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The DC3 Presents: “New 52: Futures End,” Week 14: The State of the Series

By , and | August 8th, 2014
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The DC3 decided to take on the Herculean task of covering DC’s weekly books! Our coverage will rotate between creator interviews, issue reviews and annotations, and long-form pieces on featured characters. This, friends, is the DC3kly!

Much like we did last week, today we take a look at the series as a whole, and share our overall thoughts on just how “New 52: Futures End” is looking 14 weeks in.

Brian: Last week, we share a mini-love fest while talking about “Batman Eternal,” specifically how the book seemed to be firing on all cylinders, despite frequent art changes and a ton of plots to juggle. This week, we are looking at “New 52: Futures End,” a book that I, personally, was more excited for than “Eternal,” but has been a very different book than the one I envisioned. So, let’s start broad: how have you guys been enjoying “Futures End?”

Vince: Well, I can tell you straight away that this time it won’t be a “love fest”, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not enjoying the series or that I think it’s bad. It’s just that “Batman Eternal”, even with a juggling act of its own, is far more a model of consistency than “Futures End” is. All that stuff that I said last week about “Batman Eternal” having a myriad of good storylines, each just about as enjoyable as any other? I’m afraid I can’t say the same about “Futures End.”

It’s kind of a double-edged sword, because as much as I’d love to get away from the Bat books more often, the Batman Beyond and “Red Robin” segments of “Futures End” are by far the most interesting and highest quality stories, in my mind. What can I say? DC Comics puts a lot of juice behind the idea of “Batman” – and clearly that’s something they wanted to do with “Futures End” to. Whether you’re a Bat-fan or not, you have to admit that the moment between Bruce and The Joker was one of the best cards that “Futures End” has pulled yet.

On the other hand, I couldn’t care less about what’s going on with Grifter right now, which is too bad because it looks like he’s going to be playing a huge role throughout this. The Stormwatch stuff has oscillated between meandering and really fun. I’m really loving the “mad scientist” take on Ray Palmer – though I hope he’ll get to don the Atom suit in earnest again someday.

I’ve not dropped the book, which is a good compliment for any weekly title, if you ask me. It’s saying a lot that I’m still having a good enough time plunking down 3 dollars every single week for this. Since its inception, “Futures End” has had one or two really intriguing moments every couple weeks or so. Right now, that’s enough for me to keep reading. Zach, how are you feeling about the book?

Zach: I’ll admit that “Batman Eternal” is a lot more consistent and technically stronger than “Futures End.” However, I somehow find myself a lot more excited and enthusiastic about the latter. “Futures End” is one of the first books I read every week, just because I cannot wait to find out what crazy thing will happen next. I think it’s fascinating to see the current DCU fast forward five years, with new characters, new roles for fan favorites, and mysteries surrounding several MIA heroes.

An oddly cartoony Grifter

Vince, while I agree that the Grifter storyline is by far the weakest, I disagree that the Bat-related subplots are the most engaging. I for one can’t get enough of the Frankenstein subplot. Its sci-fi trappings fit my sensibilities extremely well, and the team of Frankenstein, Ray, Amethyst, and Hawkman is surprisingly fantastic. The characters have enough overlap to form some very interesting comparisons, but plenty of conflicting differences as well. I definitely have the movie on huge brain, but this is what I would want a DC “Guardians of the Galaxy” to look like.

As someone who’s still really enjoying “Earth 2,” I’m also really enjoying the ties to that world, as well as the teases about the war between worlds. While that Joker cliffhanger was arguably the series’ best thus far, the one with Barda and Emiko is a strong second for me.

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I think the biggest draw for me is that this book is essentially a Cancelled Comic Cavalcade. Whereas “Eternal” is packed with characters I see acting in the DCU on a regular basis, “Futures End” is packed with misfit toys that I haven’t seen the spotlight in months or even years in some cases.

So, Vince, to succinctly answer your question, I’m enjoying the book far more than I rightly should.

Brian: As tends to be my role in these proceedings, I tend to fall somewhere in between you guys. I do reach for it before “Eternal” when I’m doing my Wednesday reading, but I wouldn’t say that I am looking that much more forward to it. At its best moments, “Futures End” reminds me of “52,” the gold standard for weekly comics, and I think that is the model they are going after; secondary (or tertiary) characters getting the spotlight, telling a big story that, when all is said and done, still doesn’t really rock the boat very much.

