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The New 52: Futures End #2
Written by Brian Azzarello, Jeff Lemire, Dan Jurgens, and Keith Giffen
Illustrated by Jesus Merino
Inked by Dan Green
Colors by Hi-Fi
Lettered by Carlos Mangual
On the Cover: The major focal point of this Ryan Sook cover is the head of one of Oliver Queen’s arrows, with the stylish touch of a foreboding skull etched into it. In splotches of blood flecked around the arrowhead, we see sullen images of the faces of the other heroes that take part in this issue. Considering the issue revolves around the death of Green Arrow, this is an apt cover.
How is the story progressing?: As is the case in so many a DC Comics event book, the heroes of the DCU are attending the funeral of a lost ally. In “Futures End” #2, that ally is Oliver Queen, Green Arrow. To the chagrin of Aquaman, Mister Terrific makes a stylish entry to a flurry of flashbulbs, actively trying to up his name on the “trending topics” list on Twitter. Animal Man makes a speech, which was a little maudlin for a series that has been fun and on-point in its first few issues. So too was the fallout of Firestorm’s appearance at the funeral. Arsenal blames him (them?) for not being there for Oliver when the distress call went out. They come to blows in one of the more emotionally over-the-top scenes of “Futures End” so far.
In Batman Beyond’s one page throwaway scene, we see him on the trail of Mister Terrific’s “Terrifitech” venture. In a nice little character twist, we see Terry declare that he is most certainly not a detective. I guess in this “5 years from now” timeline, he’s not going to be the one headlining “Detective Comics.”
King Faraday shows up briefly to confound the bumbling Charlotte Police Department (more on that in the ‘New 52 Debuts’ segment below). And to cap the issue off, Lois Lane sits down to write the Daily Planet story on Green Arrow’s remembrance ceremony, and has a bit of writer’s block before getting up to find a mysterious package at her doorstep, which includes: a note with a 13-digit number on it, a red (Arsenal?) arrowhead, a matchbook from “The Wounded Duck” tavern, and something that looks like a small green pyramid.
New 52 Debuts: King Faraday is the major debut of the issue. Like a lot of ‘New 52’ debuts, they’re apparently making him look or feel a little younger than the King Faraday we’ve known up to this point. Faraday is normally depicted with predominantly white hair, with a swath of black through it. Here, it appears inverted, being mostly black with a silver swath through it.
Faraday is ordinarily depicted as a “Central Bureau of Investigation” agent, who has aided DC’s heroes in the past, as well as had a hand in Amanda Waller’s Task Force X.
Here he appears as a FBI agent “checking up on” the Charlotte Police Department after the Grifter killings from issue #1, which we know were actually daemonites in hiding. What Faraday’s really doing is clearing the files from their computers, while communicating with a mysterious character through an ear piece.
Death Toll: Green Arrow doesn’t die on-panel in issue #2, but the story is mostly dedicated to his funeral service, so I think it’s worth mentioning. Ollie’s legend looms large over this installment, and we get a glimpse of his big, beautiful, socially progressive beard in action through flashbacks and stories. Since bearded Oliver is the best Oliver, the funeral hits home mostly because of these images. Much less so because of Animal Man’s cheesy eulogy.
Visuals: Jesus Merino’s art is not as sleek as Patrick Zircher’s was on issue #1, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t do its job. Merino is mostly asked to depict a somber issue that turns into a tense situation that then raises to a boiling point by its conclusion. He gets the somber part right, showing us the campaign for social justice and unity that made Green Arrow great and doing a better job of getting this point across than the script does. A particularly great panel shows Ollie with his hood off, leading a humanitarian protest with regards to the fallout of the much teased “Earth Wars.”
Continued belowThe only real problem with the visuals in issue #2 lies in the fact that the emotions are over-the-top. In the modern era, comics have been wanting to deal a lot more with the idea of superheroes distrusting one another. Comics have a tendency to go over-the-top with these moments, making it seem a little silly instead of affecting when grown men in costumes try to punch one another out at a funeral, say. While the heroes gathering at Oliver’s eulogy look iconic, they look ridiculous going at one another afterwards – something the art doesn’t do favors for.
For the most part, the issue succeeds visually in building intrigue and fleshing out a 5-year legacy for ‘New 52’ Green Arrow in a short amount of time.
Three Big Questions:
1. Why is Superman wearing a helmet?
I can think of two versions of Superman that have donned a helmet sort of looking like this one: the Eradicator, a Roger Stern creation originating from the planet Krypton, as well. Has the Superman we know and love been replaced yet again by the Eradicator?
