The New 52: Futures End #34 Review
By Steve Lam
Writers: Brian Azzarello, Keith Giffen, Dan Jurgens, Jeff Lemire
Artists: Scott Kolins, Patrick Zircher, Hi-Fi, Ryan Sook
Futures End #33 Recap
On the Ant Farm in Earth’s orbit, Stormwatch battles S.H.A.D.E. As Father Time releases powerful monsters against the team, the Atom has ventured into the brain of Father Time, and is face-to-face with Father Time’s symbiote. In Las Vegas, Fifty Sue has been sent to intimidate Ethan Boyer into helping King Faraday and General Rock. After that, she has a chance encounter with Justin, and is able to reconnect with Grifter. In New York City, Batman Beyond, who’s not convinced that Brother Eye is dead because the present is still the same, continuously has A.L.F.R.E.D. run diagnostics to check if Brother Eye still functioning. At Dr. Yamazake’s lab, Firestorm arrives, hoping to find clues on how to separate, but is suddenly attacked by Doctor Polaris.
Spoiler-Free Reaction
Futures End #34 goes back to the main conflicts presented in earlier issues. The issue may be front-heavy due to most of the action taking place at the start of the story. Nonetheless, it keeps the pace going with some new developments.
Plot Details and Spoilers and Deaths: Oh My!
Columbia University, New York: Firestorm faces off with Doctor Polaris. Not knowing how to use her powers, Firestorm is initially pummeled by him. Jason Rusch warns Madison Payne that she’ll need to learn quickly. As Doctor Polaris throws a cement truck at her, Firestorm rearranges its molecules to form a giant teddy bear. Due to this odd behavior, Firestorm grabs the attention of Doctor Polaris.
Ant Farm, Earth’s Orbit: The Atom refuses to give up the Engineer to Father Time and S.H.A.D.E. As he fights with him, Father Time’s external form grows unstable — causing him to partially revert to a previous older body. The Atom finally uses his reduction array and shrinks Father Time. As Father Time’s body liquefies into a protoplasmic state, the Atom emerges and enlarges, holding Father Time in his hands. Refusing to help Father Time, Frankenstein is shot and critically wounded by a S.H.A.D.E. soldier.
Las Vegas, Nevada: As Mercy, Voodoo, Banger, and Mash argue about the change in their mission to not kill Fifty Sue, they’re approached by Justin. When he explains his run-in with Sequel, the team realize that they’re dealing with Fifty Sue. From this conversation, a piece of information that grabs Mercy’s attention is the fact that Grifter is still alive.
In General Rock’s office, King Faraday plans to use Grifter, Lana Lang, and Fifty Sue to retrieve the lost DNA vault. When Ethan Boyer starts to taunt Fifty Sue, she dissolves his hand with a single thought.
New York City: A.L.F.R.E.D. alerts Batman Beyond that he’s detected an anomaly, making it possible that Brother Eye is still functioning. Unknown to Batman Beyond, Batman is listening in on the conversation and has hacked A.L.F.R.E.D. After a final few words, A.L.F.R.E.D. shuts down.
35 Years in the Future: Brother Eye prepares to send the hybrid Batman/Joker cyborg back in time to correct any timeline mistakes. Before the cyborg is sent, Mr. Terrific tells Batman to fight Brother Eye’s control. Arriving in the past, the Batman/Joker cyborg immediately intercepts Plastique.
Wrapping It Up
I’ve been hoping for the Firestorm / Doctor Polaris fights to be one-issue long stories, but they’ve gone back to the multi-plot form. At this point, since we’re this far into Futures End, I wouldn’t mind seeing each issue dedicated to a plot that’s already been teased. It would certainly help with the character development and the overall big picture. The writers were doing a pretty good job recently in tying things together, but the past two issues seem a bit too disparate for me. Maybe they’re saving the single-plot styles for the final few issues.