Future State: The Next Batman #3 Review and *SPOILERS*

When Good People Do Nothing

Written By: John Ridley
Art By: Laura Braga, Arif Prianto
Letters By: Clayton Cowles
Cover Price: $7.99
Release Date: February 2, 2021

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

The Future State book for Batman has been pretty good so far and I’m hoping that the quality of this book continues down this road. That said I am still hung up on the price. The $7.99 price tag is steep for a comic book and frankly, the extra stories don’t particularly interest me all that much. Not to suggest they are bad or anything but we bought the book because we wanted to read a Batman book. So when a large portion of the book is something else, then it becomes harder to justify dropping all that money on it. However, at the same time, I cannot deny that we are currently receiving a very high quality Batman story in these books. If the book was just Batman, then it’s be an easy book to recommend, but it isn’t. That said, let’s jump into this book and see where it takes us.

DC Comics Future State Week 5 Roundup (Non-Spoiler) Video Review - All the Future State Books Reviewed!

 

Future State: Swamp Thing #2 Review

Written By: Ram V
Art By: Mike Perkins
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: February 2, 2021

In the distant future, Swamp Thing has created a family of humanoid plants. Each with their own looks and personalities. Man has been missing for ages, and Swamp Thing and his group have been searching for them for years. After finding one of them, the man leads them north to help him rescue others from the tyranny of their rulers.

When they get to the base during a snow storm, we see that they like is a gated hut community surrounding a big S.T.A.R Labs building, guarded by armed soldiers.

Man-Bat #1 Review

Man-Bat's Greatest Hits

Written By: Dave Weilgosz

Art By: Sumit Kumar, Romulo Fajardo Jr., Tom Napolitano

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: February 2, 2021

Interrupting our previously scheduled Future State months, we have a story that brings us back to our present continuity or at least present adjacent with the Man-Bat five-issue mini-series. The reason I say present adjacent is because we aren't really picking up where we last left Kirk Langstrom in the Justice League Dark series but instead look like we're just being thrown into a story that takes place "Gotham City - Somewhen" Let's jump into this issue and see what's going on with Man-Bat and if it feels like something important. Let's check it out.

Future State: The Flash #2 Review

That's A Nope On Hope

Written By: Brandon Vietti

Art By: Brandon Peterson, Will Conrad, Mike Atiyeh, Steve Wands

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: February 2, 2021

Let's head on back to the year 2027, where the Flash Family has been decimated by the Four Horseman, Famine, who's taken over Wally West's body and has been murdering villains and heroes alike across the world and who in the last issue of Future State: The Flash, kill Jay Garrick. That's right, Wallace West, Kid-Flash was killed before our story even started, Impulse was murdered during our heroes' quest to find intel on how to stop Wally, and finally, the original Flash's life was lost in the pursuit of finding a way to free Wally West from his possession. Is all hope lost? Let's jump into this issue and see Barry Allen's last-ditch effort to stop Wally's murder spree and maybe.... just maybe, save him as well. Let's check it out.

Future State: Harley Quinn #2 Review

 

It's All About The Masks

Written By: Stephanie Phillips
Art By: Simone DiMeo, Toni Infante
Colors By: Tamra Bonvillain
Letters By: ALW's Troy Peteri
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: February 2. 2021

Future State: Harley Quinn #2 picks up with the dynamic duo of Quinn and Crane hot on the trail of Black Mask as he kills anyone in his way. Harley uses her criminal psychology powers to sus out a plan to track down Black Mask, but Roman is two steps ahead. Ultimately, Harley convinces Dr. Crane that the only one scary enough to stop Black Mask is the Scarecrow, but things go from bad to worse when the fear toxin gets loose.

It's the battle of the scary masks. It's more weird art. It's Future State.

Future State: Superman of Metropolis #2 Review

Anyone Have A Bottle Opener?

Written By: Sean Lewis, Brandon Easton

Art By: John Timms, Gabe Eltaeb, Dave Sharpe, Valentine de Landro, Marissa Louise, Cully Hamner, Laura Martin, Andworld Design 

Cover Price: $5.99

Release Date: February 2, 2021

It's time to jump back into the year 2030 and not only see how Jon Kent is going to make things right since the last issue he not only shrunk down Metropolis into a bottled city, but let the villain Brain Cells fly off with it, but also see how Shilo Norman and Guardian do their separate hero-ing in the bottled city. Let's jump into this issue and hope that the main story and both the backups are pretty good because when you have a book with this many stories, it's hard to get a pretty solid issue. Let's check it out.

Future State: Wonder Woman #2 Review

 

Written By: Joëlle Jones

Art By: Joëlle Jones

Colors By: Jordie Bellaire

Letters By: Clayton Cowles

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: February 2, 2021

Future State: Wonder Woman #2 continues Yara Flor/Wonder Woman's journey through the underworld to bring back her fallen sister, Potira. Along the way, she faces off against giant, three-headed hounds and death demons with a colorful imagination for torture methods. When Hades gives her a chance to earn her wish, Yara must learn to fight with her heart instead of her fists. In the end, Yara learns the very painful lesson that you can't always get what you want, but you get what you need. It's deeply impactful. It's heartbreaking in all the right ways. It's (the best so far) Future State.

