The New 52: Futures End, Volume 1

Futures End

by Brian Azzarello (Writer), Jeff Lemire (Writer), Dan Jurgens (Writer/Illustrator)

Five years from now, the DC Universe is reeling from a war with another Earth, leaving the world unprepared for an approaching evil that threatens to destroy the future. As heroes are turned into mindless villains, the planet as we know it is no more. The only salvation lies in the past, where this future apocalypse must be averted. Can a time-traveling Batman Beyond help a massive cast of the DCU's finest avert the impending apocalypse? Written by a cast of the industry''s best talents, including Jeff Lemire, Brian Azzarello, Keith Giffen and Dan Jurgens, this new epic series will expose the secrets of the New 52 universe!

Collects: The New 52: Futures End #0-17.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Comic Book, Batman, Science Fiction

405 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 9, 2014

About the author

Brian Azzarello (born in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American comic book writer. He came to prominence with 100 Bullets, published by DC Comics' mature-audience imprint Vertigo. He and Argentine artist Eduardo Risso, with whom Azzarello first worked on Jonny Double, won the 2001 Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story for 100 Bullets #15–18: "Hang Up on the Hang Low".

Azzarello has written for Batman ("Broken City", art by Risso; "Batman/Deathblow: After the Fire", art by Lee Bermejo, Tim Bradstreet, & Mick Gray) and Superman ("For Tomorrow", art by Jim Lee).

In 2005, Azzarello began a new creator-owned series, the western Loveless, with artist Marcelo Frusin.

As of 2007, Azzarello is married to fellow comic-book writer and illustrator Jill Thompson.

information taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Az...

Reviews

[Jayson · Rating 3 out of 5]

(B) 75% | More than Satisfactory
Notes: Out-and-out vigor drought, albeit bouts, all setting up and sorting out, and touting clout of heroes I don't care about.

*Progress updates: Preamble ◦ Issues #0-2 ◦ Issues #3-5 ◦ Issues #6-8 ◦ Issues #9-11 ◦ Issues #12-14 ◦ Issues #15-17

[Sam Quixote · Rating 1 out of 5]

Once upon a time Batman and Mister Terrific created a sentient AI called Brother Eye. 35 years later Brother Eye enslaved all of humanity! Dawww, they grow up so fast, don’t they?

So, taking a page from Marvel’s playbook of clichés, Batman Beyond/Terry McGinnis travels back in time to avert this disaster and stop Brother Eye’s creation. Except he misses the mark, arriving five years too late. These Batmen, eh? Utter fuck-ups!

It’s down to Terry and a ragtag collection of DC’s least popular and most obscure characters to somehow salvage a win from this absolute mess. Welcome to Futures End – I highly recommend not bothering with it!

One of the rules of DC Comics is that if Hawkman’s in the book – and, surprise, surprise, like a golden-winged Jonah, here he is! - that book is going to be shit. I’m gonna have to add another character to that rule: Batman Beyond. I want to love Terry but he’s never – NEVER – appeared in an even halfway decent comic! And Futures End is definitely shit.

The story is a sprawling and unfocused disaster, the characters are badly written, and the plotting is nonsensical. So the main story appears to be Batman Beyond preventing the apocalyptic future from coming to pass but Terry spends most of the time putzing about with a cyborg’s corpse in a shopping trolley – and that’s all he does here!

Other storylines are unconnected, pointless and boring. Frankenstein, Amethyst and Hawkman (shudder) investigate Stormwatch’s disappearance and Grifter, Deathstroke and Fifty-Sue (see what I mean about least popular and most obscure characters?) are doing… something… on a mysterious island full of OMACs. And what about the mystery of why Superman’s wearing a motorcycle helmet? Yeah, what about it? How is that even a storyline!? This first volume is way too long at 400 pages and its length is especially felt given that almost nothing happens and none of what does is remotely interesting!

Green Arrow is killed off for shock value that just made me roll my eyes (am I meant to care? That’s not a spoiler either as it has nothing to do with anything and doesn’t count anyway as this is an alternate timeline – Ollie’s up and about in Rebirth) and apparently Red Robin/Tim Drake died too but he faked it or something and Tim, under an alias, spends the book working as a bartender – seriously, that’s his entire storyline! Meanwhile, nobody’s favourite superheroes, Firestorm and Mister Terrific, are written out of character to behave like complete dicks for no reason. And everyone’s referencing a war with Earth-2 – what the hell is that and when the fuck did that happen!?

I’d hoped Futures End might be halfway readable given two competent writers – Brian Azzarello and Jeff Lemire – were involved but it reads like the other, vastly more horrendous writers, Dan Jurgens and Keith Giffen, wrote most of this garbage.

And so I end reading any more of Futures End with the overly tedious, convoluted and rubbish Volume 1 having learned the lesson to steer clear of any comics with Batman Beyond on the cover!

