I was initially skeptical of this series despite the great creative teams involved on both the writing and art side of things. But where Batman Eternal has yet to grab my attention and has been generally a disappointing read, this single issue of Futures End immediately grabbed my attention and has me wanting more than the previously mentioned DC weekly has failed to do in 4 issues. While a dystopian future in comics is nothing new by any stretch of the imagination. The sense of hopelessness coupled with the remaining heroes still fighting on despite them facing grotesque, cyborg versions of their old friends is a powerful combination and the cliffhanger ending has me excited for the next issue out this week. Hopefully this momentum stays throughout its entire run.

While the art is just a smidge worse than the last couple of issues, the overall story is significantly tighter thanks to the almost sole focus on Green Arrow's funeral and the way the DC universe has changed following the five year time skip are quite interesting and should please fans of the old continuity. Particularly the part where Olliver fight for the rights of the Earth-2 citizens following the apparent destruction of their world after another Apokalips invasion. It has a wide range of emotions from the characters which translate to the reader and its a death that feels genuine and done with great care when it could've been the exact opposite.

The different writers who are tackling the various main characters of the story do a fairly good job of keeping a certain level of consistency between all the different plot lines going on at the same time. Each of them feels important though their direct connection is non existent at this point and the art throughout was pretty good. The problem is that the lack of A-listers is a deterrent for me and if the series can make me care about the likes of Grifter, Stormwatch and Firestorm, then my enjoyment of it will improve. But as it stands my lack of connection to these characters is what brought down the issue for me more than anything else.

A Cyclops on-going by Greg Rucka would be the stuff of legends given how much of a three dimensional character Scott has become ever since Grant Morrison's run all those years ago. But there are a couple problems that kill this book in its crib. 1) Young Cyclops and by extension his supporting cast here are nothing short of bland and boring as all hell, the book utterly fails to make you care about anyone. 2) X-Men have no business being in space. This is a personnel pet peeve I have with the X-Men and Chris Clermont who introduced this overused cliche (along with time travel) to this particular series of characters and its still as uninteresting as ever.