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Future State: The Next Batman #4
Future State: The Next Batman #4
The next Batman goes head-to-head with the Magistrate’s shock troops to protect the...guilty?! It’s a savage running battle across Gotham City, and it will have the next Dark Knight fighting overwhelming odds to prove that justice still lives in the heart of a broken city.
In the finale of “Batgirls,” after discovering the person locked in the high-security cell is the one who’s been sending out “Batman Lives” signals to the Resistance, Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain must work together to make sure they take that person when they escape their prison!
Plus, in the conclusion of “Gotham City Sirens,” Catwoman and the new android Siren hide out in Poison Ivy’s newly built paradise, where they discuss their past relationships, including what Catwoman has-or had-with Batman. But when Peacekeeper forces arrive, the new Siren will have to make a sacrifice to save her friends.
In the finale of “Batgirls,” after discovering the person locked in the high-security cell is the one who’s been sending out “Batman Lives” signals to the Resistance, Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain must work together to make sure they take that person when they escape their prison!
Plus, in the conclusion of “Gotham City Sirens,” Catwoman and the new android Siren hide out in Poison Ivy’s newly built paradise, where they discuss their past relationships, including what Catwoman has-or had-with Batman. But when Peacekeeper forces arrive, the new Siren will have to make a sacrifice to save her friends.
64 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 16, 2021
4 people are currently reading
9 people want to read
About the author
John Ridley
217 books92 followersJohn Ridley IV (born October 1965)[2] is an American screenwriter, television director, novelist, and showrunner, known for 12 Years a Slave, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He is also the creator and showrunner of the critically acclaimed anthology series American Crime. His most recent work is the documentary film Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.
Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
February 18, 2021
As always, the Next Batman remains the strongest of the Future State titles, in my opinion. It's a very solid story, it didn't feel cut short the way a lot of the others have and the characterization was strong. The themes were clear throughout and I'm sad it appears to have ended here.
The Batgirls story, once again, felt off in terms of the characterization and writing. The speech from our mystery prisoner was a little odd in that it didn't feel right coming from that character. Cass and Steph didn't sound like themselves either which, once again, leads to my strange feeling that it was meant to be Jason Todd in Steph's position instead. Anyway, I like Cass and Steph working together, as OOC as they seemed.
The Batgirls story, once again, felt off in terms of the characterization and writing. The speech from our mystery prisoner was a little odd in that it didn't feel right coming from that character. Cass and Steph didn't sound like themselves either which, once again, leads to my strange feeling that it was meant to be Jason Todd in Steph's position instead. Anyway, I like Cass and Steph working together, as OOC as they seemed.
February 21, 2021
The Next Batman's conclusion is decent enough, but I was hoping for a bigger shake up and reveals in the Fox household. I preferred the active bits of TNB we got to see in the Dark Detective and Nightwing titles where he is very much Batman-esque yet different from Bruce. By comparison, this story is much slower paced and focused more narrowly on the fine lines of justice and family bonds.
Batgirls comes to a satisfying end with more action and less text. It was nice to have a panel of The Resistance akin to the one in Nightwing 2, and even better to watch Oracle's part play out.
I don't like Gotham City Sirens. I wasn't a fan of the first installment. This one captured my interest in a few panels, but I don't care for the overall vibe, so I'm not considering it in my rating. Based on this short story, I doubt I'd ever pick this title up.
Batgirls comes to a satisfying end with more action and less text. It was nice to have a panel of The Resistance akin to the one in Nightwing 2, and even better to watch Oracle's part play out.
I don't like Gotham City Sirens. I wasn't a fan of the first installment. This one captured my interest in a few panels, but I don't care for the overall vibe, so I'm not considering it in my rating. Based on this short story, I doubt I'd ever pick this title up.
April 3, 2021
A solid finish for this future state series with the new batman. The only thing that sucks is the backup issues are snooze fest.
February 24, 2021
Batman story: 2½⭐
When making a new character it's always best to actually let the reader know *a little* about them, and not just presume we're going to care. This could have been Bruce Wayne as Batman and I'd have been none the wiser tbh. Disappointing. You only get 1 “first” for something like this and it was dreadfully done.
Batgirls story: 0⭐
One of the worst things I've read, honestly. I have no words for how atrocious this was.
Gotham City Sirens story: 1⭐
Yeah, this wasn't much better. It's dumb, and not in a good way.
