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…

This is it, Match-Heads! The final “Futures End” post. I really want to apologize it’s taken me this long to finish. To be honest it was a combination of things, but that doesn’t matter right now. The important thing is answering some questions. Will Batman and Mr. Terrific put aside their differences and raise their child, Brother Eye, together? Will Jason and Madison ever learn to separate, or will they be Firestorm forever? How will Superman shave that silly beard? Will all of this blend right into the already finished “Convergence” and not really matter? Find out all this and more, on the finale of “As the Daily Planet Turns”!

The New 52: Futures End #44

Five years from now in New York, all hell is breaking loose. Brainiac has captured the city under one of his domes and is in the process of airlifting it off the planet! Firestorm and the Justice League are doing their best to prevent casualties.

Superman tries taking on Brainiac with brawn, and manages to throw a punch that momentarily splits Brainiac into his multiversal components.

While the villain tries to restore his systems, Batman, Mr. Terrific and the Atom put their heads together and come up with another plan. Covering Brainiac in Terrific’s uSpheres, the Atom manages to shrink both the spheres and the big baddie!

The only downside? Without Brainiac in control, New York is falling! Luckily Superman is there to save the day!

The New 52: Futures End #45

At Castle Frankenstein, Frank is on his deathbed, literally. As he lays, he speaks of all he’s experienced, and Amethyst writes down his life story…before he passes away. Before he goes, he inspires her to return to Gemworld as its princess.

Back in New York, Polaris, Firestorm and Shazam continue search and rescue efforts while Superman takes Brainiac’s machines and throws them into the sun.

Upstate, Faraday takes Boyer to a safe house…and promptly tasers him. Then, with Voodoo’s help, drags him to an underground bunker, Command D. Faraday sends Voodoo back upstairs, where she gets gassed by Rock and company. At Terrifitech, there seems to be a glitch. Batman, Terrific and the Atom try to get Brother Eye to disengage, but the computer refuses…it’s rewritten it’s protocols. It begins shutting down systems in the tower, and as Batman Beyond and company make their way through the building, begins resurrecting the dead security teams as sort of proto-robo-bugs!

The New 52: Futures End #46

Batman suggests cutting power, but Terrific already tried. Batman suggests the failsafe, but Brother Eye tells them it has disabled the self destruct. As Atom questions the A.I.’s motives, Batman Beyond appears to fill in what he knows. Back in Faraday’s safe house, Rock has made himself at home. He’s nestled all snug in his bed when he’s woken by E2 Lana. She’s paralyzed him. She doesn’t want to kill him…just give him a message. “Leave us alone.” She also reveals a secret…when she came from Earth 2, Cadmus labeled her normal, but she’s not. She can bond with insects and take on their traits…E2 Lana is the Insect Queen! They also warn that if he does mess with them, he’s dealing with Fifty Sue next time!

Firestorm has fully embraced the hero biz, reuniting a mother and child by way of a flying elephant!

Madison and Jason are having a moment, discussing their inability to separate when their Justice League beeper goes off…they’re needed at Terrifitech! Brother Eye has the upperhand! It’s army of Cybermen have the heroes pinned down…and then “The Thing with Two Heads” shows up! Terry McGinnis manages to take it out, but is mortally wounded in the process. He passes the mantle of Batman Beyond to Tim Drake, and looks into the eyes of Plastique, “Please…be the last thing I see.” before he dies.

The New 52: Futures End #47

Five years from now, Brother Eye appears on every TV, monitor, control panel…every device in the world to announce it is taking control. Batman and company haven’t quite given up yet. Though the odds are against them, and hordes of Brother Eye’s Borg army are closing in…one man is there to help…Batman Beyond!

Batman recognizes Tim right away, Plastique is offended, and Madison/Firestorm on realizes who he is when they kiss.

But the most important part is, he needs to time jump! Batman insists he’ll go until A.L.F.R.E.D. reminds them that the time band is calibrated to Terry’s weight…and Tim is a closer match than Bruce. Terrific attaches jumper cables to Firestorm, yeah…jumper cables, so she can power the time band and in a blink Tim finds himself on the Brother Eye satellite. Then things get weird! He’s arrived “now”, or five years prior to the events of the other 46 issues in this series. The Earth 2 refugees, including Mr. Terrific, are on their way. Tim tries to plant explosives, Brother Eye tries to stop him. Tim explains what will happen, based on his future, if events are not changed. Darkseid’s parademons will follow the Earth 2 refugees and millions will die. Brother Eye accepts this to be true and offers to self destruct in order to save millions of lives. Before he does, he’ll even transport Tim back to Madison. Then Tim finds himself falling from the sky, landing in a forest…and he can’t believe what he sees!

The New 52: Futures End #48

Tim has found himself standing in some sort of memorial park, surrounded by statues of heroes. He wanders looking at the heroes represented, and stops in front of Batman Beyond. And that’s when he sees Madison! “You came!” she exclaims as they embrace…then her eyes are replaced with Brother Eye’s symbol.

She fades away. Everything fades away, leaving Tim in a room overlooking a devastated city with Mr. Terrific. They’re not in the past, or the present…but back to the future! Terrific has lost his marbles, and only appears to be alive and not assimilated because Brother Eye likes to keep “Father” around. Tim is not so lucky, he’s been flagged for cyber conversion and robo-Flash and robo-Captain Cold arrive to do the job. Until a mysterious figure blasts his way in! He’s soon followed by a small gun toting mob. He’s the Atom. They make their escape, Terrific in tow, and regroup at their base.

This future isn’t all bad though, as Tim is reunited with a slightly older Madison, another member of the resistance. Tim’s ready to give all of this another chance…Madison, the hero biz, taking down Brother Eye…but the others aren’t so sure about that last one. As they look up to the moon, scarred with Brother Eye’s symbol, they think the battle’s lost…but Tim Drake isn’t convinced.

The End.

