Back to the Futures End – Issues #16-19

Hey Match-heads, Shag here! Today our good friend Tim Wallace continues his monthly coverage of DC’s weekly event, The New 52: Futures End! If you missed the previous installments, click here! Warning, Tim’s entries contain SPOILERS for the related issues of The New 52: Futures End. Consider yourself warned! Be sure to follow Tim’s regular work over on his exceptional site, Kord Industries: A Blue Beetle Blog! Get all your Ted Kord, Jaime Reyes, and Dan Garrett goodness there! Get even more Tim-time over at the Legion of Super-Bloggers! You can also stalk Tim on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus. And now, let’s turn it over to Tim…

I look out at you all, children of apes and man, gathered here today and I know what you’re thinking…”Lawgiver, who knows about the Futures End?” I do. And who am I to deny your request…so let’s get on with the monthly Futures End recap!

The New 52: Futures End #16

Five years from now in Washington D.C., Justice League member Stormguard, busts a man and woman buying and selling illegal IDs. Earth Cards, the IDs in question, are tied via DNA to their owner. Ethan Boyer, our criminal scientist on the run from Superman, has found that Earth DNA and Earth 2 DNA are identical and used the dead Earth 2 soldiers to create the fake IDs. On Cadmus Island, Faraday watches several security monitors that show Mister Miracle out of his cell and staring at a bank computer screens. All the screens have 3 small words lit up at their centers that read “run scott run”. Faraday then joins E2 Lana Lang, Deathstroke and Fifty Sue in the Cadmus Island break room for some coffee where they discuss stealth OMACs and system glitches. In New York, Mister Terrific worries about the delays in uSphere production, but Brother Eye is there to ease his mind…and to compare mankind to an ant farm. When Holt asks if Brother Eye is a god, the response is an eerie “I look forward to conversing with the most intelligent man alive…face to face” That doesn’t sound good, does it?

Rampage is on the loose in Metropolis, and Lois Lane finds herself right in the monster’s path. Luckily Masked Superman is looking to continue his game of tag with Rampage, showing up just in time to save Lois from becoming a super-villain crime statistic. While out in space, Amethyst, Frankenstein and Hawkman wait in a holding cell, trying to figure out why Frank is dreaming and how they can get out. Angie, the Engineer, appears and tells them her master wants to assess them. She also reveals that they aren’t on a planet…they’re on a spaceship! But wait, there’s more…her “master”…is Braniac!

The New 52: Futures End #17

Constantine and friends find themselves in an African village. Every person, every animal, every living thing has been slaughtered! Whatever did it left a trail and they decide to follow it. On Cadmus Island, E2 Hawkgirl is being transported to a lab. A doctor, Dr. Sook, wants to see why the implant they put in her is growing. He doesn’t get too far in his research though, because out of nowhere an OMAC suddenly squishes his head!

At that moment, E2 Lana, Deathstroke and Fifty Sue are waiting for Grifter to use his abilities to scan the Earth 2 prisoners, looking for some kind of anomaly. Grifter’s eyes go white (as do those of the Earth 2 prisoners) and he takes a swing at Deathstroke. Before anyone can react, all the E2 prisoners are out and running wild!

Up in Vancouver, Barda and Emiko meet up with the latter’s associate, John Diggle. He’s arranged transportation, because the trio is going to “a very special island”. Emiko elaborates that the island will lead them to the man who’s holding the other E2 survivors and the man who murdered Green Arrow…and when they find that man, they’ll kill him! Back in Metropolis the battle from last issue between Masked Superman and Rampage continues. Massive blow after massive blow is struck, while Lois looks on speculating why the big red “S” wears the mask now. That is until Rampage gets the upper hand. The beast has Superman in a headlock, crushing him. Now, with his mask shattered and any chance of survival slipping away he makes a desperation move and says…”SHAZAM.”

