New 52: Futures End #2 Review

Is this really a weekly series that absolutely needs to exist? Read on to find out.

The official description from DC:

The entire DC Universe gathers to mourn a fallen hero! Plus the secrets of the DCU five years later arrive at Lois Lane’s door!

This journey into the near future continues to push forward. The creative team dives right into what feels like a proper extension of last month’s outing, and even though the main story barely moves we’re given a few additional wrinkles that are bound to build up minor interest for next week’s inevitable entry.

Brian Azzarello, Jeff Lemire, Dan Jurgens and Keith Giffen work together to realize this shindig and with these rock solid writers at its back the latest installment benefits. Their strong dialogue crafts a believable extension and reaction to Oliver Queen‘s apparent death, as the duo that makes up the super powered entity known as Firestorm are forced to confront their shortcomings. Meanwhile Batman Beyond (Terry McGinnis), starts to form a strategy to prevent yet another future. Add in Lois Lane and you have a recipe for a quick but competent decent into the streets of this shared universe.

The illustrations handed in by Jésus Merino complement the written word, as the talent offers solid renditions and simple pencil strokes to fully realize the large and varied cast. From Mr. Terrific to The Flash there’s a lot of visual information to digest, and it can be hard to balance all these familiar superheroes but this illustrator is certainly up to the challenge. Add in the colors by Hi-Fi and it becomes readily understandable that this is the right take on this space in the very near future, despite some occasional hiccups regarding familiar faces.

The New 52: Futures End #2 continues to spin its wheels but it just doesn’t feel like it goes far enough to completely justify its price tag. Still the works of the creative team can’t be denied or ignored, as the end result is fitting display that would make any dedicated audience member pleased but perhaps not entirely thrilled. Recommended.