And there you have it… DC’s “Futures End”. I don’t know about you, but I was a bit underwhelmed by that ending. As of this ending, there is no more Firestorm. Ronnie’s dead, Jason is MIA… I can’t even remember if we ever saw Dr. Stein? I guess the newest Firestorm, Madison Payne, got a happy ending at least… sort of. But, did any of it matter? Will it even get referenced in the new Firestorm mini coming in 2016? My guess is no, but we’ll have to wait and see. What happened to Fifty Sue? At the start of the series, she was annoying but I won’t lie, by the end she was one of my favorites! Is there any way to stop/prevent Brother Eye? Or have Batman and Mr. Terrific ruined the future of the DCU? Sure several of the storylines were tied up. Sure it sort of led into “Convergence”. Sure it sets up the new “Batman Beyond” series… but a year’s, well almost a year’s, worth of reading and recapping and there’s just as much undone and/or unresolved. I guess we’ll never know. Or at least, Eye guess, we’ll have to wait and see. Eye hope you enjoyed my recaps, and thanks to Shag for asking if Eye would be interested, and subsequently allowing me to infiltrate, Eye mean, contribute here at Firestorm Fan! Eye…Eye…Eye…

Shag here again! What a long, strange trip it’s been! Let us know what you thought of FUTURES END in the comments.

A very special thanks to Tim for this fantastic year-long coverage! Tim was the first “correspondent” ever featured here at FIRESTORM FAN and he did an exceptional job! A real shame he got converted by Brother Eye at the end. THANKS, Robot Tim!

Support Firestorm (and Tim Wallace over at Kord Industries)! Fan the flame!

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…

Once again I apologize for the delay. The thing is, I uh…I was…captured by Brainiac and kept in a domed city, cut off from the rest of the world. Yeah, that’s the ticket! (Shag here – Tim shouldn’t take all the blame. I’ve been swamped lately and haven’t been posting these as quickly as I should. Sorry, Tim!)

The New 52: Futures End #36

Five years from now, Amethyst has taken Frankenstein to the House of Mystery in the hopes that the members of Justice League Dark can save him. Unfortunately the Nth metal that’s poisoning him seems to be resistant to their magic and even the combined efforts of Zatanna, Madame Xanadu and Deadman can’t help. Constantine joins the party late, and tries cracking some jokes…only to get run though by the sword of the Princess of Gem World!

Fifty Sue takes a long walk off a short pier and finds the locked Cadmus vault Faraday and Rock have been looking for. When they don’t quite believe her, she materializes it on the roof of their Las Vegas penthouse headquarters.

In Smallville, Constantine wakes up with a start, spooking Midge. Turns out, like “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” he’s not dead yet! Kal-El has decided to go for a walk around town, and when he returns Constantine tells him something’s not right…Smallville is inherently evil. In New York, Plastique and Batman beyond have a heart to heart on the roof of the Wounded Duck after nearly being killed by the terminator Bat-Joker from the future. While up in space, on the Justice League satellite, Masked Superman and Stormguard  have a one-on-one about what it means to be a hero, which segues nicely into Stormguard’s origin. He was an ordinary soldier, fighting the parademon hordes. Just when it looked like he was down for the count, he made a last ditch effort to take them out. He impaled one with an American flag, then stole its weapons and armor before draping himself in the flag. As they talk about how symbols live on (the flag and Superman’s “S”) an unexpected visitor teleports in…the new Firestorm!

 The New 52: Futures End #37

Back at the House of Mystery everyone’s surprised to see Constantine still standing with Amethyst’s sword in his chest (not us though…we read the last issue and saw him in Smallville). Turns out he’s only visiting Justice League Dark as an astral projection. He even offers a suggestion. If they want to save “Francis” they have to take him to his birthplace…Castle Frankenstein!

On the League’s satellite, Jason tries walking Madison through rewiring a teleporter, thinking that since they were fused in Yamazake’s failed teleport experiment they can use this one to help separate themselves. It doesn’t go as planned.

Down on the ground though Yamazake, the new Doctor Polaris, is throwing a tantrum (and a bus) calling out Firestorm. He gets Masked Superman and Stormguard instead. In Vegas that vault Fifty Sue materialized falls through the penthouse and takes out a big chunk of the building. When Rock and Faraday reveal the vault contained valuable DNA, Fifty Sue realizes something she wasn’t meant to know…it’s the DNA they used to create her. So, Mercy drops the powerful preteen with a Vulcan nerve pinch.

E2 Lana is devastated, Grifter is pissed…and then they, along with the girl and the vault vanish into thin air. At Terrifitech HQ, Mr. Terrific celebrates the sale of ten million uSpheres with a workout and a chat with Brother Eye. While in Smallville Kal-El, Constantine and Midge don’t seem to notice the eye watching them from a cornfield. Then, in New York, Cal/Tim makes it home to the Wounded Duck while Batman Beyond and Plasitque get intimate on the roof. When Cal loses his cool, surveying the damage from the Batman vs. Batman Beyond brawl a few issues back the Bat-Joker from the future moves in for the kill.

The New 52: Futures End #38

Picking up right where the action left off, Bat-Joker begins blasting away at Batman Beyond, and Tim Drake, but much to his dismay misses. Beyond’s suit deflected the bullets. Batman, who’s been watching from the shadows, jumps into the fray and we get the Batman/Batman Beyond/Bat-Joker rematch we’ve been waiting for. Tim, tired of sitting on the sidelines jumps in only to get tangled up in Bat-Joker’s robotic wings. Plastique makes the save tossing an explosive brick, and as the heroes regroup Beyond decides it’s time to tell Batman the truth…everything that’s wrong with the future is because of him and Mr. Terrific. He then sends Tim, Plastique and Batman to investigate T-Tech, while he leads Bat-Joker away.

In Metropolis, Dr. Polaris is battling Masked Superman and Stormguard until Firestorm shows up. Madison surprises everyone by making a deal with the villain. If he helps her and Jason separate, she’ll get him access to the League’s teleport technology so he can share it with the world.