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another one of these weekly anthology comics that DC loves to do. This one is about 25 years in the future. Brother Eye has turned the whole planet into cyborg zombies. Only old man Bruce Wayne and Terry McGinnis are left so Terry is sent into the past like Reese in Terminator to stop the machines from taking over. However, he comes out 5 years in the New 52's future where apparently everyone is a douche bag after a war with Earth 2. Then we follow around 4 or 5 different stories while Terry kind of tries to stop his future but really does nothing and we see this future begin to come about. For some reason, Mr. Terrific is completely out of character. He's like a rap mogul / tech inventor and the biggest a-hole in existence. I wanted to punch him nonstop when he used to be one of my favorite DC characters coming out of JSA and Checkmate.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

As long as you can handle a dozen stories or more in one book you'll be be good with this one. The "world" has ended and Terry McGinnes goes back in time to fix things but there are problems.

I like what they did to reboot Mr. Terrific, who otherwise seemed like a really nice, intelligent guy who was overshadowed by Batman when it came to intelligence. The little girl villain was nice, too.

Some really nice twists on the superheroes we know in this Dystopian setting.

If you are new to DC superheroes I would not start with this series as it plays the story to veterans of the DC Universe. Wait, am I a veteran? ;)

OVERALL GRADE: B to B plus.

[Bookwraiths · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a complete sucker for these traveling-into-the-past-to-stop-the-future storylines. The fact this one is really well written with great artwork only makes my love of it easier to justify.

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 3 out of 5]

quite the tour-de=force of a world-spanning crisis five years in the DC Universe's future.

And 35 years. Batman Terry McGinnis (Batman Beyond) and his batsuit A.I. -- A.L.F.R.E.D. -- are sent back to "now" to prevent a future war in which Brother Eye institutes totalitarian A.I. takeover of Earth.
Time targeting is a little off, and they wind up "five years from now". An aborted invasion from Earth 2 has wrought changes in society and government. We follow Grifter, who sees aliens in thepopulation, as he is kidnapped to Cadmus Island, only to find the remaining heroes and villains of Earth 2 imprisoned there. Superman's new uniform has a face-concealing helmet, Red Robin has died but Tim Drake tends bar under an assumed name, Green Arrow is dead.
And then things really start to go bad...

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Considering I read #0-4 in single issues and then dropped this, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The multiple storylines per issue thing works a lot better in trade than it does in singles; DC's other weekly comics deal with this in different ways, and it shows which one works best.

Batman Eternal focuses on one story per issue, which means different stories go weeks without being touched, but makes for a more cohesive read. Futures End tackles two or three per issue, which means everything gets seen on rotation, but does mean that story progression is overall slower. And World's End tries to tackle everything in every issue and makes a mess of it all.

So whilst Eternal is my favourite, Futures End reads much better in this format than in single issues, and it makes the story stronger overall. I like that the multiple storylines seem to be completely separate, but will likely dovetail together at the end, and I also approve of the visual consistency between issues thanks to a selection of artists that, whilst having different styles, work quite well together. Patrick Zircher's issues are the strongest, but Jesus Merino and Aaron Lopresti are both solid partners, and their rotation between issues is pretty fair.

[Wing Kee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A meh start.

World: The art is fine, being weekly the art changes a lot and it's inconsistent but I will say the art has really drawn me into the fact that this book is full of white characters, a lot, like almost all. And all the female characters have a specific look. The art is what it is. The world building here is janky and large in scope. There is the huge chunk of backstory that's not really gotten into regarding the Earth 2 war story and new readers would feel lost. There are also a lot of new Wild Storm characters in this that general readers will also not know. It's janky, it's choppy and the pieces don't seem to fit and there is honestly not enough info dumping to set readers up for the story to play out, a lot of times I was scratching my head and I know DC.

Story: Much like my beloved 52 there are multiple stories written by multiple writers that will eventually tie together. Some stories are more interesting than others and some seem lost and pointless at the moment, like the entire Cadmus story, but I hope that like 53 they will all eventually mean something. The core story of brother eye at this point in time is rather slow and without direction making for a lot of the momentum and tension post after the first issue. Terry is meandering and that seems to be the case for a lot of characters in this first act. There are some moments but at this point in time the characters don't really matter and there is no hook for readers to be attached to. Unlike 52 which drew me in with Booster, Black Adam, Rene and others the cast here seems somewhat lackluster. I really love Terry but so far his story has been...zzz.

Characters: I was so looking forward to this book cause it's Terry in the DCU, him meeting the people from the past since the animated series. But Terry here is fairly boring and stupid and directionless. Then there's the rest of the cast with S.H.A.D.E. which I don't care about, Storm watch which I don't care about, Cadmus which I don't care about...are you getting the trend here. It's not that I don't want to care. It's the writing that's letting the story down. I don't get to connect with them like I did with Booster and Skeets. I don't get to see Rene hit rock bottom and come back as the Question. I don't see Adam trying to be a hero. This book so far only has questions and janky writing and it's not doing the characters any favors.

I wanted to like this so much more but at this moment it's a boring choppy drag of a story.

Onward to the next book!

[Jesse A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very busy, somewhat confusing book once again saved by a huge ending!

[Brian Poole · Rating 3 out of 5]

The New 52: Futures End, Vol. 1 is an odd beast. It’s both important for DC and yet structured so that the entire story might never happen. The Volume 1 collection covers issues #0 to 17.