Rampage is down for the count, but Superman is missing…replaced with the body of a teen named Billy Batson! Holy moley! I knew something was up with Supes, but I didn’t see this coming! Back in Africa, Constantine and his friends are now stranded in a desert, when the ground begins to rumble, water spouts burst from the earth, and a bearded figure appears.

The New 52: Futures End #18

This issue starts right where we left off, in Africa. Constantine is trying to get Kal-el to help fight this approaching evil, but the Kryptonian wants nothing to do with it. But this is a job for Superman, argues the Brit. “So tell him, he wears a helmet now” is the response as Kal-el tries to get back to work plowing a field…until Constantine tells him about the village…and the being responsible is Brainiac. Lois tries to sort out what’s going on with Billy, but Rampage comes to and interrupts. Stormguard flies in to put her back down and whisks the reporter and teen to a Justice League space station. Lois wants an explanation…if Billy is the fake Superman, where is the real one? Somewhere in the Pacific, Barda, Emiko and Diggle arrive at their island destination. Emiko explains that this is the island where Oliver Queen became Green Arrow, and that more recently he had been using it to prepare for a “secret war” he knew was coming. He’d made contingency plans, she says, before they enter a clearing and come face to face with…Green Arrow!

Shag here… ummmm, HELLO! I think somebody owes Ronnie Raymond an apology!

On Cadmus Island though, all hell has broken loose! The E2 prisoners and OMACs are running amok killing most of the staff, while Faraday sits in an office…negotiating with Brother Eye? Deathstroke and E2 Lana are hiding Grifter’s unconscious body (apparently Fifty Sue did it when he attacked Deathstroke) in a cave while Power Girl watches them from above. Fifty Sue calls out Brother Eye with a list of demands. Interestingly he refers to her as “the first”. The first what?

The New 52: Futures End #19

At Terrifitech, Batman Beyond and his band of misfits begin their break in. Coil messes with the magnetic field, keeping everyone hidden from the security system. Key unlocks all the doors. Terry uses knockout gas to take down the staff of a computer lab, believing that the key to destroying Brother Eye lies there. Plastique strays off plan though, and tracks down her cyber-bug future self in Terrific’s research lab. Alarms go off, Key and Coil get nabbed by security, but Terry finds Plasitque and leads her out.

Lois meets with her editor and discusses the Superman story. He urges her to run it, but she’s not sure. She wants more time to think about it. Shazuperman shows up and tries to talk her out of running the story. The world needs to know there IS a Superman. She wants answers though. What happened to the real Superman? Where is he? “Not for me to say” is Billy’s reply. But he warns that if she reveals the secret, she’ll destroy everything. Out in space on the remains of Stormwatch’s Carrier, Ray Palmer is visited by a mysterious figure identifying itself as a “Storm Lord from the Stormwatch Shadow Cabinet”. He reveals that Brainiac has Ray’s friends, and that Ray has been chosen as the new leader of Stormwatch. Ray isn’t sure he can though, something is wrong with him, something caused by all the shrinking he did as the Atom.

Back on Cadmus Island, Power Girl swoops in to confront Deathstroke and E2 Lana. She’s about to kill them when Fifty Sue appears, and reminds “Boob Window” that they are off limits per her deal with Brother Eye. Fifty Sue then asks where Grifter is. The implants in all the E2 heroes are what allow Brother Eye to control them, and Grifter has been implanted too…they need to get it out! Finally, at the “Wounded Duck”, Cal reads a news headline that shocks him…Lois ran the story, the world now knows that Shazam has been masquerading as Superman!

Wow! Some serious reveals took place over these issues, huh? Shazam is Superman, Kal-el is in a Kingdom Come style self imposed agricultural exile, Brainiac is out there (and tied to Brother Eye I’ll bet)…but most importantly I think we saw Earth 2’s Firestorm flying around Cadmus Island! Pretty cool huh?

Shag here again! That’s it for this month! Thanks again to Tim for this fantastic coverage! Next month Tim will return with further coverage of, The New 52: Futures End! Let us know what you think of this weekly series in the comments.

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