In the Sahara desert we learn Fifty Sue was faking it when it appeared that Mercy took her out. She teleported Lana, Grifter and the box here so they could determine what to do next. They decide to hide it, only Fifty Sue will know the location, after all…it contains the DNA of every known hero of two Earths! It can’t fall into the wrong hands. Then, in the Carpathian Mountains, Amethyst drags Frankenstein through the snow, on their way to Castle Frankenstein. Frank recites poetry along the way, and reveals that after all his been through, all the battles he’s fought, the one thing that scares him is trying to write poetry of his own. That’s a bit of a surprise…but not as much as the unexpected presence of Doctor Frankenstein when they arrive at the castle!

The New 52: Futures End #39

On the Justice League’s satellite, Masked Superman isn’t happy about Firestorm making deals to share their tech with a villain. He doesn’t even know her! She explains who she is, how she came to be the new Firestorm, but it’s when she mentions Jason Rusch is in the matrix with her that he starts to come around.

In Vegas, Faraday tells Banger and Mash to kill Grifter’s friend Justin, before they can though Fifty Sue teleports him away. Seems if Lana and Grifter are to be her adoptive parents, Justin is to be her adoptive brother. Faraday is more than pissed, and decides he may need to use Voodoo’s friendship with Grifter as leverage.

In Smallville, Kal-el, Constantine and Midge find themselves under attack from the children of the corn! According to Constantine the tiny corn creatures that attack are the creation of Brainiac…seriously. To make matters worse, Midge is back under the control of the big baddie. Sadly, she gets taken out by a flying corn stalk through the chest. With her dying breath she tells them Brainiac is planning to take Manhattan.

Back at Castle Frankenstein, the Doctor offers to help the monster. He’ll save Frankenstein’s brain, build him a new body…but one that he can control, make the creature a loyal soldier. Frankenstein refuses, he’d rather die that be his creator’s servant…besides, he’s seen the future, seen the abomination he’ll become (with Black Canary’s head sewn onto his chest) and he refuses to become a “monster”. With that, Amethyst beheads the Doctor and kills his monster army. Frank asks for pen and paper…he’d like to write down his story before he goes. And finally, on the satellite an alarm sounds, but the remote probes are disabled before they can determine what set them off!

Well, that was interesting to say the least! Again, apologies for the delay, but more on the way soon I promise!

Shag here again! That’s it for this month! Thanks again to Tim for this fantastic coverage! 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.

Support Firestorm (and Tim Wallace over at Kord Industries)! Fan the flame!

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…

Sorry about the delay folks! I just got back from five years in the future. It was crazy! People didn’t trust superheroes, superheroes didn’t trust each other. Dogs and cats living together…mass hysteria! But like LeVar Burton said on “Reading Rainbow”, “You don’t have to take my word for it”…

The New 52: Futures End #32

Five years from now in New York, Terry McGinnis and Plastique are sort of on a date. Well, grabbing a slice of pizza together and discussing how future Batman had told Batman Beyond not to interact with five years Batman, because FYB would try to stop BB from preventing the future. Meanwhile five years Bruce is chatting with Mr. Terrific, trying to persuade him to delay the launch of the uSpheres. It backfires and Mr. Terrific decides the launch is happening in 24hrs, and drives the point home by broadcasting live all over Times Square!

In California, E2 Lana Lang helps Grifter get a new identity, via an E2 registration card…and a marriage? Yup, he’s now Cole Lang! Back on Cadmus Island, Fifty Sue dons Deathstroke’s mask and swears she’ll kill Brother Eye. While in New York, Dr. Yamazake finds himself without a body after his transporter malfunctioned. He blames everyone but himself, but especially Firestorm! How does a being with no physical body get revenge though? He creates a containment suit!

Next, Madison Payne and Jason Rusch are trying to split the Firestorm form back into their respective bodies. After further failed attempts, they decide to investigate the scene of the accident that fused them –Dr. Yamazake’s lab.

 Then, somewhere in Earth orbit, the Stormwatch crew manages to make it home…unfortunately Father Time isn’t happy to see them. She’s even more upset when they refuse to give her the Engineer…so she sicks Godzilla like monsters on Frankenstein and company!

The New 52: Futures End #33

Picking up exactly where the last issue left off, Father Time and S.H.A.D.E., face off with Stormwatch for refusing to give up the Engineer…until the Atom shrinks and jumps down Father Time’s throat!

Shrinking down to “Fantastic Voyage” proportions, Ray discovers Father Time’s secret…his true face! In Las Vegas, Faraday and Rock discuss Ethan Boyer (a name we haven’t seen in a while!). They want him because of his expertise in genetics. So…they send Fifty Sue to convince him to come over to Cadmus. After her mission is complete, she just happens to bump into Grifter’s buddy Justin. She overhears Grifter telling him about his “marriage” to Lana Lang, so in classic Fifty Sue fashion she sucker punches him and takes his phone. “How come you didn’t call me first?” she asks. In New York, Batman Beyond and Plastique, with the help of A.L.F.R.E.D., scan for signs of Brother Eye but find nothing. Not satisfied, Terry asks A.L.F.R.E.D. to continue scanning. Good thing too, because at that moment, Lois Lane’s phone lights up with the symbol of Brother Eye! In no time we see it spread across the country…all the way back, to the remains of cyber-bug Plastique!

Elsewhere Jason tries to coach Madison through the intricacies of being Firestorm. She’s got flight down to a “T”, but they’re still working on transmutation, but worse, they can’t separate! They arrive at what’s left of Yamazake’s lab to look for answers…instead they find Yamazake…the new Doctor Polaris!

The New 52: Futures End #34

With Doctor Polaris on the attack, we learn something else about the new Firestorm…Madison doesn’t know how to fight! Jason tries to talk her through it, without much luck, until Polaris tosses a cement truck at them. Then she turns it into a teddy bear! Too bad it’s a teddy bear with the size and weight of a cement truck.

