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Future State (Collected Editions)

Future State: Suicide Squad

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In a world devoid of superheroes and ravaged by extinction, the stakes are high, dire consequences are imminent, and several questions remain unanswered.

Billy Batson made a deal with the devil and has to uncover who is now controlling the Mightiest Mortal's power to wreak havoc.

Swamp Thing made a treacherous choice in the past that may doom his future.

The Teen Titans are forced to rebuild and face off against the threat that destroyed their legacy.

And questions remain after Amanda Waller and her Justice Squad instill peace in the future of the DC Universe.

Collects:
Future State: Suicide Squad #1-2
Future State: Teen Titans: Dead of the Class #1-2
Future State: Shazam!: The Death of William Batson #1-2
Future State: Swamp Thing: Obsidian Sun #1-2.

DC Future State spotlights the World's Greatest Super Heroes in fresh new roles, with all-new characters taking up their iconic mantles. DC Future State features an incredible array of creative talent, combining award-winning writers and artists with new voices from the worlds of TV, movies and animation. Discover the DC Universe like never before!

240 pages, Paperback

First published July 13, 2021

15 people are currently reading
89 people want to read

About the author

Robbie Thompson

630 books72 followers
Comics writer.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
Profile Image for Chad.
10.3k reviews1,062 followers
July 31, 2021
Three of the stories within this are actually connected loosely. Of course the first part of the story actually was in Future State: The Flash which is collected in Future State: Justice League


Suicide Squad - ★★★ - by Robbie Thompson & Javier Fernandez
This one was kind of weird and didn't make the most sense. Amanda Waller put together a dark Justice League on Earth 3 while the Suicide Squad from our Earth tried to stop her. Nothing was explained which was frustrating. Javi Fernandez's art got a lot rougher and sloppier. It actually reminded me of Riley Rossmo who I think is the worst artist working at DC.

Teen Titans - ★★★ - by Tim Sheridan & Rafa Sandoval
Every Titan past and future have been fighting the Horsemen of the Apocalypse for years. Red X first appears, which some people have been making a big deal of. It seems this one will tie into the Teen Titans Academy and Shazam books Sheridan is writing now.


Shazam - ★★ - by Tim Sheridan & Rafa Sandoval
Captain Marvel makes a deal with Neron that, of course, goes wrong. A lot of the Teen Titans are in this one too.


Swamp Thing - ★★★★ - by Ram V. & Mike Perkins
Far in the future most of mankind is gone. Swamp Thing has made his own plant people to search out the last of mankind. I'm down with Ram V.'s Swamp Thing.

Black Adam - ★★★ - by Jeremy Adams & Fernando Pasarin
This story hearkens back to 90's DC. It takes place in the DC One Million era, Resurrection Man and Gold Beetle have important parts to the story. It was just really odd since I think all of that continuity was wiped out during the New 52. I guess it's pseudo-back after Dark Nights: Death Metal.
Profile Image for Rod Brown.
7,367 reviews282 followers
September 18, 2021
Another shambolic superhero mess that starts in the Future State time jump but then extends into a post-apocalyptic Earth ruled by Swamp Thing and then the 853rd Century of the old DC One Million crossover. So many B- and C-list heroes and villains suffer and die for nothing much of anything. No moment in here is worthy of being remembered.
5,870 reviews146 followers
November 15, 2021
Future State: Suicide Squad is an anthology of four series that are a part of the greater Future State event, published by DC Comics. This trade paperback collects: Future State: Suicide Squad #1–2, Future State: Teen Titans #1–2, Future State: Shazam! #1–2, and Future State: Swamp Thing #1–2.

Suicide Squad (★★☆☆☆) is a two-issue storyline (Future State: Suicide Squad #1–2) has Amanda Waller (for some reason) creating a Justice Squad from Earth-3: William Cobb as Batman, Alinta as Bolt (The Flash analogue), Fisherman (Aquaman analogue), Clayface as Martian Manhunter, Conner Kent as Superman, and Hypnotic Woman (Wonder Woman analogue) and the Suicide Squad from Earth Prime tries to stop her. It is penned by Robbie Thompson and penciled by Javier Fernandez.

Black Adam (★★☆☆☆) is a two-part storyline and a back-up story in Future State: Suicide Squad (#1–2) has Black Adam in the far future with Justice Legion-A take on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Lords of Chaos, and the Seven Deadly Sins. It is penned by Jeremy Adams and penciled by Fernando Pasarin.