However, while there were certain storylines that bored me a little in “52,” none were as laborious as the Grifter on Cadmus Island story we get each week in “Futures End.” I get that it might have a big payoff, and seeing all the Earth 2 characters locked up was certainly a cool moment, but week in and week out, it is a slog to get through those pages. I am not loving the Red Robin parts as much as Vince is, but I am loving the space-adventures like Zach is – actually, that is where the biggest “52” comparison comes into play for me, as the crew resembles the Lobo/Adam Strange/Animal Man/Starfire crew quite nicely.

What I actually think is the biggest difference in the books is this: the “Eternal” crew has a lead writer each week, and that allows certain stories to come in and out of focus – we’ve discussed this at length as both a positive and a negative for “Eternal,” but I think it is far more of a positive when we compare that book to “Futures End.” Each week, I know with each page turn comes a potential red box in the upper left corner that says “Cadmus Island,” and my hopes sink to the bottom of my stomach and I have to plow throw that section to get to the next space section.

Do you guys agree that the consistent telling of four stories a week is hurting the book, or am I alone in that?

Vince: Only because the Grifter plot is more aimless than the other ones. If “Batman Eternal” employed a similar storytelling style, I’m not sure I would identify it as a weakness. That’s my view of it anyway.

Zach: I don’t think I’d call the 4-5 stories a week format a weakness either. There’s always at least one or two segments I enjoy each week and I like that I don’t have to wait more than an issue or two to return to a particular character or plot line.

The Grifter story is definitely the weakest, but I’m pretty intrigued by Cadmus Island. For one, it has a lot of Kirby flair, with an army of OMACs running around. I’m also really intrigued by the Earth 2 prison. It’s a cool setting, brought down by lackluster characters.

Brian: Yeah, I concur – it is a cool idea (again, sort of “52”-esque), executed poorly.

We’ve been spending a lot of time talking about the format, and the various stories, but let’s shift over to the art for a second. This is the spot where, for me, “Eternal” is clearly winning out. While Patrick Zircher has done some nice work, a lot of this art feels like it is DC house style to the nth degree, with very little personality or diversity. Each issue looks, more or less, the same, which helps unify the feel, but also adds a really, really dull sheen to the proceedings.

The first 5 Years Later reveal from Zircher

Vince: The mission for the art of “Futures End” is very clearly to tell the story as clearly, cleanly, and straightforward as possible. I in no way want to diminish the difficultly of an artists job or the work that’s being done, but there’s no room for experimentation or much variance here. I think “52” was the same way, though I could be mis-remembering. “Batman Eternal” surprised me with some of their artistic choices, but again, they’re telling the story differently.

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I think the art on “Futures End” has been solid across the board – they’ve got a good stable of artists, but no one is going to be doing Andrea Sorrentino-style tricks. That’s not the type of book they’ve got on their hands here. What that means for the reader is that you’ll get a clean-looking story every week, with the occasional page (like the Earth 2 “prison cells”) that grabs you. You might enjoy the pacing or the straightforwardness of an issue of “Futures End”, but you won’t be bowled over by the layouts or any trickery. I don’t think that’s a bad thing – it just doesn’t make for much to talk about. I’m happy that we get solid, timely art on a weekly title – I’m just not excited about anything in specific or moved to discuss or rave about it with anyone.

I love Patrick Zircher’s art, in particular, for a variety of reasons. No doubt about it, he has a style that you can immediately identify as his, but you’re right Brian, he also works in the same art “sphere” that the ‘New 52’ was modeled after. Having said that, I mean it as a huge compliment when I say that Zircher never falls prey to “overdoing it”, which I think is something that happened with the ‘New 52’ early on. He also doesn’t take short cuts, something that could easily happen on any monthly title, much less a weekly one where he is asked to have an issue ready on a specific date every month. He just consistently turns in sleek, good-looking art month in and month out.

Zach: I think Vince summed it up really well. The art in “Futures End” is by no mean subpar, but it does feels fairly utilitarian. Zircher is definitely the standout and one of the book’s driving forces.