In Earth orbit, Stormwatch continues to battle Father Time’s monsters while the Atom tries to reason with Father Time’s true self. The creature is a refugee, Brainiac destroyed its home. It explains that the Engineer is compromised, since Brainiac already had control he could easily take control again. Ray quickly pulls a shrink gun, reducing Father Time down, and escaping to reveal all he has learned.

Frankenstein is prepared to kill the creature, but gets gunned down by a S.H.A.D.E. agent first. Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, Faraday rallies his troops. He wants Grifter to retrieve a vault of DNA samples from the ocean floor. Boyer starts mouthing off, upsetting Fifty Sue who can’t kill him…yet. Instead she makes one of his hands disappear! (she’s starting to remind me of Bill Mumy in the “Twilight Zone” episode “It’s a Good Life”).

And in New York, A.L.F.R.E.D. goes offline shortly after detecting a blip while scanning for Brother Eye…and that’s when “The Thing With Two Heads” future Bat-Joker arrives on the scene!

The New 52: Futures End #35

Back in New York, Firestorm crawls out from under the giant teddy bear, in time to see Doctor Polaris preparing another attack. Cal/Tim is also nearby, and goes into hero mode trying to help civilians. Madison, distracted by Cal’s presence get’s hit by a piece of shrapnel thrown my Polaris.

Cal, surprised to see Firestorm in action, uses the moment to swing a lead pipe at the villain, only to have it swung right back at himself! Motivated by love, Madison manages to surprise Jason and herself by blasting Polaris right out of his containment suit!

In Vegas, we get an oddly tender moment when E2 Lana decides Fifty Sue needs a mother, whether she likes it or not.

In Earth Orbit, everyone is baffled by the fact that Frankenstein appears to be dying. Ray thinks it may have something to do with the arm transplant he did several issues back. The Nth metal in Hawkman’s blood may be healing Frank, making him vulnerable to physical harm. Father Time, locked up in a specimen jar, isn’t helping any either. Hawkman, along with Engineer and the Creature Commandos (wo-hoo! I love these guys!), is working on cleaning up S.H.A.D.E. HQ, while Black Adam has flown off to handle some personal business. Amethyst decides the best way to save Frankenstein is to take him back to Earth for some magic therapy. While in New York, it’s…well, something I never thought I’d see or type…Batman versus Batman Beyond versus Bat-Joker with Plastique caught in the middle!

Well, that was interesting to say the least! Again, apologies for the delay, but more on the way soon I promise!

Shag here again! That’s it for this month! Thanks again to Tim for this fantastic coverage! 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.

Support Firestorm (and Tim Wallace over at Kord Industries)! Fan the flame!

The twenty-seventh episode of our WHO’S WHO podcast is now available — the show that dares to tackle one of DC Comics’ greatest publications! With the first volume of Who’s Who behind us, we celebrate by taking a victory lap! We conclude this run with a look at Ambush Bug #3, a couple Amazing Heroes articles, and a special bonus… an interview with Who’s Who artist Dan Jurgens! We wrap up the show with your Listener Feedback! This episode sponsored in part by InStockTrades.com!

Be sure to check out our Tumblr site for several pages from this Who’s Who episdoe: FireandWaterPodcast.Tumblr.com!

Have a question or comment? Send us an e-mail at: firewaterpodcast@comcast.net

You can find the twenty-seveth episode of WHO’S WHO: THE DEFINITIVE PODCAST OF THE DC UNIVERSE on iTunes. Each episode is released as part of THE FIRE AND WATER PODCAST feed. While you’re on iTunes, please drop us a review. Alternatively, you may play the podcast using the player below or by right-clicking “download”, choosing “Save Target/Link As”, and selecting a location on your computer to save the file (123 MB).

Thanks to my co-host Rob Kelly, Sea King of THE AQUAMAN SHRINE, for doing all the post-production on this episode! Special thanks to Daniel Adams and Ashton Burge with their band The Bad Mamma Jammas for our fantastic Who’s Who theme song!

Below you’ll find the cover to Ambush Bug #3 drawn by Keith Giffen and Bob Oksner.

Come back next month when we tackle the first issue of Who’s Who Update ’87!

Support Firestorm (and the WHO’S WHO podcast)! Fan the flame!

SECRET ORIGINS #10
Written by Christy Marx, Dan Jurgens, Brenden Fletcher, Cameron Stewart
Art by Sean Chen, Irene Koh, Stjepan Sejic
Cover by Bryan Hitch
On sale February 25 • 48 pg, FC, $4.99 US • Rated T

Get ready for The New 52 origins of Batgirl (written by Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher with art by Irene Koh), Firestorm (courtesy of writer Dan Jurgens and artist Sean Chen) and Poison Ivy (coming your way from writer Christy Marx and artist Stjepan Sejic)!

Here is a page from the Firestorm origin to whet your appetite..

Great to see Ronnie and Jason again representing the “new classic” Dan Jurgens era! I really miss that ongoing series.

Below you’ll find the cover to Secret Origins #10 so you know what to seek out in the comic shop. Not even a mention of Firestorm on the cover. Ouch!

My thanks to Martin Gray for reminding me this comic was being released this week!

Support Firestorm! Fan the flame!

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…

Some of this may already be familiar to you (like the events of issue #29 which were so groundbreaking we brought them to you back in November!), while other parts are being revealed for the first time…think of it as the intricacies of time travel…after all we are dealing with a story that has taken place both five and thirty-five years from now! Wibbly wobbly timey…you get the picture.

The New 52: Futures End #28

Five years from now on Cadmus Island, Lois Lane parachutes onto the beach, having taken the leap of faith that Cal/Tim Drake had recommended. The coordinates from her mystery box led her here, but when she encounters an OMAC and gets chased through the jungle she begins to question why. It isn’t any clearer when she finds the Cadmus base, and more OMACs. And it goes from bad to bizarre when she literally trips over herself…or rather the E2 Red Tornado she saw in her vision several issues back!

