Losing Brain Cells
"The triumphant victory of our heroes saves all of reality from the brink of destruction and shakes loose the very fabric of space and time. From the ashes of Death Metal rises new life for the infinite Multiverse and glimpses into possible unwritten worlds of tomorrow." This is the setup for Future State as we look at what the future possibly holds for our heroes and this series, Jon Kent, Superboy..... or more accurately for this timeline, Superman. Let's jump into this issue and see what the next generation of "Super" protecting Metropolis means for its people. Let's check it out.
For our initial and most important part of this book in my mind, since it actually shows us the Superman of Metropolis as the title indicates, we see Jon Kent grown up and taking on the responsibilities of his father. The only problem is, the world has changed considerably and a lot of the people of Metropolis have become what are known as Zealots for Andrej Trojan. Andrej is the founder of Trojan Solutions, a company that's been combining people with nanotech, but who left Metropolis after the military came to shut him down. Things could have been fine after that but Trojan left a piece of technology behind that connects to the Zealots known as Brain Cells. Now, if that wasn't a weird enough concept for you, Braincells is a floating mad ball with multiple mouths that was created using the burned flesh of Brainiac and it only gets more confusing from there.
More than anything we see Jon Kent trying to live up to his father and doing what he can to protect the people of Metropolis, even though it's through very questionable means, while this strange piece of technology known as Brain Cells does everything it can to try and undermine Jon's actions, not to mention the American Military. Because we have to amp this issue up to the $5.99 price tag, this issue also has two backups to fill up the page space and continues the story about what happened to Metropolis after Jon's protection went the way of Kandor-ing the city and in the first one we see the Shilo Norman, Mister Miracle taking on attack drones and the second sees Guardian six months after this getting to the bottom of a new villain who has incited riots and who has kidnapped Jimmy Olsen.
All in all, I enjoyed the art in this issue throughout all three stories, even though the Shilo Norman story came out a bit weaker looking and dull in the color department, but even with that I still enjoyed what we got out of that. As for the stories themselves..... Well, the main Superman story felt like too much too soon to throw us in the middle of this strange techno Metropolis upheaval, not to mention the concepts of Brain Cells. I just kind of felt lost and maybe that was the point since we are just thrust into a timeline that's unfamiliar to us, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to and the Guardian story felt a bit overly long for what it presented and I still felt like I came out of it not knowing as much as I should. Strangely, I say that about these two stories but I liked the Shilo Norman one the most and the attack drones that were going after our hero could be Superman's Kryptonian technology trying to keep everyone safe or it could be from Brain Cells....... I'm not sure, but I had the most fun with this story. That all being said, I know this is our first look at Superman in this Future State, but I would have liked to have a better grasp about the world and our heroes when it seems we spent most of this issue looking at what a shrunken Metropolis under glass is like.
Bits and Pieces:
The art is all pretty stellar in this and compliments the different stories being told here... I just wish I was a bigger fan of those stories. I feel lost in this future world, which may be the point right off the bat, but the concepts and ideas being presented here just didn't hit for me and I wish we would have had a better look at this future world instead of the better look at a shrunken domed Metropolis.
This issue feels way too congested, and it certainly feels like I'm losing brain cells while reading. There's a lot I could say about it, but I'll keep it short. It meets all of my worst expectations and that's a shame.
ReplyDeleteI dont think Jon has been developed enough to stand alone as superman and this story doesnt change my mind and i think as superboy is is awesome but they waist time twlling you about aventures you'll never see and the villain is pretty dumb shouldnt he just be brainiac v.7 or something like that
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