DC UNIVERSE Month 36(Future State Month 1)

BATMAN/CATWOMAN #2 by Tom King and Clay Mann. In the past, Catwoman and Batman are investigating the death of a mobster. Later, Selina meets with a Joker henchman named Scott. She meets with the Joker and returns a cat necklace she took off the mobster’s body. Later, Batman opens the mobster’s safe, looking for the necklace. Catwoman says the Joker took it, which Batman is skeptical about. Later, he asks her if she stole the necklace and she lies to him and says she did not. In the present, The Phantasm is apparently murdering the Joker’s henchmen, and it’s Scott, who Selena met with in the past. Elsewhere, a man in a bar drinks his whiskey and dies. Again, it seems like the work of Phantasm. The Bat Signal is lit , but it’s not right. Batman and Catwoman arrive and find the Joker, surrendering so he can save himself from Phantasm. In the future, Joker and Catwoman are facing off with each other. She tells him how much she really loved the cat necklace. He goes to get her some water and withdraws a gun from the refrigerator. Joker comes out of the kitchen and shoots at the chair where Selina was sitting. But she isn’t there. Selina gets the jump on Joker and he pulls out a switchblade. Selena grabs the switchblade and slices

DARK NIGHTS: DEATH METAL #7 by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Bryan Hitch, Yanick Paquette, Nathan Fairbairn and Alex Sinclair. While the rest of the combined team of heroes and villains fights their Dark Multiverse counterparts, a gold-plated Wonder Woman battles the Darkest Knight, who propels their fight into 160 million years ago. They end up at the beginning of time where the Darkest Knight reveals she has a choice: let the Hands of creation destroy them all or help him destroy the Hands, and he will save everyone. She pushes him into the raging sun and all goes dark. Diana meets one of The Hands, masquerading as a previous version of Diana, who explains that everything is restored: all history and all stories, meaning everything that has ever been written, from comic stories, to animated tales and live action adventures, is considered in continuity. The Multiverse is now The Omniverse made up of multiple multiverses. Earth-0 is no longer the center of the multiverse, but a part of two opposing poles: Earth-0 at one end and Elseworld at the other. Wonder Woman is missing but characters who died during the course of Death Metal have been restored to life. In space, there is a new headquarters, called The Totality, where heroes and villains have joined together to make sense of it all. In the end, on Earth-0, Sgt. Rock goes into battle with…The Justice Society of America.

FUTURE STATE: AQUAMAN #1 by Brandon Thomas and Daniel Sampere. It’s the year 2030. An older Jackson Hyde, currently Aquaman, escapes from a Neptunian prison before being captured by sharkriders. In a throne room, he tells his captor history. Flashing back six years, Jackson and Andy, Aquaman and Mera’s daughter, have been attacked by Black Manta. Jackson’s job is to protect and train Andy. Suddenly there is a disturbance, and the pair find themselves on another Earth. They discover the Confluence-a portal that connects all oceans on all worlds-and spend time investigating all of the oceans. They encounter an ocean beast and get captured. Jackson gets loose and Andy severs her leg to force him to escape. Back in the throne room, Jackson breaks his chains and, as he fights the guards, he visualizes what he saw before he was captured: the bubble message "Aquawoman Lives."

FUTURE STATE: BATMAN/SUPERMAN #1 by Gene Luen Yang and Ben Oliver. In the year 2025, Superman saves a teenager who is trying to kill himself because he's taken a drug that allows him to morph his face into the shape of an animal. He takes the teen to STAR Labs for treatment and then heads to Gotham-the source of the drug. He meets with Batman, who explains the importance of staying under the Magistrate’s radar. They find a group of teens with animal faces attacking drones. A Peacekeeper droid attempts to arrest them, but Superman destroys the droid, but not before getting captured on surveillance. One of the teens reveals her father, a University Professor, has been captured by the Magistrate. The pair head underground to Old Gotham where they find Mr. Toad has developed the drug to create the False Face Society as an army to destroy the Magistrate. Mr. Toad is the missing University Professor. But instead of leaving to be with his daughter, he takes out a Kryptonite knife and stabs Superman.

FUTURE STATE: CATWOMAN #1 by Ram V and Otto Schmidt. It’s the year 2025. The Magistrate’s officers are loading people onto a train "their own safety." The younger passengers are being sent off to a reformatory school. Selina raises her hand to form a cat shape and speaks a resistance chant. She sneaks away and meets up with Cheshire. Her plan is to board the train, free all the passengers and escape. Selina enters the train car and takes out the first set of guards, freeing prisoners and moving up from car to car. When she reaches the high-risk prisoners, she finds Onomatopoeia, who joins forces with Selina. One of the Magistrate followers is Ms. Canorus. But Ms. Canorus is really Talia in disguise. Selina, Onomatopoeia, and Talia head to the final prisoner car to find Bruce Wayne.