In Las Vegas, Sergeant Rock and Faraday discuss priorities. What’s more important? Taking down Brother Eye or the unstable Fifty Sue? And like Lenny & Squiggy…at the mere mention of her name, she appears! She’s pretty upset about Deathstroke abandoning her and siding with Brother Eye, so upset she wants him dead! Much to their dismay, she tells Faraday and Rock that she wants to lead a team to take down Brother Eye…and skin Deathstroke alive.

While in New York, Plastique watches as the battle of Batman versus Batman Beyond continues in the fire of what used to be “The Wounded Duck”. It’s several pages of back and forth action, until Terry finally manages to give Bruce the slip.

In another part of town Cal locates Ronnie. He’s concerned about Madison going missing. Ronnie suggests he ask Jason, the leader of their study group, then says if she’s in trouble he’s coming too. Jason’s not with her though. He’s at Yamazake’s home trying to explain about Firestorm…but instead discovers a video of Yamazake’s wife’s death playing on a loop. The doc isn’t home. He’s at his lab with Madison. To make her pay for the sins of her father he plans to force her to be a guinea pig, testing his teleporter.

The New 52: Futures End #29

For all the details, including Ronnie’s sacrifice and the birth of the new Firestorm, see my previous post covering this issue.

The New 52: Futures End #30

On Cadmus Island, Lois has a little talk with herself, the badly damaged E2 Red Tornado. If they’re going to get off this island they need to find a friendly face. Enter Oliver Queen and his Outsiders! Landing at the beach, Ollie and company prepare to bring down Brother Eye, launching an EMP arrow in the hopes of shutting down all electronic systems. Unfortunately the arrow is caught mid-air by the Brother Eye possessed E2 Hawkgirl, and right on her tail feathers is an army of E2 heroes and OMACs. As Ollie leads a small group into the jungle, in search of the Cadmus base, Red Arrow reminds the team not to kill the E2 heroes, their actions are not their own. He does encourage them to kill as many OMACs as they can, though! That works for a bit…until the OMACs pull a “Voltron” and combine into a single giant creature.

Meanwhile Grifter stops Deathstroke from killing Ollie with a shot from a sniper rifle, which gives E2 Lana time to “thonk” Slade on the head with a rock. They run to join Ollie, but Deathstroke is back up and hot on their heels…until Fury shows up and tears his head off.

Barda and Mister Miracle are reunited as the world’s greatest escape artist leads the team back into Cadmus to shut down Brother Eye. They weren’t counting on Brother Eye hosing his consciousness in the altered body of Power Girl though. Even still, Ollie manages to shut down the main system, using the distraction of the Barda/Power Girl fight to his advantage.

E2 Red Tornado tells Lois she knows she won’t make it off the island, and encourages Lois to go and tell the world the truth about the E2 heroes and Cadmus. And finally as an explosion rocks the island, the surviving heroes make their way back to the Arrowboat. But as the last few panels reveal Brother Eye on cell phone and Red Tornado’s eyes flashing back on, we’re left to wonder…are things really over?

The New 52: Futures End #31

In Seattle, at the Queen Foundation headquarters, Lois Lane is holding a press conference. Flanked by heroes from our Earth and Earth 2 she tells the world about Cadmus’ activities, imprisoning, experimenting and controlling the E2 refugees. She’s posted video online to support her claims and calls for Cadmus to be brought to justice for war crimes!

Missing from all this is Oliver Queen himself. He’s still playing “dead”, enjoying retirement on Green Arrow Island with a visit from Animal Man and family. In Siberia, Constantine, his lady friend Midge and Kal-El gather at the site of the Tunguska blast. After her encounter with Brainiac, Midge has lost her marbles, on the plus side though she’s also now something of a Brainiac compass and points them in the right direction. With several thunderous booms, Brainiac appears…inhabiting the body of a large bear. Kal-El orders Constantine to leave while he deals with the villain. Brainiac speaks of a pact, with Superman’s father, and how by coming here “your coming place is spared” (Krypton?).

Another huge explosion and Kal-El is thrown clear of the bear. He scoops up Midge and Constantine and asks what he must do to stop it. Constantine replies “Go home.” (again I ask, Krypton?) On the remains of Cadmus Island, Faraday tries sifting through the rubble, seemingly searching for something (or someone). He finds his way to a secured area, labeled DNA storage, only to find the other side of the door leads to a sheer cliff. The lab was blown into the sea when the island blew up.

Finally in Pittsburgh, the new Firestorm takes a somber journey to Ronnie Raymond’s funeral. It also appears this new union of Jason and Madison may be off to a bumpy start…they can’t figure out how to separate. They bicker a bit, each frustrated by their current situation, but watching from a distance and hearing Jason’s dad speak at Ronnie’s funeral bring them around a bit. As does seeing Cal/Tim at the funeral…but Madison’s not quite ready to let him see her like this, besides she says “even before this happened, we had…issues.”

Ok, definitely more happened in these 4 issues than the last ones…but I can’t help but feel the battle of Cadmus Island went by too fast. It seemed too easy…especially considering how many issues we have left in this series. I guess there are more twists and turns ahead!

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.

Support Firestorm (and Tim Wallace over at Kord Industries)! Fan the flame!

SECRET ORIGINS #10
Written by CAMERON STEWART, BRENDEN FLETCHER, DAN JURGENS and CAITLIN KITTREDGE
Art by STJEPAN SEJIC, IRENE KOH and SEAN CHEN
Cover by BRYAN HITCH
On sale FEBRUARY 25 • 48 pg, FC, $4.99 US • RATED T
Get ready for The New 52 origins of Batgirl (written by Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher with art by Irene Koh), Firestorm (courtesy of writer Dan Jurgens and artist Sean Chen) and Poison Ivy (coming your way from writer Caitlin Kittredge and artist Stjepan Sejic)!

While Firestorm doesn’t appear on the cover, it’s still a pretty snazzy one!

My thanks to @boynerdgeek and @CraigimusMax on Twitter for the heads-up regarding this issue!

Support Firestorm! Fan the flame!

