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The DC3kly Presents: “New 52: Futures End,” Week 17: This Week in “Futures End”

By | August 29th, 2014
Posted in Columns | 3 Comments

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!

New 52: Futures End #17
Written by Brian Azzarello, Keith Giffen, Dan Jurgens, and Jeff Lemire
Illustrated by Patrick Zircher

Who is the Masked Superman? What does his identity have to do with last week’s startling ending? The answers will shock you as the entire New 52 gets ready to jump five years into the future!

News, notes, debuts:

This is an especially spoiler-y installment, as a major mystery is revealed, as well as a huge twist ending revealed. If you haven’t read the issue yet, turn back now!

The issue opens with Constantine in Africa, searching for someone, or something, that wiped out an entire village, down to the fleas, as is noted. Constantine is a welcome addition to these pages, as his cynicism seems particularly well-placed in this post-war world.

From there, we go to Cadmus Island, where Hawkgirl meets with Dr. Sook (tee hee), before his head is crushed under the giant hand of a rogue O.M.A.C. Eventually, Grifter gets hypnotized somehow and punches out Deathstroke, but not before all of the Earth 2 prisoners escape the prison.

In Vancounver, Barda and Emiko meet John Diggle, and Emiko reveals her full name: Emiko Queen. She also says that the man who killed Green Arrow is the same man imprisoning all of the Earth 2 heroes.

From there, we move to Metropolis, where Rampage is, well, rampaging, and the masked Superman is trying to stop her, except he’s getting his ass handed to him. Finally, once he is clear of the city/Lois, Superman utters a magic word:

Revealing the masked Superman as Billy Batson, Shazam. I owe Zach a Coke.

However, that wasn’t the biggest reveal of the issue. The issue concludes with Constantine and co finding their killer:

Woah.

Three Future Questions:

1. What the hell happened to Superman?

How did Kal go from the heroic symbol of idealism and hope to a genocidal maniac? Evil Superman is a trope DC loves more than almost any other, but this seems like a bridge too far, especially since the New 52 Superman is finally starting to look like the Superman we’ve all known and loved.

2. Did Faraday kill Green Arrow?

We presume that Faraday is the man pulling the strings at Cadmus Island, and if so, that means that he is, presumably, the man who killed Green Arrow. Or, could Emiko be talking about Deathstroke? Or, is there another big bad we haven’t seen yet?

3. Who controls the rogue O.M.A.C.s?

We now know that the rogue O.M.A.C.s are being controlled by someone on the side of the Earth 2 inhabitants, as it acts as a diversion before allowing all the prisoners to escape. Are there any E2 sympathizers out there that we already know about? I can’t recall any, but that doesn’t mean anything.

So, what did you guys think of this crazy issue? Tell me in the comments!


//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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