WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Future State: Batman/Superman #1, by Gene Luen Yang, Ben Oliver, Arif Prianto and Tom Napolitano, on sale now.
One of the biggest developments in Future State's possible future for the DC Universe has been Gotham City falling under the control of the villainous Magistrate. Ruling the city with an iron fist, the Magistrate effectively outlawed all masks and vigilante activity under penalty of death, putting Gotham's hero and villain community in jeopardy.
And in the pages of Future State: Batman/Superman miniseries, the original World's Finest duo reunites for a case as the Magistrate begins to make in-roads in seizing control of Gotham, and a classic criminal gang from Batman's past has been reimagined with a new supervillain leader in response: The False Face Society.
The original False Face Society was created by the Joker in 1962's by Bill Finger, Sheldon Moldoff and Charles Paris in Batman #152. Assembled by the Clown Prince of Crime to keep his own identity a secret while tricking other villains to carry out heists on his behalf, Batman wore a mask to infiltrate the ensemble and busted them up with the help of the Gotham City Police Department. Over 20 years later, a new iteration of the False Face Society would be launched with its most commonly associated leader at the helm to menace Gotham: Roman Sionis, the supervillain Black Mask.
In 1985's Batman #386 by Doug Moench and Tom Mandrake, Black Mask created his own iteration of the False Face Society. Giving his associates masks from his own signature collection and moving their base of operations to the Sionis family crypt, Black Mask ran the new Society like a relatively standard criminal syndicate, just identifiable by their mask-wearing motif. While Black Mask's commitment to having his goons wear masks has alternated in the subsequent decades, Roman has led various incarnations of the False Face Society in the years that followed. The Future State version of the Society has expanded beyond a simple criminal enterprise, however, and with Black Mask replaced by an even more frightening villain from the Dark Knight's extensive rogues gallery in the vile Mister Toad.
Batman and Superman investigate a sudden rise of Gotham citizens transformed into anthropomorphic animals, retaining their human mentality even as their faces take on the forms of different animals. As the Man of Steel and Caped Crusader search Old Gotham -- the crumbling neighborhood under the city's increasingly cyberpunk revision ruled by the Magistrate -- the superhero duo discover the cause for the animalistic mutations are fueled by a new designer drug that subverts the Magistrate's mask ban. And while a kindly figure named Mr. Toad introduces himself as the leader of the Future State False Face Society, comments by the Magistrate's forces hint that he is actually Professor Pyg in disguise, brandishing a Kryptonite scalpel with the intent to kill the Man of Tomorrow.
While masks may have been banned throughout Gotham City by the Magistrate, a new designer drug circumvents this rule with animalistic results. Given Professor Pyg's history of surgically altering victims to resemble animals, this new plot certainly falls into his usual modus operandi, as the evil doctor branches from surgery to chemical enhancement. And armed with a Kryptonite scalpel and commanding a new False Face Society of animal-headed criminals, this crafty supervillain and his gang may have enough muscle to push the World's Finest out of Old Gotham for the last time.