The New 52: Futures End #16

By Brian Azzarello, Jeff Lemire, Dan Jurgens, Keith Giffen, Jesus Merino, Dan Green, Hi-Fi

“Family fun time! Yay!”

This week’s Futures End picks up and provides some momentum to the story, as some significant reveals are made and a few are teased for next week’s issue.

Brian Azzarello and his fellow writers take this week to push some of the side stories along a bit more. A welcomed scene featuring Hawkman, Amethyst, and Frankenstein takes place in this issue that delivers one of the biggest pieces to the story so far. The ongoing effects of the Nth metal from Hawkman’s arm on Frankenstein continues to intrigue, as his prior dream relates to what was seen in issue #0. Lois Lane’s stake in this story grows as well, even placing herself in immediate danger to uncover the truth (luckily she has a guardian angel of sorts to come to her rescue – which makes for a great fight scene!). Some comedic lines come to us via Fifty-Sue (see above quote), as she creates a family setting to the scene on Cadmus Island with Ms. Lang, Slade Wilson, and “Do I smell coffee?”.

Artwork this time around is done by Jesus Merino on pencils, with inks by Dan Green, and colors by Hi-Fi. A lot of the character work is consistent with what we’ve been seeing each week. A lot of the character play this week comes from the fight between Superman and Rampage (this is becoming a habit for them!). This scene shows off Merino’s art during a scene when he thrashes the Man of Steel throughout the panels, while he tries to calm Rampage’s…uhhh…rampage. A full page fist to the face shows his arrival on the scene, with a happy Lois Lane shouts in the background. Hi-Fi does great work with the colors as lightning cracks in the sky above (adding to the impact of that “SPAK” hit – “Spak” doesn’t really sound like a hard hit). His arrival is met with some retaliation from his foe and places each opponent at an advantage on each panel, showing the reader they aren’t willing to give up so easily in this fight.

Big reveals this issue push the story along in the right direction, as well as Azzarello’s teases for issues to come (more reveals we’ve been waiting for!!).