When making a new character it's always best to actually let the reader know *a little* about them, and not just presume we're going to care. This could have been Bruce Wayne as Batman and I'd have been none the wiser tbh. Disappointing. You only get 1 “first” for something like this and it was dreadfully done.
Batgirls story: 0⭐
One of the worst things I've read, honestly. I have no words for how atrocious this was.
Gotham City Sirens story: 1⭐
Yeah, this wasn't much better. It's dumb, and not in a good way.
February 23, 2021
The conclusion of the main story was anticlimactic. I felt like the prison story was more engaging. Even the third story about the cyborg that teams up with Catwoman and Poison Ivy was more interesting. I like Tim Fox as the new Batman but this final chapter of The Next Batman didn’t do it for me. I will say this though, my copy had a variant cover done by Jim Lee so the cover art is nothing short of flawless.
February 26, 2021
Solid end to this series!
March 8, 2021
Like most readers, I was expecting more. The Batgirls story had a great ending, and so did Gotham City Sirens. But Tim Fox deserved a little more epicness.
June 8, 2021
I comment about the 4 leaflets together.
There are 2 backup stories with each, which makes it a total of 12 issues worth of pages.
About the main story's art, it was too simple in the first issue, but the 3 next issues were better (the first issue is an introduction and the next 3 are a continuous case). At the end, we do not know how and why this character became Batman (and why he has any ability to be a Batman at all), which is disappointing because that is basically what readers would care the most about in this event. The story itself is just a case like any other (no villain, just nobodies) so we just follow this new Batman for 3 issues on a random case (nothing is at stake for the big picture) all while we learn very litle about him and virtually nothing new about Gotham or the Magistrate. I will read the new mini-serie about the Fox family to find out more, but I have the feeling I will be disappointed (it would not be digital first if it was anything important to the main plot).
For the backup stories, I enjoyed the Outsiders the most, then the Batgirls. The Arkham Knight had nothing important at stake in my view, but had good art and a diverse cast. The Gotham Siren was just not my taste, both story and art but it reads ok. All together I would rate the mix above average: 3.5 stars. But if you read only the main story, I would rate it lower (or very low considering that each leaflet is $9).
With all the Gotham / Magistrate backup stories and main issues (that must be half the setting of the entire Future State event) the timeline is very confusing (I read all Future State).
When / how do we place the Luke Fox we saw in the Grifter backup story (Dark Detective books)? How do we link the Spoiler from the Robin Reborn books to the one in the Batgirls backup story here? And many other similar comments. DC owes us a reading order and some background info to fill the gaps...
There are 2 backup stories with each, which makes it a total of 12 issues worth of pages.
About the main story's art, it was too simple in the first issue, but the 3 next issues were better (the first issue is an introduction and the next 3 are a continuous case). At the end, we do not know how and why this character became Batman (and why he has any ability to be a Batman at all), which is disappointing because that is basically what readers would care the most about in this event. The story itself is just a case like any other (no villain, just nobodies) so we just follow this new Batman for 3 issues on a random case (nothing is at stake for the big picture) all while we learn very litle about him and virtually nothing new about Gotham or the Magistrate. I will read the new mini-serie about the Fox family to find out more, but I have the feeling I will be disappointed (it would not be digital first if it was anything important to the main plot).
For the backup stories, I enjoyed the Outsiders the most, then the Batgirls. The Arkham Knight had nothing important at stake in my view, but had good art and a diverse cast. The Gotham Siren was just not my taste, both story and art but it reads ok. All together I would rate the mix above average: 3.5 stars. But if you read only the main story, I would rate it lower (or very low considering that each leaflet is $9).
With all the Gotham / Magistrate backup stories and main issues (that must be half the setting of the entire Future State event) the timeline is very confusing (I read all Future State).
When / how do we place the Luke Fox we saw in the Grifter backup story (Dark Detective books)? How do we link the Spoiler from the Robin Reborn books to the one in the Batgirls backup story here? And many other similar comments. DC owes us a reading order and some background info to fill the gaps...
February 25, 2021
Better than the last issue, but the Next Batman books have been consistently the most underwhelming, disappointing books in Future States. The actual Batman stories just aren’t that interesting and wrap up so quickly, there’s almost no real consequences or sense of danger or urgency. This one ends arguably the most abrupt in an extremely unsatisfying way. There’s pages of an almost dialogue-free car chase me then a quick resolution to all of that and then it just...ends. It’s so anticlimactic and disappointing. I guess if anything I know to stay away if DC keeps the character and wrote around. This title should have been the standout one, what a shame.