Ruins/Reckoning (★★★☆☆) is a two-part storyline (Future State: Teen Titans #1–2) has the original Titans opening up a school to teach future heroes – the next generation of Teen Titans and their generational battle with the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. It introduces Red X to DC Continuity for the first time. It is penned by Tim Sheridan and penciled by Rafa Sandoval.

The Last Temptation of William Batson/Devil's Due (★★★☆☆) is a two-part storyline (Future State: Shazam! #1–2) has Billy Batson as Shazam making a deal with Neron – a Demon Lord of Hell and the Justice League of America are trying to find out the reason Shazam is acting so oddly. Apparently, Billy Batson and Shazam were separated so Billy Batson could guard the new prisoner on The Rock – The Unkindness – a possessed Raven by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. It is penned by Tim Sheridan and penciled by Rafa Sandoval.

Obsidian Sun (★★★★☆) is a two-part storyline (Future State: Swamp Thing #1–2) has Alec Holland as Swamp Thing in the distant future, where the Green has retaken the Earth as humanity literally destroyed themselves. However, things go sideways, when Swamp Thing discovered that a pocket of humanity had survived. It is penned by Ram V and penciled by Mike Perkins.

For the most part, these short stories are written and constructed moderately well. The story about the Teen Titans, Shazam, and Black Adam loosely interconnects with each other, which in itself is a continuation of a story started in Future State: The Flash, which was bind-up in Future State: Justice League. The Suicide Squad story is rather odd as nothing is explained, while the Swamp Thing story is the best, but felt like an outlier, because it was set in the far future.

As for the pencilers, while not many, have their own distinctive styles, which the artistic flow rather turbulent. Some pencilers are better than others – Fernandez has a messy and chaotic style, Perkins has a monotone one, and the rest complement each other rather well. Fortunately, the artistic flow is mitigated somewhat by having one penciler or a team of pencilers doing one story.

Overall, having read all six trades of the Future State event, I finally got the sense of the event. Basically, in the near possible future, all the big named superheroes are replaced for one reason or another (i.e., Jace Fox as Batman, Jon Kent as Superman, Yara Flor as Wonder Woman, etc.). However, most of the stories just jump into the middle of the narrative, expecting the reader to have done their homework and know what was going one. To complicate things further, some stories take place in the distant future – one even at the end of time, so trying to make sense of the chronology is difficult at best. In short, this event could have benefit with a timeline.

All in all, Future State: Suicide Squad is a mediocre collection of stories in the Future State event, focusing loosely on the Teen Titans storyline, which is odd that they call this collection after Suicide Squad as they were only featured in one story.
Profile Image for Khurram.
2,368 reviews6,692 followers
January 9, 2022
A very dissapointing book. The DC tv show comparison would be The Legonds of Tomorrow. It starts off strong and just goes down hill from there.

The Suicide Squad. Thus I think was the best story of the book. Though I did not like the characters of this book. The story and plot was solid.

The Teen Titans. The first chapter/issue was good. It continues from the Flash. The second chapter/issue seems like they were in a rush finish. The action panels are mixed up or toom much has happened between each panel.

Shazam. Sorted of continued from Teen Titans. A decent mystery story. Can't say too much as it is a mystery.

Swamp Thing. A post apocalyptic world, Swamp Things has created his own people but there ate still humans and enemies.

Black Adam. Space is colonised, magic is gone the science rules. Now an evil is coming to destroy everything. The only hope Black Adam, who looks like the Rock.

This is a dissapoint book, for me thd weakest of the Future State books. It did not really add anything to the other Future State books or universe for me. The book finishes with a decent sketch book couple of pages.
Profile Image for NarraTea .
170 reviews2 followers
June 21, 2021
The Black Adam story saved this one, the rest felt indifferent.
Profile Image for Chris Lemmerman.
Author 7 books123 followers
July 9, 2021
The penultimate Future State collection at first glance looks like a hodge podge of stuff that doesn't fit in any other book, although there's a surprisingly throughline that connects three of the four.

The Suicide Squad story is decent enough, and actually sets the stage pretty well for Robbie Thompson's takeover of the main title once Future State ends. It's also pretty gritty in terms of visuals since it's pencilled by Javier Fernandez.

Then comes the connecting tissue. Future State: Teen Titans, Future State: Shazam!, and the Black Adam back-up from Future State: Suicide Squad all tell different sections of a larger story that I believe writer Tim Sheridan is going to extend into the DCU proper in his Teen Titans Academy and Shazam! books. It's gloomy, to say the least, but then that's Future State all over, and it also feeds into some of what made the Future State: Flash mini-series feel so dodgy - if you read that one after this, you'll probably appreciate it a lot more.

