The much anticipated Future State event is coming, and with it brings a whole new look at DC's universe through the lens of the future. On the docket of included titles is Superman, but it's not going to be just about him. Readers are about to get a look at the whole Superman family... 1,000 years from now. There will be a plethora of Superman comics to hit the presses during this event, two of them being Worlds of War and the one-shot House of El. And it looks like the latter is prepped to bring fans a new look at what's to come in terms of Superman's family tree.
While Superman: Worlds of War will be a two-issue miniseries, The House of El will be a one-shot set in the even more distant future. Both are being written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, who has had to find a way to project what Superman and his circle would look like one thousand years from now; how their dynamic will have changed, the relationships they've built and lost, and the way in which their lives have evolved. Now the question sure to be on readers' minds: what will this family tree look like in the future and what sort of epic adventures are they in for?
One of the biggest unknowns right now is who will end up being the reigning Superman during this fateful event? But there are other questions to be answered as well. Considering that Superman and his bloodline can far outlive the normal human, who will Superman have lost? How many new relationships will he have cultivated over the centuries? And what of the rest of his family? According to Johnson, The House of El will read like a sort of epic poem along the lines of Beowulf or The Song of Roland that will be addressing these questions and more. 1,000 years of proposed backstory culminating in a sort of fantasy epic. It seems readers should be ready for 48 pages of epic epilogue focusing on the future of Superman's family, the fate of modern Krypton, and the dynamics of the future House of El.
Of course, this is not be the only title to be released under the Superman umbrella. There will be many oversized comics, one-shots, and monthly miniseries for readers to feast upon as well... and a lot of story to absorb in the process.
Longtime fans of Superman, and even new ones who have garnered love for Superboy and other members of the Superman family, are sure to be prepped and ready to take in all that Future State will have to offer for these Kryptonians. After all, there are plenty of titles expected to be released across the whole array of the Superman spectrum. It's no easy feat to find a way to tie in and project 1,000 years of possible history into a comic that is so long venerated. Johnson and the other writers tasked with the job of creating these stories sure have their work cut out for them, but it seems like it's shaping up to be an event fans will not soon forget.