If you were looking for this week’s Futures End to disappoint, well, you won’t be disappointed. And what I mean is that you won’t be sad that you got your hopes up because you knew better and kept those worn out hopes low. The big fight with Batman, Batman Beyond, Tim Drake, and JokerBats is teased as something amazing to behold, Stormguard has his story retold again, Fifty Sue and crew sit in the desert, and Frankenstein goes home. I’m camping this weekend and I might use this comic as $3 kindling to start a fire where I’ll burn the rest of Futures End. I’m just kidding, of course. I have a feeling that when Convergence comes around the abundant amount of info I’ve gleaned from these pages will be useful in understanding some otherwise overlooked details. We’ll see.
- NYC — Yes, yes the big bad fight between the multiple Batmen characters takes place in this issue. This is literally all that happens: a) JokerBats shoots at Batman et al., b) Tim is grabbed by JokerBats, c) Tim gets away, d) Terry chases after JokerBats while Bruce, Tim and Plastique run away. It is true that Terry tells Bruce about what’s going on, which if you’ll remember, he wasn’t supposed to do. But in no possible way could this section be deemed “epic” at all. Andy MacDonald, the artist for this issue, has his own particular style which I can appreciate, but do not like. Incomplete faces, inconsistency of characters, cartoonish models and bland panels make for boring and distracting visuals. MacDonald doesn’t seem to be a terrible artist, far from it, but his style, particularly for this section, does the story no favors.
- Metropolis — Doctor Polaris goes over Stormguard’s story AGAIN for us. It’s pointless. It’s like the exposition-heavy “Blank Slate” speech given to Catwoman in Dark Knight Rises, only worse…and repeated. Not only do we have the repeated story of Stormguard, but Doctor Polaris presents to us AGAIN his point of view of the Justice League. That being said, it wins Firestorm’s heart and she offers a deal to Polaris: he separates Firestorm in return for a trip to the Watchtower to figure out how to build a transporter properly.
- The Sahara Desert — Fifty Sue, in the artistic confusion of last week, teleported (there’s that thing, teleportation again… why’s that a theme in Futures End?) Cole, Lana, the vault and herself to the Sahara Desert. They discuss what to do with the vault, effectively wasting four pages of the comic to tell us where they went. We still don’t know what they’re gonna do with the giant safe. Lana’s secret powers or whatever they’ve been referencing since Cadmus Island is still unknown, and Lana is still acting as Susan’s mother.
- The Carpathian Mountans. Romania — Amethyst makes it to Castle Frankenstein. The coolest thing for me in this section is when she tells Frank to call her “Amy”. Very humanizing on her part seeing as how Frankenstein is the undead monster. They arrive to the castle only to be attacked and then welcomed by Dr. Frankenstein himself. He looks mighty young too.
Recommended if:
- You have to see the lame fight between the Batmen.
- You want to see what Dr. Frankenstein looks like.
Overall:
Unless you need every issue, are exceedingly rich, or are a close relative to someone on the creative team, I think you should pass on this issue. It’s not worth $2.99 in my book.
SCORE: 3/10
