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Of Embassies and Origins - Justice League International Part 2 (Eaglemoss Collection v77)

  Review: Since we are doing a series of reviews focusing on Booster Gold over his nearly 40-year history, we include this one as a collection of some of his earliest appearances, dating to late 1987. That places the original publish date of these tales while his original solo series was still going strong.  This book is a beautiful, glossy hard-cover with smooth and heavy-stock paper inside, although the sometimes-low print reproduction quality leads to blurred and hard to read word balloons on occasion. It is also a rare book here in North America, as Eaglemoss Collections targeted UK fans with this series. At this point in the history of the 1987-rebooted Justice League, they have gained official United Nations recognition and sanction. To ensure their reach truly is global, they rebrand as Justice League International (as does the title of the series!) and they open new headquarters buildings around the world: New York, Paris and Moscow are included here. As this is a product of 19
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Who Failed More? New 52 Futures End volume 3

 

Cover of New 52 Futures End TPB volume 3


Review:

The New 52 Futures End series comes to an end in this volume. It has been cosmic and global and intimately local in its scope.

The team of four experienced and established writers (Brian Azzarello, Jeff Lemire, Dan Jurgens, Keith Giffen) labored to keep this massive, universe-shaping tale on track. Not an easy task, given the dozen-plus sub-plots vying for attention and page space. The Frankenstein / Lady Amethyst subplot breaks away and drifts off by itself, but the rest gradually converge into a final battle vs Brainiac and Brother Eye.

The cyborg blend of future Batman and Joker is a hideous monstrosity that also provides some terrific moments, with its internal struggle spilling into its seek-and-destroy mission. It ultimately fails in that mission, partly. Terry McGinness, aka Batman Beyond, is killed but his mission is not stopped, passing instead to Tim Drake. This mission failure is the first of many in the denouement of this epic. Batman (Bruce Wayne) fails to stop Mr Terrific. Batman (Terry) fails his mission to stop Brother Eye. Tim takes over but also fails to stop Brother Eye enough to prevent the dystopian future hellscape. Future Bruce Wayne may have insisted that "failure is not an option" but there's a lot of it to go around.

The entire 48-issue weekly series was truly a massive undertaking, epic in scope. It smashed together DC elements as diverse as the Beyond mythology, and Earth 2. Several full-page spreads along the way brilliantly show this mashing and overlap, and a sequence of historic looks for Brainiac or Hawkman communicate this collision. It is at times bleak, confusing and harsh, while at other times sweet and beautiful. And minor characters like Plastique have a shining moment or two. By the end, one wonders what's next for DC Comics, and whether the whole line needs something of a rebirth?



Description:

Five years from now, the world of tomorrow is about to be born. Brainiac has arrived from the stars, and intends to take New York City with him as a souvenir. It’s enough to bring Superman out of self-imposed exile...but not even the Man of Steel or his former teammates on the Justice League may be enough to stop the alien conqueror.

Only Batman and Mr. Terrific’s creation, the artificially intelligent satellite Brother Eye, can defeat Brainiac. But this is the moment that Batman Beyond has traveled back in time to stop—the moment where his terrible future is born.

Can Batman Beyond, Stormwatch, the Justice League Dark, Firestorm and others stop both Brainiac and Brother Eye? Or will the future die along with them?

Collects: issues #31-48

Authors: Jeff Lemire, Brian Azzarello, Dan Jurgens, Keith Giffen
Artists: Various
Published By: DC Comics
Published When: Sept. 8 2015
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN: 978-1401258788
Pages: 408 pages


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