Future State: Batman/Superman #1 is an issue of the series Future State: Batman/Superman (Volume 1) with a cover date of March, 2021. It was published on January 26, 2021.
Synopsis for "Future State: Batman/Superman, Chapter One: Vermin"
Gotham City. The Beginning of the Occupation
Batman is searching for Clark, fighting an horde of modified rats who now have a laser-shooting eye on their back. As he gets away from the monstrous creatures, Bruce finds a chamber surrounded in Kryptonite...
Metropolis, the day before
Superman saves a kid named Zander from a suicide attempt: he discovers the kid bought a drug, called False Face Serum, which gives the ability to change your face with the one of an animal you like. It should be a temporary thing, but it looks like it's not: Zander was not able to control it anymore, and anytime he got nervous, he transformed into a ram. His social life would be over forever. As Superman gives the kid to the cures of Dr. Veritas, he goes to Gotham to ask Batman's help.
As he arrives, Bruce tells him to quickly get inside the Batwing, so that the drones around the city won't spot him: the Magistrate, a military anti-mask force hired by Gotham's new mayor Chris Nakano, is inside the city. Spotting Superman's red cape would probably trigger an extreme reaction for them. Once the situation has been explained, Clark talks about the Serum with Bruce, who tells him he already made some researching into the matter, as predictably the drug was a success in Gotham. As one of the Magistrate's cybers attacks a group of rebels who were using the Serum, Superman intervenes, triggering the sensors of the Magistrate, who send news of the fact Superman is in Gotham to a man called the Professor.
Superman saves those guys, and then him and Batman question them: they all tell them that some of their family members, or friends, were kidnapped by the Magistrate. To fight back, they decided to use the Serum as is the only thing available to hide from the Magistrate's face-recognition software. The investigation then leads Batman and Superman to a place in Gotham's underground, where Bats find proof about who is funding the Serum. At the same time, Clark was keeping some thugs mutated by the Serum occupied, so that Bruce might finish his job. But Batman stopped hearing any punching a while ago, and it can only mean his friend might be in trouble.
Superman, after beating up the thugs, is speaking with a man who calls himself Mr. Toad, and who reveals himself as the leader of the False Face Society. He tells him his cousin invented the Serum, and was the original Mr. Toad, but he died. While his cousin was doing this, the current Mr. Toad was working as a professor in Gotham University, not paying attention to the pleads of his cousin about "freeing Gotham" from the influence of the Magistrate. But then, he understood that the Magistrate control everything, and if you do something they do not like, well, they eliminate you. So, he thought that with the Serum, he could form a secret society inside the city to trick the Magistrate and get Gotham back.
Superman, in this story, understands that Mr. Toad is the father of a young lady they met before, who decided to use the Serum to rebel against the Magistrate. This young lady also told Superman that she decided to rebel because the Magistrate kidnapped her father, while it seems this is not true. Mr. Toad must return to his daughter, so that she might stop suffering from the Serum's side effects, while also having the opportunity to hug her dad once again. As Mr. Toad deactivates his mask, he understood that he earned Superman's trust: revealing his true intentions, he stabs Clark with a Kryptonite knife.
Appearing in "Future State: Batman/Superman, Chapter One: Vermin"
Featured Characters:
- Batman (Bruce Wayne) (First appearance chronologically) (Flashback and main story)
- Superman (Clark Kent) (First appearance chronologically) (Flashback only)
Antagonists:
- Amina (First appearance; unnamed) (Flashback only)
- False Face Society (First appearance) (Flashback only)
- Mr. Toad II (First appearance) (Flashback only)
- Magistrate (First appearance chronologically) (Flashback only)
- Peacekeeper-01 (First appearance chronologically) (Flashback only)
Other Characters:
- Shay Veritas (Single appearance) (Flashback only) (Cameo)
- Zander (Single appearance) (Flashback only)
- Mr. Toad (Mentioned only)
- Mayor Nakano (Mentioned only)
- Professor Pyg (Mentioned only)
Locations:
- Future State
- Gotham City (Flashback and main story)
- Old Gotham (Flashback and main story)
- Gotham University (Mentioned only)
- Metropolis (Flashback only)
- S.T.A.R. Labs (Cameo)
- Gotham City (Flashback and main story)
Items:
- Batsuit (Flashback and main story)
- Batrope (Flashback only)
- False Face Serum (First appearance) (Flashback only)
- Green Kryptonite (Flashback and main story)
- Magistrate's Drones
Vehicles:
Notes
- The events of this issue take place in 2025 before the Magistrate managed to defeat Batman.
See Also
- Cover gallery for the Future State: Batman/Superman series
- Images from Future State: Batman/Superman Vol 1 1