Futures End #4
Frankenstein gets a mission and a partner, planning begins for a heist, and Grifter has a bad day. Oh, and who is Cal Corcoran? The Good The strongest element of this issue—and FUTURES END in general, I’d say—is its high-level story beats. Each of this week’s four scenes represents an interesting idea with a lot of potential inside of the overall story. The idea of where Frank is going, with whom, and why he agrees to get involved in the first place is incredibly exciting to me as someone who loved FRANKESNTEIN, AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E. The strongest scene of the issue, hands down, was Cal and Madison going for a run. After learning last week who Cal had been, we begin to get an idea of the life he has carved out now. The extent to which he has distanced himself from his old life makes him one of the most interesting elements of the issue—what led to such a complete departure from his past life? The Bad My biggest problem with this issue is the dialog. As much as I like the individual story beats, the actual execution in scripting feels bloated. Each scene feels weighed down by an urge to catch readers up. Sometimes, this means communicating the salient points about characters’ canceled series; the Frankenstein scene is the most cumbersome of the issue as we learn about S.H.A.D.E. and each character who shares the page with Frank. We are again treated to Grifter 101 as we recap for the third time in five issues who he is, what he does, and that he’s being tailed. A month in, there is still a lot of focus on setting up the story. That’s understandable with multiple writers dealing with multiple, interwoven plot threads. But it doesn’t feel like we have actually seen things move forward very much. We know what is at stake thanks to FUTURES END #0, but the lack of action so far undercuts the urgency established by that issue. A book about a future where heroes are possessed by killer robots feels stagnant—and that shouldn’t be the case. The Verdict All told, FUTURES END #4 is not a bad issue, but it highlights the biggest challenges the series has going forward. Dialog spends more time on where characters have been instead of moving the story forward. The book has lost the sense of urgency that it started off with; however, there are interesting ideas and threads being set up (between history lessons) that do make me want to see what’s coming next. I’m pulling for this book: I’d love to see the ideas and the execution come together and have FUTURES END really take off—but as of #4, it's only halfway there.