FUTURE STATE: DARK DETECTIVE #1 by Mariko Tamaki, Matthew Rosenberg, Carmine Di Giandomenico and Dan Mora. Set in the year 2027, Nakano is still Mayor and is responsible for banning any vigilantes. The police state known as The Magistrate runs the city and Peacekeepers are responsible for exterminating any capes. The Magistrate has announced that Batman was killed and, days later, announces that Bruce Wayne is also dead. But Bruce has survived the attack from the Peacekeeper-01 and is living on the streets hiding from the Magistrate. But that doesn’t stop him from donning the costume and, while in hiding, fighting crime in Gotham. In the backup, Grifter is trying to get Luke Fox out of Gotham, leading to interactions with the Black Mask Syndicate and the Queen of Clubs herself.

FUTURE STATE: DARK DETECTIVE #2 by Mariko Tamaki, Joshua Williamson, Dan Mora and Giannis Milonogiannis. In a flashback, Bruce gets shot but manages to escape by passing off another body as his. Then he spent the last two years living in poverty while running from the Magistrate. But then he discovers there are micro drones and that’s how the Magistrate found out Bruce Wayne is Batman. In the backup, Red Hood and Ravager are working for the Magistrate and discover that someone has taken control of Mad Hatter tech.

FUTURE STATE: THE FLASH #1 by Brandon Vietti and Dale Eaglesham. Set in 2027, Flash and his team, Max Mercury, Jay Garrick, Avery and Impulse, battle The Calculator, who is working for Checkmate, in an effort to try and save Wally from himself. In the process, Impulse is killed. Wally has been changed by the Speed Force, which has resulted in him taking Barry’s speed powers and killing Wallace West. Using modified thinking caps, the team virtually travels to Japan where Wally is killing the Global Guardians. Wally senses his former friends and attacks them, killing Jay in the process. In the end, Barry goes into his collection of collected weapons from his enemies and tries to figure how to use them to defeat Wally.

FUTURE STATE: GREEN LANTERN #1 by Geoffrey Thorne, Ryan Cady, Tom Raney, Sami Basri, Ernie Altbacker and Clayton Henry. Set in the year 2035 and the Green Lantern Corps has been decimated. The power battery has gone down and the ragtag group, led by John Stewart, are facing off against the followers of the God in Red. In the end, things go badly and G'Nort seems to have been killed. In the first backup, Jessica Cruz goes after the Sinestro Corps and ends up joining them. In the second backup, Guy Gardner ends up on Planet Rerlin and, over a period of 25 years, is treated as the planet’s prophet. But that was before Lobo arrived.

FUTURE STATE: HARLEY QUINN #1 by Stephanie Phillips and Simone Di Meo. It’s the year 2025 and Jonathan Crane enlists Harley to help him catch some criminals.  After numerous successful captures, it is revealed that the biggest fish to catch is Black Mask.

FUTURE STATE: IMMORTAL WONDER WOMAN #1 by Becky Cloonan, Michael W. Conrad, LL McKinney, Jen Bartel and Alitha Martinez. At the end of time, the Amazons, led by Queen Diana, and a dying Swamp Thing are the only intelligent life left on Earth. Diana tries to convince them that it's time to leave Earth and relocate to a world where the Green can survive. But the Amazons have to stay and fight. Elsewhere, New Genesis and Apokolips are being consumed. Big Barda tries to convince Darkseid to join forces and fight the Nothing, but Darkseid decides to let New Genesis and Apokolips die and he heads to Earth to find a new home, running into a very elderly Superman. They fight and crash to Earth. The Amazons join in and Swamp Thing splits himself open and gives Diana a gift. But it may be too late as they are all blasted by Darkseid’s Omega Beams. In the backup, set in 2030, Nubia stops a museum robbery by Grail who's looking for the eighth ancient artifact, as she has already stolen seven. She stuns Nubia and steals the final artifact. Nubia seeks guidance from her Aunt Nancy who tells her that 9 artifacts that can open the door to other worlds. Nancy assures her the ninth piece is safe, but a portal opens up and sucks Nubia away.