And then bringing up the rear is Future State: Swamp Thing by Ram V and Mike Perkins, which is a short and sweet story about trying to keep your humanity at the end of world, even when you're not technically human to begin with. Their work together here is grand, and I'm hoping that their continued collaboration on The Swamp Thing maxi-series will keep up this level.

A surprisingly cohesive and enjoyable collection, which just goes to show that it's sometimes the books you don't expect to enjoy that are the best.
Profile Image for Alan.
2,050 reviews15 followers
March 5, 2021
In reading the Future State event (in actuality before management changes swept through DC Comics this have been the new continuity) as digital floppies it makes sense to combine this 2-4 issue series into anthology style TPBs. I read this as digital floppies, but out of laziness and poor record keeping I'll use the same start date for all of these. This is one of the weaker collections, but I think someone would find something they like in it.

The Suicide Squad goes back,a little to its roots. The strongest story is The Swamp Thing which takes place in Earth's Far Future. It is a story that addresses some of the character's central themes that have been developed over the years.

As to Shazam, really kind of a stinker, and Titans showed a little bit of promise if you're willing to buy a dark version of Dick Grayson.
Profile Image for Parker J.
493 reviews15 followers
April 19, 2021
I think I might be in the minority opinion here...but I found this to be a lot of fun (and I found Future State as a whole to be really fun as well). I read the issues collected in this volume as single issues but I think they will work really well collected all together. I particularly enjoyed the threads that tied different storylines and possible parts of the timeline together. Seeing the way the Teen Titans/Raven storyline was connected to the Shazam story and Black Adam story (from the Suicide Squad issues) was really fun!

I do agree with some of the Future State critics though. A lot of these stories do feel half realized, mostly because most of them were only given two issues worth of time to be told. I think the Suicide Squad story, while very fun, was the weakest of the bunch and truly fell victim to this issue. It was a fun romp and had nice twists and turns along the way but it didn't do much to build on the universe as a whole except build some anticipation for the upcoming ongoing series. It feels like the writers had a bigger picture idea but were constrained by page count and had to rush through things a bit. But, nonetheless I found all the stories here very fun and intriguing. I certainly hope these are not the real very grim futures and fates for our beloved characters and DC universe, but they are fun to read. They also most certainly entertain cool ideas for the future. The way the DC universe looks in the Black Adam story was very cool. I loved the exploration of where humanity might go after Earth was no longer. The different planets for the nations of the DC universe were really cool. I think DC was really teasing or testing out possible things to try in Infinite Frontier and that is okay, I'd personally like to see some of this used again.

I think some of the highlights of this collection are the Swamp Thing story (he seems to never disappoint these days huh?) and the Black Adam backup story that came with the Suicide Squad series. I also think continuing narratives like the Raven story and the repercussions of the Titans series was a nice way to tie this "event" together. It was a clever way to make these standalone series feel more important, grounded, and part of the same universe/timeline.

I'm also biased here because these different series utilized a lot of my favorite characters. The Titans, Vixen, Tanya Spears, Bunker, Superboy, Miss Martian, Obsidian, and more. How am I not supposed to have fun reading about a bunch of my favorite, and overlooked and underused, favorites! Overall this was a good time and that is all I really want from my comic books.
Profile Image for AJ Kallas.
123 reviews48 followers
March 28, 2021
I reluctantly and regrettably ended up reading most of Future State. A lot of neat ideas that ended up "fine".

I read these as floppies, but this trade collects:

Future State: Suicide Squad #1-2
Future State: Teen Titans: Dead of the Class #1-2
Future State: Shazam!: The Death of William Batson #1-2
Future State: Swamp Thing: Obsidian Sun #1-2

Swamp Thing - 3/5
Shazam! - 2.5/5
Teen Titans - 1/5 (Completely forgettable, and we still don't know who Red X is.)

Didn't read Suicide Squad (Even though that's what this trade is named after).
Profile Image for Kat.
2,398 reviews117 followers
July 16, 2022
Basic plot: Roughly 4 stories in 1, connected by the concept of the Unkindness, who is fought by multiple figures.

Disjointed storytelling. Art was merely ok. I was told by the local comic shop that these stories would stand on their own and didn't have to be reas with other to understand them, this is false. It was hard to follow and lacked any kind of hope. There was little to make me care about the characters, which made the stories less impactful. Not DC's finest storytelling.
Profile Image for Abbie.
452 reviews32 followers
March 2, 2021
I skipped out on Teen Titans. Might read it later—Swamp Thing #2 was great. Suicide Squad sucked
Profile Image for Brunò.
271 reviews3 followers
January 29, 2023
English/Spanish review:

Just came here to see how Future State The Flash's story ends.

