The New 52: Futures End #13

By Brian Azzarello, Jeff Lemire, Dan Jurgens, Keith Giffen, Patrick Zircher & Hi-Fi

“…come peacefully or be Terminated.”

This week’s issue of Futures End gives the reader some of those “fiiiinally” moments they’ve been looking forward to and gives other story-lines new twists.

Those who have been biting their finger nails waiting for “Red Robin” to do something reminiscent of his title will be pleased with a scene coming from issue #13.  The character has been slowly building back up to a return of sorts, of course that’s assuming Lois Lane’s assumptions are true, and it’s nice to see some of this week’s action coming from him instead. The events concerning McGinnis during this issue make for some compelling story threads come the next few issues. Terry’s trip through time to undo the future that is Mister Terrific (Samurai Jack anyone?) has been a bumpy road, and it seems he’s inadvertently given Mr. T the technology he requires to make said future exist in the first place (I pity the fool that screws up that bad), but his scene in this issue doesn’t serve to put him any closer to completing his mission.

Brian Azzarello and his fellow writers use this issue to pull away from outer space type missions – via Frankenstein, Amethyst, Hawkman – to instead focus more solely on the city and the happenings taking place there. A quick glance over to Grifter’s territory ties back into the ending of the issue – even delivering a nostalgic line from Deathstroke.

On the artwork this week is artist Patrick Zircher with colors once again done by Hi-Fi. This book has been consistent throughout with its artwork. Something it’s consistently done well are its fight scenes. Zircher depicts the “Red Robin” scene with classic Batman-esque style (knees to the chest included). He depicts the motion of the fight very fluently and gives Hi-Fi room to play around with the different shadings and the dark/light of the scene. Hi-Fi depicts this scene in mostly the greenish hue of the night sky, with a couple of the panels bursting with a bright orange or a pink/red whenever a powerful contact hit is made. The rain peddling down from the sky, because all good fights take place in the rain, makes for good contact color as criminal scum is thrown into walls, or the ground, or hit in the head with sticks.

This week brings Terry McGinnis back into focus and puts his path towards fixing the future into even more turmoil. We’re also given another glimpse into Mister Terrific’s growing concern with what McGinnis brought with him as his moral judgment is slowly fading away. The future draws near…