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Future State: Superman/Wonder Woman #1
DC Comics

Comic Books

‘Future State: Superman/Wonder Woman’ #1 review

This might be the best part of Future State by far.

Future State: Superman/Wonder Woman is a comic that I’m pretty sure was built for me in a lab. It’s Superman’s kid and the new Wonder Woman fighting an Amazonian Sun God and Solaris, the Tyrant Sun, the evil stellar supercomputer built by the Justice Legion A of the 853rd century. What’s not to love?

But even beyond my own personal buttons to push, Dan Watters and Leila Del Luca write a really fascinating story.

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I spoke at length in my review of Future State: Superman of Metropolis about how Future State heavily borrows from Grant Morrison’s runs, specifically his takes on the JLA and the DC One Million crossover. This issue is perhaps the most Morrisonian of them all, with the issue literally telling a story first recounted in DC One Million, with Solaris the Tyrant Sun attempting to fight Superman Secundus.

Future State: Superman/Wonder Woman #1
DC Comics

And it’s Morrisonian in a broader sense, too, with the way that extreme technology becomes mythology and vice versa in Morrisonian works. I’m thinking of the ‘ultimate’ Superman in DC One Million, and the Super-Doomsday from Morrison’s run on Action Comics. Solaris attempts to take the place of a mythological god, and Superman dismisses the sun god, Kuat, as “some sort of 5th-dimensional imp . . . probably a Zffrian, like Mxytzptlk.” Superman and Wonder Woman are dealing with an ultimate intersection of mythology – the sun, a divine force in almost all mythological pantheons – and technology – the sun is just atomic fusion, after all, and atomic power is the ultimate symbol of the technological age.

This, as well, is a version of Jon Kent that is just better than the one that appeared in Future State: Superman of Metropolis. This is a Superman that is genuinely kind and superheroic, as opposed to the version of Superman that is short-sighted and trigger-happy over in his other book. The fact that Superman begins the day by saying hello to Metropolis, and counts the seconds – like Astro City’s Samaritan – for his rescues, is delightful.

Similarly, Yara Flor, the new Wonder Woman, is just fantastic. She’s angry and rebellious and anti-authoritarian in a way that is both completely unlike Diana Prince while still managing to live up to her ethos. And that costume! I haven’t been able to figure out who designed it – though I assume Joelle Jones – but it’s another costume that is unlike Wonder Woman’s, yet still manages to evoke it.

This isn’t a perfect comic. The characterization being so different between this and Superman of Metropolis is a flaw, even if I like this characterization more, and the art gets strange at times. But still, broadly, this might be the best part of Future State by far.

Future State: Superman/Wonder Woman #1
‘Future State: Superman/Wonder Woman’ #1 review
Future State: Superman/Wonder Woman #1
This isn’t a perfect comic. The characterization being so different between this and Superman of Metropolis is a flaw, even if I like this characterization more, and the art gets strange at times. But still, broadly, this might be the best part of Future State by far.
Reader Rating2 Votes
8.9
Solaris the Tyrant Sun!
Jon and Yara's dynamic is delightful
This is a totally different Jon from Superman of Metropolis
8
Good

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