Justice Inc. #2

Writer – Michael Uslan
Artist – Giovanni Timpano
Colours – Marco Lesko

In 1939 Doc Savage finally meets himself from the future.  Too bad it was not under the best of circumstances as future Doc needs to get him and a plane full of people back to the present.  Good thing though, as he can work with himself to accomplish the goal.  Meanwhile, on another plane, Richard Henry Benson and his family are travelling across the world when after coming back from the washroom; his wife and daughter have disappeared as if they were never there at all.  Something is going on, some kind of conspiracy and Benson gets thrown from the plane, when another passenger, Kent Allard, dives after him, hoping to save him.  Later as Kent goes to try and recover the body as Benson was seemingly killed, so too does another man, and another meeting of titanic proportions takes place between Doc Savage and The Shadow.  Sadly, this is a case of really wanting to like the book because of everything involved in it, but it is really hard to do so.  Uslan is a great writer and has done some fantastic work before, but the present story feels really disjointed as it does not flow very nicely from one situation to the next.  As soon as Doc Savage is returned to the future, it is almost as if that part of the story has ended for good, and ultimately feels unnecessary.  It is a strange feeling to have halfway through the middle of the second book, but there it is.  The artwork and the covers look great, and having three of the most famous pulp characters together in one book should equal a win and yet, it does not.  So far it has been decent, but it would be nice to see the direction it is taking just a little more clearly.

3 out of 5

Superman Futures End #1

Writer – Dan Jurgens
Artist – Lee Weeks
Colours – Dave McCaig

Superman, or Shazam, is off saving the city like any other normal day.  But today is different as everyone knows that he is in fact, not Superman.  The real Superman has not been seen in years and in that time, it has been Shazam who has been carrying the torch so to speak.  After outing him in the press, Lois decides to go and have a chat with Billy about how she had to do it and he reiterates once again how she ruined the hope that people needed having Superman around.  But in the end, after a fierce battle, Shazam realizes that maybe Lois is right and it is time for him to be his own person, to be Shazam once again.  Here was an issue from the Futures End month long event that actually tied into events that were going on in the weekly book, and while nothing extremely revelatory happened, it mattered more than most of the books that were released.  Dan Jurgens paints a nice character-building story featuring Shazam finally letting Superman go and reclaiming his name.  There were some good action sequences which looked fantastic as drawn by Lee Weeks, but it was all secondary to the drama that took place between Billy and Lois.  The tale might have been a simple one, but it was effective and well done.

4 out of 5