The New 52: Futures End #29 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Brian Azzarello, Jeff Lemire, Dan Jurgens, Keith Giffen
Art By: Patrick Zircher, Hi-Fi
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: November 19, 2014

Who They Are

For our quick recap this week we'll be talking about Tim Drake going by the name Cal Corcoran and how Lois Lane came into his life and turned it upside down when she told his girlfriend that he was Red Robin.  Now this wouldn't be too bad except that after denying it for weeks, Tim took Lois's advice to come clean to Madison and when he did....... She left him.  No matter how many times Tim apologized it didn't matter and Madison eventually became close with Ronnie Raymond.  If this love triangle isn't enough for you, we also have Dr. Yamazake's continuing spiral into madness since his wife died during the war and his growing hate for the superheroes that didn't save her.  Now the crazed doctor is working on a teleportation machine that would be able to get people out of harms way, but when he eaves drops on his lab assistant Jason Rusch's conversation he finds out Jason's super heroic secret and immediately fires him.  This leads to his friend Madison who we already talked about, going to the lab looking for Jason and Dr. Yamazake kidnapping her and planning on using her for his first human trial.  Tim Drake and Ronnie Raymond teamed up to look for their lady love and we're about all caught up here.  So let's check out what this week's foray into the land of Five Years From Now has in store for us.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with Ronnie and Tim coming across a lot of security on their way to Dr. Yamazake's lab.  We find out that the teleportation experiment that the Doc has been working on is being funded by Cadmus and since Yamazake's growing paranoia and you know......kidnapping, I guess he called up for more security for his first successful murder........ I mean teleportation.  So Ronnie and Tim take out the guards and make their way further into the campus, We get a really cool scene where Tim tells Ronnie who he is and the two run off in search of Madison with a new feel of comradery than we previously got when it was two vying lovers looking for their gal  

Moving on we see that Jason's already there and coming up against his own set of guards.  I guess the brainy part of Firestorm has learned a few things over the years because he jukes out the guards, steals one of their key cards and makes his way into the lab as Ronnie and Tim show up to run interference for him.  Once Jason's in though Dr. Yamazake clobbers him in the back of the head and activates his teleporter, locking down the doors, but before it can close completely Tim tells Ronnie to go and that he'll hold the guards off.  So Ronnie runs and jumps in pulling a sort of Indiana Jones sans the hat grab and runs up to open the chamber that Madison is stuck in......... Now I'm a dummy and even I know that's a bad idea and then Dr. Yamazake agrees with me and now I know some shit is about to go down.  At this point Jason is up and tries to get the Dr. to shut the machine off and after the crazy tells him that he can still make this work, Jason runs up to Ronnie but when he goes to grab him, his hand goes right through him grabbing a hold of Madison behind him.  The teleportation machine has locked onto Ronnie and we have a nice moment where Ronnie apologizes to Jason...... Then everything explodes.  It's one of those holy shit moments and then we see Firestorm flying through the air and as we pan closer we see that Madison has become Firestorm and now Jason's mind is inside of her.  This would be really awesome if it didn't mean something awful had happened to Ronnie.

In the end Tim finally gets into the destroyed lab and we see that Ronnie's not going to make it.  Tim leans over him and Ronnie's last words were that he couldn't save Madison.  How fucked up is that?  Ronnie went down a dark path because he thought he was responsible for Green Arrow's death even when he wasn't and now he dies thinking that he couldn't save Madison.  My mind has gone blank at this point....... I really like this book but now that I'm writing about it, I'm kind of pissed that this was Ronnie's end.  Yeah he did take the teleportation bullet for Madison, dying a hero and she's actually safe....... but he doesn't get to know that before he dies.  I don't know, maybe it's a fitting end, but it just seems wrong to me.  So now Tim sits in the burned out lab above Ronnie's dead body and he now blames himself for giving up the life he led to become Cal Corcoran because now it's led to Ronnie's death and what he believes is Madison's death.  He let his body go and he wasn't fast enough or strong enough to save them.  So it looks like we might get Red Robin again in the future........ It's kind of screwy that he didn't seem to care about Jason, but we know he's alright so whatever.

That's it for this week's Futures End and man what an issue it was.  We actually took an entire issue to tell one story and it was spectacular because of it.  While I still don't know how I feel about Ronnie's death, I loved everything about this issue.  We had the heartfelt moment where Jason forgave Ronnie without really saying it and we had the hero sacrifice himself to save someone and he didn't even have superpowers to do it.  I just wish he would of known it before he died........ That part kills me.  Make sure you're back here next week as we check out the future and see what the writers are focusing on now.......... Hopefully more Firestorm.

Bits and Pieces:

This week's foray into the future was really something to see.  From it's single story to it's redemption of a hero, it was definitely one of the best issues of Futures End yet.  Patrick Zircher is on the book this week and he did a damn fine job with these characters and bringing us something that we've been waiting to see in the land of Futures End.  Just so much goodness here that it will bring you joy, grief and just that bad ass feeling you get when you read a great comic.  Go check it out.

9.5/10