That DC has returned to the weekly comics well is not a shock. The original weekly 52 was one of DC’s signature successes of the past decade. Subsequent stabs at weekly comics like Countdown or Trinity may not have been creative triumphs, but they sold well.

So, as part of a current publishing slate featuring three different weekly comics (also including Batman Eternal and Earth 2: World’s End), The New 52: Futures End is something of a high profile project for DC. The series is guided by a quartet of prominent writers: Brian Azzarello, Jeff Lemire, Dan Jurgens and Keith Giffen. It introduces the fan favorite Batman Beyond into the main DC continuity. And it develops concepts crucial to Convergence, DC’s massive Spring 2015 event. But is Futures End a good comic?

As has been pointed out, the cast of Futures End could be a hard sell, populated by characters whose books failed in The New 52. In these 18 issues, various refugees from cancelled titles dominate the action: StormWatch, Hawkman, Frankenstein, Amethyst, Firestorm, Deathstroke, Grifter, Voodoo, OMAC and Mister Terrific all play central roles. Other famous heroes pop in and out and Batman Beyond gets a lot of spotlight. Lois Lane and Tim Drake (the latter running from his life as Red Robin) also get featured roles. The cynical view might be to look at this as a “Cast of Failures.” On the other hand, there were a lot of good concepts in the early going of The New 52 that failed for reasons other than quality. And even some of the series that weren’t great boasted characters with potential. Futures End provides, at least, an opportunity for these various heroes to prove their worth.

Futures End begins 35 years in the future, where Brother Eye and his OMACs have mostly overrun the planet. A small band of free heroes opposes Brother Eye. Bruce Wayne intends to travel back in time, to prevent Brother Eye’s creation. But a mishap sends Terry McGinness back through the years instead. Unfortunately, Terry doesn’t travel back as far as intended and emerges five years ahead of the current DC continuity.

Terry plots to invade the corporate HQ of Mister Terrific, to destroy the Brother Eye technology. Mister T, having returned from Earth 2 in the intervening five years, is a celebrity technocrat and something of an arrogant prick. A trio of villains also plots to burgle Mister T’s building, landing in an uneasy alliance with Terry. Futures End makes references to a “war” involving Earth 2 that badly devastated the main Earth. The Teen Titans are said to have been killed during the war.

StormWatch (including Hawkman) falls victim to a vicious attack in deep space. Frankenstein’s old employer S.H.A.D.E. recruits him, Amethyst and the Atom (Ray Palmer) to go and find out what happened to StormWatch. Hawkman survived the attack and he, Frank and Amethyst follow a distress signal that lands them on a bizarre alien planet where they encounter a deadly menace.

Back on Earth, Green Arrow is killed when Firestorm fails to arrive to help him in time. The two men that make up Firestorm, Ronnie Raymond and Jason Rusch, are badly at odds. Ronnie’s suffering some bad PTSD from the war. An attempted intervention by the Justice League fails to solve the duo’s issues. Jason gets involved in experiments at Columbia that catch Superman’s attention.

Lois Lane, running a successful news blog, receives some mysterious clues that lead her to Tim in his new identity. She travels widely to follow the other clues and interacts with Superman, who’s mysteriously adopted a helmet that covers his whole face. Lois’s plot seems to frequently intersect with an escaped scientist doing mysterious DNA work.

Meanwhile, the shadowy King Faraday presses Grifter into working for him, bringing him to the mysterious Cadmus Island. Grifter’s forced to work with Deathstroke and his partner, an immensely powerful young girl cheekily named Fifty Sue. Grifter learns the secret of Cadmus: it’s a prison for super-powered refugees from Earth 2.

Those are the main plot threads that Futures End tracks. They’re leading somewhere, though it’s not always easy to discern how the various plot threads will eventually weave together. The problem with long-term plotting is that while the writers know where they’re going, far-ranging plot structures like Futures End can feel disjointed for readers, especially in the early going. Reading Futures End in collected format probably eases some of the impact of the series’ structural issues. Even on a weekly publication schedule, some readers complained that plots felt like they came and went at random and didn’t build up momentum. In collected format, characters are rarely offstage long enough to lose the thread of their stories. That allows for better flow and a better overview of the master plot direction.

Characterization isn’t necessarily consistent in Futures End. The story is set five years down the road in DC’s universe, but it’s hard to recognize some of the players. While Ronnie’s PTSD is handled fairly well, Tim’s reasons for abandoning his former life don’t quite come across. Seeing Lois in a central role is welcome; she’s active and dynamic, pulling along her slice of the plot almost by sheer will. Characters like Hawkman, Amethyst and the OMACs are almost blank slates. Frankenstein and Grifter, on the other hand, benefit from the broader exposure they receive in Futures End. Readers can easily see how they might fit into present day stories. Terry is also handled well, navigating the complexities of his time travel mission.

