Hey Match-heads, Shag here! Today our good friend Tim Wallace continues his 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…
Sure, Futures End & Convergence are both done, but that doesn’t mean our coverage is over! We’re nearly there though. This is the penultimate (I love that word) Futures End post!
The New 52: Futures End #40
Five years from now in Smallville, Kal-El runs home for a change of clothes while Constantine faces of the children of the cornfield. Not one to rest on his laurels, Constantine uses Midge’s blood to draw a symbol on his face. The corn creatures think he’s mocking Brainiac…but he’s not. He’s summoning a hungry demon boar! On the Justice League’s satellite, all hands are on deck! Wildfire and Dawnstar from the Legion of Super-Heroes, Vostok from Aquaman’s Others, Equinox from Justice League Canada, Stormguard, Flash, Cyborg, Wonder Woman…only member missing is Snapper Carr (just kidding). Everyone has shown up in response to the alarms from the sensors. And what just came through? Stormwatch…with a warning. Brainiac is coming!
With that the Engineer gets possessed by the big B again and things get weird. A giant green energy web covered planet (?) is hovering in near space…and blasting the Earth with bolts of energy. Firestorm, Masked Superman, Batman, Plastique…they all see it, but have other things they need to attend to. In New York, the Bat Team raids Terrifitech, only to find nearly every employee is dead.
Team Firestorm wants to help, but Cyborg orders them to keep an eye on Polaris instead. And then a Brainiac ship, or rather a Super Powers era Brainiac ship, appears and begins encircling New York under an energy grid. Luckily, Kal-El found his Superman t-shirt, and is on his way!
The New 52: Futures End #41
As if capturing New York under a dome isn’t enough, Brainiac begins walking through the city like Kong or Godzilla.
Luckily star reporter Lois Lane is on the scene, though she’s unsure if she’ll ever get the chance to actually report it. Kal-El flies in, smashing at the spheres that make up Brainiac’s energy grid…but it doesn’t seem to do anything more than tick off the giant villain. While in space the Super Powers Brainiac skull ship begins emitting a sound Ray Palmer compares to thousands of people screaming. Hawkman charges in, desperate to save the Engineer, and gets a shocking glimpse of the Multiverse before being separated into several Hawkmen (reversing the effects of Zero Hour?).
Back at Terrifitech, Brother Eye seems to be taunting a shocked Mr. Terrific, while Batman and company try to make their way through the building. There’s a little tension between Bats and Cal/Tim, especially when Bruce nearly calls him Robin, so they split up. While Cal/Tim and Plastique try to find who or what is controlling the power to the building, Bats seems to know exactly where to find Mr. Terrific.
Masked Superman is still eager to join the fight, but something is interfering with the transporter signal. Against everyone’s better judgment, Madison frees Yamazake/Polaris who instantly fixes the problem and beams Firestorm, Masked Superman and himself right to the feet of the rampaging Brainiac…and saved by Kal-El!
The New 52: Futures End #42
In space, the skull ship is firing a beam of energy at the Earth (New York to be exact). Hawkman is “dead”, the Atom is missing. Wildfire, Cyborg, Dawnstar and Equinox try to take out the ship on their own, but find it’s not that easy. Wildfire is the first one down, so Cyborg orders the others to take him and retreat…he’s got this.
In New York, Billy Batson decides with the real Superman back in action he can take off the mask and call down the lightning! Superman explains he wasn’t dead, he was recovering. He knows Brainiac isn’t here to destroy the city he’s here to take it! So Superman and Shazam set off to stop him! At Terrifitech, Batman comes to the realization that Mr. Terrific has lost his mind, and after punching him, begins taking steps to shut down Brother Eye.
Bat-Joker is trying to finish off Batman Beyond, but the hero won’t go down that easy! BB calls for A.L.F.R.E.D. to come back online and determine if the Brainiac spheres follow any kind of pattern. Once the answer is determined, he seemingly dispatches “The Thing With Two-Heads” by leading him into the path of the next falling sphere. Back in space, Cyborg tries unsuccessfully to take out the Brainiac ship on his own. What he doesn’t know though is that the Atom isn’t dead…he’s just really tiny and flying into the ship himself! Inside Ray Palmer catches glimpses of the Multiverse, and eventually finds the Engineer who’s wired up like some sort of data hub. So he does what any quick thinking hero would do. He cuts her free.
Back on Earth, Superman and Shazam have been unsuccessful in stopping the giant Brainiac and now the alien is preparing to lift the domed New York City to his waiting ship…except by removing the Engineer, Cyborg and Atom have disabled the ship. It would seem like a good thing until, back on Earth, Brother Eye comes online!
The New 52: Futures End #43
In New York, Lois Lane is reunited with Superman. Kal-El was knocked to the ground by Brainiac and she rushes to his side, “We need you.” She has questions, but he doesn’t have much time. He’s determined to stop Brainiac. He also seems to get his cape in a bunch when she mentions Batman.
Brainiac, being an ever resourceful evil intellect, goes with his plan B to take the city. He’s going to fly it off the Earth manually. If all of this wasn’t bad enough, every screen and monitor in the city is branded with the symbol of Brother Eye.
Tim and Plastique think they hear something as they search the building. Maybe whatever is responsible for killing everyone? Nope…just Key and Coil. They’ve been laying low since everything went down. Coil, who’s tapped into the Earth’s magnetic field, has been sick a side effect of Brainiac’s attempts to bottle and remove the city from the planet. While they try to figure out what to do, robo-bug Plastique appears from the shadows! Plastique has no love for her future self, and tries to blow the robo-bug up…but nearly falls from the skyscraper in the process. Luckily her new boyfriend Batman Beyond is there to save her.
Bats and Mr. Terrific argue about what to do, until Terrific finally admits he doesn’t know…and he needs help!
Well, that was…domed cities? Either this was a happy coincidence or a well planned story, tying into the concepts of the (at the time) upcoming ”Convergence”. We shall see…I’ll be back soon with the final Futures End recap!
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.
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