Suicide Squad continues the trend of Future State comics of having a mess of a story. Amanda Waller made a new team of villains who no-one knows dressed up as a stupid looking,fake Justice League and somehow conviced Conner Kent to accept on leading them and have them killing people. On this future,the Suicide Squad we know comes from Earth 3 (as Amanda Waller does) and shows up to save the worl- I mean,getting killed after two pages after appearing or dying because since they're from another Earth,the air is poisonous (something that,has never happened on any multiversal incursion ever,but here,it does). There's lots of deaths since Amanda can't stop blowing everyone up and Conner ends up trapped on Earth 3. 1 star out of 5.

Teen Titans follows the depressive ending of The Flash's ending. Somehow the Titans unleashed the Horsemen of Apocalypse and they've been fighting them for quite a time. It was difficult for me to understand what was happening most of the time or how some thing's came to be since many things are unexplained and this seems to lead to Teen Titans Academy, Vol. 1: X Marks His Spot. Not a fan of this story, the villains aren't really imaginative, It's the most depressing thing ever and it seems to be dragging on forever to more and more books. 2 out of 5 stars.

Shazam's story was stupid. Is there anything more idiotic than believing on a demon supervillain's promise to keep humanity safe?. 1 star out of 5.

Black Adam. Takes place on the DC One Million era. I liked how it expands some of that League lore,but that's pretty it. Since I hate the Unkindness storyline,it falls by being a pretty stupid story: How did it take them 800 centuries to reach the League? How in hell is Superman One Million not able to fight the Unkindness off,but the Justice Legion,even more,Black Adam is able to fight against them. It all ends up with him pretty much destroying the Omniverse just by saying the word. Sure Jan. 2 out of 5 stars.



Swamp Thing has the best and most interesting story. Mankind has gone mostly extinct so he decides to create living plant people to help him to find the remains of civilization. This is one of the very few Future State stories to expand some lore to a character/villain and have a cohesive storytelling. I'll give an extra star to the whole volume just for this one story.
The art was great,made me think that I'd love to see an entire Swamp Thing story just on green and white,like here whenever he's talking about how he created the plant guys. 4 out of 5 stars.



Español:

Solo vine para ver cómo termina la historia de Future State The Flash.

Suicide Squad continúa la tendencia de los cómics de Future State de tener una historia desordenada. Amanda Waller formó un nuevo equipo de villanos que nadie conoce disfrazados de una falsa Liga de la Justicia de aspecto estúpido y de alguna manera convenció a Conner Kent para que aceptara liderarlos y que maten gente. En este futuro, el Escuadrón Suicida que conocemos viene de la Tierra 3 (al igual que Amanda) y aparece para salvar el mundo. Digo, ser asesinados después de dos páginas después de aparecer o morir porque como son de otra Tierra, el aire es venenoso (algo que nunca pasó en ninguna incursión multiversal, pero acá,de alguna manera,sí). Hay muchas muertes ya que Amanda no puede dejar de reventar la cabeza de todos y Conner termina atrapado en la Tierra 3. 1 estrella de 5.

Teen Titans sigue el final depresivo del final de The Flash. De alguna manera, los Titanes liberaron a los Jinetes del Apocalipsis y han estado luchando contra ellos durante bastante tiempo. Fue difícil para mí entender lo que sucedía la mayor parte del tiempo o cómo surgieron algunas cosas, ya que la mitad no se explica y esto parece conducir a Teen Titans Academy, Vol. 1: X Marks His Spot. No soy fanático de esta historia, los villanos no son imaginativos, es lo más deprimente que hay y parece prolongarse para siempre en más y más libros. 2 de 5 estrellas.

La historia de Shazam fue una estupidez. ¿Hay algo más idiota que creer en la promesa de un demonio supervillano de mantener a la humanidad a salvo? 1 estrella de 5.

Black Adam. Tiene lugar en la era DC One Million. Me gustó cómo expande algo del lore de la Liga, pero eso es todo. Además de que odio la historia de Unkindness, esto se cae por ser una historia bastante estúpida: ¿Cómo les llevó a los villanos 800 siglos llegar hasta la Liga? ¿Cómo pingo Superman Un Millón no puede pelear contra Unkindness,pero la Legión de la Justicia, aún más,Black Adam es capaz de frenarlos? Todo termina con él prácticamente destruyendo el Omniverso con solo decir la palabra. Seguro,Jan. 2 de 5 estrellas.