Are we lucky that we didn’t get a version that was closer to the totally tubular Eradicator from the ‘Reign of the Supermen’ arc?
The other would be Kal-El himself during the ‘Search for Kryptonite’ arc from the first volume of “Superman/Batman” (issues #44-49). While there’s no guarantee that this is a conscious nod to either of these Superman iterations, we know that comics are cyclical and ideas are being homaged and recycled constantly.
What happened in the 5 year gap that would necessitate this kind of costume change? Something kryptonite-related? What happened to Lex Luthor and his Justice League leadership post-“Forever Evil”?
Another quick guess before I move on: the “Earth Wars” have been teased constantly throughout the early issues of “Futures End.” Could this be the Earth 2 Superman (Val-Zod), under the cover of a mask to hide the fact that Prime Earth Superman is gone? It doesn’t seem like the government wants Earth 2 beings around, so this could be Val Zod’s way of getting around.
2. Who is King Faraday working for?
As I mentioned above, King Faraday is most often presented as something of an anti-hero, occasionally aiding heroes like Batman, Wonder Woman, etcetera. Mostly, however, he stays on the government agency side of things alongside Suicide Squad and the like. Here, he’s clearly cleaning up after Grifter, but still seems pretty sinister. This could be the writers playing up the anti-hero angle, or it could be something bigger than that.
On the other hand, he’s set up across from a Carolina P.D. guy that’s made to seem like a buffoon. With that contrast in mind, I think we’re supposed to side with Faraday. I’d be willing to bet he’s working with Suicide Squad yet again, or some other clandestine agency that’s interested in what Grifters’ been up to, but is not necessarily on the wrong side of things.
3. Why is Mister Terrific such a dick?
It’s not exactly unheard of for characters to evolve when different writers have different plans for them, and while Mister Terrific was not without his faults, I don’t remember him being quite so vain and prickish. In ‘The New 52’, Mister Terrific is the 3rd smartest man on Earth. He’s recently spent some time on Earth 2, but has clearly found his way back to the Prime Earth in “Futures End.” Oh how time changes a man? Something is clearly going on with Michael Holt, yet he still seems to be a “hero” – even if it’s an anti-hero. More likely, he’ll end up being the victim of his own hubris. Unless his line about the other heroes being “lucky (he’s) not a villain” proves to be foreshadowing. Then his whole storyline would be corrupted by the most hamfisted foreshadowing I’ll have seen in some time.
Final Verdict: 7.5 – A talky issue with a bit of hokiness, but pretty good.
The New 52: Futures End #3
Written by Brian Azzarello, Jeff Lemire, Dan Jurgens, and Keith Giffen
Layouts by Dan Jurgens
Finishes by Mark Irwin
Colors by Hi-Fi
Lettered by Taylor Esposito
On the Cover: Mister Terrific (looking more hardcore than usual with his “FAIRPLAY” back tattoo) lifts weights in front of several monitors depicting Batman Beyond. Looks like Terry’s been spotted in the wrong place, wrong year. Also, good on Mister Terrific for getting that swole and being the 3rd smartest man on Earth.
How is the story progressing?: In the opening sequence of the issue, we catch up with Frankenstein, who has been carving out a life for himself in a Canadian mountain range. Hm, something tells me that this scene was a Jeff Lemire joint. It’s one of the issue’s stronger scenes, as it were, and gives us a chance to indulge in some ornate and boastful Frankenstein declarations. Before leaving him for the issue, he’s defeats a little robotic bug in combat and discovers the “S.H.A.D.E.” emblem on its body. S.H.A.D.E. (“Super-Human Advanced Defense Executive”) is the not-B.P.R.D. organization that Frankenstein used to be a part of (and which had its own fantastic series in the infancy of ‘The New 52’).
We move on to the Firestorm plotline, which still sees Ronnie Raymond and Jason Rusch quarreling over Ronnie’s inability to quit chasing tail and focus on being a hero. While it feels like we’ve ben watching the push and pull between these characters for as long as I can remember, keeping Jason held hostage in the Firestorm Matrix is a potentially interesting plot device.
We also spend a considerable chunk of this issue with Grifter, who continues to hunt daemonites and evade King Faraday with the aid of a slovenly partner named Justin. None of the names of the possible extraterrestrials-in-hiding that Justin sends to Grifter really trigger my DC Comics character radar – with King Faraday being the obvious exception. The Grifter sequences in “Futures End” have felt a little removed from everything else that’s going on so far. Obviously, his story will intersect with everyone else’s at some point, but for right now it’s hard to see where Grifter fits in and it’s not all that intriguing on its own either. Grifter running around in a trenchcoat investigating alien lifeforms is really reminding me of a less clever John Constantine, which is a character that I’m surprised they didn’t use instead. Where do the Justice League Dark fit into “Futures End”, if at all?
