Futures End #5

Written by: Brian Azzarello, Keith Giffen, Dan Jurgens, & Jeff Lemire
Art by: Jesus Merino and Dan Green

There’s a saying I’ve heard before that goes something like this, “It wasn’t bad. It was worse than bad. It was just okay.” That’s how I feel about Futures End right now. Every time I think they’re about to break the cusp of mediocrity they slide back in. Last month’s issue had given me hope about this series, but this month’s issue just brings me back to my indifferent position. I’ve already told myself I’ll ride this out to the end and so I will, for better or worse.

Almost every section of this book is full of vague and confusing exposition that plays at being mysterious, but isn’t interesting enough to actually be so. One thing that was good about this issue is that Jason is finally out of the Firestorm matrix so he can stop complaining. However, that part of the story was just as anticlimactic as I expected especially considering the cover of this issue.

Speaking of the cover, Sook is doing an amazing job with these. They are easily the highlight of every book so far. As for the rest of the art, I can’t say the same. Once again, Jesus Merino is probably the weakest artist of the bunch. It’s definitely not bad, I can’t say that. My drawing skills are bad. I would love to be able to draw as well as Marino, but when you’re working alongside artists as good as Lopresti and Zircher, it is hard to stand out.

Once again, Futures End loses grasp of potential intrigue due to heavy confusing exposition and very little happening that is actually interesting.