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Future State: Gotham #1

DC Comics

By Steven LeitmanPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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Future State: Gotham #1

DC Comics 2021

Written by Joshua Williamson & Dennis Culver

Illustrated by Giannis Milonogiannis

Lettered by ALW’s Troy Peteri

The event that was DC Future State continues in its own ongoing title starring the Bat-Family, beginning with the epic story “Hunt the Batman.” Disaster strikes Gotham City, and all evidence points to the Next Batman! Red Hood must choose justice over his family and allies when the corrupt Magistrate enlists him to bring in the new Batman dead or alive! Featuring the entire cast from the popular Future State Batman titles, this new series kicks off the next chapter in this forbidding world of tomorrow, and does so in brilliant, monochromatic storytelling! This black-and-white series will showcase the brutal world that’s around the corner in Future State Gotham!

To be honest this wasn’t really on my radar until I was at my local store and saw this amazing variant cover. This caused me to open it up and flip through it and when I saw the black & white interiors I knew I had to have it. Upon reading this I knew it was going to be one of my new obsessions. Full disclosure, I’ve never been a Bat-Family kind of guy sure there’s Dick Grayson who’s my favourite Robin and now Nightwing and Barbara’s Bat-Girl but other than that not so much. I did vote to kill Jason Todd off so that he’s back is a bit disheartening and to see his role in this gives me mixed emotions. But all in all i’m into this and I want to see where it is going to go.

Love the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. Opening with a giant Scarface being driven by Wesker certainly grabs the readers attention in all the right ways. The character development is interesting and it has the desired effect that actually makes you want to see more of these characters in order to understand just what motivates them. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists & turns along the way right up to that cliffhanger ending well it’s just perfectly done.

I like how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story are shown and even how the origins begin which is something I’ve never seen done this way before. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved extremely well.

I love the bold and daring way that we see the black & white interiors. The linework is extraordinary and how the sketchy and near manga, very Akira inspired, work is mind numbing. How we see the composition within the panels and how backgrounds are utilised so judiciously bring us this amazing depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the book beautifully. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. With the new looks to the heroes uniforms and these Peacekeeper uniforms it definitely has a more unique tone and feel to them that we don’t normally see in Western culture.

There is everything to love about this and very little if anything to dislike about it. I thought Bruce Wayne was back in the original version but I could be mistaken and if he is than Jason is working for him while the rest of the family isn’t in the loop regarding what he’s up to. The ending makes this abundantly clear though this new Batman and his methods are not what the family is all about and yet I have the feeling that so long as he’s the focus of the Magistrate and the Peacekeeper’s attention than Bruce is free to do what he needs to do to reclaim Gotham from this latest threat, yes the Magistrate is a threat. This is exciting, different than we’re used to and it really has a brave new mood, tone and feel to it that will excite new and old fans alike.

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About the Creator

Steven Leitman

Just me talking about the comics I enjoy reading, ones that you might not know exist and spotlighting the indie creators that excite me.

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