The Batgirls story gave me the excitement I wanted from the Batman story and the Gotham City Sirens story gave me the entertainment value I wanted. I figured the ending of the GCS story last issue, but I love seeing Ivy and Selina interact in anything I can get. Seeing the different Batgirls interact is also something I’ve needed for a while and the backdrop of an Arkham riot only further proved that a series of all of them together would be fun, action-packed and entertaining as it should be. At least I enjoyed reading this entire thing more than the last one, but it’s truly something when the two back-up stories are better than the main story.
The Batgirls story gave me the excitement I wanted from the Batman story and the Gotham City Sirens story gave me the entertainment value I wanted. I figured the ending of the GCS story last issue, but I love seeing Ivy and Selina interact in anything I can get. Seeing the different Batgirls interact is also something I’ve needed for a while and the backdrop of an Arkham riot only further proved that a series of all of them together would be fun, action-packed and entertaining as it should be. At least I enjoyed reading this entire thing more than the last one, but it’s truly something when the two back-up stories are better than the main story.
February 18, 2021
Mostly satisfying conclusion to this series. Definitely an improvement from last issue. The artwork is solid. The story heavy on action with some meaningful, dramatic moments weaved again.
Batgirls was again by far the best of the three stories. Great art, pacing, action, dialogue and general storytelling. Ayala is great at subtle yet powerful character development.
Gotham City Sirens was still overly wordy but improved. The story slowed down making it flow better and allowed the interpersonal relationships of the three women to stand out more.
Batgirls was again by far the best of the three stories. Great art, pacing, action, dialogue and general storytelling. Ayala is great at subtle yet powerful character development.
Gotham City Sirens was still overly wordy but improved. The story slowed down making it flow better and allowed the interpersonal relationships of the three women to stand out more.
February 19, 2021
Laura Braga’s art is already amazing. That plus having gotten to see more of the Fox family? So good.
The whole page where you see Cass advancing on the blueprint is genius. And Steph and Jefferson quoting Homer to each other was also a fond moment. But Barbara and Dick kissing? That straight up made me feel uncomfortable. I still see them like siblings at most. If anything, they left Steph and Cass’ relationship (whatever that might be) pretty ambiguous.
Dee-Dee here asking Selina about “Bruce W🍆😳🦇”- I uhm, yeah nope, we’re not doing that lol.
The whole page where you see Cass advancing on the blueprint is genius. And Steph and Jefferson quoting Homer to each other was also a fond moment. But Barbara and Dick kissing? That straight up made me feel uncomfortable. I still see them like siblings at most. If anything, they left Steph and Cass’ relationship (whatever that might be) pretty ambiguous.
Dee-Dee here asking Selina about “Bruce W🍆😳🦇”- I uhm, yeah nope, we’re not doing that lol.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 28, 2021
The main story had a satisfying but not great conclusion. The other two stories were nothing spectacular but had their moments. The last story had the backbone of a cool and fun AI story but didn't flesh it out enough to make it very impactful. Overall this was a fun read but mostly forgettable.
March 3, 2021
The Next Batman was okay, but it ends with a whimper. As far as the other storylines go, if these stories are truly the “future state” of DC comics, that state is bleak at best.
April 16, 2021
NEXT BATMAN: ⭐⭐⭐
BATGIRLS: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
GOTHAM CITY SIRENS: ⭐
BATGIRLS: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
GOTHAM CITY SIRENS: ⭐
May 6, 2021
I love this new Batman character for some reason.
June 18, 2021
Snooze fest... weird art, & lazy storytelling.
2/5
2/5
July 14, 2021
The next batman conclusion
September 29, 2021
The core story was pretty good. This go around I didn't even bother with the additional stories.
October 20, 2021
Nada. Soso y encima con moralina barata.
October 2, 2022
The final story with Ivy and Catwoman I found most interesting.
January 16, 2025
I think you have to have a basic understanding of DC and the multiverse to full understand the stories but still some good artwork.
May 26, 2025
this one actually went by so quick, everyone was making some interesting decisions. sooo is peacekeeper 1 either the brother or jason?
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews