Future State Fridays: The end is very, very near
By d. emerson eddy — The finish line is in sight.
We've discovered that some of the races weren't races, but were instead bouncy castles, while others opened up into bottomless pits. Still, the end is almost here. Some of Future State is very, very strong. So strong, in fact, that I'm prepared to declare — even with a week left — that the event is a success. At least to me, because it's made me more excited to see what's to come for almost the entirety of the DCU. I don’t remember an even that has done this so well since probably Zero Hour. (The ramifications of Crisis on Infinite Earths were more spread out at the time and not necessarily apparent viewed forward. I think the impact there could only be fully appreciated in hindsight.)
Though the new characters, settings, and stories have given us intriguing possibilities, I think where the event has truly shone is in the creative talent. The artwork and lettering across all of the books — even ones where the stories I haven't found to be that great — have possessed a consistently high standard. Many of the new voices that have been brought in to guide the DCU here and beyond into Infinite Frontier have been strong. It all gives me hope that the universe will be in good hands.
Future State: That's Great, It Starts with an Earthquake
Otto Schmidt is an incredible artist. Even if the story were a drab dullfest that actively insulted your intelligence and your mother (spoiler: it’s not and it does not), this book would at least look great. The action, excitement, and even gravity of the violence as Catwoman fights her way through a train filled with the Magistrate's forces to save her Strays and possibly an even better payload is palpable. Visually, this is a damn good action comic.
That’s all unsurprising with Ram V and Tom Napolitano joining Schmidt for Future State: Catwoman #2. In this book, we get some great interpersonal development, a kind of awkward meeting of the exes, and seriously everything with Onomatopoeia is just freaking great and hilarious. Out of all the possible villains that this team could have pulled, he's one of the least likely anyone would have guessed and it's just sheer fun whenever you see him in the story. Onomatopoeia gives Tom Napolitano a perfect opportunity to show his stuff and the melding with Schmidt's art is absolutely wonderful.
The only thing that may detract for some people is where this fits with Dark Detective, but otherwise Future State: Catwoman has been one of the best books in this event. If you want a fun heist story, with some gorgeous artwork and touching character development, pick this up.
Future State: Catwoman #2
Writer: Ram V
Artist: Otto Schmidt
Letterer: Tom Napolitano
Publisher: DC Comics
Catwoman has clawed her way through half of the Magistrate’s bullet train, but her fight has only just begun! Now, with Onomatopoeia in tow, Selina makes her way toward the car carrying a ghost of her past, and Gotham’s as well. It’s Bruce Wayne…but is it really him? And with Talia al Ghul on board as well, will this be a long-awaited reunion between the Bat and the Cat, or will Selina’s mission to rescue the Magistrate’s prisoners go off the rails?
Price: $3.99
Buy It Digitally: Future State - Catwoman #2
With the Furies Breathing Down Your Neck
I'm still of two minds about the lead feature in Future State: Immortal Wonder Woman #2, from Becky Cloonan, Michael W. Conrad, Jen Bartel, and Pat Brosseau. “Immortal Wonder Woman” is kind of a thematic and literal death for the universe. Everything's either died from strife or natural causes, or been undone by the Undoing. It very much has the feel to me of those '80s surrealist fantasies like Legend or The Neverending Story, where everything is bleak, everything's disappearing, and hope is fleeting even while the world still looks absolutely beautiful. I like this kind of approach.
But at the same time, it kind of feels like I'm sleepwalking through whatever the existentialist point it is that the story appears to be going for. Maybe it's just because I'm tired that I'm missing something, but it feels like there's something that the main body of the work is trying to tell me that is just slipping past me. Like with the Spectre, I'm unsure whether we're supposed to recognize the host. Is that too supposed to be Bruce? Or maybe I'm just reading too much into the “old friend” dialogue (especially in relation to what we see in Future State: Shazam! as well). I don't know.
Likewise, the end itself raises more questions. It's the end. But is it the end of universe we actually know? The universe prior to the end of Death Metal? The universe before Infinite Frontier? I suppose it's a bit of “wait and see” until Cloonan and Conrad take over the main title. Something I'm still looking forward to, because this is an interesting story.
Much more straightforward is the “Nubia” co-feature from LL McKinney, Alitha Martinez, Mark Morales, Emilio Lopez, and Becca Carey. I rather quite like this one. The story mixes the familiar elements of Wonder Woman stories of action and adventure with themes of mythology, family, and sacrifice, but does so with some new faces alongside existing characters like Grail and Circe. There's an expanded mythology base that Nubia draws from, giving the story a different flavor and new “old” gods to draw power and inspiration from. I love seeing stories draw gods from more than just the usual Greek or Norse pantheons.
The artwork from Martinez, Morales, and Lopez is great. Like the first part, I'm very impressed by Martinez's layouts, which really reach a higher level when the action starts. There's a gorgeous flow of the characters and panels that very nicely moves the action along.
There's a young adult original graphic novel that will be coming out next week, Nubia: Real One, from LL McKinney and Robyn Smith that I'll be checking out on the strength of this story. I'm also hoping to see more of Nubia, McKinney, and the art team of Martinez, Morales, Lopez, and Carey in the future within the DC Universe itself. This story just sets up such an intriguing new path for the Wonder Woman franchise.
Future State: Immortal Wonder Woman #2
“Immortal Wonder Woman”
Writers: Becky Cloonan & Michael W. Conrad
Artist: Jen Bartel
Letterer: Pat Brosseau
The Undoing is here. Superman couldn’t stop it. Darkseid couldn’t stop it. Only Diana Prince is left to hold back the being that could spell the complete disintegration of the cosmos. But will even she be powerful enough for the task?
Buy It Digitally: Future State - Immortal Wonder Woman #2
“Nubia”
Writer: LL McKinney
Penciller: Alitha Martinez
Inker: Mark Morales
Colorist: Emilio Lopez
Letterer: Becca Carey
Publisher: DC Comics
Meanwhile, in another future, Nubia’s attempts to stop the theft of ancient artifacts have led her to an even bigger conspiracy, and an even bigger foe. Circe is up to her old tricks, even after all these years-and she has an offer that Nubia will find hard to refuse.
Price: $5.99
Buy It Digitally: Future State - Immortal Wonder Woman #2
Six O'clock, TV Hour, Don't Get Caught in Foreign Tower
The Bat family books continue with some of the best books in the event with Future State: Nightwing #2 from Andrew Constant, Nicola Scott, Ivan Plascencia, and Wes Abbott. The conclusion to this story sees a first team-up of the new dynamic duo of Nightwing and The Next Batman against Peacekeeper-06 and an army of the Magistrate's forces. It's pretty damn good.
The art from Scott and Plascencia remains phenomenal. The action and character designs continues to be a high bar for the Future State event as a whole, and what stood out to me here was the initial focus on the events through the lens of the news media. I think that's an interesting wrinkle added in to the story. It’s also one that hasn't quite been touched on before — how the Magistrate is manipulating the information being fed to the citizens of Gotham — and I like that it's introduced visually first.
The story also goes into one of the common thematic elements that has been popping up across the Bat family books, although I'm not sure it was intentional, in that the first part of many of these series has been showing the characters alone. Isolated even. And that as they're all working fragmented on their own, the Magistrate has been able to best them and take over. Future State: Nightwing #2 explicitly deals with Nightwing coming to the realization that he's not alone, that he's got the back-up of the Next Batman (and it's an interesting power dynamic in that Nightwing is really the lead here, not the new Bats) and of the Resistance as a whole. It helps set up a scenario in which we see a possible path for overcoming the Magistrate in the forthcoming Future State: Gotham.
Plus, it's great that we've got another story where there's hope.
Future State: Nightwing #2
Writer: Andrew Constant
Artist: Nicola Scott
Colorist: Ivan Plascencia
Letterer: Wes Abbott
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $3.99
It’s an all-new dynamic for the Dynamic Duo when Nightwing and Gotham’s mysterious new Batman join forces against the Magistrate. But when the totalitarian force controlling the city declares the two heroes their primary targets, Nightwing will need to call on the full force of his hidden resistance, including two Batgirls, Huntress, and Two-Face! But even then, will it be enough? Find out in this action-packed conclusion!
Buy It Digitally: Future State - Nightwing #2
A Tournament, A Tournament, A Tournament of Lies
The approach to Future State: Superman – Worlds of War has been interesting, setting up a new status quo for the Clark Kent Superman in the future, which — similarly to the bottle city of Metropolis in Superman of Metropolis — I wish we could spend more time exploring. The world-building across most of the Future State books has been very strong, and it feels like a shame that we don't get to spend more time in them. There's been solicitations that we're going to see the foundation of this new Warworld in Action Comics, which I'm looking forward to, but it's not quite the same as seeing Superman of the Arena, as he's presented here.
