The New 52: Futures End #29 Review
By Steve Lam
Writers: Brian Azzarello, Keith Giffen, Dan Jurgens, Jeff Lemire
Artists: Patrick Zircher, Hi-Fi, Ryan Sook
Futures End #28 Recap
On Cadmus Island, Lois Lane parachutes onto the beach. Escaping from pursuing OMACs, she runs into a badly damaged Earth 2 Red Tornado. In Las Vegas, Fifty Sue interrupts a meeting between Franklin Rock and King Faraday. In an unexpected turn of events, Fifty Sue assumes that the team sent to kill her will be her team for raiding Cadmus Island. In New York City, Batman and Batman Beyond battle each other, with the final result of Batman Beyond and Plastique escaping. Tim Drake learns from Ronnie Raymond that Jason Rusch was the last to contact Madison Payne. Entering Dr. Yamazake’s apartment, Jason learns that Yamazake wants to eliminate all known superheroes. At the university lab, Yamazake prepares Madison for use as a test subject for his transporter.
Spoiler-Free Reaction
Futures End #29 is an excellent action-packed issue that concentrates on one event. At the end, all parties experience a tragedy and a new twist.
Plot Details and Spoilers and Deaths: Oh My!
Columbia University, New York: Searching for Madison Payne, Tim Drake and Ronnie Raymond face off against Cadmus security guards. Fighting off the last of them, Tim finally reveals himself as a former Teen Titan to Ronnie.
Jason Rush arrives and is quickly confronted by Cadmus security guards. Grabbing one of their key cards, Jason gains access to Dr. Yamazake’s lab. He enters to find Madison trapped in a teleporter, and Yamazake initiating his experiment. Seeing Jason, Yamazake calls him Firestorm, and blames him for sabotaging the experiments.
Outside, Tim and Ronnie try to fight their way into the lab. With the heavily armored door about to close, Ronnie jumps through, and Tim remains outside to hold the guards off. Initially gaining the upper-hand, Tim is quickly overpowered due to his years of inactivity.
In the lab, Jason warns Yamazake that the magnetic field matrix is unbalanced. Still paranoid and angry, Yamazake strikes Jason with a wrench, knocking him out. Yamazake proceeds to increase power to the teleporter.
As Cadmus security guards are about to detonate the door with explosives, Tim sums up all his willpower and defeats the rest of the guards.
As Ronnie rushes into the lab, he opens the transporter tube in an attempt to save Madison. Ignoring Jason’s pleas to stop, Yamazake proceeds with the experiment. With no way out, Ronnie and Jason initiate their transformation into Firestorm. As Jason reaches out to Ronnie, Ronnie starts to phase and disintegrate. Knowing that his end is near, Ronnie makes a heartfelt apology to Jason. Suddenly, the university lab building explodes with the energy from the teleporter, and a figure flies into the night sky — it’s Madison as Firestorm.
Internally calling out to Ronnie, Jason learns that Madison combined with him to form Firestorm. As Tim searches for Madison, he finds a badly burned Ronnie. Succumbing to his wounds, Ronnie dies in Tim’s arms. Recollecting back to the tragic deaths of the Teen Titans, Tim regrets his years of inactivity, which led to the diminishment of his skills and, ultimately, his ability to save Madison.
Wrapping It Up
Futures End #29 is the latest winner in the Futures End series. Not only is it action-packed, the story actually moves, and we get one hell of a result. By converging the stories of Ronnie’s and Jason’s falling out, Tim’s hiding of his identity from Madison, and Yamazake’s obsession with bringing down superheroes, we got a multi-layered drama paired up with some great action sequences. All parties are at their unselfish finest in this issue. We have Tim teaming up with Ronnie, and Jason trying to stop Yamazake. In the end, Ronnie performs the ultimate sacrifice, and both him and Jason resolve their conflict — albeit a bit too late. With a new Firestorm, and a new tragedy, I’m geared up for the next issue of Futures End.