Jason Todd, the Red Hood, endeavors to navigate a Magistrate-controlled Gotham City in the intriguing but imperfect Future State Gotham #1.
The Future State event gives readers a glimpse into one possible future for the DC Universe. This timeline takes place in a largely dystopian future where the Magistrate has criminalized superheroes and established a surveillance state. Throughout the event, Gotham City has been one of the central battlegrounds in the fight against the Magistrate and its team of Peacekeepers. Batman, Nightwing and Robin have all had run-ins with the peacekeepers. Now, Future State: Gotham #1, written by Joshua Williamson and Dennis Culver with art by Giannis Milonogiannis, puts Jason Todd as the Red Hood at the center of the fray.
The issue begins with the Red Hood fighting the giant Mecha-Scarface in downtown Gotham. Todd easily dispatches the villain and his robot, but not without causing a considerable amount of collateral damage and attracting the attention of the Peacekeepers. Peacekeeper 03 reprimands the Red Hood for acting like a vigilante. The Magistrate wants Red Hood to focus solely on hunting and capturing active superheroes. They certainly don’t want him to act like a hero himself but before Jason and the Peacekeeper can come to any sort of agreement, Gotham is rocked by a series of giant explosions which many believe were set in motion by the New Batman. These explosions set a series of events in motion that are sure to impact the very foundations of Gotham and Red Hood’s life.
Williamson and Culver do an excellent job of introducing several plot points in a fairly short amount of time without losing the reader or giving away too many clues. They set up an intriguing mystery that works as both an intriguing continuation of the Future State and the beginning of an entirely new story. By the end of the issue, Red Hood is thoroughly embroiled in at least two different organizations with very different goals. Williamson and Culver give readers a strong sense of his motives without revealing much about the full scope of his plans.
Though the plot exists in ambiguous shades of gray, the art is presented in stark black and white. Giannis Milonogiannis, whose art can be found in the pages of he and Greg Pak’s Ronin Island, uses the black and white aesthetic to pay homage to both noir and manga influences. There are shades of Tezuka’s Astroboy in the design for Mecha-Scarface and echoes of Otomo’s Akira in Red Hood’s motorcycle. But he lacks Tezuka’s steady hand and Otomo’s attention to detail. Some scenes, particularly those of the explosions towards the beginning of the issue, synthesize the aesthetics of Gotham City and classic manga beautifully – but often the pages feel like they’re missing something. There’s an unfinished quality to them which is made particularly apparent by the backup short story by Katsuhiro Otomo.
“The Third Mask” written and drawn by Katsuhiro Otomo and translated by Jo Duffy, originally appeared in the 1996 anthology Batman Black and White #4 and is reprinted for the first time in Future State: Gotham #1. In eight beautifully drawn pages, Otomo tells the story of Batman pursuing a serial killer with multiple personalities. It ends cryptically but is certainly an interesting take on the Dark Knight and Gotham. The comic is great, but the editorial decision to include it after Future State: Gotham #1, doesn’t do Milonogiannis any favors as his art is immediately compared to one of the masters of the style.
Despite its flaws, Future State: Gotham #1, tells an entertaining story and sets up the new series really well. Milonogiannis’s work promises to deliver exciting action sequences. And Williamson and Culver are gearing up to answer questions left unaddressed by other Future State titles while weaving a mystery of their own.
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