Thursday, September 11, 2014

Batman: Future's End #1 - A Review

Five Years From Now, Bruce Wayne is a beaten and broken man. His spirit burns as bright as ever but though the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak. And though he has inspired scores of heroes to continue his war on crime, he feels that there must always be a Batman... and that it must be him. So begins a mission... his last mission... to raid the private lab of Lex Luthor and steal what he needs to create a perfect clone - a vessel for his memories that can be Batman eternal.


Once one gets past the outrageous premise and how horribly out of character it is for Bruce to deny his base mortality in this fashion, there is an enjoyable story at the heart of Batman: Future's End #1. That story - perhaps not coincidentally - exists independent of the Future's End setting and could have been told in a modern-day Batman story were the McGuffin to be changed. I speak of the scene in which Batman pits himself against Lex Luthor's security and we find that... well, the panel below says it all. Classic Luthor.


Unfortunately, this book is cursed with some of the worst artwork I've seen in a professional comic. Indeed, I had to look up the names of ACO and FCO Plascencia to find out why their artwork and their names seemed familiar. The good news is I figured it out - they were the same art team that drove me off of Constantine with their misshapen figures, poor visual storytelling and horrible coloring.

Enjoyable as it is watching Bruce and Lex match wits, it isn't worth suffering through this artwork.  Nothing is.  Skip this one, Bat-Fans.  There's nothing of value to be found here.

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