Justice League United: Futures End #1 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Jeff Lemire
Art By: Jed Dougherty
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 10, 2014

Justice For All!  Except For Maybe Them Over There.

It's time to jump back into the future and see what our favorite characters are up to Five Years From Now.  Only problem that I can see is that we really know nothing about the Justice League United and the slew of other new titles that have taken up the Futures End moniker this month.  Now so far I'm digging this event, but we're dealing with a mysterious past that led to these characters being the messed up people they are in the future and now we have that with characters we know literally nothing about.  This is a Equinox heavy story and in the normal title I would be happy about that, but I don't get how they can just throw this character at us with nothing to tell us who she is, or what she can do.  Okay I'm done bitching so we can get into this issue which is part one of two and will be concluded in the Justice League: Futures End story.  So let's check out Equinox and the Justice League Five Years From Now and see what we can gleam from this mysterious new character. 

Explain It!:

Our story begins in the mysterious wilderness of Canada.  Well it's at least mysterious to me.  Here we see a trucker getting hijacked for his load by one of the best new villains I have seen in awhile.  You have to understand that I have a deep love for ridiculous sounding villains that are really badass and this one is definitely going into my personal Top 5.  Here we see Polargeist, a mad scientist like villain that uses cybernetic implants to control polar bears.  Just...... Just brilliant.  I seriously hope we see more of this villain in the future........past. 

The heist is stopped by the not yet member of the Justice League United in our time Equinox, but before this hero can turn the villain over to the proper authorities she's struck by a brain pain.  It seems that Martian Manhunter is telepathically reaching out to his former teammate for help against something that has gotten out.  Yeah it's all pretty mysterious and after trying and failing to get the band back together, Equinox is forced to go the current Justice League for help.  There we find out that Martian Manhunter has been acting as a warden for a prison on Mars, that the Justice League, Terrifitech, The Queen Foundation and SHADE collaborated on to keep the worst of the worst off planet so they couldn't do anymore damage on Earth.  If that wasn't strange enough it seems we start delving into Identity Crisis territory, where on top of warden duties Martian Manhunter also keeps the prisoners telepathically sedated.  After a brief deliberation and J'onn not responding the team take their Star Trek Voyager looking ship and head to Mars.  

Once at the prison, Equinox is given another brief message from Martian Manhunter where he's about to name the person in charge of the breakout, but he's frustratingly cutoff short and I spent the rest of the issue trying to come up with someone who's name begins with C, that could pull off this operation.  Even though I could spend awhile thinking about the culprit, it doesn't mean that the Justice League have that kind of luxury because they are immediately engaged by some of the escapees that want to confiscate the team's ship as a means of further escape.  Some of the villains deemed badder than bad that had to be locked away here are, Mongul, Killer Frost, Blockbuster and the Mechaneer.  Don't worry boys and girls the League seems to have these villains under control and Equinox, Dawnstar and Stormguard break off to find Martian Manhunter.

In the end our trio see that our favorite Martian is being held captive at Gorilla Grodd's feet and then I began cursing because while I love Gorilla Grodd, his name does not begin with C.  That's when the comic slaps me in my fat mouth by revealing the true mastermind behind this prison break........  The long missing Captain Atom, now sporting a pretty badass mohawk.  

That's it for this part of the story, but don't forget that we get the conclusion to this two parter in Justice League: Futures End, where we'll see what our favorite group of heroes will do against a horde of villains led by the former hero and current powerhouse Captain Atom.  See you then and hopefully we won't have to bury too many of our heroes.

Bits and Pieces:

While I still don't understand the reasoning in giving us Futures End titles featuring characters who's pasts and even presents are mysteries to us, I can say that while Equinox isn't really familiar to me yet I did enjoy everything I saw of her here.  This was just a really adventurous issue showcasing this soon to be JLU-er and the future incarnation of the Justice League.  Just a overall fun superheroic time and I can't wait to read it's part two in Justice League: Futures End.  Go check it out and share my enthusiasm.

8.5/10