The New 52: Futures End #42 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Brian Azzarello, Jeff Lemire, Dan Jurgens, Keith Giffen
Art By: Scot Eaton, Scott Hanna, Hi-Fi
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: February 18, 2015

Eye See Brainiac Pulling A Godzilla

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

In the last issue of Futures End, our heroes got their asses handed to them pretty bad as they tried to take on Brainiac who was on Earth forming a dome around Manhattan and Engineer who created a skull Brainiac ship that somehow contains the old continuity of DC Comics........... Yeah, just a straight up ass whooping, except for Mister Terrific who was listening to what seemed to be Brother Eye when the series started but came across sounding a lot like Brainiac last issue and our hero really seemed to get off on the fact that Brainiac was on Earth and seemed elated to see Batman when our Caped Crusader finally made it to Terrific.  Let's see what goes down here and see if our heroes can go an issue without getting their asses kicked.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with our heroes in space getting their asses handed to them............. I guess that'll go on for awhile, but don't you all fret out there in interwebs land  It seems we have an ace in the hole in the form of The Atom, who apparently survived his little bout with a energy beam to the face by shrinking down to an atomic level and entering the Brainiac skull ship.  Once inside Ray finds The Engineer all hooked up to information about The Multiverse and for whatever reason, when Ray cuts her loose; the whole ship shuts down severing it's connection to Brainiac below.  It kind of seems like a dick move in a way because when Ray comes out of the ship holding Engineer, Cyborg kind of believes that he was the one to shut the ship down...... or at least I think he was thinking that but no, Ray Palmer was the one to save the day and we all rejoiced.

Down in Manhattan, our heroes are having themselves a day as bad as our heroes in space started out with.  Shazam and Superman are teleported back inside the dome where Superman goes and gets his ass handed to him again and our Man of Steel spends the rest of the issue knocked out and if our heroes survive this I'd hope that they'd hold it over his head the rest of their lives because when Brainiac finds out that his connection to the ship was severed, he starts pulling a Godzilla in downtown Manhattan.  This part is pretty cool though because we see that Dr. Polaris isn't all bad as Firestorm and him team up to help as many people as they can during the doming of Manhattan.  Really though, they could use some reinforcements.

In the end, Batman Beyond fights against the Batman/Joker Brother Eye monster as Batman confronts Mister Terrific about what's going on and we do indeed find out that Michael Holt has been talking to Brainiac all this time and it comes off like Michael actually worships Brainiac as a god.  Batman tells the computer to activate "Palin Protocol" which I hope has nothing to do with Sarah Palin and outside the Batman/Joker monster is killed when a falling energy beam from Brainiac hits him in the face.  It's not all victory with pinatas and RC Cola though, for whatever reason Brother Eye broadcasts himself all over Manhattan telling everyone that it's here to protect them.

That's it for this issue of Futures End and man is that a lot of stuff going on.  I really enjoyed this issue and I think it would have been so much more if only I could wrap my head around what's going on.  Mister Terrific is worshipping Brainiac and Brother Eye is humanity's only hope?  I just hope I get a bigger picture of what DC's selling me in next week's issue.  Besides for the issue living just a smidge over my head, it was a really fun story with a lot of exciting things going down.  I just wish that the art was as strong as the action it presented.  Scot Eaton is on art this week and even though I've enjoyed his work in the past, I really couldn't get into the artwork of this book.  See you next week as we see if Superman can actually get some superheroing going on.

Bits and Pieces:

This issue raises many questions about what's been going on in Futures End and what enemy we should really be worried about.  While the art isn't as strong as it's been from this artist in previous issues of this title, the story still shines and all the surprises and reveals will be enough to make you happy as hell that you are still reading Futures End.  The hype machine is running on high as this series creeps to a close.

7.5/10