PREVIEW: Future State: The Flash #2

Written By: Brandon Vietti
Art By: Brandon Peterson, Will Conrad, Mike Atiyeh, Steve Wands

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: February 2, 2021

All hope is lost as Barry Allen races to save his former partner, Wally West. Armed with the weapons of the Rogues who once tried to destroy the Flash, Barry plots an attack that’ll either free the former Kid Flash from the evil that’s possessed him-or end his threat forever!

PREVIEW: Man-Bat #1

Written By: Dave Weilgosz
Art By: Sumit Kumar, Romulo Fajardo Jr., Tom Napolitano

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: February 2, 2021

For years Kirk Langstrom has struggled with his monstrous alter ego, Man-Bat, and the serum that transformed him. But he’s finally hit rock bottom following a devastating setback, and he’s going to take his anger out on every single citizen of Gotham City. Will the combined might of Batman and the GCPD be enough to stop Langstrom once and for all? Or will this just be the start of Man-Bat’s devastation?

PREVIEW: Future State: Superman of Metropolis #2

Written By: Sean Lewis, Brandon Easton
Art By: John Timms, Gabe Eltaeb, Dave Sharpe, Valentine de Landro, Marissa Louise, Cully Hamner, Laura Martin, Andworld Design 

Cover Price: $5.99

Release Date: February 2, 2021

Braincells, the advanced offshoot of the diabolical Brainiac, continues to lure Jonathan Kent down the wrong path-but things go from bad to this can’t get any worse when it appears it has also taken some manner of control over Supergirl! If the Kryptonians clash, nothing will be able to protect the bottled city of Metropolis! Meanwhile, inside the bottle itself, the Guardian is doing everything he can to stop the city from destroying itself from within, while Mister Miracle has discovered the trail of a strange signal that he doesn’t realize will take him to Warworld.

Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity #7 Review

 

Story in Circle

Writer: Kami Garcia

Artist: Jason Badower, Mico Suayan

Cover Price: $5.99

Release Date: January 27, 2021

Review by: Carlos

Criminal Sanity is back from another hiatus.  Or purposed scheduling.  Or whatever.  It has been a while and with all that time it is extremely difficult to be invested in this story.  Want to know what is going on?  Harleen is still looking for the Joker.  Again.  You are caught up.  Let me tell you what I think. 

Future State: Suicide Squad #1 Review

Blowing Up Heads In The Future

Written By: Robbie Thompson, Jeremy Adams

Art By: Javier Fernandez, Alex Sinclair, Wes Abbott, Fernando Pasarin, Oclair Albert, Jeremy Cox

Cover Price: $5.99

Release Date: January 26, 2021

It's the year 2030 and it's time to see what the Suicide Squad and Amanda Waller are up to in the future and if that wasn't enough, we also get to find out what the Justice Legion Alpha are up to in the 853rd Century...... or more accurately as far as the title, find out what's going on with Black Adam of that era. Let's see if these stories feel important to the rest of Future State or if they're just out there doing their own future-y thing. Let's check it out.

Future State: Legion of Superheroes #1 Review

 

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Artist: Riley Rossmo

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: January 26, 2021

Review by: Comic Boom! Rocky.  Check out his awesome YouTube Channel HERE

The premise of DC Comics’ Future State titles is obviously a focus on the ‘future’ of various DC heroes. For that reason, it seems somewhat odd to give the heroes of the 31st Century their own ‘future-state’ story.  Writer Brian Michael Bendis has struggled to convey to readers a cohesive narrative of the 31st Century within ‘standard-time’ continuity. Accordingly, imposing a ‘time-jump’ on the franchise of the Legion of Super-heroes risks adding further confusion to the already convoluted team history. Does the risk pay off? Let’s time jump in and find out.

Future State: Aquaman #1 Review

Written By: Brandon Thomas

Art By: Daniel Sampere

Colors By: Adriano Lucas

Letters By: Clayton Cowles

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: January 26, 2021

Future State: Aquaman #1 is a flash-forward and a backward and sideways story about the current Aquaman, Jackson Hyde, training and caring for Arthur Curry and Mera's daughter, Andy aka Aqualass aka Aquawoman. While out on a training session, Jackson and Andy are mysteriously transported to another Earth through the Confluence, a portal that connects all oceans on all world. As Jackson and Andy hop from world to world, trying to find their way home, they're eventually separated, and Jackson is captured when he believes Andy is killed. Or is she?

Batman: White Knight Presents: Harley Quinn #4 Review

The Killer is Revealed

Written By: Katana Collins, Sean Gordon Murphy

Art By: Matteo Scalera

Colors By: Dave Stewart

Letters By: Andworld Design

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: January 26, 2021

Batman: White Knight Presents: Harley Quinn #4 picks up some time after issue #3 with Harley paying a visit to Bruce Wayne in prison for insight into the obsessive criminal mind. Meanwhile, Starlet and the Producer lay a trap to entice Hector to come to the Gotham Film Academy. Harley and Duke visit the Academy for different reasons, and the trio walks right in to see everything.