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The New 52: Futures End #44 Review

By Steve Lam

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Writers: Brian Azzarello, Keith Giffen, Dan Jurgens, Jeff Lemire

Artists: Patrick Zircher, Andy MacDonald, Hi-Fi, Ryan Sook

Futures End #43 Recap

In New York City, Brainiac has started to manually lift Manhattan.  Brother Eye introduces himself to the world and attempts to rouse the crowd into uniting.  Inside Terrifitech, cyborg Plastique attacks Tim Drake, Key, Coil, and the present day Plastique.  Batman Beyond crashes through the window and temporarily saves them, but is quickly overpowered by cyborg Plastique.  Plastique uses her explosive powers and saves the team from her future counterpart.  As Mr. Terrific witnesses Brainiac successfully abduct Manhattan — realizing the error in his ways — he asks Batman for his help.

Spoiler-Free Reaction

Futures End #44 has all of our heroes coming together for the goal of saving New York City.  The action is fast and differences are put aside just as quickly.

Plot Details and Spoilers and Deaths: Oh My!

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New York City: Mr. Terrific shuts down all his firewalls while enlisting the help of the Atom.  As a building is about to collapse, Superman uses his heat vision to weld the infrastructure, giving him enough time to fight Brainiac.  With other buildings are also falling apart and collapsing, Firestorm and Doctor Polaris work together to stabilize them.

Inside Terrifitech, Tim Drake agrees to help Batman Beyond in preventing the apocalyptic future.  Outside, the hybrid Batman/Joker cyborg is again active, stalking the team.

The Atom, Batman, and Mr. Terrific attempt to execute an operating system that’s key to their plan.  However, S.H.A.D.E.’s and Terrifitech’s servers are not powerful enough.

Superman approaches Brainiac and is immediately hit by a powerful beam.  He fights through it with his will power and is able to land a punch on Brainiac’s face.  Brainiac is knocked backwards and requires time to fully restore his neurological processors.  Seeing his opportunity, the Atom flies in with millions of uSpheres.  With Brother Eye confusing Brainiac’s defenses, the uSpheres encompass and cover Brainiac — shutting down his machine.

As New York City starts to fall back down, earthquakes are detected all over the world.  Superman flies into action at super-speed and starts to lift the city on his shoulders.

Brainiac recovers, but has now been shrunken to a tiny size.  The Atom picks him up and imprisons him in one of the uSpheres.

Wrapping It Up

Futures End #44 seemed like the conclusion of the series’ “epic” battle.  I put “epic” in quotes because it seemed to easy.  Unless there’s a twist coming up, the war between the Justice League, Brainiac, and Brother Eye turned out to be extremely short and uneventful.  Could the last four issues (#45 – #48) be an epilogue?  Or could they contain the true final battle of Futures End?  I’m betting on a twist, as Brainiac should not be that easy to defeat.  Knowing how Brainiac operates, we can expect this defeat to be all part of his plan.  Here’s to hoping that this tiny skirmish of superpowers is just a misdirection.

Next: Miss the last issue? Catch up with a review of Futures End #43

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