What was the point of these books? Is there someone at DC Comics who hates Captain Atom? Let's reread Justice League United Futures End #1 & Justice League Futures End #1

Justice League United Futures End #1

Okay, I know this is supposed to be Dawnstar on the cover but... what did they do to her face?

The other three? No idea. Is that Animal Man? Who's in the mask?

Full disclosure before we start this. Have I read any other issues of Justice League United? Nope. How did I miss a book that's set in Canada? No idea. Am i going to be confused while reading these books? Yes. Am I optimistically hoping that this will "fix" the mess that we saw in Legion Lost? Yes.

To continue my admittance of ignorance - I have never read anything about this whole Futures End set of stories. So if I'm asking a bunch of silly questions, do not be surprised. In my defense, if DC Comics has made this story hard to understand for readers who haven't read every single book, that's on them, right? 

Should I be wondering why it's not "Future's End"? I mean, is it multiple futures or one future? And if it's multiple, how is that possible? Are we dealing with a multiverse?

Way too many questions to start a reread. So sorry. Let's dive in, shall we?

We begin on the James Bay Ice Road, five years from now, and a semi-truck driver is heading somewhere with his load of a tank of something. Why five years from now? Let's hope they explain this. Where is James Bay? Between Ontario and Quebec, leading into Hudson's Bay, and it's really, really cold in the winter. It's so cold that they build a 'road' over the frozen ice to get north.

So, basically, not somewhere you want to get in an accident.

Something's blocking his way: a polar bear with electronic attachments. Yeah, it's a bit of a cliche, but it is Northern Canada, so the polar bear isn't a surprise at all. Crazy bit of Northern Canada trivia - did you know that, in some cities, it's illegal to lock your car at night in case someone needs to jump in to escape a polar bear?

The trucker honks and the polar bear responds by blasting the vehicle with lasers that are attached to the side of its head. Or its eyes and the panel is just badly drawn.

He jumps out of his truck and we see the leader of the robotic polar bears, the Demon Raider, or the Ghost of the North, or the Poltergeist is there to steal the trucker's cargo. He's also covered in robotic attachments, much like the polar bear he's riding and the other one beside him.

Who's there to stop our multi-named villain? It's Equinox. The Poltergeist calls her a "she-witch," which I guess is somewhat progressive because we're not just assuming a witch is male, right?

It's "Homeworld: Part 1 of 2" written by Jeff Lemire and art by Jed Dougherty. The colorist is Gabe Eltaeb (or beatle backwards) and the cover that I thought made Dawnstar look horrible was drawn by Mike McKone... which is a shock, because I normally love his stuff.

Urgh... I stupidly did a Google search of Eltaeb's work to see how he ended up with such a last name and discovered that... well... he drew a comic written by Dean Cain. Nuff said, right?

Back to the story. Equinox makes short work of the villain, disconnecting him from the polar bears and setting the animals free. Or as free as they can be when they've had body parts removed and replaced with metal that can freeze in the Canadian tundra. The trucker tells her that his "little girls are your biggest fans!" 

She's suddenly struck by a message from the Martian Manhunter, who looks a lot like Slimer from the Ghostbusters. He needs help, so Equinox flies off...

...to San Diego. More specifically, Animal Man's house. His daughter, Maxine, immediately gives her a welcoming hug and complains that her dad won't fly her around any more. Buddy sends her inside so he can chat with Equinox, or Miiyahbin (or Mii).

She asks Buddy about the message from J'onn and he tells her he can't help - he's retired and he promised his wife, Ellen, that he's not Animal Man anymore. "Especially after what happened to Green Arrow." She's certain that Supergirl won't help, and Stargirl is already off planet, and Alanna Strange won't do anything after what happened to Adam. Wow... so two classic DC heroes are... dead?? Did something happen to Animal Man's son? Did Maxine not age at all?

Equinox heads to the Fortress of Justice in New Mexico, which is a heavily protected and stunningly ugly building which I think is the Justice League's headquarters. The security system immediately reacts and guns are pointed at her.

Luckily, Cyborg and Vostok arrive to provide more exposition (there was an invasion, something happened to Green Arrow, her League disbanded) before she tells them about the message from the Martian Manhunter and, most importantly, the part that said "they had gotten free." I'm not sure if I should have a clue who Vostok is and, at this point, I'm too afraid to ask.