One particularly problematic depiction is Mister Terrific. The “media whore egomaniac” concept could be interesting, but it seems out of place for Mister T. Fans used to his thoughtful Pre-52 depiction or the similar deportment he’s shown in his New 52 appearances will be shocked by his disposition in Futures End. While a lot of what happened in the five-year gap, including the Earth War, remains unrevealed by the end of Volume 1, it still seems like a big leap for Mister T from where readers last saw him.

The art is handled by a rotating team of seasoned comic book vets, primarily Patrick Zircher, Jesus Merino, Aaron Lopresti and Scot Eaton. Ethan Van Sciver and Georges Jeanty also contribute art to a couple installments. The principal art team all shares a fairly similar aesthetic. This is clean, direct comic book storytelling in the classic sense. Panel layouts don’t tend to get too tricksy and the artists aren’t breaking new visual narrative ground. But they all have some rather nice moments, the action is easy to follow and the large cast of characters mostly come off distinctly, minimizing potential confusion. Futures End isn’t a glamour-filled glory assignment for the art team, but they acquit themselves well.

Whether or not to recommend The New 52: Futures End, Vol. 1 is a tough call. Some parts of the story are particularly enjoyable, while others seem to need a bit more work. The later parts of Volume 1 provide some plot payoffs that make sticking around seem like an agreeable prospect. This seems like a series where readers will need to have seen the whole run to judge its ultimate success.

This review originally appeared on www.thunderalleybcp.com

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

So random and confusing....not sure I want to read the other 2 volumes.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was much better than what I expected. Tried reading it once before and it had not worked out for me then. Had a great time reading it on this go round.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went into this book knowing nothing and expecting very little, and I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

Futures End tells a story that takes place in two different time periods: 5 years from now and 35 years from now. And in a sense there is a third time period as well: 1 year from now, when a great war takes place. However we never see this time period; it is only discussed in the past tense.

One year from now two parallel universes will collide (in DC parlance these universes are called Earth 1 and Earth 2) and a great war will take place in which Earth 1 and Earth 2 defend themselves against an invasion by Darkseid and his Apokolips minions. We aren’t given the big picture of how this war happened or what exactly happened. We just get some occasional details about "the war" via flashback which help give us a sense of its enormous scope and impact.

One outcome of this war is that many refugees from the parallel universe (Earth 2) wind up on Earth 1, and these refugees are all dopplegangers (identical parallel-universe copies) of someone that’s already on Earth 1.

Fast-forward four years to the 5-years-from-now time period and the government wishes to find and detain these dopplegangers (enter real world refugee commentary), and there’s one man who has the special ability to see them and differentiate them from their identical counterparts. He goes by Grifter and he is now on the government’s wanted list. “Government” here is actually a secret division called Cadmus that has a hidden island facility where they are locking up all of the superhuman dopplegangers.

When we first see Grifter he is working his way through a family’s home, dispassionately gunning them down like he's some kind of Terminator. Grifter claims via monologue that his victims are dopplegangers but no indication is given to the reader that they are anything but an innocent human family being murdered in cold blood until finally one of them, a little girl and the last survivor of the family, turns on him with glowing eyes and speaks to him in an alien language. He murders her too and leaves, saying “They walk among us and I walk among them. I love my job.” This whole scene reminds me of one of my favorite cult classic movies, They Live. Grifter was apparently introduced in the Flashpoint story but I’ve never read that story so this was my introduction to him, and I loved it.

Fast-forwarding another 30 years to the 35-years-from-now time period (which is actually the point when this book begins telling its story), most of humanity has been wiped out by an evil artificial intelligence called Brother Eye who, in an obvious homage, happens to look just like HAL from 2001. Not only is he eradicating the human population, he is enslaving them with the use of cybernetic implants. In particular, Brother Eye’s minions are targeting superhumans and implanting them, building an army of superhuman cybernetic monsters. Imagine (or just look at the cover) Wonder Woman’s torso sitting atop a mechanical spider body with red robotic eyes and blades instead of arms and you get the idea.

There is still a pocket of resistance of un-assimilated (and gray-haired) superheroes and they are fighting against Brother Eye’s cybernetic minions. One cool thing about this possible future timeline is that the authors have the freedom to kill off just about anyone they want. And in the first few pages alone it’s impressive just how many DC favorites get disintegrated or mutilated in horrible ways. This part of the timeline is one part dystopian sci-fi and one part horror movie. It feels very Robopocalypse.

An aged Bruce Wayne, hiding out in his Batcave, is one of the last survivors and he has hatched a plan to go back in time to stop Brother Eye from being created (a la Terminator). Here we learn that it was Bruce himself along with Mr. Terrific that invented Brother Eye. However, Bruce’s plan is foiled when Brother Eye’s minions show up, and in one last heroic effort he resorts to sending Terry McGinnis, aka Batman Beyond, into the past to save the world. It’s very cool to see Batman Beyond, formerly an animation-only character, be officially welcomed into the DC canon by appearing in print here.

And most of what I’ve just described happens in just the first issue. Whew! This volume contains 18 issues. So buckle your seatbelt, we’re going for a ride.