Swamp Thing tiene la mejor y más interesante historia. La humanidad se extinguió en su mayor parte, por lo que decide crear personas hechas de plantas para ayudarlo a encontrar los restos de la civilización. Esta es una de las muy pocas historias de Future State que expande algo del lore a un personaje/villano y tiene una narración cohesiva. Le doy una estrella extra a todo el volumen solo por esta historia.
El arte está buena, me hizo pensar que me encantaría ver una historia completa de Swamp Thing solo en verde y blanco, como cada vez que habla sobre cómo creó a los pibes planta. 4 de 5 estrellas.

Profile Image for Matt.
2,606 reviews27 followers
February 4, 2021
I only picked this up because I heard that Gold Beetle made her debut in this book. I was pleasantly surprised by both the title story, and the back-up story (starring Black Adam and the Justice Legion of the 853rd Century.

In the first story, set at some point in the future, the Connor Kent Superboy (now Superman) is on a team of villains (masquerading as the Justice League) called the Justice Squad, and Amanda Waller is leading them in their operations. The Crime Syndicate of Earth-3 has a cameo, and other DC characters end up on Earth-3 as well. Honestly, I couldn't tell if this whole story was taking place on Earth-3. Here are the team members:

Connor Kent = Superman
Talon (William Cobb) = Batman
Hypnotic Woman = Wonder Woman
Bolt = The Flash
Clayface = Martian Manhunter
The Fisherman = Aquaman

The back-up story was the story that actually featured Gold Beetle, and I heard that she will be appearing in the current run of "The Flash" in a few months.

Final rating = 4.5 stars
Profile Image for A.J..
603 reviews83 followers
January 14, 2022
I hate how the fantastic Suicide Squad and Swamp Thing minis got thrown into this atrocious collection.

Teen Titans is literally the worst DC book I’ve read since Lobdell’s run on the characters. Just get the SS and ST single issues if you want the good stuff.
665 reviews
January 29, 2021
Future State Suicide Squad

Great book. First part is good. Second story is even better. Great to see the Justice Legions of the 853 century.
Profile Image for Ashe Catlin.
907 reviews7 followers
March 30, 2022
A collection of short stories from the Future State era of DC, which features:

Suicide Squad
One of the things I love about Future State is it's a no hold bar, meaning that anyone can die at any second and this takes full advantage of that.

This is about a crime syndicate type team, where known criminals have taken up the mantles of the Justice League, lead by Connor Kent which is one of the best decisions this book makes. Because he's constantly conflicted, as he has to follow orders from Amanda Waller but he's a good guy and he's leading a team of supervillains. Who have no quarrel killing the bad guys, it's just a cherry on top.

As this is taking part of Earth 3, our Squad from our earth decide to create their own team to take Waller home. This time lead by Peacemaker, first time reading him in comics and I have to say I was impressed.

The ending was actually a conclusion, which is a change for Future State, although I'd be more than happy for a continuation as this was epic.

Teen Titans
Unlike the previous story, which was very self contained, this one seemed to be setting up something. I believe it's Teen Titans Academy, Vol. 1: X Marks His Spot. Which is strange as this is set in a post apocalypse world and is treated as an end of the story, so setting up a story in the past is just strange. Why would we get invested if one, we have no idea who most of the characters are and two, we know how it's going to end so why'd be get invested in them if we are essentially reading it backwards.

So the story itself was ok, the divided teen titans decide to make a last stand against the four horseman of the apocalypse. Whilst the team was arguing with themselves as well as telling the new teen's of the team what to do, it had a lot going on for 2 issues while I did enjoy it. This story would have benefitted a lot from being longer so you can develop everything in the story, heck the horsemen themselves just showed up at the end with no time spend with them whatso ever just a fight.

Shazam!
Much like most of these Future State books, this would have been good to be it's own graphic novel as there was zero time to actually develop anything proper in the short amount of time it happens. A lot of the story mentions huge events that have happened but as we have never read or seen it I couldn't find myself caring for it most of the time.

Aside from that it was an alright Story Shazam has essentially gone rouge but has his own team somehow? Yeah nothing is ever explained in this. The team start turning on him and there is something about guarding the stone of eternity, which abruptly ends, yeah not really much to say about this one.