FUTURE STATE: JUSTICE LEAGUE #1 by Joshua Williamson, Robson Rocha, Ram V, and Marcio Takara. Set in the year 2040, where there is a new Justice League. Superman (Jon Kent), Wonder Woman (Yara Flor), Green Lantern (Jo Mullein), The Flash ( a female Flash from the Multiverse named Jess), Aquawoman (Andy Curry) and Batman (Tim Fox) make up the team. They discover what was left of The Legion of Doom, consisting of T.O. Morrow, Professor Ivo, Cobalt Blue, the Flood, Despera, Amaz-X, the Screech Owl, and UltraViolet Lantern, has been killed. The team, which has strict rules against fraternizing and revealing their secret identities, investigates with Jo taking the lead. But they get attacked by what appears to be their own members but are actually a White Martian team called the Hyperclan. Their goal: to save the world as The Justice League. In the backup,  Zatanna and Detective Chimp, now possessed by Etrigan the Demon, seek out Constantine, Ragman and Madame Xanadu to battle Merlin before he uses his magic to destroy reality. In the end, they find Khlaid Dr. Fate-and how that his presence will turn the tide.

FUTURE STATE: LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Riley Rossmo. It’s the year 3000 and the Legion of Super-heroes is no longer together as a member of the team betrayed them. Triplicate Girl is now Duo Damsel, Brainiac 5 is now Brainiac 7 and the United Planets is dead following the presumed murder of Chameleon Boy’s mother. But with dangers presented by the Horazz and a group of radicalized aliens who wish to form their own Legion, core members decide to reunite. But why is Element Lad on the run and what did he do to break up the Legion?

FUTURE STATE: KARA ZOR-EL SUPERWOMAN #1 by Marguerite Bennett and Marguerite Sauvage. It’s the year 2050 and Kara Zor-El is seen at the grave of Krypto the Super Dog. They are on the Moon where Kara acts as the protector of the Moon colony that was displaced by Earth. Because of fights with her family and mistrust by residents of the Moon, she lives a sheltered life and has adopted a tenet of pacifism. A ship carrying the alien Lynari crashes on the planet and she explains she is fleeing from her family, that wants a magic jewel embedded in her body. Kara gives her sanctuary and puts her to work around the colony. Lynari’s aunt shows up to kill her and this forces Kara to break her vow and attack.

FUTURE STATE: THE NEXT BATMAN #1 by John Ridley, Brandon Thomas, Paul Jenkins, Nick Derington, Jack Herbert and Sumit Kumar. It’s the year 2025 and the old Batman is dead. There’s a new Batman in town. Luke Fox visits his comatose sister Tamara and that leads to a verbal tussle with his brother Tim, who insists on being called Jace. In the midst of all this, there’s a gang war brewing. But who is the new Batman: Luke or Tim or someone else. In the first backup, Katana and Signal try to fight the good fight in Gotham, battling the Magistrate's followers, led by Kaliber. Black Lightning shows u but is radically altered. In the second backup, the Knights of Arkham including Harvey Dent, Croc, Atomic Skull, Zsasz and Clayface take the fight to the Peacemakers, ending with the death of Peacemaker-12.

FUTURE STATE: THE NEXT BATMAN #2 by John Ridley, Vita Avala, Paula Sevenbergen, Rob Haynes, Aneke, Laura Braga, and Emanuela Lupacchino. Batman finds a body in an alley and begins to investigate but is interrupted by some Magistrate foot soldiers. He dispatches them easily but gets shot by a second group that arrives. Elsewhere, Tanya Fox meets with the Mayor and it becomes obvious that not everyone agrees with the Mayor’s bill authorizing GCPD to shoot on sight. Batman encounters the two assailants from the murder. They are easily taken out but admit they killed the man because he was an online predator who probably killed their daughter. He understands but tells them it is still murder. That’s when the private police force once arrive and aim their weapons at Batman. In the first backup, Cass and Spoiler are in a Magistrate prison with many other heroes and villains. Cass hates Spoiler for betraying the Bat Family, but it turns out that was just part of a ruse allowing her to go under cover. They were with the other prisoners to start a riot against the guards. Meanwhile, below the facility, Barbara Gordon is held captive. In the second backup, Ivy, Selina and an android nicknamed DeeDee spend a night in Slam Bradley’s speakeasy. But, before the night is over, the Magistrate’s police force shows up, shooting Bradley and Selina.

FUTURE STATE: NIGHTWING #1 by Andrew Constant and Nicola Scott. In the year 2025, Nightwing fights against the Magistrate, with an eye on Peacekeeper-01 and Peacekeeper-06, who Dick believes are responsible for Bruce's death. In his base which he has set up in what used to be Arkham, he is visited by the Next Batman, who tells a tale of a girl being kidnapped and apparently killed by the Magistrate's forces.  In the end, Peacekeeper-06, known as “The Mark”, shows up with her forces in a planned fight to the finish.