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…

We’re halfway through this adventure, and what do we know? Green Arrow’s not dead. Neither is Red Robin or Firestorm, but Ronnie and Jason aren’t seeing things eye to eye. Superman is Shazam, and Kal-El is pulling a Kingdom Come farming existence in Africa. Wolverine is dead. Wait, what? Just making sure you were paying attention! Stormwatch is lost in space, though. The E2 heroes are now mindless drones to Brother Eye and Brainiac is in deep space and on Earth in different forms? Let’s see what else can happen…

The New 52: Futures End #24

Five years from now in deep space the remains of Stormwatch fly away from Brainiac’s Blood Moon in Ray Palmer’s Nan-Knight with Black Adam flying along outside. Hot on their tail are hundreds of Brainiac drones. Ray crash lands the Nan-Knight onto Stormwatch’s Carrier hoping they can bring Angie/Engineer back from Brainiac’s influence to start the ship up and get them home…but those hundreds of drones following them may prevent that.

On Cadmus Island a beaten and bruised Mister Miracle approaches an equally roughed up Fury. It seems that Fury beat the tar out of her former friend while under the influence of Brother Eye. Luckily for him, Mister Miracle is an escape artist and used the fact that Fury wasn’t exactly “herself” to take her down, and remove the implant.

In New York, Madison Payne and Ronnie Raymond walk around campus discussing life and loss. Ronnie’s mother, Madison’s father…even Ronnie’s loss of Jason’s friendship is touched on briefly. They pinky promise to be there for each other, “Alone together” before Ronnie heads to practice.

Cal/Tim shows up and tries to apologize to Madison, but she says she’s not ready…yet. Meanwhile, in Dr. Yamazake’s lab, Jason and the odd doctor manage to successfully teleport a mannequin (looks like a dead body to me, but they say “mannequin”).

And in Africa, Constantine and his companions wonder where Superman is? Last they saw he was chasing after the Machine Man/Parasite/Brainiac monster…who, speak of the devil, shows up and starts slaughtering Constantine’s friends. Who can stop him? Superman!

The New 52: Futures End #25

 In deep space the remaining members of Stormwatch are still dealing with that army of Brainiac drones. They’re keeping them at bay to give the Engineer a chance to restart the Carrier and get them home. When she manages to link into the system though, she finds that the navigation system is in a damaged part of the ship, meaning she can get them away from where they are she just doesn’t know where they’ll end up! Kind of like “Quantum Leap”, but with superheroes…and a spaceship. On Cadmus Island, in Fifty Sue’s “Ultra Top Secret, Authorized Personnel Only, Trespassers Will Be Eviscerated, Super Secure Sidekick Bunker” the little lunatic connects with Brother Eye via her own computer system to “play with it” while Grifter, Faraday, Deathstroke and E2 Lana look on in shock. Fifty Sue assures them Brother Eye can’t track them, but Deathstroke pulls the plug just to be sure. As the group tries to figure how they can escape the island, Grifter reveals that Faraday is a superhuman…who can teleport. While Deathstroke fumes about Grifter withholding this key bit of info, Faraday vanishes. That’s when Fifty Sue announces her plan…they’re going to storm the compound and take down Brother Eye!

In Africa, Constantine identifies the monster Superman is battling as an avatar of Brainiac, a surrogate. And after Kal-El blows the creature up with a blast of heat vision, Constantine says they’ll regret that…he believes the thing was just testing Supes…and now Brainiac will know what to expect!

And in New York, Ronnie is enjoying a chat with Madison in the student union when he sees a report that a tsunami is about to hit. He goes into hero mode and asks if she knows where Jason might be. He finds him in Dr. Yamazake’s lab, but Jason still holds a grudge and refuses to become Firestorm. Trust issues.

Instead, Jason texts Billy Batson, so Masked Superman can handle things. What they don’t realize is that crazy, hero hating, Yamazake just heard their whole conversations…and knows they are/were Firestorm!

The New 52: Futures End #26

In New York, Mr. Terrific arrives at a small airport, with new employees Key and Coil in tow, to meet billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne. A few issues ago, Key and Coil said Bruce was the man that hired them to break into Terrifitech. Everyone knows something is up. Bruce shows only to cut the meeting short moments later, suggesting they meet for a late dinner, at which point Terrific has the villains tail him. While at his lab, Yamazake has security throw Jason out. He knows who he is now, and believes the teen has been sabotaging his teleportation experiments.

Minutes later Madison shows up at the lab looking for Jason, and falls right into the evil grasp of Dr. Y. Her father was a criminal, and no one will miss her if things go wrong, so she will be his first live human test subject. Batman Beyond, lets Plastique in on the identity of Cal Corcoran aka Tim Drake/Red Robin against A.L.F.R.E.D.’s advice. They’re going to approach Cal/Tim for help…and it’s ok, because according to A.L.F.R.E.D Tim is dead in the future?!

On Cadmus Island, Fifty Sue and Brother Eye sit down for a little chat. Fifty Sue says they’re going to kick the computer’s butt. Brother Eye, through an E2 human surrogate, says the girl is crazy…and the surrogate is promptly blown to pieces. Brother Eye isn’t done though…it reveals the girl is a genetically engineered test subject, created by combining 52 DNA strands. It also taunts her with video which appears to show Deathstroke partnering with Brother Eye and expressing distrust of Fifty Sue.

Back in New York, Ronnie arrives in Central Park at the request of an text. So does Jason, though both deny sending the message. Batman arrives, and confesses it was him. He tells them Green Arrow is alive, and they need to get over whatever it is they’re going through…the world needs Firestorm!