Swamp Thing
Another alright story, he was searching for human life as the world is struggling for life, he is joined by his children. Some following him willingly, whilst others chastise him for feelings towards the humans.

I'm not going to lie, even making this longer wouldn't of helped the story, it was just boring. He's wandering around sometimes having arguments, whilst explaining how he regrew his human physique so there is nothing redeeming these issues at all.

Black Adam
Well it certainly ended with a bang and what a story! A call back to DC One Million, Superman gets defeated by an ancient evil and the Justice Legion try to take the evil out, as you can see from the title it's not their story. So enter Black Adam, completely reformed from his evil ways and attending a garden.

With all magic gone in the universe, everything seems lost but then Gold Beetle comes to save the day. It gets very multiversal at the point and it has an epic conclusion. Surprise after surprise, why on earth can't DC put stories like this normally? It was freaking epic! Of all things this one wasn't even an issue, it was back up stories which is even more mind blowing.

Overall
As you might imagine, this is a very mixed back, it starts off great but then declines quickly. For the most part the ones that are setting up other comics are the weaker in comparison but I do love reading stuff like this. Because the creative juice's are really flowing in this, yes some clearly have mandates but some just go wild. I really wish DC would let writers do stuff like this more often, as all their mandates are killing their comics.

Suicide Squad 5*
Teen Titans 3*
Shazam! 2*
Swamp Thing 2*
Black Adam* 5*
Profile Image for Adam Fisher.
3,596 reviews23 followers
September 7, 2021
My 4th foray into Future State (out of 6) is actually the most fun. By focusing on some of the not as popular books of the DCU, they are able to create something most like an Elseworlds story and really branch out into something unique.
(NOTE: In searching for a cast list for one of the following sections, I discovered on the DC Wiki that the events of Future State actually have a timeline and are not as random and chaotic as I thought. Because of this enlightenment, I actually have a higher opinion on the whole storyline and how they link together. I can't wait until I finish the other two and am able to see the full picture. For those of you that want to see what I saw, go to (https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/DC_Future_...) and read the timeline in order. For my own reference, I will be copying what I found on that wiki to help better summarize the events of what happened.)

Highlights:
Suicide Squad - Amanda Waller sets up her own Justice League ((Batman (William Cobb), The Flash (Bolt), Aquaman (Fisherman), Martian Manhunter (Clayface), Wonder Woman (Hypnotic Woman)) on Earth 3, headed by the Superman Conner Kent, to save her world and remake it as she wants. This leads the new Suicide Squad (Black Manta, Cheetah, Evil Star, Lor-Zod, Mirror Master, Parademon) under Peacemaker (yes, straight from the movie!) to try to apprehend her.

Teen Titans - The Titans Tower, where the original Teen Titans trained young superheroes, has been destroyed. They turn to their former pupil Red X for help and finally defeat the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, after Raven absorbs them inside her.

Shazam - Billy Batson, the hero known as Shazam, imprisons the possessed in the Rock of Eternity, and strikes a deal with Neron to separate his human half Billy and magical half Shazam. Billy becomes the guardian of the door to Rock of Eternity due to his innocence, while Shazam leaves to protect the world. This however ends up backfiring as Neron had tricked Shazam into believing others are possessed by demons. The Justice League of America try subduing him in 2029 and Deadman forces him to utter his magical word, in order to depower him, thus releasing Raven in their ignorance.

Swamp Thing - In the year 4500, Swamp Thing has become the ruler of Earth, after the human population was devastated by a war. The surviving humans under Floronic Man decide to fight back against Swamp Thing, believing he will wipe them out, not knowing he's planning to bring darkness to the world to kill life using Obsidian's powers. Swamp Thing decides to assault their fortress and kills Floronic Man, before turning into a giant tree that allows humans to survive before the sun can return again.

Black Adam - Black Adam rules the planet of Kahndaq in the year 82,020 and is forced to save all reality from the possessed Raven, at the cost of being imprisoned in the Rock of Eternity again.

Shazam and Swamp Thing were the best stories of this collection, by far. Maybe even the best Future State stories so far.
Now that I know how they are connected, I really look forward to finishing the other two Volumes.
Recommend.
Profile Image for Kris Ritchie.
1,645 reviews16 followers
November 13, 2021
DC Future State: A "future timeline, who knows if these things will actually happen" event. Some ideas will play out in Infinite Frontier, and some might just got completely ignored. Also indicated, if possible, is the next title to read in the series!

Previously Reviewed
Future State: The Next Batman
Future State: Wonder Woman
Future State: Dark Detective
Future State: Superman

2.5 rounded down.

