The New 52: Futures End #3

By Brian Azzarello, Keith Giffen, Dan Jurgens, Mark Irwin

For a series releasing every week there are bound to be issues that lack a lot of the wow and exciting plot development moments of a more standard monthly release. Issue three of Futures End slows the pace down from what the series has been maintaining early on but does just enough to remind you why this else world tale is just so much fun.

Issue three spends a lot of its time on character development and progression. The issue does the rounds on the characters established in the previous issues with Firestorm, Mr. Terrific and Griffter. Each character is given a few pages and dialogue to further their story just enough to make it feel relevant. Two new characters are brought into the plot but again only a few pages devoted to each and nothing of real substance is presented at the moment. Three (well technically four if the zero issue is to be counted) issues in and while story is moving along it does seem at the moment the momentum or at least purpose of the story has been put on the back burner to world build.

Jurgen’s and Irwin’s art is serviceable throughout the issue. The story opens on Frankenstein fighting a polar bear. The landscape, action and Frankenstein all look really solid. Frankenstein especially is given some incredible facial expressions. From there the art took some hits and got to be noticeably sloppy by the last few pages. This might just be a minor consequence of putting out a title weekly. The art is never bad but apart from the opening it is generally just ok.

Futures End #3 is a bridge to better things. After the death of one of the characters and a funeral, this issue ferries us along to the next important moment in Futures End. Normally an issue that did as little as this issue does might really kill the pace of an interesting story like Futures End. Luckily the title comes out each week and it is easy to see a down issue quickly being remedied by a more exciting issue the following week. There is still a lot promise surrounding Futures End and is already one of the DC titles any fan should be reading.