This lead story from Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Mikel Janin, Jordie Bellaire, and Dave Sharpe has legs. There's still a lot of meat on the bones for exploring Superman as a breaker-of-chains on Warworld, even if we know that he's going to get out of it based on House of El, Immortal Wonder Woman, and the existence of Superman-Prime in the 853rd Century. Even just a prestige format mini from this team, closing out how Superman defeats Mongul and sets everyone free, even if we basically know the ending, would be very satisfying.
Because, seriously, this story is fire. There's a wonderful juxtaposition of Clark Kent, the man and journalist, telling the story of a veteran in print with the hell that Superman is facing on Warworld and it's just wonderful storytelling. The interplay of Johnson's narration and Janin & Bellaire's visuals are simply amazing. I just love how this story is told.
The back-ups for the most part continue to be well done as well. “Mister Miracle” from Brandon Easton, Valentine de Landro, Marissa Louise, and Dave Sharpe takes an interesting turn. Reading the overall story out of order alternating with the past in Superman of Metropolis hasn't made it feel as scattered as the nihilistic future tale elsewhere, and it actually kind of works to the story's benefit when we find out what happened overall to put Mister Miracle in this mess with Warworld and the weird time dilation that occurred tossing him two years into the future after the Bottle City of Metropolis scenario. This story isn't done, creating a temporal loop where nothing has ultimately been solved, but we do know that Shilo Norman's tale will be continuing on in a limited series from Easton and Fico Ossio. I'm really looking forward to that.
Speaking of time loops, there's the conclusion to the “Midnighter” tale from Becky Cloonan, Michael W. Conrad, Michael Avon Oeming, Jordie Bellaire, and Travis Lanham. I miss Melnikov's art from the first part, but trading him for Oeming doesn't diminish the quality. This one does give an ending to the plot at hand in a fairly satisfying fashion, even though it leaves it in a state whereby a larger story can unfold in the back-ups of Superman and Action Comics.
We're also finally physically introduced to one of the antagonists that has been influential on the future state of Metropolis and beyond in Andrej Trojan. I think it's interesting that his spectre has been looming over the Superman titles during Future State and he's finally revealed in almost an offhand way in this story. Even if he does play the role here of Midnighter's primary antagonist as well. It makes me wonder what we'll see when we get back into the present and this story continues.
The only back-up I'm not particularly keen on is “Black Racer” from Jeremy Adams, Siya Oum, Hi-Fi, and Gabriela Downie. The first part was well done, tapping into more of a shiny sci-fi feel that wouldn't be out of place in Heavy Metal or 2000 AD or even something like Barbarella. The art and lettering from Oum, Hi-Fi, and Downie is very well-polished and great to look at. The story itself isn't a bad set-up either with the new Black Racer smuggling herself onto Warworld to rescue her friend.
The problem with this second part is that it goes nowhere. There's no resolution, no conclusion, no indication where it would potentially go from here, and no outside announcement that I've seen yet that the story is continuing somewhere else. It just ends, feeling like part 2 of an unfinished multi-part story. That's not good in an otherwise solid package.
Future State: Superman – Worlds of War #2
“Clark Kent”
Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Artist: Mikel Janin
Colorist: Jordie Bellaire
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Meet the rising champion of the gladiatorial pits of Warworld: Superman! The Man of Steel is still down in the pits duking it out with Mongul’s hordes and working his way up to the big boss himself. But since it’s Superman, there has to be more to this than a simple determination to win the title belt, right? Yes, because he’s also got Midnighter out there on a mission to chase down a dangerous new power source...but the man standing in his way is all too familiar.
Read It Digitally: Future State - Superman Worlds of War #2
“Mister Miracle”
Writer: Brandon Easton
Artist: Valentine de Landro
Colorist: Marissa Louise
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Plus, the Black Racer smashes her way to freedom, and Mister Miracle, now trapped on Warworld himself, has to find his way back to the bottle city of Metropolis-and his only mode of transportation is a busted Boom Tube!
Read It Digitally: Future State - Superman Worlds of War #2
“Midnighter”
Writers: Becky Cloonan & Michael W. Conrad
Artist: Michael Avon Oeming
Colorist: Jordie Bellaire
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Read It Digitally: Future State - Superman Worlds of War #2
“Black Racer”
Writer: Jeremy Adams
Artist: Siya Oum
Colorist: Hi-Fi
Letterer: Gabriela Downie
Publisher: DC Comics
Plus, the Black Racer smashes her way to freedom, and Mister Miracle, now trapped on Warworld himself, has to find his way back to the bottle city of Metropolis-and his only mode of transportation is a busted Boom Tube!