First off is Suicide Squad which seems to be all about Waller closing off the Earth-3 of the crime syndicate. While not directly a follow-up, more can be found in Suicide Squad (2021-) #1. This story was kind of meh for me to be honest.

Then there was the fairly depressing Teen Titans which followed up on some events from The Flash comic. Will be continued in Teen Titans Academy (2021-) #1. I'm not a big fan of the super bleak Titans comics, and this is no exception.

Also bleaker than usual is Shazam, penned by the same writer as the Titans entry: Tim Sheridan. He will continue this darker look at Shazam, I guess, in Shazam! #1.

Swamp Thing stands out as the best of this collection, with Swampie leading a team of beings created in his image while searching for the last vestiges of humanity. Ram V is knocking it out of the park with Catwoman, and looking forward to their continued series in The Swamp Thing (2021-) #1.
212 reviews
August 20, 2023
well this was DIRE actually. I say this as a sincere fan of the TT cartoon like I was a kid I was IN that fan base, it is THE REASON I got into comics, but officially it was a mistake. The cartoon bleed into the comics is just... I am so embarrassed that they had Captain Marvel say "Azarath Metrion Zinthos" we have reached the ABSOLUTE bottom of the barrel. Just ENDLESS CRINGE happening here!!! AHHHH!!! IT WAS BAD!!!!!! Also, it sincerely bothers me SO MUCH that the Red X stuff (which I know I know is lifted from Teen Titans Academy) is being used to imply that like any of that stuff happened in the comics verse. IN ANY COMICS VERSE!!! Genuinely trying to imagine where Dick being Deathstroke's apprentice could possibly fit into the timeline pre- or post-Flashpoint. It certainly wouldn't be possible in a NTT situation and, um, has Deathstroke really interacted with any Titans team in N52 or Rebirth???? Like HUH?????? I get that Infinite Frontier makes EVERYTHING CANON but all on the same Earth????? Please I am begging!!!!!!! For release!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, the Swamp Thing story was as good as you would expect from Ram V, though I did find the ending.... hmmmm.... annoyingly anthropocentric. I think there honestly was a missed opportunity there.

ALSO, this is a note to editorial: the two Swamp Thing issues SHOULD NOT have been in this collection, which shouldn't even have been named for SS since the connecting thread between TT to Shazam to BA was a story CENTERING THE TITANS. Even the Conner stuff in SS ended up having a titans moment so a) why wasn't this collection called Future State: Titans??? To that end I would swap the Flash stories and the Swamp Thing stories. The Flash story literally leads right into FS: TT and I mean the ST story wasn't going to fit in ANYWHERE but hey, SW is sometimes part of JLD so why not just put it was the miscellaneous Future State JL stories?? Actually you know I think there's a lot of similarities between the Immortal WW story and SW like literally ANYWHERE but this collection would have made as much if not more sense than including it here.
Profile Image for Alex E.
1,721 reviews12 followers
May 22, 2025
After the events of Death Metal, the DC universe as a whole went forward, and we got a glimpse of things to come...

...which of course is not actually what's going to come after, but kind of a cool premise on the surface. Unfortunately the whole "Future State" thing for me kind of fell flat except a couple of stories here and there.

We'll start with Swamp thing who is in a world where the "people" are all made from and by him. He uses these plant people to search for any human survivors. This was actually kind of a highlight of Future State as it's written by Ram V, and has that same vibe that the Alan Moore Swamp Thing had. It's more contemplative and deliberate, which was awesome.

Black Adam's story was kind of a flashback (or is that reality here again now cause of the multiversal shenanigans of Death Metal?) to the DC one million event, which was cool but for me personal, kind of hard to remember. The story ends very chaotically, which I guess harkens back to the one million storyline.

Teen Titans was... confusing. Looks like every version of the titans have been fighting Horsemen of the apocalypse for quite some time. This was a bit too chaotic to really follow in my opinion.

The suicide squad story was also kind of arbitrary as we are thrust into the story with little to no explanation. Waller has made a squad from different versions of the characters from different multiverserses, and our SS have to stop her. I'll say this was confusing and didn't really go anywhere.

