As 2021 begins, DC Comics is going back to the future.
In a publishing initiative called “Future State,” every ongoing DC superhero title from “Action Comics” to “Wonder Woman” will go on hiatus in January and February, replaced by 26 titles featuring the descendants and legacies of today’s characters in various eras, from the immediate next generation to the end of time. When March arrives, most (but not all) of the regular titles will return in a trimmed-down line.
Weird? Yes, but only on the surface. Once you know the background, it almost makes sense.
First, this isn’t the first time that DC has taken a two-month hiatus with all of its ongoing books. They did the same thing in April-May 2015, when a storyline called “Convergence” replaced the regular books in a story where Brainiac takes various DC cities, puts them under domes on a planet outside time and space, and forces the superheroes to fight each other, in order to yadda-yadda, rum-de-puppity, rum-de-skidoo.
Sorry, but none of it really mattered.
See, the real reason for Convergence was that DC Comics was moving from New York City to Burbank, California, and they gave their staff and regular freelancers a two-month break to facilitate the move. The fill-in people doubtless did the best they could. But Convergence was a placeholder, and that’s exactly how it read. It ran the characters through hamster wheels until the return of the regular titles — and the pre-Convergence status quo.
Secondly, the future at DC Comics isn’t, as Shakespeare called it, the “undiscovered country.” It’s actually way past discovered, and pretty well mapped.
The publisher’s eight decades are rife with stories speculating on what characters could replace today’s familiar superheroes. Possible futures have included the “Batman II” Imaginary Stories of the ‘50s, the teen “Super-Sons” (of Batman and Superman) in the ‘70s, and “DC One Million” — when, for one month in 1998, the publisher’s entire line of superhero titles was set in the 853rd century. Characters from the future appear regularly in DC’s monthly comics, including Batman Beyond (near future), Booster Gold (25th century), Reverse-Flash (25th century again) and Abra Kadabra (64th century). Series set in the future include OMAC and Tommy Tomorrow (near future); Atomic Knights, Hercules and Kamandi (after undated disasters); Space Ranger and Space Cabbie (22nd century); and the Legion of Super-Heroes (31st century).
When you consider how much of DC’s future has been explored, it’s almost as if Future State is just filling in the blanks.
And finally, there’s 5G. Not the fifth generation of broadband cellular networks, like you see on TV commercials. In comics, “5G” was a plan by former DC co-publisher Dan DiDio to replace all of DC’s superheroes with a “fifth generation” of new faces. That was in the works when DiDio was abruptly fired in February by higher-ups in WarnerMedia.
(I’m guessing it was 5G that did him in. The Powers That Be probably feared he was about to kill the golden goose — DC’s intellectual property — that was feeding movies like “Wonder Woman” and TV shows like “The Flash.”)
So what to do with all of that 5G stuff that had been commissioned? Well, duh.
So here we are with a two-month 5G instead of a permanent one. Which raises the question: Will Future State matter, or will it be another Convergence? Given its provenance, should we even care?
Yes. Because some of it will be reflected in DC’s regular line when it returns in March. Also because there will be some “firsts” in this train ride that will be worth the ticket.
And it’s “essential reading,” if you can believe Batman Group editor Ben Abernathy.
“Future State is not a throwaway event," Abernathy said in an interview with CBR.com. "It's not time wasted in any way. It's all part of a plan we've been working on for a while."
And Abernathy should know. He’s in charge of “Future State: The Next Batman” #1 — that’s the actual title — wherein The Next Batman will be Black. We’ve had a Black Bat-sidekick (The Signal) and a Black almost Batman (Batwing) but never an actual Black Batman. Until now. (Or at least the near future.)
Who is it? Well, I won’t spoil that, except to say that the character was introduced way back in 1979. (“Quick, to the Bat-longboxes, Robin! We’ve got research to do!”)
Another point in favor of “Next Batman”: It’s an oversize (64 pages) anthology, with back-up stories starring Bat-adjacent characters such as the Outsiders, Batgirls (at least two of them), Arkham Knights (Bat-villains) and Gotham City Sirens (Poison Ivy, Catwoman and a surprise). The series runs an unusual four issues — most Future State titles run but two — to pack all that in.
And I hope it works. One thing the comics industry desperately needs is a bunch of successful anthologies. Great characters who can’t seem to support a title for long — Hawkman leaps to mind — could have a second life as back-ups in anthologies, if fans were willing to buy them. Let’s hope “Next Batman” pulls that trigger.
And where’s Bruce Wayne? He’s still around, fighting the new paramilitary rulers of Gotham City, the Magistrate. You’ll find his adventures in the four-issue “Future State: Dark Detective,” a slightly smaller anthology (48 pages) that will offer Red Hood and Grifter in the back.
As for lasting impact, look no further than the two-issue “Future State: Wonder Woman,” which introduces Yara Flor as The Next Wonder Woman. She’s Latina, an Amazon from the Amazon Basin (which is a cute touch). We’ve had a bad-tempered Wonder Woman (Artemis) and a Black Wonder Woman (Nubia), and an army of Wonder Girls, who are almost always white. So a Latina Amazon is new thing, that makes one wonder what took so long.
Yara is also a member in the two-issue “Future State: Justice League,” and co-stars in the two-issue “Future State: Superman/Wonder Woman.” But she’s also going to have her own TV show on The CW, so yeah, she’s a big deal.
And Diana? She’s got her own book, the two-issue “Future State: Immortal Wonder Woman,” set in the far future. She’s evidently become a goddess, and has outlived everyone we know except other gods, who are knuckling under to something called The Undoing. It seems an Amazon’s work is never done. In the back of the book, the aforementioned Nubia gets some love.
This pattern continues with the third member of DC’s “Trinity,” with both a new Superman and the original as headliners, separated by time or space.
The new guy is Superman’s son Jonathan Kent, currently a teenager, who is all grown up as the star of “Future State: Superman of Metropolis” and “Future State: Superman/Wonder Woman.” In the former, he is so worried about his native city that he puts it in a bottle, Brainiac style. Why would he do this? Decades of reading comics suggests to me that he’s being controlled by Brainiac in some fashion. We’ll find out soon enough, because Supergirl is coming to straighten him out.
Oh, wait: She’s not Supergirl any more. In fact, Superman’s cousin gets a two-issue run as “Kara Zor-El, Superwoman.”
Meanwhile, the original Man of Steel has been kicked off the planet for some yadda-yadda or other, and is a gladiator on Warworld because … comics. We see his adventures in another 64-pager, the two-issue “Superman: Worlds of War.”
What else? Well, in “Future State: The Flash” Wally West goes nuts (again), and Barry Allen & Co. have to save him without their super-speed. Aquaman and Mera have a daughter, who appears in two books at different ages — she’s Aquagirl in “Future State: Aquaman” and Aquawoman in “Future State: Justice League.” Also, Swamp Thing makes it to the end of time in his two-issue “Future State: Swamp Thing.”
And when all is said and done, DC Comics will return to its regular programming in March. It will be a much leaner publisher, with echoes of Future State, fewer titles and, yes, an anthology or two.
But that’s a column for the future.
