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! You can also stalk Tim on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus. And now, let’s turn it over to Tim…
A long time ago, well…about 4 months or so, in a Multiverse not so far away, we began a story set 35, then 5 years into our future. It is a period of darkness and uncertainty…a period of sci-fi clichés, and good old fashioned Saturday movie house cliffhanger fun…it is…the Futures End!
The New 52: Futures End #12
Five years from now on “an uncharted planet in the farthest reaches of space”, Hawkman, Frankenstein and Amethyst have just crash landed…and they’re not alone! Robots bearing the 3 circled marking of Brainiac surround the troubled trio. Frank offers a diplomatic “We come in peace”, but the robots respond with gunfire and a battle ensues! Everyone is surprised when Frankenstein is cut by robotic claws and bleeds, but not as surprised as they are when they find out who is leading the robot army…one of Stormwatch’s own, the Engineer!
Back on Earth, Faraday meets with a woman named Courtney, who prefers to go by Mercy (Luthor’s bodyguard?), and warns her that there’s trouble brewing for her, Voodoo and some others. Mercy claims to know nothing, but as soon as Faraday leaves she calls Voodoo to arrange a meeting. Meanwhile in Metropolis, Ethan Boyer and Rampage get set up in a make-shift lab in a suburban home. Ethan seems a little distracted by some text messages, but soon has Rampage hooked up to and ready to go…only he’s not returning her to normal like he said, he’s trying to amp her up! He figures with her on a super powered, uh, rampage, Superman will be too busy with her to worry about him. Then we jump 35 years into the future again. Something that looks like one of Mr. Terrific’s uSpheres is forcefully tube feeding the Joker. The process is interrupted though when Frankenstein (with Black Canary’s head attached to his chest) enters with robo-bug versions of Congorilla (well, a golden gorilla anyway) and Lobo (pre-New52 version! Bonus!) to escort the Clown Prince of Crime to “surgery”. They then take the Joker to a small medical lab, where the missing armed body of Bruce Wayne lies waiting on a table.
The New 52: Futures End #13
Madison and Cal get robbed at gunpoint in Cal’s bar, the Wounded Duck. The thug even takes Madison’s necklace. The same one Cal gave her a few issues back as a gift. Madison expected Cal to take on the thug, based on Lois Lane’s speculation but Cal assures her, that isn’t him, and he’ll get her a new necklace to replace the stolen one. Mister Terrific has second thoughts about Batman Beyond’s motivation, but Brother Eye assures him if he sees Bats as a threat then his “morality takes a back seat to the planet’s safety…it is the burden of greatness”. Sounds like some sneaky manipulation to me! On Cadmus Island, Fifty Sue and Grifter decided to do some investigating into the stealth OMAC that attacked. They’re still not friends though, since she shoves him down a dark air duct. They eventually make their way down to the lower levels where they can spot scientists and OMACs.
Grifter’s abilities let him know these scientists are Earth 2 “normals”. The mystery deepens. In New York, Cal has managed to track down the robber and beats him down to recover the necklace. While in the Key’s workshop, Key, Coil and Plastique meet with Terry McGinnis. It doesn’t go well for Terry though. With Terrific putting Batman Beyond’s presence all over the news they figure he’s too hot to work with and Plastique drops him with an explosive paper airplane. And in Canada, Barda and Emiko try to help a little girl find her father…too bad the little girl is Fifty Sue and her “dad” is Deathstroke.
The New 52: Futures End #14
Picking right up where we left off Fifty Sue and Deathstroke are threatening Barda and Emiko. Deathstroke clarifies his threat by asking Barda to “come peacefully and surrender to the Global Peace Agency as an unregistered super-powered alternate Earth fugitive…or be terminated.” Quite a mouthful! For her part Fifty Sue lets us in on yet another power of her own…she has “created a double and split my consciousness”, which explains why she’s in Canada and also back on Cadmus Island with Grifter. The obligatory fight ensues when Barda tosses Deathstroke into an alley. Fifty Sue blasts the Apokolips power house with an energy burst, while Emiko pulls out a bow and arrow. “Nice shot, Hunger Games.” quips the pint sized pugilist. Emiko, now confirmed as Green Arrow’s sister (as I suspected last month!) puts an arrow in Deathstroke’s neck! Then she has Barda toss the kid in the air, and hits Fifty Sue with an incendiary arrow, giving our heroines a chance to escape. At Key’s workshop, A.L.F.R.E.D. and the Batsuit are coming back online while Terry is slowly regaining consciousness. Key and Coil have an argument about if they should, and who will get to, kill Batman Beyond. When Terry comes to, a three way brawl starts until Plastique breaks it up by threatening to kill them all if they don’t agree to work together.
After falling through another duct, “like a girl”, Grifter finds himself surrounded by OMACs…until Fifty Sue blasts them with her energy beams.
She then takes out one of the scientists for not answering her questions fast enough. Leaving only one, a female named Lana (Lang?) to answer their questions about the stealth OMACs. And as if this didn’t already have a lot going on…back in Metropolis, Lois is examining the contents of her mystery box again…and somehow activates the small green pyramid. It shows her visions of the heroes of Earth 2, and of Red Tornado!
The New 52: Futures End #15
Masked Superman has finally caught up with Rampage, and his singular focus on the battle is once again causing destruction and putting innocents in danger. (I know last time I made a “Man of Steel” reference…but I really am thinking this is someone new to the role of Superman, not experienced) Though when a school bus is knocked over the side of a bridge, he does stop fighting and rushes to save the children allowing Rampage to get away.
He chats with Lois briefly. She tells him about her mystery box, and her visions, and that people aren’t so sure about him anymore. He says he’s got to find Rampage. (Superdickery?) In a holding cell somewhere in space, Hawkman and Amethyst flirt some more while Frankenstein is “hibernating” in a corner. As they discuss whether or not they’ll end up together, Frankenstein wakes up screaming. He’s just had a dream, something that hasn’t happened in 200 years, about the future. He saw Brother Eye’s robo-bug Superman…and thinks they are responsible!
Deathstroke is pretty ticked that Grifter and Fifty Sue stumbled into the hidden underground E2 lab. Faraday isn’t super thrilled either, until Grifter mentions stealth OMACs. In the E2 cells Hawkgirl and a woman named Rita wait for Scott “Mister Miracle” Free to return. He’s figured out a way to escape his cell and go do a little recon…and he’s found out that they’ve all been implanted with a device…that is growing inside them!
Finally, in Africa, Constantine meets with one of the lone survivors of a ship that was attacked by that weird Machine Man/Parasite/Brainiac creature…only the man thinks it’s an angel, and knows that it’s looking for “the alien” and for the sake of the planet, mankind has to find “the alien” first!
Whoa! That’s 4 issues straight with no Jason or Ronnie…could they really have been serious when they said no more Firestorm?!
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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