This book is kinda up and down, and more down if I'm being honest. If you like these characters... I guess check it out?
Profile Image for Sesana.
6,278 reviews329 followers
August 25, 2021
Probably should have been called Future State: Teen Titans instead of Suicide Squad. About half of the book is connected, but it's through the Titans side, not Suicide Squad. But the Titans don't have a major motion picture coming out this summer, so. At any rate, the Suicide Squad mini that kicks off this collection is fine, but a little confusing. It's set in an alternate world, I think? There's a lot that's skipped, like why this alternate world is killing people from, I guess, the original world. The Teen Titans series is a fairly basic last stand story, but it uses the iconic characters well. And the introduction of Red X to mainstream DC comics is really interesting. Teen Titans leads directly to Shazam. I don't know this character very well, so I don't have an informed opinion about how he was handled. The story is fine, though. Swamp Thing cuts in here, and I was surprised by how interesting I found this story. It's really Swamp Thing's narration that makes it. And finally, Black Adam, a story not advertised on the back of the book. This mini follows directly after Shazam's and seemingly brings this whole storyline to a close. It's set in the very far future, and features characters that I'm not familiar with. Great ending, though, one that may actually affect the current DC timeline. Nothing here is great, but none of them are bad, either.
Profile Image for Shane Perry.
480 reviews3 followers
May 23, 2022
One of the better of these Future State collections. Thankfully this one was also in chronological order. Going story by story:

Suicide Squad - An interesting story that takes place more on Earth-3 than Earth-0. It’s hard to hate stories that show Amanda Waller at her most vile

Teen Titans - This one was fine. I’m not a huge Titans fan to begin with, so I found this one a bit difficult to connect to.

Shazam - A really cool story. Loved a lot of the ideas presented in this and there’s some really awesome artwork.

Swamp Thing - I really like Ram V as a writer. This one starts off a bit slow, but it gets better as it goes on. I liked the details about how Swamp Thing created his race of plant people.

Black Adam - Parts of this were pretty good, especially the second issue. Overall, though, I thought this was just okay. A story that takes place so far in the future that almost no one is recognizable, making it a bit hard to care about anyone.
Profile Image for Clay Bartel.
558 reviews
September 8, 2021
I've now read:

Future State
Superman
The Next Batman
Suicide Squad
Justice League

Reading Next
Future State
Wonder Woman
Dark Detective

Ultimately with any of these collections some of these stories really hit, and others miss.

My 2 favorite from this volume was Suicide Squad and Shazam! (it's about Black Adam)

My least favorite story... ie I couldn't even bring myself to read it, Swamp Thing.

The only time I've felt interested in Swamp Thing was in the Injustice series.

On to the last 2 volumes

If your interested in a bunch of short story altered universe tales then I recommend you check out the series Future State.
Profile Image for Robin.
129 reviews1 follower
March 28, 2023
Sigh.
I do it every time. Pick up a comic book in a bookstore, and flick through, spot a few characters I like, nod satisfyingly at the artwork, think it's fairly sizeable at £15.99, hell! Let's go for it.
Then I read it.
Well try to.
This is yet another rag tag collection of bit-stories from some massively ridiculous arc, none of which give you any backstory or any conclusion.
200 odd pages later I have no idea what just happened.
Swamp Thing sort of saved the day (and the book).
It got 1 star for the artwork and 1 star for including Bunker and Crush, and the lol of Gold Beetle.
Lesson, learned.
392 reviews9 followers
October 6, 2021
The Majority of the stories are just not good. I only liked, Future State: Swamp thing and The Black Adam. I like to thing I have basic knowledge of the DC Universe but some of these stories just didn't make sense in terms of plot. For the Teen Titans, I did read the Future State: The Flash, so I knew it was a loose continuation. With that being said, I did not like the plot.

The two stories I did like were the last in the book so for the Future State books, this is one book to skip.
Profile Image for Peyton F.
114 reviews1 follower
March 6, 2022
There is no real interconnectedness with this collection, but I think that because of that, one could jump to whatever they wanted to read. The stand outs for me had to be the black Adam story, Suicide Squad, and swamp thing. The various writers, with their various ideas, made interesting stories that were fun to read, but there was no cohesive nature to the overall arc. It makes me want to read more of future state, though.
Profile Image for Ross.
1,545 reviews
May 28, 2022
An anthology of some of the two issue Future State stories...

It's basically a 'What If?' time jump for DC. Didn't enjoy it. (Honestly, large parts of Future State are forgettable)

Bonus: That doesn't mean these things are NOT going to happen (double negative=positive). You can see the Teen Titans drifting towards parts of this story...
Profile Image for Louis Skye.
652 reviews8 followers
January 3, 2022
I don’t think I was interested enough in these characters to enjoy this book. The stories also seemed rushed and there was a ton of exposition when it wasn’t needed.

Art was great though. Very rich and vibrant design and colours.
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