By: Dan Jurgens (story), Lee Weeks (art), Dave McCaig (colors)
The Story: Lois has no shame about ferreting a kid’s secrets.
The Review: It is with a sigh of relief that we reach the end of the month and my last Futures End review. There’ve been one or two good ones in the bunch, but for the most part, these tie-ins have reminded me why I dropped the Event rather than made me regret giving it up. At least we get to end on an issue exploring one of the better twists from Futures End: the revelation of Billy Batson as the masked Superman, unleashing a storm of questions, all variations on Why.
As it turns out, his reasons are rather prosaic, almost disappointingly so. [Spoiler alert!] Owing the real Man of Steel a favor after he Phantom Zoned a treacherous Black Adam into submission, Billy accepts the Justice League’s request to wear the “S” after Clark disappears. A sensible, but fairly uninspired explanation. You can’t put your finger on it, but something’s definitely missing from the story, something very much like pizzazz.
Jurgens throws us a single bone, a chicken femur of a thing, in the recollection that Clark left Billy for “another mission. One that sickens me.” He lets slip no other details other than it’s not a self-chosen mission: “This is for me and me alone. Or so he says.” Let me guess: we’ll have to read Futures End to find out more.
The only other point of value about the issue is that it allows Lois to be the hardboiled yet sympathetic journalist she’s rarely been since the relaunch. She makes no apologies for outing Billy—Shazam, really—and has no qualms about following up what he sees as a trespass of his privacy with another, barging into his apartment to get his side of the story. “…I’m in the news business,” she says firmly. “My job is to report what I see, and that’s what I did.” Amen. That doesn’t stop her from offering some motherly advice along the way, however, suggesting Billy give up the act and live his own life.
Perhaps that’s all the encouragement he needed. Certainly, there’s nothing in his totally formulaic battle with Ibac (tossed vehicles, drops from high altitudes—you know the drill) that gives you a clear sense of why Billy suddenly decides it’s time to be himself. Well, okay, other than the fact that everybody knows the truth already anyway.
It’s a shame that Jurgens doesn’t do more with the issue because Weeks looks very much like an artist who can handle anything thrown at him. He has an exceptionally classic style, one that’s at home in almost every era, with swift, elegant lines that suggest a Joe Kubert pulp influence, but a bold sensibility fit for modern times. The action sequences have some liveliness to them, but it’s really his dramatic flair that sells the otherwise simple plot. Lois and Billy’s rooftop conversation is basically talking heads, but with Weeks naturally reclining them along ledge and McCaig’s ghostly lights from the city, it looks pretty good.
Conclusion: Jurgens fails to carry whatever shockwave emanated from the Shazam-as-Superman reveal, though he and Weeks deliver a perfectly decent follow-up issue.
Grade: C+
– Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: – It’s only been five years, so Billy should only be—what?—fifteen? Seventeen? How does he afford his own apartment do you suppose?
Grade
Conclusion