In what remains in this volume, this ambitious story incorporates many corners of the DC Universe. Stormwatch makes an important appearance, so it’s helpful (though not necessary) if you’ve read a Stormwatch story before (I’ve reviewed two of them here). Also appearing are S.H.A.D.E. (with their microscopic headquarters), Frankenstein, and Amethyst, so reading some of their stories, such as Justice League Dark (like volume 2 which I've reviewed here), would introduce you to those characters. Red Robin also plays a key role, so it might be helpful to have read some of his New 52 appearances (I have not read them, but I’ve heard they’re worth the read). We also get quite a bit of time with fan-favorite Deathstroke. OMAC is here but he is just a government goon. Firestorm, John Constantine, Flash’s Rogues gallery, Big Barda, Lois Lane, Hawkman, the Atom, and others also play big roles. And we are introduced to some mysterious new characters too, like Stormguard and Fifty Sue. The scope of this story is ambitious, indeed.

There’s a lot going on at once and it jumps around between several future time periods (including the great war period that is never shown and only discussed), which can be tough to keep track of and therefore perhaps off-putting, but I found it quite enjoyable as long as you’re willing to juggle between half a dozen different parallel plots. For me the frequent change of POV kept the pace of the story rocketing along at full speed.

I highly recommend this book to anyone that likes dystopian sci-fi. If you’re a fan of Robopocalpyse, The Terminator, and/or They Live, I think there’s a good chance you’ll like this too. The only thing that kept me from giving it 5 stars is that this volume is not a complete story in itself. There is also a volume 2 and a volume 3. After I’ve read the whole series I may come back and revise my rating here to 5 stars if the whole series warrants it. But so far I’m really enjoying it and looking forward to seeing where it goes next!

[Koen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, I'm back at it! And this was definitely a nice one to start off with.

I had my reservations and my doubts during the first chapters, but it steadily grew into a longing to read more... Although it was all a bit much to take in with all these characters, you really get sucked into the story thanks to the great build up and the tension this volume is breathing...

It's strange seeing all these strange characters after such a big timeout on my end, but definitely halfway through I felt like I was all DC again ;)

Not going to say much more, because I want to continue as fast as possible... Those last pages really hightened my senses, and need to know more about what's coming next.... Catch ya on the flipside!

[Adam Spanos · Rating 2 out of 5]

DC enters into the weekly epic again with this and as with almost everything after 52, its hit and miss. While I really like the premise, time travel mishap, the follow through sometimes misses the mark. Some segments are done really well, Firestorm, Lois Lane, and Mister Terrific. Others, S.H.A.D.E., Cadmus, and others seemed disjointed. The entire collection started smooth but started to go off the rails but a few big reveals at the end have lifted my anticipation level for volume 2. The art, obviously done by many artists, was really good. No subpar chapters. Overall, a solid but inorganic collection.

[Ivy · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars

Enjoyed this comic. Little creepy though.

Can't wait to read Future's End Volume 2!!!!

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Futures End has a pair of intriguing premise. First, it's focused on someone coming back in time ... to five years in the future to try and change history. That makes this all an alternate reality, but one that has the potential to be fun as greats like Kingdom Come were. Second, it concentrates on failed Nu52 characters like Mr. Terrific, Firestorm, Frankenstein, Grifter, and Amethyst. And, in doing so, it proves that anyone can be great under the right writers, as many of these guys are quite interesting.

In the world of weeklies, the touchstone for greatness has always been 52, and this is the closest DC has come to it. It doesn't have the writing problems of Countdown nor the badly meandering nature of Batman Eternal. Instead it's an intriguing narrative with lots of parallel plot threads that are each looking at interesting parts of the DC universe -- which is pretty much how 52 did it too. And fortunately, it's got some of DC's top writing talent too.

Mind you, Futures End isn't without problems. The pacing is the biggest issue, because it plods. There aren't enough important beats in individual issues, nor does the overall narrative advance fast enough. Instead we have 18 issues that just barely manage to get their individual plots to their first big reveals.

Still, of the two new weeklies that I've read thus far from for the Nu52, this is the one that I'm eager to see more of.

[Nessie McInness · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read in single issue format.
I started reading Future's End because of the free issue on FCBD. It had McGinnis on the cover, and I just cannot resist Batman beyond (it was the series that sparked my interest in comics when I was a teenager!)
Turns out issue 0 was quite good, so I started buying the issues from #1.
Now, this is a weekly, and I'm glad for it. Because character wise, I felt I was starting to read Game of Thrones all over again. There are a lot of people, some if them quite obscure, and the first few issues are literally just to introduce characters and situations. And I felt like quitting.
But I'm glad I didn't!! Towards the end it gets REALLY good.

The plot:
In the future, Machine/superhero hybrids are attacking (help!)!! Bruce Wayne to the rescue! Lets send Terry McGinnis to the past to prevent all this from happening! Uh-oh! Not enough though, the event that created the enemy is already in place (but this is still the future for the normal timeline though. Confused? You should be. Think Back to the Future meets the Terminator). McGinnis tries to fix things, and the plot thickens.
I'm still reading the issues, hopefully they won't disappoint!

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided to read this book because I have loved Tim Drake ever since reading the red robin comics. Also I recently started watching batman beyond after years of thinking it looked awful ( I have a friend who has persistently recommended it for ages).

