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The DC3kly Presents: The 3cap for the Week of 1/7/15

By , and | January 9th, 2015
Posted in Columns | % Comments

Welcome, friends to another installment of “The 3cap,” our weekly recap of DC’s three weekly titles: “Batman Eternal,” “Earth 2: World’s End,” and “New 52: Futures End.” Each week, we will take a look at the each issue released, while recapping the action and asking the burning questions. If you spot something we missed, make sure to leave a note in the comments!

Batman Eternal #40
Written by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, and Ray Fawkes
Illustrated by Davide Furno and Paolo Armitano
Reviewed by Vince Ostrowski

News, notes, and debuts:

– The Riddler’s hideaway is on “Miller Mountain”, no doubt in honor of Frank Miller, whom we’ve seen Snyder honor numerous times through the characters and subject matter that he’s chosen to explore in his Batman stories and “Superman Unchained.”

– The art was a little rough in this one. I didn’t mind the aesthetics of it at all, but I found it seemingly incomplete in parts and a little messy in others. For instance, in the scene where the Riddler escapes Batman’s clutches and tries to run – Batman presses a button on one of his gloves and something happens to the Riddler because of it. It’s not clear what that is, but it appears as though a of his wrist projectiles may have knocked Nygma down. You wouldn’t be able to determine that from the art on the page though.

– With Blackfire purged from Maxie Zeus’ body, that essentially ties up another of “Batman Eternal’s” loose ends – something the book has been trying to do for a couple of issues now. However, there’s one big one from very early on that is still hanging around, unsolved. More on that in the “Three Eternal Questions” segment, below:

Three Eternal Questions:

1. Are the kids on the final page possessed with the same techno-virus thing Harper Row’s brother caught?

It doesn’t look exactly the same, and their creepy response to it isn’t similar to Cullen’s, but is this an extension of one of the handful of threads that “Batman Eternal” has yet to resolve? Is this our look into exactly who is ultimately behind “Batman Eternal’s” Gotham City takeover?

2. Why won’t the Riddler talk?

We’ve seen The Riddler come to the aid of our heroes before, if not in the ‘New 52’, certainly several times before. We know he loves riddles and loves to push Batman’s buttons, but what is so terrible that it’s keeping him out entirely? Surely if he already knows who the big bad is, he shouldn’t feel safe, even on Miller Mountain. If the big bad is powerful enough to bring Gotham City to its knees, wouldn’t he or she be able to track down the Riddler? And wouldn’t the Riddler know by now that Batman, with enough advance preparation, doesn’t lose?

3. Are the events of “Batman” #28 almost upon us?

Near the end of the issue, Catwoman sets her sights on Stephanie Brown, who has an inordinately large bounty on her head. Remember that in “Batman” #28, Steph had been kidnapped by Catwoman, and revealed as the key to taking back Gotham City. It looks like we are right on the cusp of joining up with that issue, which came out just under one year ago.

Earth 2: World’s End #14
Written by Daniel H. Wilson, Marguerite Bennet, and Mike Johnson
Illustrated by Scott McDaniel, Eddy Barrows, Eduardo Pansica, Jorge Jiminez, Robson Rocha, and Tyler Kirkham
Reviewed by Brian Salvatore

News, notes, and debuts:

I’ve been following “Earth 2” since the very start, and so this book has been an interesting reading experience – especially when we see characters introduced very early on meet their demise, like Commander Khan does here.

Khan’s story meets a heartbreaking end – he acts in a totally selfless way, and meets a terribly useless end, destroyed by Darkseid with his hands literally behind his back. The character has been built up in an extraordinarily effective way, and his death means something here – the tragic circumstances make it even more impactful.

Continued below

Because of Khan’s death, Major Sato (perhaps the future Judomaster) is left in charge of the World Army. The book really has excelled at using these “normal” characters, and Sato is primed to be the star of the second half of the weekly.

This week, we get a little more information about the Avatar of the Red, Yolanda Montez – a name that keen-eyed readers might recognize as the female Wildcat from “Infinity Inc.” This avatar has been captured by Darkseid’s forces, which is actually a bit of a storytelling problem. The avatars are supposed to be super powerful, but we see one captured, and the other four more or less easily taken down (though not really defeated) by the Furies.

Maybe once all five are together, they’ll be more powerful, but it sure seems like they’re borderline useless right now, doesn’t it?

This week continues to rehabilitation of Superman and Batman – Thomas gets his hands on some near Miraclo, injects it badass style into his neck, and gets crazy-eyed and rampage-y, where Clark’s strength is still not quite where it should be. With Fury living up to a quasi-Wonder Woman billing, and Val stepping up, that leaves a “new” trinity (along with Thomas), leaving Clark to be a mentor of sorts, which wouldn’t be too out of place with the classic Superman of Earth-2 – and this one can even, to some degree, wind up growing old with Lois.

The best part of this issue, however, was seeing Michael Holt actually seem like one of the smartest men on Earth, and figure out a way to detonate the nuke without being harmed. All too often Mister Terrific has been portrayed (here and elsewhere in the New 52) as something less than impressive – for the first time, really, he lives up to his name.