We get inside the HQ and meet the other members of the team: the Flash, Stormguard, and Dawnstar . Wonder Woman, Superman, and Arsenal are busy so it's just these six. I know this is getting repetitive, but I have no idea who Stormguard is either. I'm starting to think that identification text boxes in Legion comics are a good thing. 

More exposition reveals that there's a gulag on Mars for the worst of the worst villains. Stormguard is shocked by this news but everyone else seems pretty okay with it.

I'm just going to point out here that if they had just said a prison on Mars, I could see the justification from the heroes. But using the term "gulag," which means a forced labor camp from Soviet-era Russia, puts the worst negative connotations to this. Why would they pick this word? Is Futures End all about how our heroes have become villains?

To continue with the horror show that this gulag has become, Cyborg calmly tells them that J'onn has been telepathically controlling the prisoners to keep them docile. And, once again, only Stormguard seems to have a problem with this. There's also a force field around the planet as an extra level of protection.

They all get into the Justice League Battlecruiser and fly to Mars. During the flight, we learn that Green Arrow died and Batman didn't go to the funeral. I gotta be honest, that's not really a surprise. 

They land and, luckily, the gulag creates an artificial atmosphere so they don't need suits or helmets. The Flash does the advance scouting while Dawnstar quips that in the 31st Century, it's a giant shopping complex.

Equinox is suddenly hit with a telepathic flash and she learns that J'onn is being held captive and there's a powerful telepath that set the prisoners free. Before we find out the leader's name, there's another blast and some villains have headed out to face the Justice League. We have Killer Frost, Mongul, Blockbuster, and Mechaneer. They want to take control of the cruiser to get off planet.

Why, you may ask? Cyborg lets us know that the force field around the planet can only be bypassed by the cruiser. Does this mean that no one can fly through the field? Can they fly in and not fly out? Yes, once again, I'm 100% certain that I've spent more time thinking about this than the writer or editor did. 

Stormguard, Equinox, and Dawnstar head off to find J'onn while the others hold off the villains. Crazy question, but wasn't Mongul strong enough to take out Superman? But the Flash can take him on by himself?

The trio head into the gulag and they discover that Grodd is the one who is leading the escape. Wait... no... it's not Grodd. Stormguard gets blasted and the real leader is revealed:

"The worst killer the universe has ever known... Captain Atom."

What the what?

I mean, I knew he was going to be bad because of the whole Captain Adym from Legion Lost plot line. But the worst killer? Wow.

 

Justice League Futures End #1

We're just going to pick up exactly where we left off. We're on Mars and Captain Atom is the one providing the exposition to bring new readers up-to-speed. He's also being drawn remarkably like Doctor Manhattan, so I'm guessing DC is just leaning into the connection more than ever before.

Stormguard's recovered enough to remind us that Atom killed millions of people just a few years ago. Atom's defence:

    "What I did, I did for the betterment of the universe. The millions of lives I took, I took to save billions."

Okay, so he's Manhattan and Thanos?

Atom and Grodd talk about how they're going to get everyone off of Mars and then Equinox hits him with some ice. Ouch - that's never going to work, is it?

Atom suddenly grows in size, smashing through the roof of the gulag, and tells them that if they don't set him free, every living thing on the planet will die.

It's "Homeworld: Part 2 of 2" with the same creative team: Lemire and Dougherty. I will give them a little credit for that decision - so many of these big event comics seem to be handled by a group of artists and the different books look dramatically different. So even though I'm really not a fan of the artwork, I'm pleased both books look the same.

Mongul states that he's going to take cruiser alone, so Atom blasts him and, I think, kills him. The Justice League jumps back into action and keeps fighting. As the Flash attacks, Atom runs down how powerful he is and, once again, threatens to kill everyone if they don't lower the containment field around Mars.

This is when I always like to point out that a super-powered character who's able to "bend space and time on a quantum level" and "constantly manipulate the molecules that make up" the Flash's "speed force" should be able to break through a containment field.

I'll also point out that he can just get into the cruiser and fly away.

So this whole problem, really, is that the Justice League should've never brought a cruiser to Mars. Yes, once again, every problem they're facing in this book could've been prevented if the heroes just did nothing. Yes, they're abandoning J'onn, but they're ensuring the safety of Earth and the universe.

Suddenly, Wildfire arrives and starts blasting. He tells them that he also received J'onn's telepathic call for help (so he took his sweet time getting there) and that he also used to be a member of Justice League United. Ummm... just out of curiosity, how did Wildfire get through the containment field?

