Review by Ian Keogh
Future State is a series taking a glimpse into the possible DC universe of the near future, and this collection gathers the odds and ends of the two chapter stories. Black Adam, Shazam!, Swamp Thing and the Teen Titans are all included, but presumably the Suicide Squad were deemed to have the highest profile, so the collection’s titled after them.
Robbie Thompson and Javier Fernandez project the Suicide Squad’s future, which is as the Justice Squad, a bunch of former villains masquerading as the Justice League, maintaining order for a dictatorship. As in the present day, they’re controlled by Amanda Waller, but even more callous and brutal. Thompson pitches this as a cross between the Dark Avengers and The Boys (TV show rather than comic), with the control of Superman a very fine line. It’s unpredictable, but doesn’t reach its potential due to dull art from Javier Fernandez.
The Teen Titans inhabit New York, now flooded and devastated with many Titans dead, and are awaiting the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Tim Sheridan sifts in the reasons why Dick Grayson needs some redemption amid an attempt to put things right, but it’s too much blood and thunder and too little clarity, although nicely drawn by Rafa Sandoval.
Sheridan also writes the Shazam! chapters, which mark time for a while, but he finds a use for multiple B-listers amid some squalid temptation and corruption, with Eduardo Pansica maximising the visual potential. It leads into a distant future featured in the final story, in which Jeremy Adams seems to be heading down the route of recasting Black Adam as the Black Panther, turning his kingdom of Khandaq into a technological wonderland. That’s in passing, though, and this enjoyable and surprising romp again makes good use of several minor heroes with Fernando Pasarin showing how good the Suicide Squad story might have looked if he’d drawn it. Both stories only really work, though, if you’re well versed in minor DC characters and what they can do.
Swamp Thing as interpreted by Ram V and Mike Perkins was successful enough to leap straight into a relaunched series. It’s easy to see why, as this oozes quality. The Swamp Thing of old is one of several similar beings who all look up to him on an Earth where humans are possibly now extinct, although they keep up the search. There are some dark doings with a Perkins supplying a brilliantly sinister villainous presence, manifestly creepy, channelling former Swamp Thing artist Steve Bissette in places. It’s grim and dark, but very smart and eventually it delivers a form of optimism.
As with almost all the Future State collections, this is patchy, and even more thrown together than the others, but with a fair bit to recommend, and the Swamp Thing story standing out.