Batman Beyond’s plot inches forward for a bit. This has been a slow-moving aspect of “Futures End”, but that hasn’t been a bad thing, giving that the character work with Terry McGinnis has been really strong in a short span of time. Here, Mister Terrific tries to determine whether Batman Beyond is the real Batman, just an ally, or an impostor. Watching Holt run though his own internal logic about this was surprisingly interesting.
Finally, we catch up with Lois Lane, who has followed the breadcrumb trail from her doorstep to the The Wounded Duck. Another question I had from last issue concerned the identity of the bartender at The Wounded Duck, but we ended up finding that out by the end of this issue.
My best first guess was Dick Grayson. He looked like Dick, for starters. He was wearing blue in issue #2, and wearing red now. He was also definitely an insider with the superhero community, and sure seems to be on the outs with them, which is exactly what Dick would be at this point after the events of “Forever Evil” and “Death of the Family” – even if it is “5 years later.”
In the end, Lois Lane identifies him as Red Robin, Tim Drake. Oh well, I was close. Apparently Red Robin “died” in a Paris bombing during the Earth Wars. It sounds like he was the last known survivor of the Teen Titans, to boot.
New 52 Debuts: No ‘New 52’ debuts in this issue, but the one significant new (I think he’s new, anyway) character that I should touch on is Justin, Grifter’s metaphorical gopher. He reminds one of Henry Fyff – Oliver Queen’s tech-savvy assistant from Jeff Lemire’s “Green Arrow” run. Justin is busy with a tied up alien lifeform in his garage, trying to figure out something that would be effective against daemonites em masse. Supposedly, Justin has been possessed before, which means that I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that that’s currently the case and he’s acting as something of a double-agent for the daemonites. Grifter seems pretty fond of him too, which means that just like Joey Day and Tim Drake over in “Batman Eternal”, I’m shipping Justin and Cole Cash over here in “Futures End.”
Continued belowDeath Toll: Frankenstein kills a Polar Bear.
Aside from that, there’s no death toll in this issue, but it is worth mentioning that someone we thought was dead (Red Robin) is revealed to be very much alive.
Visuals: Dan Jurgens did the layouts for issue #3, while Mark Irwin came in and did the finishes. The Jurgens art is clearly in there somewhere, but with Irwin coming over it, his characters look a little different from Jurgens’ classic style. Some of the sequences end up being more visually engaging than others. The snowy Canadian Frankenstein v polar bear sequences is visually striking, but the rest of the issue is filled with pretty ordinary scenes of characters talking. The art does the job, but doesn’t engage or try anything interesting after the opener.
Three Big Questions:
1. What’s S.H.A.D.E. up to?
Frankstein and the S.H.A.D.E. organization never really got along all that well when he was running with them. You would think that an organization that was trying something sinister wouldn’t put their name on whatever tenacious little robots they’re sending out, but it’s comics so you never know. I’m thinking that this is either a frame job, or something designed to incite Frankensteins’ attention. Perhaps it’s even a appropriation of S.H.A.D.E. tech by someone else.
2. What does Grifter have to do with all of this?
As I said above, Grifter’s story feels really disconnected from everything else in “Futures End” right now. Obviously, Frankenstein will tie into the Brother Eye takeover, Firestorm has something to do with the death of Green Arrow storyline, as well as Lois Lane’s side of the story. Batman Beyond is there to investigate the Brother Eye takeover and save the future. What is Grifter doing here? We saw him in the “Free Comic Book Day” issue as part of the resistance, but that’s his only link to the events so far. I can’t see the link between alien investigation and the technological takeover of Earth, but we know they’ll link up somehow.
3. Will Terry McGinnis live in the present like a homeless man?
Okay, that question is worded as a joke, but we know he’ll have to cross paths with another hero at some point and have to explain himself. He’ll need some place to stay, anyway. I’m wondering where Terry’s first contact with a hero will occur. He was warned by the future Bruce Wayne himself against crossing paths with Batman in the past, so of course that’s eventually going to happen. But in the meantime, who will he find an ally in. With Lois Lane’s recent discovery of Tim Drake, perhaps there will be a little Bat-Family get together of sorts, behind Bruce’s back?
Final Verdict: 6.0 – A Grifter & Firestorm-heavy issue didn’t make for much forward momentum.
The Series So Far: 7.0 – A solid read, so far. Embracing a little more of the wackiness would benefit the series.