Back inside the gulag, Grodd is not happy the heroes have saved him so he, of course, attacks Equinox because... she built an ice shield that protected them? Grodd explains how evil the gulag was, and how evil it was to have J'onn "invade our minds, subdue us, and keep us docile like pets!" I can't help but kinda agree with him. Before this fight escalates, they are able to beat Grodd pretty quickly and search for J'onn.

Back outside, more villains have shown up and I'm not even going to try to pretend I have a clue who anyone is. There's a muscular woman in a Lucha Libre mask. There's one who I think is Count Vertigo. Ah, if they can't be bothered to identify them in the comic, I can't be bothered to figure them out if they're nothing more than fodder.

Wildfire keeps irritating Atom so he blasts him... and sucks his energy out of his suit. They try to make you think he's dead... maybe... but two pages later he's back and perfectly fine. The heroes beat all the unnamed villains and, once again, they face off against Atom and promise not to lower the force field.

Captain Atom comes up with the perfect solution. He's going to destroy himself, causing a large enough explosion to destroy the planet. Then he'll just reconstitute at some point in time and be free.

Equinox flies out, screaming that there will be no more death, and distracts Atom long enough for J'onn to enter his mind and make him think he's back in his home town of Port Clyde, Maine.

He walks through the door, turns back into a human, and finds that he's home. He starts crying, thankful he's back to a normal life. 

Does this mean that he's not Adym from Legion Lost? Did they just completely throw out that plot point?

We see that it wasn't Equinox, it was J'onn, and Atom is lying flat on the ground.

Wildfire and Dawnstar have a nice reunion and it looks like they haven't seen each other in a while. Equinox and J'onn share a moment and he reassures her that she did the right thing, even though she lead the League into a trap.

J'onn states that he's home and the gulag needs him. And that the prisoners need him. So he's staying and the rest of the team is... leaving him be, I guess?

And this is to be continued in Justice League United #5, which I'll be reading next week.

 

Okay, what are my initial thoughts about these two books?

Did anything good come out of the New 52?

Honestly, I was really hoping that these books would be, at the very least, worth the paper they were printed on. But I can't even say that.

What was the point of this? To show that the DC universe really sucks 5 years in the future? To let everyone know that the Martian Manhunter is... a caring but abusive jailer? That Captain Atom is... a mass murderer who deserves happiness? That the Justice League is... an ineffective bunch of morally grey "heroes"? That the Legionnaires who are still trapped in the 21st Century are... still trapped but no longer spending time together?

From a Legion standpoint, why even have Wildfire and Dawnstar in this? She did nothing and Wildfire just fired off a few blasts. I was hoping for some sort of resolution regarding the end of Legion Lost, but I guess I'll have to wait for the regular series for that. 

Story-wise, Lemire could've done so much better and I'm guessing he was limited by editorial influence, time, and some stupid crossover that made no sense in the planning and they just shoved it forward anyway. 

I'm sure that this would make far more sense if I had a clue what these Futures End stories were supposed to accomplish, but for someone completely in the dark, a lot of this just felt like more "darkness for darkness' sake" storytelling. Okay, Green Arrow's dead. Okay, the Justice League United are broken up and not talking to each other. Okay, Captain Atom has killed millions of people. Is there a story in any of this? Did we see any growth, any character development? Did any of those dark events move this story forward? Nope to all of that.

Instead, we get bad choices compounded by weird decisions compounded by a lack of any sort of logical consistency. For example, did Animal Man's daughter age at all or is she the same as she was five years earlier? Why would the Justice League fly a cruiser to the gulag that held the worst criminals on the planet and deliver the one vehicle that could let them escape?

And as I mentioned before, why would they call this prison a gulag? Did no one tell them what that word meant? 

I was hoping that, after reading these, I would want to check out more Futures End stories and see just what this big event was about. Now? Nope.

The worst part of this story is that any positivity I might have had towards starting Justice League United is completely gone. Now all I feel is that it's going to be a long, slow march towards the Bendis Legion... which I'm also not too excited about either. When will this get better?

Art-wise, this just didn't work for me. I know this is one of Dougherty's earliest works, and he definitely gets better as he gets more experience, but I wouldn't be showing off either of these books. The best way I can describe the way these books look is to say that it's as if the artist was still taking an anatomy class and hadn't passed it yet.

By my count, the last time there was a Legion book that has, at the very least, 4 good issues in a row was... Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds?? 6 years before these books. Wow... no wonder the Legion has been looked on with such disdain since 2010.