small local comic show. It was held in an elementary school gym. As I roamed around the room, I looked at the various comics for sale. I came to one table, there were various comics laid out. Among them was Zero Hour. The complete series with some related promotional items.  They were priced at slightly above cover price per issue but I didn't really care: I was going to buy the series! I think if I remember right the guy at the table gave me the promo stuff for free. About a year after that, I found the series again at a thrift store for a quarter an issue. At that low of a price, I bought it just to have it. So now I own 2 sets of the series.  Interesting I now have both versions that that were put out. 1 set for the direct market (i.e. The comic book store) & the other one was for the newsstand, where I started my journey into comics.

Also in the last few years I gotten a few more promotional items from the series (even an in store display kit). I have 1 of my copies of the final issue signed by writer/artist of the series Dan Jurgens.  I have pretty much every major tie-in issues. There a number of more minor tie-in issues that I don't own. Why? Partly because they a bit harder to find and/or they might not interest me. I have found that as a get to the less big name titles the "alternate reality" stories get less & less cool or just weren't really there at all. There are about a handful of issues I don't own. I probably won't getting them.  My Zero Hour collection will most likely always remain unfinished but I don’t know. I’d probably still buy anything Zero Hour related item that I don’t own (only if it’s priced reasonably). I also own a number of the “Zero Month” comics which came out directly after Zero Hour & help set up the new status quo. My interest in the series has even driven me to have the series logo printed on to a shirt because I wanted to have a Zero Hour t-shirt!

By this point, I have now covered a few basic questions in regards to Zero Hour but one remains: Why? Why Zero Hour? What is it about this event comic from 1994 that I didn’t even read when it came out that I’ve become so attached to. The series is far from the greatest thing ever. I know that. I am not completely blind to that fact. When I read it I can clearly see problems with it. Part of the reason why I’m not doing a review of the series is I don’t think I’d have much to say about. At times it can be quite boring. Plus if we got right down to it: I find the tie in issues a lot more interesting then the main series it’s self. 

The trio of ads that heralded the coming of Zero Hour

So… why do I like Zero Hour so much? It basically comes down to a few things, the biggest one might be is Nostalgia. This is a series from about a year into my reading of Super Hero comics. When I started to read DC comics, there were certain comics that I was more drawn to then others. Zero Hour has that look & feel I was drawn to. This is due to the fact that when I look back on those early DC comics, a name kept popping up: Dan Jurgens. I didn't know this at the time but he was all over those early DC comics that I have fond memories for. He was part of the 1st event comic I ever read: The Death of Superman. He was there at the start of my readership & his art became ingrained in my mind. For me there is just something about Dan Jurgens’ art that I really like. Not sure why I do but I do. Dan Jurgens has also done a number of time travel centric stories for DC, a story concept that I have already said that I really enjoy. 

Basically why do I like Zero Hour?  It’s a book that came out in a time period I have fond memories for, involves story concepts I really enjoy & is by creators I enjoy (There is no mistaking that Artist Jerry Ordway inked the series). As far as I know DC comics will not be doing anything to commemorate this milestone. When I’ve tried to do search for “DC Zero Hour 20th Anniversary” online I get little to no search results. They could have easily made another printing of the collected edition of the series, made it a hard cover, slapped “20th Anniversary edition” on the cover, maybe gotten Dan Jurgen to do a forward for the collection & called it good.  A new, better cover would have been cool but that might of been stretching it. People would have bought it.  I would have. I know a few other people would have too.  I guess they are just saving up for the 30th anniversary hard cover of Crisis on Infinite Earths next year (which would make the 4th collected version for the series).

It’s also really hard to find anything Zero Hour related on the Internet. If I wanted things about the Crisis events on either side of Zero Hour I’d be fine.  I have a greater selection of Zero Hour imagery in my personal collection then Google has.  You can see evidence that yes Zero Hour existed but not much else. This was partly my reason wanting to do this highly personal retrospective. Someone needed to mark this milestone so why not me? Plus, there just needs to be more stuff about Zero Hour on the internet because I think it’s awesome & being a white male between the ages of 18 & 35: the internet should cater to my needs!

Long Live Zero Hour!

Days of Futures End, Part 1.

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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!