FUTURE STATE: ROBIN ETERNAL #1 by Meghan Fitzmartin and Eddy Barrows. In the year 2025, Tim Drake is the current Boy Wonder and is fighting back against the Magistrate. The Magistrate has been working on a chemical to upgrade their police force, the Cybers, and make them immortal. The chemical, Lazarus Resin, is based on fluid from the Lazarus Pit. Spoiler helps out briefly but leaves Tim to his own devices as she doesn’t care to see her friends die. Tim tracks down Darcy, who was formerly Shug-R in the We Are Robin team, and, together with Spoiler, they track down the shipment. In the process, Time ends up in the Lazarus Resin and this may be the upgrade he needs.

FUTURE STATE: SHAZAM! #1 by Tim Sheridan and Eduardo Pansica. It’s the year 2029 and it’s two years after the Teen Titans and Shazam took on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. In the JLA Bunker, in what once was Detroit, Shazam leads a new team comprised of Vixen, Miss Martian, Bunker, Powerhouse, and the Question. But Shazam isn’t quite himself. Despite that, the team heads to Iron heights where Giganta and a Manhuter robot break out The Creeper, to take him to Kahndaq. In the course of the battle, the three villains are killed, but no one knows how. Shazam goes off and meets and frees Johnny Thunder, releasing the thunderbolt in the process. The team deduces that Shazam killed the villains and we learn that Shazam had captured Neron, The Four Horsemen and the forces of Hell and locked them up in the Rock of Eternity. Neron splits the two, leaving Billy locked with the demons and the separate personality of Shazam to go out into the world.

FUTURE STATE: SUICIDE SQUAD #1 by Robbie Thompson, Jeremy Adams, Javier Fernandez and Fernando Pasarin. It's the year 2030 and Amanda Waller has a new team called the Justice Squad. It’s made up of Hypnotic Woman (disguised as Wonder Woman), a William Cobb Batman, Conner Kent is the Superman, the Fisherman acting as Aquaman, Clayface is Martian Manhunter, and a new version of Bolt is The Flash. They face off against Mongal, Brainiac, and Sinestro, with Brainiac getting away. When Batman doesn’t follow orders, Waller sets off the brain bomb, killing him. The team heads back to base and Waller reveals she is much more manipulative than before, even suggesting using the Black Lantern ring to resurrect the Crime Syndicate to replace the current team. What we discover is that another team, another Suicide Squad, featuring Peacekeeper, Black Manta, Ocean Master, Cheetah and others, are plotting to take down the Justice Squad. And this is all happening on Earth-3 and they need to take Waller back to Earth-0 to save it. In the backup, it’s the 853^rd Century and Justice Legion Alpha head to the planet of Khandaq to convince Teth-Adam to come out of his self-imposed exile and help them battle The Unkindness. But before he can fully answer, Gold Beetle arrives and she tells them she knows how to save the universe.

FUTURE STATE: SUPERMAN OF METROPOLIS #1 by Sean Lewis, Brandon Easton, John Timms, Valentine De Landro, Cully Hamner and Michael Avon Oeming.The year is 2030 and Jon Kent has taken on the responsibilities of his father. But many of the citizens of Metropolis have become Zealots for Andrej Trojan: the founder of Trojan Solutions. Trojan has combined people with nanotech and has created tech that combines Zealots to Brain Cells: a floating ball made of the burned flesh of Brainiac. Jon uses Kandor technology to shield Metropolis and reduce it in size, but Brain Cell gets involved, tries to convert Kara and takes Metropolis to save it. In the first backup, Shilo Norman as Mister Miracle tries to take out attack drones as he is now the protector of Metropolis while it is in the dome. In the second backup, set six months after, where the Guardian tries to solve the mystery of who is inciting riots and who kidnapped Jimmy Olsen.  

FUTURE STATE: SUPERMAN VS. IMPERIUS LEX #1 by Mark Russell and Steve Pugh. It's the year 2050 and the United Planets are debating the idea of Lex Luthor and his planet Lexor joining the United Planets. Lex is the ruler and he has built robots to steal from neighboring planets. Superman arrives and destroys the robot factory but the people of Lexor attack him. Back at the United Planets, Lois Lane convinces them to let Lex in, as she and Superman that this will eventually lead to his people turning against him. The United Planets agree and put Lois in charge of being his sponsor.

