Shoulda Woulda Coulda

Sup Muchachos.  Today I am going to write about books that had a great premise and did not execute.  They could have been so much more, but fell flat.  Those books that you really wanted to like and kept reading with the hope that it would improve.  There are plenty of examples and most of them are crossover events.  I had high hopes for Original Sin, Forever Evil, Convergence and possibly Civil War II. 

Today, I am going to write about Futures End that came out a couple years ago and was a weekly.  First off, I admit, Batman from Batman Beyond are two of my favorite characters and Batman Beyond going back in time and being able to interact with everyone in the DC Universe in their prime had me chomping at the bit for this book.  The premise was basically terminator with DC Characters. Robots in the future called brother eye have turned most of the heroes into cyborgs hunting the rest of the heroes and the human race. 

The first issue/zero issue came out on Free Comic Book Day and it hooked me. Flash in the future fighting next to Captain Cold against Wonder Woman and Frankenstein. Batman Beyond then travels back in time to stop this future from happening. He has arrived 5 years later than he wanted and the events that lead to his future are already taking place.  With the 5 year gap in time they could have free reign to any character they wanted.  They also had the 5 year gap wherein they could transform whatever character they wanted into whatever roll they needed.  They did this a little with Batman helping to create Brother Eye and Tim Drake going into hiding/retirement. Instead they focused on Batman Beyond, Frankenstein, Firestorm, Mister Terrific, Stormwatch, The Atom and Grifter. Most of these characters held no interest to me, but I did enjoy Grifter and Frankenstein.

With Batman Beyond now is the past he attempts to stop his future from happening by going against.... Drum Roll Please..... Mr. Terrific, WOMP WOMP WOMP.  Seriously, that is the villain that you are going to make in this book.  Yeah he was being manipulated by Brainiac, but come on.  Batman should have been the villain being manipulated by Brainiac. How much better would that have been, Batman versus Batman Beyond.  Additionally, this is something that Batman would have done and the old Bruce Wayne even told Batman Beyond not to trust Bruce. Add in the fact that Batman Beyond is from the future with a suit from the future and his full utility belt, he cant break into Terrifitech Tower by himself and keep Brother Eye from coming online. Even if he couldn't, he couldn't recruit a better team than Plastique, Key and Coil?

Overall I thought the story was convoluted and elements were explained poorly or not at all. The Earth-2 encampment on Cadmus Island didn't fit that well and made little sense and Fifty Sue was annoying.  I did like the elements with Tim Drake and Constantine, but they tried to do too much in too many issues. There were times when you wouldn't see character for a couple issues and you were like wait what is happening with them or they would try and cram everyone in one book but nothing really happened or was explained.

 

Then there was the 1 shots with the 3D Covers.  This was basically a What-If book for every character and book that was out that took place 5 year from Futures End or ten years from continuity.  I really enjoyed some of these, but they were definitely not for everyone. The ones involving Superman were not for me, but I thought the Green Arrow, Swampthing, Constantine and most the Bat books were pretty good.  Batgirl with a Bane element was interesting as hell and I enjoyed it. I loved the 3D covers and most of the art was amazing.  The Constantine cover is still one of my favorite covers.  Him putting on the Helmet of Fate.  Yes please.

Overall this was an incredibly ambitious project that I hoped would turn into a great story.  Unfortunately, this turned into a convoluted story that was meh. They could have used all their A characters and did something really cool and then either retconned it, make it take place out of continuity or just add more time travel so that it doesn't happen. How cool would of it been to see Batman, Green Arrow, Flash, Superman and Wonder working together on something that ends the world with Batman Beyond and a couple cool Earth-2ers fighting against them.  Turn it into an Injustice: Gods Among Us, type book were good guys are fighting good guys because they think they know what's best for everyone. That seems to turn out the best stories like Civil War, Flashpoint Aquaman versus Wonder Woman or Injustice: Gods Among where Superman ends up killing Green Arrow.

Disagree with me? What would you have liked to see happen in Future's End?  Let me know in the comments.