Comic Books: Future State

Well into my 5th decade on this planet, I remain in my inevitably encroaching old age a comic book reader. Sometimes, like Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon said, I think I'm getting too old for this shit. 

But I don't stop.

Comic books remain a constant through line for most of my life. From the squeaky spinner racks of my childhood to my pull list at Acme Comics, comics books are part of a thread that has seen me through all the ups and downs of my life so far and I am loathe to cut that thread. 

Sometimes opportunities arise to put the metaphorical scissors in my hand and give that old thread a quick snip. 

In the first two months of 2021, DC decided to forego it's normal line up with an event known as Future State. Well, that sounds like a good jumping off point to me. 

I did ultimately concede to have three titles from this event on my pull list for January and February.  

The Legion of Super Heroes Future State issues feature an epic storyline at its core with ground breaking revelations about Element Lad and his home planet as well as the people of Saturn Girl's home world. 

But writer Brian Michael Bendis shoves this epic storyline into 2 rushed issues with artist Riley Rossomo a poor choice to illustrate this hurried and crowded story. 

The Future State issues of Justice League had two full length stories. The lead story is a new league with the next generation of heroes, Superman's son, Aquaman's daughter and so on.  It's a classic throwback heroes vs. villains story as the Hyperclan returns to cause havoc in the world.  The 2nd story is a Justice League Dark set in a dystopia future where magic users are on the run from a deadly malevolent force. It's a bit murky and muddled but any story that has Detective Chimp channeling Etrigan the Demon can't be all bad.

Then there's the 4 issue Future State series, Next Batman.  Gotham City is even more of a dystopian hellscape under the grip of the Magistrate and his pack of enforcers, the Peacekeepers. Jace Fox, son of Lucius, has taken up the mantle of the Batman in the wake of Bruce Wayne's disappearance.  Nobody is happy about this new Batman, not the Magistrate, not the Peacekeepers and not Jace's family. But in a city in the iron grip of tyranny, Jace's Batman is determined to deliver justice, even at great personal harm. 

This Batman storyline is written by Oscar winning screenwriter John Ridley who delivers a script filled with action and thought provoking drama.  The book also includes a number of back ups such as  Batgirls (Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown are in prison as part of a scheme to bring down the Magistrate) and Arkham Knights (a collection of erstwhile Arkham loonies brought together as an ad-hoc super team to fight the oppression of the Magistrate).   

The Next Batman treads ground we've been on before (what if Gotham City sank into an even worse cesspool of hopelessness and despair) but there's some pretty cool world building going on here. And there is an ongoing Next Batman series that I might need to add my pull list.

Damn it. 

I guess I'm not done yet.