The New 52: Futures End #10

By Brain Azzarello, Jeff Lemire, Dan Jurgens, Keith Giffen, Aaron Lopresti, Art Thibert

Want to come along for the ride? Futures End #10 progresses the story even further while reminding the reader of some of the backstory, giving newcomers a chance to jump in. Grifter does some dwelling on why he’s been dragged to an island to work with Deathstroke and Fifty Sue which, if you haven’t been following along, gives a nice little recap to his involvement in the story thus far.  Batman (Terry McGinnis version) finally looks a certain “wounded duck” in the face. Also, the faceless Superman that’s been roaming around the city becomes shrouded in even more mystery.

Brain Azzarello and fellow writers on this series keep the story rolling with new faces, new arms, and a new fight scene! Hawkman’s introduction was on a somber note. Luckily Nth metal works just as good as Wolverine’s healing factor as he becomes another character thrown into the mix. Azzarello uses Hawkman’s scene in this issue to introduce some more humor as well as bring a spring of hope to the chaos he met with before joining with Frankenstein and the others. More humor comes around this issue in the form of Plastique, who seems clueless but hints at issues prior – adding to the “jump on in” aspect of this issue.

Aaron Lopresti is on pencils with Art Thibert on inks and colors by Hi-fi. The art is consistent with the style this series has become familiar with. Lopresti gives some detailed panels and has some fun with facial expressions – “You think its metal?” – And “Cal” continues to rock his great beard (almost as great as my own…almost). The fight scene in this issue is depicted very well, a little one sided (you’ll get that joke after you’ve read the comic), but nonetheless crafted nicely by Lopresti as a hero is thrown through walls and left a bruised mess (in his defense he does get in a good hit that meets with the sound effect POK-KRUNCH… sounds painful).

A series that’s been juggling many subplots since the very beginning Futures End #10 does a good job to recap some previous events while reminding us why we’ve been hooked since FREE COMIC BOOK DAY.