The New 52: Future's End #1 Review

Future's End. The new DC comic event is here in this new weekly series about, you guessed it. The end of the world. While the theme has been done to death, heroes dying and an apocalyptic future, I still decided to give it a shot in the hopes that it would be an entertaining story that could possible give me a new title to start reading. And I think it did just that. I found myself engrossed in this tale from the beginning to the end of the issue. Future's End is written by the wonderful talents of Jeff Lemire, Brian Azzarello, Dan Jurgens, and Keith Giffen and while each writer has their own unique style of telling a tale, each segment flows well together, and doesn't interrupt the tone set by the author before them. You'll have to forgive me, I was unable to pick up the Free Comic Book Day issue #0 so it was a little confusing at first, and that tends to be one of the flaws of this issue. Unless DC puts up a digital issue of #0, this #1 is not very new-reader friendly at all. The comic starts with Batman Beyond arriving 5 years from our present having been sent back by Bruce (35 years before our present). He explains how he is too late from stopping Mr. Terrific from creating Brother Eye before he is attacked by a cyborg from the future. This issue also follows the heroes of Stormwatch, Grifter, and Firestorm. Without spoiling too much, the ending of the issue is truly heartbreaking with a beloved Justice League member dying. One of the appealing aspects of this title so far (I know it's the first one) is the emphasis on lesser known characters and following them in our future. This is an event that will change the DCnU and it's got me captivated. We'll see how next week's issue does.

Story 8/10

Art 9/10

Overall 8/10

BATGIRL ANNUAL #2 Review

Batgirl Annual #2, written by Gail Simon with art done by Robert Gill. This issue takes a break from any story arc and is a standalone story (and hopefully a good starting point for a new story arc?) The comic starts with a flashback with Barbara Gordon fighting alongside her team mates on the Birds of Prey but ultimately, this issue deals a lot with the relationship between Batgirl and Poison Ivy and whether or not she feels she can trust her or not. Early on it seems that Poison Ivy seems to abandon her "sanity" when she appears ready to kill these terminally ill patient-turned terrorists. Gail Simone introduces the idea that Poison Ivy actually has S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder) which drastically changes Ivy's personality and even her appearance, for example during the winter, she shrivels up and looks close to dying. Simone really turned Poison Ivy into a tragic character that we can't help but feel sympathy for. The art, by Robert Gill and Javier Garron, in this issue is a major step-up from her solo title (solo title's current artist is Fernando Pasarin) that it made me wish these two were on the solo title. All in all, this was such a great story, one of the strongest stories we've had yet from Gail on her Batgirl run here in the New 52, who proves she's very talented at writing tragic, yet dynamic villains. To me, this issue proves that she should also be writing the current "Birds of Prey" title as well. Hopefully we get more Batgirl stories like this from Ms. Simone in the near future.

Story 9/10

Art 8/10

Overall 9/10