And neither is very good.
DC is running a weekly series, Future's End. I think that DC is a bit addicted to weekly comics. I don't blame them, since they must be good money makers. Their big success, 52, was a critical and commercial hit. But none of their outings have come close to this, including this latest effort.
Future's End revolves around time travel. The entire planet is engulfed in destruction caused by the super computer, Brother Eye, who has assimilated most of the human and super-human population Borg-style. The last holdouts of heroes and villains unite in a last ditch effort to undo the mistake by sending Bruce Wayne to the past to prevent Brother Eye from being invented. But in the chaos, Bruce is injured and he has to send Terry McGuiness, known to most as Batman Beyond (though he is just known as Batman in his series). But McGuiness arrives 5 years too late and has to play catch up to save the world.
The first issue, #0, was actually very good. Ethan Van Sciver's art was fantastic and the premise was quite well executed, opening with an old Barry Allen and Captain Cold working together. But by the second issue, all of the energy was gone. The problem with a weekly series is that they have to fill 52 issues. I could feel them stretching out the story too thin. By the 4th issue I lost interest completely and have stopped.
Original Sin is a little better. This one also started with and issue #0. But it is not good that the best issue of your series is at the beginning (it should get better as it goes) but is written by someone who is not writing the regular series.
That first issue is written the amazing Mark Waid. It is a simple and touching story about the new Nova from earth spending time with Uatu the Watcher. Uatu is a member of a race that is spread throughout the universe tasked with observing the actions of the universe. Very little escapes his gaze, but he remains (for the most part) a neutral observer to the events to earth.
Issue #1 begins with his murder. And someone stole his eyes.
The most exciting part of the series is that it puts together some funky groupings. Dr. Strange and the Punisher make the oddest couple in Marvel history, but it leads to some of the best dialogue and actions in the series. The heroes get together and try to discover who murdered Uatu and stole his eyes.
Part way through the series, it supposedly reveals who the killer is. But the reveal is so unbelievable, that I was more annoyed than impressed. Since this character is currently staring in his own series, I was dubious that they would suddenly make them a diabolical mastermind.
The last issue I read was almost exclusively a flashback, but it was rather boring. Event comics want to shake up the status quo, but you want to feel as though the bold new direction is something that comes from the history building up to this event. But Original Sin feels like it wants to be important, but it drags its feet and it feels like nothing will get accomplished.
But I'm going to see this one through to the end.
Thoughts?
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