Here We Go Again: A Review of The New 52: Future’s End

This title which will run monthly for the next eleven months first came to my attention a week or two ago when an issue #0 was put out for Free Comic Book Day. Now that I have read the first issue, I am going to call it, “The place DC sends canceled characters” Once I get into the story you will see what I mean.

*Post contains spoilers*

Our story takes place on Earth One or the Prime Earth. It starts 35 years into the future where Brother Eye has basically taken total control. In an attempt to stop this from ever happening, Batman(Terry) is sent back to stop it from ever happening. This lands him five years away from present day. Meanwhile Prime Earth is feeling the after effects of a war across the multiverse. Batman hopes to help the heroes of the Prime Earth stop this. So basically the story has everything that makes comic books confusing including time travel and multiple worlds. Don’t get me wrong I love these kinds of stories but they can quickly get out of hand.

The first part deals with Batman landing five years in the future but he claims he is seven years too late. He had hoped to come and stop Mr. Terrific from ever creating Brother Eye. Not only does he seem to be too late, but he is also stuck there. The device he used to jump back only had enough power for one jump. He is left alone to try to figure out his next move. However someone is watching him already.

Meanwhile is space the greatest thing ever is about to happen. The Carrier, the mobile base of Stormwatch has just been pulled out of the Bleed. Shortly after they come under attack. Brother Eye has somehow pulled them out and taken over Engineer warning Jack that it is the ultimate threat that he was always preparing for. Engineer is able to regain control of herself but the ship starts to attack itself. Apollo heads out to see what they are fighting but is soon destroyed. It then turns its sights on the ship and destroys it. This is a personal victory for me. To finally see Stormwatch destroyed. The only sad part is that at some point Hawkman thought it would be a good idea to join the team and went down with them.

Back on Earth Grifter is in the middle of an alien war of his own? Something similar to pod people and them hiding in plan sight. However he can see through their disguises. At first I thought he might just be actually crazy but in the end he is telling the truth and he continues on his one man war. No idea at all on how this ties into anything else that is going on. But in case you were worried if Grifter was still around you can now sleep soundly at night.

In New York City Firestorm continues to struggle to be Firestorm. Is seems even five years in the future Ronnie and Jason still don’t get along. Not only that but Ronnie doesn’t seem much like the hero type. He basically will be Firestorm when he feels like it and if he doesn’t then oh well. However it seems that Jason got a message from Green Arrow that he was in desperate need for help. Jason wasted a lot of time trying to find Ronnie. When they finally get around to getting to Seattle the place looks like a battle field. They find Oliver’s lab exploded and in ruin. While they are there now it is too late. Due to Ronnie being Ronnie, Green Arrow is dead.

So there you have it, the first issue of Future’s End. Jeff Lemire noted that the story would focus mainly on Batman, Firestorm, and Frankenstein but would also support a much larger cast of characters. It will be interesting to see what DC does with this and if it will have any lasting impact on anything. So far a lot of DC’s crossovers and events haven’t been bad as standalones but in the bigger picture of things they are lacking or just make things more confusing. Like I said before it seems like so far this is the event of canceled characters. Firestorm’s solo title was canned. Same with Grifter and Stormwatch. Hawkman who is with Stormwatch lost his title. Frankenstein lost his title. A teaser image also showed Amethyst, Booster Gold, and Mister Terrific. All of who were in books that got canned. I am just waiting for Hawk and Dove to show up.