Red Hood and the Outlaws: Future’s End #1
Writer: Scott Lobdell
Artists: Scott Kolins and Michael Atiyeh
Cover Artists: Giuseppe Camuncoli
Publisher: DC Comics
If the Future’s End event has taught us anything, it is that the future is bleak and happiness is a rare occurrence. Since Red Hood’s life wasn’t particularly happy to begin with, it comes as no surprise that Red Hood’s life is going particularly smoothly. Much like we’ve seen in the other Future’s End titles, Hood finds himself completely isolated from everyone in the bat-family, and unfortunately for him, he’s also found himself separated from his two cohorts. The story itself is decent enough, with a throwback feel to it. Red Hood becomes an international vigilante taking down criminals too rich to be stopped by the law, and he does his job considerably well. However, what Scott Lobdell does tremendously well in this issue is portray just how lonely and sad Hood is through the tone of the story and the dialogue. While he has consistently been portrayed as a solo vigilante throughout his history, Hood has always thrived when part of a team, and Lobdell really does a great job of nailing that point home with this issue. 4/5
Teen Titans: Future’s End #1
Writer: Will Pfeifer
Artists: Andy Smith, Keith Champagne, and Matt Yackey
Cover Artists: Karl Kerschl
Publisher: DC Comics
This issue would have been much better if it had taken place 50 years in the future, not five. Introducing a whole new cast, Will Pfeifer does a commendable job not only bringing this team together in a single issue, but having them work cohesively as a team, as well. However, given the fact that the Future’s End stories are merely “what if?” stories and not actual glimpses of DC’s future, the story inevitably feels pointless. Also, since this was a single issue, we aren’t given extensive histories on each character, there is no motivation, there is no origin, there’s pretty much no real reason why this issue would be focused on this group of teenagers. Instead of the standalone event tie-in it is, this issue feels much more like the first issue of an ongoing series, but considering it isn’t, the story becomes pointless given the fact that the series comes back to the present next month. 3/5
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Arnab Pradhan
arnab@comicattack.net
For a second I thought the same guy Batman was fighting was the same one here in Teen Titans. Confused me for a bit but the only thing I’m getting out of Futures End is that the DCU is going to be one unhappy place to be
Man, couple the bleak and dark Future’s End with the gloomy tone of the DC Cinematic Universe these days and it makes me think that the guys at the Burbank office need to up their Zoloft dosages.