The Tim drake story line in this volume starts off very slowly but there are a few good good storylines intertwining here. A couple of nice twists too. Issue zero is a great start too.

Overall I really enjoyed this volume. I old say there is a couple of big plot holes but don't wish to spoil it for anyone going to read it and they are not enough to spoil the story.

Overall I would recommend this one especially as you can go into it pretty much cold and it all makes sense pretty quickly. Also there are loads of different characters including from the future and other dimensions and the magical/mythical side so all the DC boxes ticked!!

[Logan · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very muddled read. So similar to 'Batman: Eternal' this series follows a TV series like approach, as it has multiple side plots, one main plot etc... Unlike Batman Eternal however, this one does not really get that formula right. I say this mainly because, they introduce way too much in a short time span; you'd think something that is 18 issues long would be evenly spread out with its stories, but this one feels like it was rushed and really is just too much stuff for 18 issues. That aside, the most glaring issue is, most of the side plots are not interesting at all; I eventually resorted to skipping pages, and just getting the just of things for the main story. The Characters that are focused on in this series are pretty boring to, except for Batman Beyond, but he is very underused in this volume. On the plus side the artwork is pretty good all around; and their is a big twist at the end, that was very clever and surprising, but I'm not sure yet if I will even read volume 2!

[Tomás Sendarrubias García · Rating 3 out of 5]

DC había encontrado un filón de oro cuando lanzó 52, la serie semanal que nos contaba los acontecimientos ocurridos entre Crisis Infinitas y Un Año Después. Cuenta Atrás a Crisis Final o Trinity fueron algunos de los proyectos que, sin alcanzar en ningún momento la calidad del proyecto original, repitieron esa idea. Después de Trinity había quedado un poco en suspenso, pero con Flashpoint y el nuevo horizonte de series que se abría en Las Nuevas 52, en DC consideraron que había llegado el momento de recuperar ese formato, y lo hizo en El Fin del Mañana (y después lo haría en dos proyectos de Batman, Batman Eterno y Batman y Robin Eternos). Y para llevar la batuta de la colección pusieron ni más ni menos que a Brian Azzarello, uno de los autores más potentes del momento, que estaba realizando un trabajo excepcional junto a Cliff Chiang en Wonder Woman y que cuenta en su haber con colecciones del calibre de 100 Balas, y trabajos como Joker o Lex Luthor. Y para no verse constreñidos con problemas de continuidad, lo que hicieron en El Fin del Mañana fue un salto hacia el futuro: El Fin del Mañana se desarrolla cinco años en el futuro.

Este primer tomo (aquí en España fueron los primeros cuatro tomos más o menos de la colección de ECC) sirve como introducción para la historia, ya que siguiendo el ejemplo de 52, vamos a tener a varios protagonistas y diferentes tramas. En esos cinco años de diferencia, se ha producido un hecho diferencial: una guerra con los refugiados de Tierra-2, en la que por ejemplo, murieron Los Titanes, y tras la que cual, en la Tierra se han quedado varios exiliados de la destruida Tierra-2, los llamados Duplicados. Con ese evento en el pasado reciente, nos vamos a encontrar una trama protagonizada por Firestorm, o más bien por sus dos integrantes; otra protagonizada por Lois Lane que investiga la posible supervivencia de Tim Drake a la destrucción de los Titanes; vamos a conocer la misteriosa Isla Cadmus, donde están encerrados muchos de los héroes de Tierra-2, dirigida por King Faraday y que cuenta entre sus habitantes con los guardianes OMAC, el mismísimo Deathstroke o la enigmática e irreverente Fifty Sue; vamos a tener un equipo formado por Frankenstein, Atom y Amatista que va a investigar la destrucción de Stormwatch, y vamos a tener a Terry McGuiniss, el Batman del Futuro de la serie de dibujos animados que aterriza en el papel y viaja atrás en el tiempo desde su futuro para intentar que el proyecto de las Esferas U de Mister Terrific se convierta en una plaga cibernética en el futuro. Estos argumentos, junto a la muerte de uno de los personajes más relevantes del Universo DC en las primeras páginas de la historia, van a ser el disparador de Azzarello para la megatrama de El Fin del Mañana.

Aparte de que estas grandes historias con docenas de personajes me encantan, lo cierto es que El Fin del Mañana me permitió echar un ojo a la integración de los personajes de Wildstorm al Universo DC. Entre las nuevas series que habían arrancado con Flashpoint estuvo Stormwatch, protagonizada por los personajes que Jim Lee creara en la compañía Wildstorm y que protagonizarían la aclamadísima "The Authority": Midnighter, Apolo, Engineer, etc... se unían al elenco de DC, y se incluía entre ellos a J'onn J'onnz, que había sido apartado de la JLA para dejar sitio a Cyborg; y en El Fin del Mañana vamos a encontrarnos con la aparición de otro de los personajes de Wildstorm, Grifter. que había aparecido en Gen12 o WildCAT's.

En fin, no puedo profundizar mucho más, porque estoy simplemente en el arranque del libro, así que... Seguiremos avanzando.

