The future of DC Comics is coming... and it might actually make it to the future of DC Comics. When the Batman publisher first announced Future State, the shock over the new wave of heroes and changes to the DC Universe was tempered by the plans that it would be a very temporary event. But more recently, DC announced that Future State would be followed up by Infinite Frontier #0, a one-issue special that changes everything readers expected by giving Future State a chance at a long-term impact.
Future State is a line-wide crossover event that jumps forward decades into the coming years of the DC Universe, landing in a new vision of Earth where the next generation of heroes adopt the mantles of legends like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. The new Justice League, made up of entirely new characters and grown-up versions of heroic kids, also comes with a new world where Gotham has become a cyberpunk dystopia, the Amazons have united under one banner, and a paranoid Superman traps Metropolis in a bottle. Future State takes over DC's comics lineup in January and February 2021.
As relaunches go, that's much more short-lived than most. When rumblings of a storyline that would introduce the next generation of DC heroes began to circulate, rumors suggested that it would be a full-scale reboot on the level of DC's 2011 New 52 event that completely recreated the DC Multiverse. DC's Jim Lee denied that plan, but had little information to give, leaving the event's shadow hanging over everything the publisher did in 2020. Late in the year, DC showed off Future State, which fit that bill, but would only last two months, making it seem more like a small, relatively inconsequential storyline along the lines of Convergence, a two-month nostalgia-fest from 2015 that introduced alternate versions of Superman and Hal Jordan to the main universe but otherwise didn't interact with it.
Infinite Frontier #0 seems to indicate differently. The anthology special from a long list of DC Comics creative teams, each of which contributes a short story that peeks at where major DC characters will be headed in the coming year. The series is focused on the present timeline, but Future State's versions of Superman and Batman appear on the cover and one of the stories confirmed is about the two women who succeed Diana as Wonder Woman, Yara Flor and Nubia.
It seems that DC Comics has learned from the success story of Marvel's most recent hit character, Miles Morales aka Spider-Man. Normally, the "legacy hero" process requires the bearer of the title to step down and transfer the name to their replacement. But Miles shows that two people can hold an A-list hero name together and even be friends without audiences getting confused. DC Comics has a slate of fresh characters loaded with potential, some of which have already caught on with fans, and it's a positive sign that those concepts may not be relegated to the back issue bin after all. Infinite Frontier #0 goes on sale at local comics shops and digital providers on March 2, 2021.