The New 52: Futures End #27

On Arrow Island, Oliver Queen rallies his troops. Their transport is loaded with supplies…it’s time to find Cadmus Island and rescue the E2 heroes! In Metropolis, Lois Lane comes home to a not so empty apartment. Cal/Tim is waiting for her. He’s looking for Madison, who’s gone missing. Lois hasn’t seen the girl but asks him again about coming with her to the coordinates from the note in her mystery box. He declines, especially while Madison is missing, but suggests Lois tries checking it out again and take a “leap of faith”. On Cadmus Island, Grifter, Deathstroke and E2 Lana try to find Fifty Sue. The little girl has gone missing, and all they seem to be able to find are OMAC patrols and dead people. At the same time Mister Miracle is wandering the same island, undetected…until he is. Brother Eye picks him up based on his heat signature and sends the mind controlled E2 Huntress after him. She (well technically Brother Eye) tells him they are both gods, and “Eye am of a Mother Box” so there’s no reason Mister Miracle shouldn’t be an interesting addition to its collection.

While out a sea, Green Arrow and his crew prepare for war! Back in New York, Terry “Batman Beyond” McGinnis and Plastique are hanging out at “The Wounded Duck”. It’s time to have that chat with Cal/Tim! Terry decides to break into Cal’s apartment and check things out, after A.L.F.R.E.D reveals the former Titan is in Metropolis, and asks Plastique to stay behind in the bar. No sooner does he begin his little B&E session though than he finds himself face to face with an angry Batman! Then things go BOOM!

And finally, against the advice of her pilot, Lois takes that leap of faith…parachuting over the coordinates from her mystery box.

So…halfway through and I felt like a whole lot of nothing happened this month. It wasn’t a terrible read or anything, but it felt like lots of set-up and not much payoff. Fingers crossed that some cool twists are around the corner.

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.

Support Firestorm (and Tim Wallace over at Kord Industries)! Fan the flame!

Okay, Match-heads… this will be a little wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey as far as continuity… see I’ve been bringing you the recaps of Futures End on a monthly, four issue, basis which means the next batch you’ll get (12/03! Be there or be square!) will cover issues #24-27… but issue #29 hit stores today and DAMN! This is worth delivering out of order!

PS…Spoilers ahead…big ones!

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Seriously, if you are following the Futures End story line and haven’t read issue #29 yet, we strongly encourage you to avoid reading what follows.

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Five Years from now, in New York, Cal/Tim and Ronnie are battling their way through a swarm of Cadmus security guards in an attempt to get to into Columbia University. Ronnie seems impressed by Cal’s “crazy kung-fu”, which leads to Tim revealing himself by complimenting Ronnie’s ability to hold his own even “without your nuclear powers.” Someone has kidnapped Madison Payne and this dynamic duo is out to save her!

At the same time Jason is inside, but being hassled by “the man”… well more Cadmus guards actually. He tries to explain that he’s a student, but they say Dr. Yamazake warned them he might try to interfere. Yamazake is moving ahead with his teleportation tests, which by the way Cadmus is funding. Jason knows this is bad news. He’s come to realize that Dr. Y is a little unstable and needs to be stopped, so he dodges past the guards and into the lab… just in time to see that Madison is about to become a Brundle-Fly! “Firestorm. I feared you were going to show up.” Yes, with no regard for secret identities Dr. Yamazake exposes Jason.

For his part Jason tries once again to point out some errors in the scientists equations, but gets a wrench to the back of the head for his trouble. Madison whines a little, that no one in her life has been honest with her… which, when you’re stuck in a tube about to be teleported by a mad scientist should really be the least of your worries, but maybe that’s just me. Outside Tim/Cal single-handedly holds back the Cadmus guards while Ronnie makes a run into the building, arriving in the lab just as Yamazake throws the switch! Ronnie shoves the scientist out of the way and runs to the teleporter, tearing the door open to release Madison. Caught in the teleportation matrix, Ronnie begins to dissolve. He calls to Jason… to fix this, they must become Firestorm!

As lab equipment begins to explode around them they try to make physical contact, but Ronnie is intangible. “It’s my fault bro. It never should have come to this” he says, “Sorry for the mess I…”

Reaching through Ronnie, Jason grabs Madison as the entire lab explodes around them…then, from the rubble bursts Firestorm! A female Firestorm!

It’s Madison! And in her head, she hears Jason calling for Ronnie…but he doesn’t answer. Tim stumbles through the remains of the lab, and finds Ronnie. Fatally wounded Ronnie says he tried to save Madison, but he was too late. Tim shoulders the blame… if he hadn’t stayed away, hadn’t lost his edge… maybe he could have saved them…

HOLY MACKEREL! That was an action-packed emotional rollercoaster of an issue… and obviously you can see why we couldn’t wait to share it! We got a reunion between Ronnie and Jason, Tim returning to action and (at least for now) ditching the “Cal” identity, and we have a new Firestorm! WOW!

Shag here again! Wow is right, Tim!! Thanks for that coverage! What does this mean for the Nuclear Man… or Nuclear Woman… in present day?!?! We’ll have to wait and see! Tim will be back early next month with his regular coverage of, The New 52: Futures End! Let us know what you think of these developments!

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. 

Support Firestorm! Fan the flame!

Last month, we found out Oliver Queen was alive, and the Earth 2 heroes escaped from Cadmus Island. It was chaotic, costumes and capes everywhere. A couple weeks ago Shag posted some speculation, based on some previews and solicitations, that the new Firestorm may be a woman. I went back and looked at the E2 breakout again and spotted something…check out this panel from THE NEW 52: FUTURES END #18, page 14…maybe the female Firestorm isn’t new…maybe, she’s from Earth 2?

The New 52: Futures End #20

Five years from now in Metropolis, Cal Corcoran aka Tim Drake aka Red Robin breaks into Lois Lane’s office. He’s looking for whatever info she has on him, seeing as she just outed Shazam as Superman, and ends up finding that she was expecting him.  He tells her how he was injured and believed dead in the war with Apokolips, how he claimed amnesia and created a new life. She shows him her box of clues, and he recognizes the arrow (Red Arrow killed a parademon with it) and believes Roy wanted her to find him, but he refuses to go with her to the coordinates.

Thirty-five years from now, Brother Eye and Mr. Terrific talk about “other father”, aka Bruce Wayne. Brother Eye has extracted info from Bruce’s brain, info proving that Bruce has sent an assassin back in time to stop Brother Eye. “Eye will travel time and stop other father’s assassin.”

