Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Futures End: Batman #1
DC Comics
Fawkes, Snyder & Aco
Batman, five years in the future, is an old and beaten man. True to form he is not willing to give up anything. This comic presents a Bruce Wayne that is no longer capable of being Batman but refuses to give in to anything in this book that mixes Batman with a perfect villain: AI Lex Luthor. I recommend checking this out.
Alfred, who appears to have walked off the set of Breaking Bad, is trying to convince Bruce to give it all up. Plenty of the other Bats now prowl around Gotham and a Batman isn't needed anymore. Well, not a Bruce Wayne Batman anyway. Wayne will have none of it. His back broken, but not left a cripple, he has limited time in an exoskeleton to make one final play at getting some cloning data. All he has to do is break into Lex Luthor's building and steal something.
The bulk of the book is Batman racing against the clock as his exoskeleton's systems have a short shelf life. Batman is confronted by the fantastic Lex Luthor artificial intelligence security system. The AI is simply Luthor throwing barbs at Batman while springing trap after trap. The book's ending is very good but fairly predictable.
The only downfall here is the overuse of robots and broken backs that DC seems to contain in some many of its books. It seems like back injuries are the best way to sideline a character and robots are the easiest thing to throw at a character because its disposable and it can make for a cool explosion. As a reader I find them both to be lazy and boring. I expect way more from Scott Snyder.
The book excels with the inclusion of Luthor. This comic book hits every single line of dialogue perfectly and succinctly. The book also nails Alfred's dialogue but his visualization is on the wrong side of different.
The artwork struggles in this book big time. There are entire sequences that I can't make out. Specifically after the first booby trap in Luthor's building the book gets too confusing panel to panel. In some cases it works but for the most part it looks messy. I felt the art held this comic book back.
Futures End Batman is a good book. It misses in a lot of spots, but it works well for the individual story it needs to tell. I would have preferred a little more explanation as to how Bruce Wayne aged so much in just five years but it's a personal preference. The cover is among the worst in this 3D event but that's just a gimmick. Overall, this is a good comic book to pick up.
4 out of 5 Geek Goggles