Price: $7.99
Read It Digitally: Future State - Superman Worlds of War #2
The Other Night I Dreamt of Knives, Continental Drift Divide
I've said before that I'm happy that both The Next Batman and Future State: Gotham will be continuing on past the Future State event proper. The setting is fairly well-realized and the neon glow, Blade Runner type of future is perfect for the Bat family. I think it's a nice bridge of the more noir, mystery aspects of the Batman franchise and a possible future. I still say this, even though I'm a little disappointed in Future State: The Next Batman #4.
The past installment of “The Next Batman” suffered from middle-part syndrome, kind of treading water. What happens here in the finale — from the creative team of John Ridley, Laura Braga, Nick Derington, Arif Prianto, and Clayton Cowles — is what I see happen in a lot of events, and a lot of stories in general, where the purpose and drive of the story changes to something new in order to work towards a conclusion. In this case, the story becomes 16 Blocks, as Batman tries to get the criminals he cornered in the first part to Gotham City detectives, while running a gauntlet of the Magistrate's forces.
It's not bad, by any means, it just feels like it's kind of skirting what I find to be the more interesting dynamic of the Fox family, doling out progression there fairly slowly. Even if Luke Fox now seems to have transformed into a complete jerk compared to where we saw him when he was Batwing. The art remains top notch, with Braga, Derington, and Prianto absolutely nailing the action sequences.
The back-ups of “Batgirls” and “Gotham City Sirens” exhibit some of the same problems that we saw to a lesser degree in the second issues of Catwoman and Nightwing. Here it definitely feels a bit more jarring, since the stories hinge around characters that seem at odds with how they've been portrayed elsewhere and continued nagging issues with the timeline. All of which could be solved with simple in-story references or editorial notes. Such is the problem sometimes with a shared universe.
“Batgirls”, from Vita Ayala, Aneke, Trish Mulvihill, and Becca Carey, closes out the rescue operation from the Magistrate's prison facility. As a story on its own, it is pretty good. Especially the character interactions between Cass and Stephanie. There's a lot to like about the prison break plot, saving Babs, and delivering a blow against the Magistrate for the benefit of the Resistance. Plus, the art from Aneke and Trish Mulvihill is very nice.
The problem comes in who is present in the facility, like Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, and the characterization of someone like Gorilla Grodd. Although it seems to be placed after Robin Eternal and before Nightwing, it doesn't quite add up with what we seen in “Gotham City Sirens” or Harley Quinn. You can fairly reasonably put together where much of the rest of the Bat family stories fit, this one feels out of step. But, if you don't care about continuity and everything matching up seamlessly, there is a ton to enjoy in this story.
Similarly with “Gotham City Sirens” from Paula Sevenbergen, Emanuela Lupacchino, Wade Von Grawbadger, John Kalisz, and Becca Carey. I would have guessed this was early on in the Magistrate's reign of terror in Gotham, but it's hard to tell when trying to reconcile it with Catwoman and “Batgirls”. It does, however, give an interesting insight into the person who created the Cybers for the Magistrate and a bittersweet end to Catwoman and Ivy's AI friend. The new status quo for Ivy that we get at the end of the story is something rather different.
I also have to note some great work on the lettering by Becca Carey for both the “Batgirls” and “Gotham City Sirens” stories. There's a nice variety of styles of word balloons and dialogue boxes between the two tales, especially impressive on “Batgirls” where the multiple characters could have made who was saying what confusing.
Future State: The Next Batman #4
“The Next Batman”
Writer: John Ridley
Artist: Laura Braga
Breakdowns: Nick Derington
Colorist: Arif Prianto
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
The next Batman goes head-to-head with the Magistrate’s shock troops to protect the...guilty?! It’s a savage running battle across Gotham City, and it will have the next Dark Knight fighting overwhelming odds to prove that justice still lives in the heart of a broken city.
Read It Digitally: Future State - The Next Batman #4
“Batgirls”
Writer: Vita Ayala
Artist: Aneke
Colorist: Trish Mulvihill
Letterer: Becca Carey
In the finale of “Batgirls,” after discovering the person locked in the high-security cell is the one who’s been sending out “Batman Lives” signals to the Resistance, Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain must work together to make sure they take that person when they escape their prison!