FUTURE STATE: SUPERMAN/WONDER WOMAN #1 by Dan Watters and Leila Del Duca. The year is 2070 and Jon Kent notices two suns in the sky. Over in Sao Paolo, Brazil Yara Flor rescues a falling helicopter but then assaults one of the passengers who is in charge of upgrading the city's highway infrastructure. She then goes to visit Kuat and Iae (the Sun and Moon gods), who live on a ranch. Kuat notices the second son and mounts his flying "sun horse" to battle Solaris. The fight ends in a draw, but the disruption in solar energy is causing natural disasters and messing with Superman's powers. Superman makes a deal that he'll willingly sacrifice himself to Solaris if he loses a test of strength the following day. The next morning, Jon goes through his morning routine, but the solar disruptions cause him to collapse in mid-air.

FUTURE STATE: SUPERMAN WORLDS AT WAR#1 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Brandon Easton, Becky Cloonan, Michael W. Conrad, Jeremy Adams, Mikel Janin, Valentine De Landro, Gleb Melnikov and Siya Oum. It’s 2030 and Smallville is a tourist trap for the cult of Superman, who has gone missing and that has led to theories about what has happened to him. It turns out, he is now a warrior fighting in the arena of Warworld. In the first backup, Shilo Norman finds himself on Warworld and runs into Midnighter along the way. In the second backup, Midnighter discovers a connection between Warworld and Trojan Solutions and it looks like Apollo may have become his greatest enemy. In the final backup, we meet the new Black Racer, who is preparing to lead a rebellion on Warworld.

FUTURE STATE: SWAMP THING #1 by Ram V and Mike Perkins. Welcome to the year 4500. Mankind has vanished, cities are desolate and crumbling, and Swamp Thing is roaming the Earth looking for any survivors. He has created a tribe of Swamp Things, basically, human plants, that live on top of the Statue of Liberty. A fire in the city breaks out and it takes many of the tribe to rescue group members that were exploring it. Later, The Lorax tells them that humans were spotted up north, so the tribe heads there. They find humans hiding in a cave and one of them explains they need help, as the Undying Man has captured Obsidian and prepares to turn the world dark.

FUTURE STATE: TEEN TITANS #1 by Tim Sheridan and Rafa Sandoval. It's the year 2027 and Titans Island has been destroyed, with many members dead including Donna Troy and Wally West, during a battle against the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The current team, including Shazam and a combined Cyborg/Beast Boy, go on a hut for the Spear of Destiny. In the end, Nightwing releases Red X from his prison to join in the hunt.

FUTURE STATE: WONDER WOMAN #1 by Joelle Jones. Set around 2030, Yara Flor  and her flying horse named Jerry, are fighting a hydra in the jungles of Brazil. She kills the beast but Caipora appears and forbids Flor from the beast from her protected jungle, despite Flor’s explaining how she needs the horn of the beast as a weapon to threaten Hades and get him to return her slain Sister Warrior to the land of the living. In exchange for leaving the remains, Caipora offers to escort Flor to the Underworld. They go to the River Styx, but Flor has no money to pay the Ferryman, so she and Caipora try to steal the coins from the recently departed. In the process, they wake Cerberus.

GENERATIONS SHATTERED #1 by Dan Jurgens, Andy Schmidt, Robert Venditti, Ivan Reis, Fernando Pasarin, Aaron Lopresti, Emanuela Lupacchino, Bernard Chang, Yanick Paquette, Kevin Nowlan, Paul Pelletier, John Romita Jr., Doug Braithwaite, Rags Morales and Mike Perkins. Time is being erased by a chronal storm that Kamandi calls a "Goneness". An aged Booster Gold and decides to save Kamandi. He is injured and makes Kamandi go find an army of heroes to defend against the "Goneness". Kamandi collects Clark Kent Superboy from the Legion of Super-Heroes, Steel, Booster Gold, Dr. Light, Starfire, Green Lantern Sinestro and 1939 Batman. The growing team is opposed by the Linear Men along with villains throughout time, all of whom have been mentally altered. Dominus arrives and, with time shattering, the heroes are displaced. In the end, Dominus puts his work of creating a new reality to rest to go home and be with his wife and children. To be continued in GENERATIONS FORGED #1.

LEGION OF SUPERHEROES #12 by Brian Michael Bendis and Ryan Sook. The Legion of Super-Heroes defends New Krypton from Mordru and Rogol Zaar. Saturn Girl blames herself because it was her idea to bring Jon Kent to the 31st century, which caused Rogol Zaar to be involved. Dr. Fate casts Mordru away while Zod sends Rogol Zaar to The Phantom Zone. In the end, Brainiac tells Gold Lantern that he doesn’t get his power ring energy from the Guardians. So who did give him the ring? We may never know as this issue ends the series.