Rating: 3/5 – The Seed of a New Stormwatch is Planted, and a New Superman Revealed.
by ComicSpectrum reviewer David Akers.
We’re about a third of the way into DC’s latest weekly “event” comic, with multiple writers used to tell this story. This cries out for a comparison to 52, the series that brought the multiverse back to their mainstream comics and ultimately set the stage for the New 52. Unfortunately, for me, this series loses that match-up.
In this latest issue, Lois Lane debates publishing the truth about the masked Superman, while Ray Palmer meets with a Shadow Lord, those responsible for watching over Stormwatch. Meanwhile, the Batman from Beyond, Terry McGinnis, is trying to break into Terrifitech, and Deathstroke faces off against a Brother Eye-controlled Power Girl. Similar to the 52 series, this book has a bevy of parents. It lists Brian Azzarello, Jeff Lemire, Dan Jurgens, and Keith Giffen as writers, and Scot Eaton as penciller. The problem for me, in this case, is that where each issue of 52 felt like a chapter in a longer story, these issues have felt more like sentences. The issues feel short, and it never seems like much happens. The art is good, and the writing is fine, but the whole story moves glacially. There are four plot lines, and they don’t really interact, so no book spends more than a handful pages on any one story.
I want to like this series more than I do, as a DC fan I should like it more than I do. Its writers have proven track records. Its art is great, with the realistic style that I prefer in modern comics. But where DC’s 2006-2007 series 52 left me wanting the next issue, Future’s End mostly leaves me feeling mostly indifferent and dissatisfied. 19 issues in, I’d really like to see more about the war which lead up to the events in the book, an often mentioned but never explained war with Earth 2. There’s still time for this series to pick up the pace but one has to wonder about who (other than hard core DC fans) is still picking this up after 19 weeks and will new readers jump on in the middle of the story?
Reviewed by: David Akers
(david@comicspectrum.com) – also found at www.davidakers.com
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