Read It Digitally: Future State - The Next Batman #4
“Gotham City Sirens”
Writer: Paula Sevenbergen
Penciller: Emanuela Lupacchino
Inker: Wade Von Grawbadger
Colorist: John Kalisz
Letterer: Becca Carey
Publisher: DC Comics
Plus, in the conclusion of “Gotham City Sirens,” Catwoman and the new android Siren hide out in Poison Ivy’s newly built paradise, where they discuss their past relationships, including what Catwoman has-or had-with Batman. But when Peacekeeper forces arrive, the new Siren will have to make a sacrifice to save her friends.
Price: $7.99
Read It Digitally: Future State - The Next Batman #4
It's Time I Had Some Time Alone
If you've been reading these every week, or even if you've only tuned in for a single week across the event, you know that I'm not a fan of the nihilistic, mean-spirited, everybody dies, and all the heroes are jerkfaces and/or bloody murderers dystopia that has been set up across The Flash, Teen Titans, and Shazam! explicitly through a continuing story, and hinted at as the future state we're going to see in the DC Universe even in Green Lantern and Justice League, starting with the Teen Titans Academy series that will be spinning out of Infinite Frontier. I'm tired of this kind of future and I don't think that this one has been very well executed at that. It's felt less like a possible future that the heroes of the present need to stop at all costs and more like a mean-spirited and soul-crushing refutation of everything that really makes these heroes special and the hope that they instill through reading their stories.
Future State: Shazam! #2, from Tim Sheridan, Eduardo Pansica, Julio Ferreira, Marcelo Maiolo, and Rob Leigh, does absolutely nothing to allay that feeling and further feeds into the systematic destruction of one of DC's brightest and best characters in Billy Batson and Captain Marvel/Shazam. It also ultimately brings the “Black Adam” co-feature in Future State: Suicide Squad fully into this mess, even though it was kind of suspected.
I do not like this. The positives that I can say is that the artwork and lettering from Pansica, Ferreira, Maiolo, and Leigh is really well done. Like Teen Titans this is a fairly solid, good looking book, but also like that book and The Flash, the pretty exterior belies a rotten, rancid interior being told in the story. And that when you think about it the name of “The Unkindness” is pretty clever. You might like that sort of thing, but I'm done with it and don't want to see where it goes in Infinite Frontier. I feel we don't need grim dark “edginess” in superhero storytelling any more.
Future State: Shazam! #2
Writer: Tim Sheridan
Penciller: Eduardo Pansica
Inker: Julio Ferreira
Colorist: Marcelo Maiolo
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Publisher: DC Comics
Shazam’s soul is laid bare as he’s confronted by one of the most powerful beings in the DC Universe! Revealing shocking secrets and the final fate of Billy Batson, the boy who was Earth’s Mightiest Mortal, this issue introduces a deadly new threat born from the ashes of the Teen Titans Academy: Raven!
Price: $3.99
Read It Digitally: Future State - Shazam! #2
So there's one more week left of the bulk of the Future State event, and as a whole, I'm still actually pretty happy about this one. I think for the most part the good still outweighs the bad of the event, especially when the highlights have been really damn good stories that would stand on their own, even if they weren't part of the event.
I'll probably touch on this more next week when we see how the conclusion of Bruce Wayne's story goes in Future State: Dark Detective #4, but I do find it kind of interesting that the identity and origins of the Magistrate has kind of been left unresolved. I don't know if that's because it's going to be explored either in the present in Detective Comics or as we get more in the setting itself in Future State: Gotham, but what felt like one of the driving mysteries of the Gotham City setting is just still kind of there. Made doubly confounding because we've seen Peacekeeper-01 without his mask without any explanation of who he is (similarly as we're unsure as to whether or not he is the head of the Magistrate or if there's someone above him. Since both possibilities have kind of been floated). What we have seen, though, is that a couple of the possibilities of people behind the Magistrate have been revealed as members of the Resistance. Although, we still haven't seen hide nor hair of Damian.
I think that the Bat office, the creative teams and the editorial team led by Ben Abernathy, have done an incredible job of crafting the future of Gotham and I'm anxious to see both how it starts in the present day and how it ends in the future. I'm glad that of the various parts of Future State, it's one that we're definitely going to be able to enjoy more of.
NEXT: Most of the event concludes in Aquaman, Batman/Superman, Dark Detective, House of El, Legion of Super-Heroes, and Suicide Squad, but we've got one lone book that will continue on for another month, with the second issue of Superman vs. Imperious Lex.
Read past installments of Future State Fridays!
d. emerson eddy is a student and writer of things. He fell in love with comics during Moore, Bissette, & Totleben's run on Swamp Thing and it has been a torrid affair ever since. His madness typically manifests itself on Twitter @93418.
