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…
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.
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