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 853rd 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.