[Michael Hicks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Scripted by Brian Azzarello, Jeff Lemire, Keith Giffen, and Dan Jurgens, DC delivers an epic, and epically disjointed, time-travel opus with The New 52: Futures End, Vol. 1.

This trade kicks off with an immediate bang set 35 years in the future. The world, and its heroes, have been overrun by a cybernetic entity called The Eye. It's basically Star Trek's Borg as invented by Batman and Mr. Terrific, and DC's pantheon have all been assimilated. In an effort to undo the apocalypse, future Batman Terry McGinnis, travels back in time, but misses his mark and arrives five years later than expected.

It's a great opener - frenetic, full of action, and a violent sense of urgency. Unfortunately, much of what follows is tragically sluggish in comparison. Set five years ahead of the then-present day New 52 continuity, circa 2014, the writers have to do a lot of heavy lifting to explore what's happened between "now" and "then." There's a lot -- and whoo boy, do I mean a lot of teasing about a past war before we begin to understand there was some massive conflict between this Earth and Earth 2, an attack in space that devastates the Stormwatch group, Grifter hunting aliens while also being hunted himself, a masked Superman who behaves very uncharacteristically, and a mysterious bartender.

Azzarello and company sure do take their time peeling back the many layers of this 48-issue long story (spread across three trade volumes), and so much of this first volume feels akin to standing in place. There's a lot of spinning wheels, but not much in the way of forward momentum until the last couple issues of the 17 installments collected here. The story seems to finally find its groove just in time for the book to end on an intriguing cliffhanger.

The team of artists work well, and Futures End's imagery stays pretty consistent, if wholly generic. There's not a lot of oopmh to these panels or splash pages, and little to marvel over along the way. Ultimately, it's all very sufficient and efficient, which I suppose is to be expected. When these issues were published individually, Futures End ran for 11 months as a weekly comic, which doesn't leave the artists a lot of time to go crazy with their directing and get really creative, despite the number of illustrators that worked on this project. I'll admit, too, to being oddly distracted and fascinated by professional smoker John Constantine lighting and smoking the filter of his cigarette in one segment of panels late in the book. While I'm fairly certain this is a mistake that slipped past editorial, I also can't rule out it merely being a case of Constantine testing his luck...

The kicker of it all is, reading this first volume it becomes abundantly clear there is no possible way this story needed 48 issues to tell. Futures End is horribly, unnecessarily decompressed, and you can tell the writers were treading water to fill the pages and meet their contractual obligations. The last couple chapters, though, offered just enough tantalizing reveals to keep me curious to see where things go in Vol. 2.

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Na época em que esta minissérie semanal saiu aqui no Brasil eu estava muito mal de grana e não pude acompanhar ela. Além disso, o mote da revista e os previews que tinha visto sobre ela não me pareciam muito agradáveis. Lendo as histórias do Batman do Futuro, comecei a mudar minha opinião sobre elas e então comprei um pacote com as dez edições brasileiras na Pop Art's Comic Shop. E o que aconteceu? Quando comecei a ler não queria mais parar. Só parei mesmo porque o sono foi maior. Mas li as 19 edições que fariam parte deste primeiro de três encadernados. A dinâmica da série e a forma como foi produzida, com um pool de roteiristas, me lembrou muito a forma como foi feita outra minissérie semanal da DC Comics, a gloriosa 52, que é uma delicinha de ler. Esta aqui, Fim dos Tempos, também foi muito bem engendrada, focando como 52 em super-heróis mais lado B da DC Comics. A história se passa cinco anos no nosso futuro depois de uma guerra entre a Terra 1 e a Terra 2. O Batman do Futuro retorna no tempo para evitar que os seres bio-tecnorgânicos do Irmão-Olho transformem o mundo em um apocalipse. Mas outras forças também estão em ação para evitar essa catástrofe. A grande questão é: essas mudanças estão evitando a catástrofe ou a aproximando ainda mais? A DC Comics devia definitivamente investir mais nesse tipo de narrativa. É simplesmente ótimo!

[A.j. Garner · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I would have liked this if it were divided a little better. I think the mass of these 18 issues just made me not want to read. The story seemed a little slow. I liked that it was based on not mainstreamed characters.

[Ben Truong · Rating 4 out of 5]

The New 52: Futures End is an eleven-month weekly comic book maxi-series that is set five years in the future, where the genesis of the apocalypse to a dystopian future has already begun and it is up to a group of heroes led by a future Batman to stop it from spreading. This series is written by Brian Azzarello, Keith Giffen, Dan Jurgens, and Jeff Lemire. This trade paperback collects the first eighteen issues (0–17).

The trade paperback opens with The New 52: Futures End #0, which was first published for Free Comic Book Day in 2014. It opens in a dystopian future where heroes and villains alike are being transformed into killer cybernetic insectoids, which is quickly taking over the Earth. In a desperate attempt to stop them, Bruce Wayne creates a time machine, but before he can use it – he is attacked. He then sends his protégé Terry McGinnis to take his place.