Three Worldly Questions:

1. What will finding Famine do?
The Flash needs to find the defeated Famine, now replaced by Helena Wayne, to “stop the Furies forever.” What the hell does that mean? They have taken lengths to make sure that we don’t take Jay Garrick for a scientific genius – he’s just a dude who happened to get these powers – so why, all of a sudden, is he the man with the plan?

2. What is the point of the Dick Grayson story?

Look, I know that there are a lot of pages to fill in a weekly book, but this story seems totally superfluous thus far – all it has done is reveal a super emo character that is borderline unlikable. If it wasn’t for the fact that his son is missing, there is no reason to care about what happens to Dick. Now, as Vince pointed out over the past month or so, clearly the shooting of Barbara Grayson is meant to emulate the shooting of Thomas and Martha Wayne. Will this lead to Dick, or his son, eventually becoming a hero? It seems likely, though the timeframe is a little odd if that is plan.

3. How does Huntress survive this?

We have seen, via “Futures End,” that Huntress winds up in prison at Cadmus Island, which means that she survives being a four armed, four legged Fury of Apokolips – but how? This seems like a pretty irreversible position – and one that leads me to a crackpot theory – could all, or many, of the E2 folks actually be clones? We know that “Earth 2” carries on past “Convergence,” and we know that “Futures End” is only a possible future, so I’m sure this will get answered sooner than later – but it still seems a little weird to me.

The New 52: Futures End #36
Written by Brian Azzarello, Keith Giffen, Dan Jurgens, and Jeff Lemire
Illustrated by Scot Eaton
Reviewed by Zach Wilkerson

News, notes, and debuts:

Constantine has been running around both “Futures End” and “World’s End” for some time now, but he’s never really done anything all that interesting. That is, until this issue. In a scene in which Amethyst brings a dying Frankenstein before the Justice League Dark, Constantine appears to harass the bejeweled swordswoman. For his efforts, he ends up on the wrong end of a blade. One might worry about dear old Constantine, if he didn’t wake up to half-naked lady a few pages later. The implication, I assume, is that Constantine projected his consciousness into the House of Mystery, which is what Amethyst stabbed. Still, it’s a pretty interesting sequence of events.

Continued below

The mage goes on to blow up expectations, revealing a dark and sinister secret underlying dear old Smallville, one that could fundamentally change what we know about Clark’s purpose on Earth. This, coupled with the revelation that Constantine played a role in the fall of Gemworld, make him a huge character to watch as “Futures End” winds down.

In what has to be one the most inadvertently hilarious moments in all of “Futures End,” this issue finds Terry and Plastique taking a brief moment after escaping Batjoker to get. it. on. while present Bruce watches approvingly from afar. Atta boy.

Closing out the issue is an overdue and rather oddly placed/exposition heavy origin for new Justice League member Stormguard. With his limited presence, hodge podge design, and similarity to pre-existing characters like the Guardian, I’ve never been completely sold on the character. Unfortunately, his origin doesn’t do much to sell the character. While it’s great to finally get his origin, I’d much rather see the character be developed more in the present, if he’s every going to gain enough traction to stick around. The issue closes with Firestorm interrupting Shazam and Stormguard’s bro-time, crashing the Justice League satellite.

Three Future Questions:

1. What evil lurks beneath Smallville?

Constantine reveals that Smallville, poster town for wholesome small town America, has a dark secret. It’s an interesting coincidence that Greg Pak is currently dealing with a haunted Smallville over in “Action Comics.” While the two are likely unrelated, it wouldn’t be the first time that “Action” has dovetailed into the overarching “Futures End”/”Convergence” mythology.

Even more interesting, however, is the implication that Clark was actually drawn to Smallville to act as a sort of guardian or protector. On the surface this is a relatively small alteration to the Superman mythos. Does it really matter why he landed in Smallville? However, when you dig into the implications, the fact that some sort of supernatural conspiracy determined Clark’s landing spot and therefore his entire upbringing, the revelation is quite huge.

2. Can Fifty-Sue be redeemed?

Fifty-Sue is, arguably, the breakout character of “Futures End.” Lover her or hate her, she’s made a huge impression as the series’ sort of “mascot.” Recent issues have begun the character’s transition from a rather one-note chaotic force of nature to, well, an actual character. This all for the best, as Sue’s interaction with Lana in the previous issue stands as one of my favorite moments in the series thus far. As the influence of Slade is replaced by Lana’s maternal nurturing, it’s not a huge stretch to cast Susan as a potential hero for this story. Who else, other than Superman, is prepared to stand up against the monumental threat of Brainiac.

3. Which Batman will come out on top, and what does that mean for the future?

We now have three Batmen running around in the 5YL present, plus ex-Robin Tim Drake. There’s definitely a major confrontation brewing between these four characters, one that likely won’t end well. Recent rumors (supported by teasers from a few months back) have suggested that Terry McGinnis may bite the dust, only for Tim Drake to take up the mantle of “Batman Beyond.” If this were to be the case, is the implication is Tim would continue on in this role? This would suggest that, as my fellow DC3ers have previously alluded to, the post “Convergence” DCU might pick up from the 5YL timeline.

Obviously, this is a lot of baseless conjecture, but if you haven’t picked up on it yet, I really want this to happen.


//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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