Five years from now, on Cadmus Island, Deathstroke, Grifter, E2 Lana Lang and Fifty Sue meet up with Faraday to formulate a plan. Brother Eye has taken over the island, and controls all the systems so they can’t teleport off the island. They come up with exactly nothing, so Fifty Sue suggests they go to her secret bunker to work on it some more.

At Terrifitech the “five years from now” Mr. Terrific questions Key and Coil about their break-in, and they give up Bruce Wayne as their employer. Cal and Madison have a talk in his apartment above “The Wounded Duck”. She thinks it’s a break-up, but it’s really him coming clean after his talk with Lois. He tells her he really is Tim Drake…and she promptly walks out!

The New 52: Futures End #21

In a tropical paradise, Mr. Roarke and Tattoo greet the latest visitors to Fantasy Island…I mean Oliver Queen and Red Arrow welcome Barda, Diggle and Emiko to Green Arrow Island. They also spend the entire issue filling us in on what happened during the War. Here’s what we learned. Apokolips invaded Earth 2.

The heroes of E2 tried to save as many people as they could by evacuating their world in giant spaceships. It was Mr. Terrific’s idea to come to this Earth, claiming he received some sort of beacon, but Red Arrow didn’t quite believe his story. Barda was already trying to disguise herself and mix into the general population (of E2 civilians) even before she ended up in Toronto. As they crossed from their dimension into ours, the armies of Apokolips followed. Trying to buy time, Mister Miracle set the self destruct sequence on his ship, ready to sacrifice himself and several other heroes to delay the parademons. It was E2 Red Arrow, not Arsenal, that saved Red Robin during one of the many battles.

Paranoia took over and government groups like GPA (Global Peace Agency) and Cadmus took full advantage of it. Green Arrow and Red Arrow teamed up to uncover what was going on, and found out that the Brother Eye satellite had teleported Mister Miracle and the other E2 heroes to Cadmus Island for experimentation, while the world believed them dead. Ollie faked his own death to dodge Cadmus, who was closing in, and has now put together an army of “Outsiders” to take down Cadmus and expose the truth.

The New 52: Futures End #22

We haven’t seen Ronnie or Jason since issue #11…spoiler alert, they both appear in this one! At Columbia University, Jason runs into Madison Payne as she hands out flyers for an equality rally for the E2 refugees. After a quick conversation Jason heads to meet the increasingly unstable Dr. Yamazake. The good doctor interrupts his review of the Superman/Shazam news long enough to berate Jason for being late, before they get back to work on the teleporter project.

A few blocks away, at the “Wounded Duck”, Billy Batson gets carded by Cal/Tim as Ronnie Raymond enters the bar with an apology.

In Vegas, Voodoo, Mercy and a British duo using the nicknames Banger and Mash tear their way through a hotel under someone’s watchful eye.

Batman Beyond and Plastique have a heart to heart about the future. He explains that thirty years into the future nearly all of humanity is dead, or assimilated. Brother Eye, created to help mankind, decided that man was its own worst enemy. She volunteers to help, however she can to avoid becoming the robo-bug version of herself she saw at Terrifitech.

A.L.F.R.E.D. advises Bats that the Brother Eye satellite is currently inoperable…its consciousness having been transferred to Cadmus Island! While in space, Frankenstein is feeling things he hasn’t felt in years…hundreds of them! He’s feeling pain, discomfort, nausea, dreaming…and he doesn’t know why. Before he think too long about it the Brainiac converted Engineer reappears and sends Frank, Amethyst and Hawkman to meet her master. Just as Brainiac appears, and welcomes them to his Blood Moon, the cavalry appears in the unlikely duo of the Atom (surprisingly shrunk down considering what he said a few issues back) and Black Adam!

The New 52: Futures End #23

Picking up right where we left off, Frankenstein’s Army are fighting with Brainiac and his robot army. Black Adam is quickly brushed off by Brainiac, “I have seen multiples of you before.” The villain is more interested in Frank, Amethyst and Hawkman, “I do not have anyone like you.” Outnumbered, the heroes decide a retreat is their best option for survival. Black Adam calls down several lightning strikes as a distraction, while the rest of the team makes its way to their ship the Nan-Knight. Hawkman makes what I believe will be a very bad decision by grabbing the Brainiac infected Engineer and bringing her along. They don’t even clear the Blood Moon’s atmosphere before an army of Brainiac drones are on their tail!

In New York, Madison jogs through Central Park, remembering Cal’s coming out conversation about being a hero and their subsequent breakup. She gets the feeling she’s being followed and low and behold it’s Ronnie, coming to apologize for hitting on her. In the process of apologizing he asks her out for coffee and she accepts…as Cal/Tim watches from a distance.

In Vegas, Voodoo and company find out that the man who has been watching them is Sgt. Rock…or used to be. Now he’s “Frank Rock, black ops scum wad” with a weird cybernetic eye implant. He wants the ladies to go to Cadmus Island and kill Fifty Sue. The little “girl” has the powers of a god and the world would be much safer without her.

Jumping ahead thirty-five years again, Mr. Terrific does tai chi while chatting with Brother Eye. It’s pretty one sided. Brother Eye says that “other father” (Bruce Wayne) tried killing him many years ago, and when he failed he created a time travel device to try doing it much sooner. Eye explains that “other father” broke the binds of time, and now Eye has broken him…as Bruce walks in, converted…and with the Joker’s head attached to his own!

Ok…that’s both cheesy and nightmarish! Joker’s head attached to Batman? It’s like some twisted sci-fi version of Edward Mordrake, or Ray Milland and Rosey Greer in “The Thing with Two Heads”. The longer this story goes, the odder it gets…I kind of like that. There’s an almost silver age quality to the story. And by that I mean nothing is too far out there, too ridiculous, to include!

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.

Support Firestorm (and Tim Wallace over at Kord Industries)! Fan the flame!