Reluctantly, McGinnis enters the time machine, but arrives five years too late – the event which would precipitate to the apocalypse has already started and too late to stop. He landed in the DC Universe five years in the future from the perspective of the current continuity. However, what McGinnis can do is to mitigate the damage as much as possible.

This maxi-series has a massive cast of character, but generally centers on Terry McGinnis as a displaced futuristic Batman and other minor characters like Firestorm, O.M.A.C., and Grifter. The storyline is dire, but the inherent high stakes are levied with some light humor and a strong, page-flipping fast action pace.

While written by half a dozen writers, the story seems to flow rather well with tiny imperceptibly difference to each other writing styles – although there seems to be a lot of storylines that are running parallel with each other and my biggest fear that they won't be merged well and get confusing. In addition, despite the dozen or so illustrators contributing to the various chapters, the visuals are consistent, clean, and suitably heroic.

All in all, The New 52: Futures End, Vol. 1, is a rather strong start to a new weekly maxi-series. I have worries with the many storylines running concurrently and a tad worried how it's all going to be resolved, but regardless of my worries, this trade paperback is a wonderful start for hopefully a wonderful series.

[Sylvester · Rating 3 out of 5]

Five years in the future, the New 52 universe is in turmoil as Brother Eye enslaved most of the superheroes, turning them into infectious cyborg zombies. As two of the last superheroes still left standing, Bruce Wayne sent Batman Beyond to the past to prevent this "End Future" timeline, only trouble is Batman Beyond got sent back to the wrong time due to a cyborg Plastique's interference. As the story unfolds, we see how the apocalypse started and how Batman Beyond can prevent it from coming to fruition.

Several sub plots took place. Lois Lane is trying to discover the disappearance of Red Robin after the Earth 2 War; Frankenstein is investigating the destruction of Stormwatch with Justice League Dark; Green Arrow's death led to Firestorm to split his personalities; Grifter is recruited by King Faraday because of his ability to determine who is or isn't an alien.; Lastly, Superman started to wear a hood for a mysterious reason, which is revealed later by both Lois and John Constantine.

There is a lot going on in this volume, it started off with a terrifying future. But then the actual storyline involving Brother Eye was developed very slowly, which was a bit disappointing. It's great to see the return of Terry McGinnis along with many characters, but some may disagree with the changes they made to certain characters like Plastique for instance.

[Cale · Rating 3 out of 5]

400+ Pages of Comics and you resolve maybe one plot thread? Granted it's only Volume 1 of the three volume series, but still, that's a lot of plot threads left dangling.
Still, Future's End is an interesting beast - it's a universe spanning story (literally, in one plot thread) about trying to prevent a future. There are several major plots being juggled, with varying amounts of value. The Grifter/DeathStrike/Fifty Sue thread was the most interesting to me, just because the character interactions were so rich (Fifty Sue is a very strange beast, and I think a perhaps very thinly veiled metaphor?), although the combination of Frankenstein, Captain Atom and Amethyst added some interesting dynamics too. But there are a lot of plots being juggled, and it doesn't always feel like they're being kept in the air. And the Constantine on display here is not a good representation of him (the accent in the dialogue is really poor), but other than that it's an interesting story with a strong sense of mystery at least in this first volume, as pieces are spread out across the board. A couple surprises end the first volume, leaving things in an interesting place for volume 2.

[Brunò · Rating 2 out of 5]

English/Spanish review:

Ahggg. I expected something out of this but mmm.

Too long,for so less stuff. Shit,not one of the stories was interesting. Frankenstein and the Watch was so 80's that I almost vomited. McGinnis giving us a John Connor performance? Meh. Grifter and the over-powered girl almost put me to sleep. For some reason Mr Terrific is out of character and an evil millionaire. Zzzzzzz.

The most interest thing about this is Why is Superman wearing a damn HELMET.

Español:

Ahgg. Esperaba algo de esto pero mmm.

Demasiado tiempo para tan poca cosas. Mierda,ninguna de las historias era interesante. Frankenstein y The Watch era tan de los 80 que casi vomito. ¿McGinnis dándonos una actuación de John Connor? Meh. Grifter y la chica con poderes casi me hacen dormir. Por alguna razón, Mr Terrific está fuera de personaje y es un malvado millonario. Zzzzzzz

Lo más interesante de esto es Por qué Superman está usando un CASCO.

[Britarya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this a lot! Although I think I may have missed a previous story line somewhere because many things were confusing and didn't make much sense. I still thought that the story arks were really cool and interesting for the most part. And even though I did not know who most of the characters were, I still liked them a lot. I especially enjoyed the parts that had Hawkman and Frankenstein! :) Hawkman was a lot like Wolverine and I love the x-men! X) Overall, it was worth reading even though many things were foggy. I'll probably read it again once I've read a lot more other comics. I'm going to read volume 2 soon anyway though.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was totally rad. It's one of those gigantic D.C. epics with a shitload of characters and crazy surprises. If you're ready for another one of those, I think Future's End will deliver the thrills and chills. Reading this in trade form is a real benefit. If I had read the single issues when they came out, I probably would have forgotten what was going on with certain plot lines. There's a lot of wacky stuff to keep track of.