SPLICED COMICS /
ISSUE 05
REVIEW / THE NEW 52: FUTURES END
The New 52:
Futures End
by Ray Whitcher
PUBLISHER / DC Comics GENRE / Superhero WRITER / Brian Azzarello ARTIST / Ethan Van Sciver
E
VERDICT / 5
Good art, but
a messy and
rushed story that
most-likely won't
completely hook
audiences enough
to want to buy in to
the new title. More
of an advert than
anything else.
62
and a last-minute time-travelling hero sent to the
very year on the first weekend of May,
past to save the day. Sounds awes... Wait a second...
major comic publishers do something
That's basically EXACTLY X-Men's 'Days of Future
utterly unprecedented: give away comics
Past', but with DC characters... The ratfinks!
for free. Free Comic Book Day is the
ultimate celebration of geek culture,
Hang on though, because while the premise
with comic fans camping out in front of their
(and name for that matter) is awfully
favourite stores in order to be the first
similar, there are some differences
(and sometimes only) people to get
that make the book worthwhile.
their hands on the eponymous
DC is touting the title as one
free comics.
that will 'forever alter the
"The story is set
New 52 Universe', even
In fact, Free Comic
35 years in the future,
though the New 52 just
Book Day is often many
an era in which
altered the existing DC
people's first experience
universe - but hey, it
of the wondrous world of
nefarious robotic
has Terry McGuinness'
comics, so the publishers
entity Brother Eye
Batman (from the Batman:
only give their best work
has pillaged
Beyond comics and
and use their top creators.
animated series) as the
The work will often either
the planet..."
protagonist, so stop being
be samplers (so the first 7 or
sceptical for a second.
so pages of a new or popular
title), once-offs featuring popular
The story is set 35 years in the
characters or, which is happening more
future, an era in which nefarious robotic entity
often recently, special #0 issues of new launch
Brother Eye has pillaged the planet, assimilating
titles that introduce a brand new comic.
super-powered beings into its cause using a
digital parasite that infests its host with organic
It's on that premise that we saw the release
machinery, rendering them helpless to Brother
of DC's most recent member of the 'New 52'
Eye's commands and turning heroes into robostable with Futures End #0, a dire tale of a future
zombies. Okay, so that's pretty cool, actually.
gone horribly awry, vicious robots hunting and
assimilating super-powered beings into their cause
Heroes and villains alike have united to try and
stave off the deadly advances of the 'bugs', but
are losing the battle rapidly, with more and more
either being killed or infected. Bruce Wayne
and his Batman protégé Terry McGuinness are
struggling in a last-ditch effort to send Wayne
back to the past to stop himself from creating
Brother Eye. In a twist of fate, Terry gets sent
back instead, but 5 years after he was meant to
arrive. Now the young Batman must race against
time to protect his future.