I’m not positive how “52” was handled issue to issue (I read it in trades), but I think the approach used in “Brightest Day” would have been better for “Futures End.” Having one artist tied to a particular story-arc or group of characters. Zircher on Batman Beyond, for instance, would have been interesting. That sort of format would add a layer of visual continuity to the book, as well as providing a unique personality for each plot thread.

Brian: While I agree that the art serves its purpose, I still feel like, for a book that DC is hyping to be so important, they should put more of their “A-list” talent on the book. To be fair, as Zach alluded to, this is also how “52” was handled, but I had the same problems with 52’s sometimes dull art.

Overall, I feel like this series has been both better than I expected, and a little worse than I hoped. While I am enjoying certain storylines, I would say that everything but the space-story has been dragging a bit – I mean, how many more conversations about breaking into TerrifiTech are we going to get before they actually do something? I know part of that is the weekly grind of only getting 5 pages or so per story, but a lot of the series, to me, has been waiting around a lot. If they can kick everything into a higher gear, then I will be plenty pleased – especially considering how bad this series could have been.

I am also pleased, like Zach said, to have the series act as a cancelled comics purgatory of sorts, allowing characters both beloved (Frankenstein) and begrudged (Voodoo) have an active role in the DCU.

The next time we do one of these will be into the fall, where the overall plot should be a bit clearer, and we should be getting, hopefully, into a faster pace of the stories.

What are your final thoughts for the first 14 weeks?

Zach: I agree that the plot had been progressing pretty slowly. The series kicked off with a bang, but has sort of plodded along for its first three months. However, there have been a couple big, defining moments. The future Joker scene instantly comes to mind. I think that moment, shifting back to the future for the first time since the #0 issue, injected a bit of excitement back into the series (for me at least).

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If the book will start to explore and pay off on the various mysteries, the death fields, Cadmus Island, and the murderous pink robot, then it could quickly turn around into a real winner. I think September and October will be make or break points for the series, as we see the world open up and then dive into “World’s End.”

Vince: Touching on something both of you guys said regarding the plot moving slowly: I don’t think that was the case at first, which is what excited me so much about the book in the first few weeks. I think we all commented, to a certain extent, about how we couldn’t believe how fast things were moving and wondered whether it could keep that pace going? Well, it didn’t keep the pace going, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t pick up at any time. I’m still invested in the story, even if it’s creeping along at this point.

I agree with you guys when you say this is a great way to keep the cancelled characters relevant, but can I say something pretty fanboyish about that? I still just don’t think the Wildstorm characters are working in this universe. I understand, from a business standpoint, why DC Comics wants to keep those properties active, but those are the characters that stand out like sore thumbs. Those are the characters that are pastiches or satires of other characters even as they exist among the very characters they’re parodies of. They had a time and place in their own universe. They feel out of place in this one. That’s a fanboy thing that wouldn’t matter if the stories were good, but I think 90% of the Wildstorm stories in the ‘New 52’ haven’t been good. And while I may sound like a purest (maybe I just am one), I don’t think there’s any coincidence that the best parts of this book have involved the more classic DC Comics characters – Green Arrow & Roy Harper, Daft Punk Superman, Batman/Batman Beyond, etcetera. Even Stormwatch is more interesting than it’s ever been and it’s because DC characters like Hawkman and Frankenstein are playing huge roles.


//TAGS | The DC3

Brian Salvatore

Brian Salvatore is an editor, podcaster, reviewer, writer at large, and general task master at Multiversity. When not writing, he can be found playing music, hanging out with his kids, or playing music with his kids. He also has a dog named Lola, a rowboat, and once met Jimmy Carter. Feel free to email him about good beer, the New York Mets, or the best way to make Chicken Parmagiana (add a thin slice of prosciutto under the cheese).

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Vince Ostrowski

Dr. Steve Brule once called him "A typical hunk who thinks he knows everything about comics." Twitter: @VJ_Ostrowski

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Zach Wilkerson

Zach Wilkerson, part of the DC3 trinity, still writes about comics sometimes. He would probably rather be reading manga or thinking about Kingdom Hearts. For more on those things, follow him on Twitter @TheWilkofZ

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