Supergirl: Futures End #1 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Tony Bedard
Art By: Emmanuela Lupacchino, Ray McCarthy
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 17, 2014

Girl of Steel...... Literally

I guess since I can't give you a proper recap because there's five years between what I know and what's going on here, I'll simply give you a tutorial on the New 52's Cyborg Superman.  This could be completely pointless for people who have been reading every issue of Supergirl, but way back in Supergirl #24 we learned that one of my favorite villains in the history of DC Comics was for his re-imagining the father of Supergirl, Zor-El.  Yeah Cyborg Superman's whole plan was to use a Kryptonian and use their DNA to revert himself back to the Kryptonian he used to be before Brainiac changed him and when he actually succeeded in his plan he realized that he was Zor-El and that he just destroyed his daughter to get that information.  So aspiring for father of the year award, Zor-El reversed the process, bringing his daughter back to life and becoming the monster that he was trying to escape once again.  While it wasn't the Hank Henshaw version that I loved in the old continuity, this version really created a cool dynamic and it was one of my favorite Supergirl stories of the New 52.  Okay so now you know and we can get into this Futures End event not completely in the dark.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

 Our story begins with our hero looking very cyborgy.  As it turns out four years ago Supergirl was fighting Cyborg Superman and was led into a trap and the outcome was Cyborg Supergirl.  The two were heralds for Brainiac, but eventually quit their job and moved out into the universe to try and create perfection in other species.  Not perfection like them with all the cyborgness, but looking to recreate Krypton and the perfection they saw in their own people.  Well as you know nothing is a perfect as a Kryptonian and all their attempts at tooling species into their ultimate form led to nothing but disappointment and a lot of destroyed test subjects.......... I imagine it wasn't pretty.  Eventually the two make their way back to Earth to find what they call a neo-sapien to use it's DNA to create the perfect species for New Krypton.  Now this hasn't really been explored all that much in the New 52, but Neo-Sapiens are people born at the pinnacle of human evolution.  Pretty much a bunch of smarty pants's with brain powers.  

EMMANUELA LUPACCHINO'S ART IS JUST AWESEOME

Cyborg Supergirl and Cyborg Superman come down to Earth and start searching for these neo-sapiens and their Kryptonian DNA sets off planetary alarms that Dr. Shay Veritas is monitoring from "The Block" and she sends someone out to see if it's the long missing Kara.  Now something I should explain to you is that Supergirl doesn't know who she is.  She simply goes by the name Herald 2 and her memories before she was turned into a cyborg were removed by Cyborg Superman, so whoever she comes into contact with will feel the wrath of an angry Kryptonian amnesiatic.  You're never going to guess who comes looking for Kara, now that the word has been sent out that a new Kryptonian is on Earth.  Yeah I knew you'd never guess, it's Captain Comet and it's so strange seeing this character because it makes me think, why the hell haven't we seen him yet in the New 52?  We find out from a confused Captain Comet as he tries to plead with Supergirl that the two were a couple and even were on a team of heroes together.  That's right all you Supergirl fans, from this timeline Supergirl will leave Justice League United, join a group of other heroes and begin a relationship with Captain Comet within a year of the current timeline.  That all actually sounds really good as long as Kara stops being angry all the time.  Using his telepathy, Captain Comet is able to pierce through Cyborg Supergirl's programming and our hero is able to remember her life and have a heart attack when she realizes that she's been turned into a damn monster.  Yeah it's weird that Herald 2 had no knowledge of her time as Supergirl and now that she has her memory back, she has no knowledge of her time as Herald 2.  Memories are weird.

Now it's time for a Cyborg Superman smack down and even though the metal menace can control her cybernetic pieces, Kara puts up a hell of a fight and begins tearing her pieces off as she does it.  It's really fucked up seeing a character like Supergirl tear off her limbs and disfigure her face as she fights a villain............  It's got to be one of the most surreal things I've witnessed in a long time.

YEAH...... THAT'S JUST NOT RIGHT!

In the end Captain Comet calls in his team "The Wanderers" for back up and Cyborg Superman has the choice to leave or to be destroyed and being the logical metal Spock that he is, he decides to cut his loses and take off.  Even though Kara is horribly disfigured Captain Comet reassures her that he loves her no matter what and is just happy to have her home and back in his arms.  This is probably the happiest ending to Futures End that I've seen yet and it's really beautiful.  Kudos Tony Bedard, you made me believe that there can be happiness in this title, Kudos.

I LOVE HAPPY ENDINGS

Bits and Pieces:

This issue just makes me really happy and while it portrays a horrible future for Kara Zor-El, it's ending just leaves me so hopeful for what this title will offer in the upcoming months.  For all the grim and bleakness that this Futures End event has shown us, it was nice to see a happy ending for Supergirl and even show us warmth in an issue dealing with cold cyborgs.  Supergirl fans will rejoice that Five Years From Now Kara hasn't retrogressed into her former angry self.

8.7/10