Futures End #44

Writers
• Brian Azzarello
• Jeff Lemire
• Dan Jurgens
• Keith Giffen
Artists
• Patrick Zircher
• Andy MacDonald
Colors
• Hi-Fi
Letters
• Corey Breen
Cover
• Ryan Sook
Assistant Editor
• David Piña
Editor
• Joey Cavalieri
Group Editor
• Matt Idelson
Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.

Once again, we get another stellar cover by Sook. Superman is holding New York City on his shoulders, which is exactly what happens in this issue. I love the colors and the emotion. Say what you want to about Futures End, but at least it had good covers.

Even though we skipped a few issues, it doesn't seem like we missed much. Brainiac is still lifting New York high into the sky, and the entire Justice League is trying to stop him. Well, actually most of the heroes are trying to protect people from collapsing buildings, which is all the Flash does in this issue.

And that's all we see of him in this issue. So here are the rest of the highlights: Terry McGinnis, the Batman from the future, teams up with Tim Drake, the former Robin. But Terry was actually too late to stop Brother Eye, since Batman, Mr. Terrific and the Atom activated the unbelievably super-powerful computer to take down Brainiac's defenses. Atom then shrinks down Brainiac and imprisons him in a small ball, while Superman catches the falling city.

The Good:

Well, I guess it was nice to see how and why Brother Eye was activated. Superman catching the city was interesting and exciting, but not particularly original. And the fight with Brainiac could have been a lot better if more heroes were involved. There were a whole bunch of them here, but just like the Flash, all they did was protect random citizens from falling debris.

The Bad:

Little to no Flash. Futures End was a weekly series written and drawn by a committee. From issue to issue, you never knew how the art was going to be, or who the story would focus on. But there were two things you could always count on: A solid cover by Ryan Sook, and the Flash to be undervalued. At least we didn't see Flash get his butt kicked by some random villain this time, but all we saw him do was save one guy out of a falling building. There is so much more he can do, but none of these writers were interested in exploring that.

Redundant action. When the New 52 started, Grant Morrison took over Action Comics, which featured an early version of Superman wearing jeans and a T-shirt. His first major adventure was saving Metropolis from Brainiac. This issue presented the exact same scenario, and nobody mentioned it. There was a lot of references to Superman's role in the unseen war five years ago, but not a single person remembered Superman and Brainiac doing the exact. Same. Thing. Eleven years ago. If you're going to repeat the past (that's in the same continuity), then you should at least mention it.

Final score: 3 out of 10

Next time, we'll wrap up this futuristic nonsense with Futures End #48.