WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the Outsiders back-up story in Future State: The Next Batman #1, from Brandon Thomas, Sumit Kumar, Raul Fernandez, Jordie Bellaire and Steve Wands, on sale now.
With Death Metal wrapped and glimpses into possible futures being unraveled, Gotham's in dire straits under the watch of the Magistrate in Future State: The Next Batman. The city's a military zone with masks being hunted by the Peacekeepers and anyone who supports vigilantism being jailed or worse yet, killed. It's caused Duke Thomas (aka the Signal) to help evacuate rebels to the outskirts of the broken city, making him a priority target.
However, in the Outsiders back-up story, we discover he has some help in the form of old friends. The interesting thing is both of these major characters have gotten massive power upgrades for the war to come but they may be a tad unstable.
Duke's found racing to get refugees to the "outside" where Katana deems the military has no authority. This is her territory and as the soldiers pursue Duke, she bolts in on a jetpack. As she lands and uses her Soultaker sword to take out the enemies, Katana's a mix of Iron Man and the Silver Samurai. She's faster, more efficient, agile and stronger too, so the suit seems to have augmented her abilities, leaving us wondering if it's a gift from the missing Bruce Wayne or the Fox family.
Either way, Katana doesn't answer to anyone anymore and killing's an option as she tries to keep her part of Gotham safe from prying eyes. It's why she goes after one of the Magistrate's main bounty hunters and a familiar enemy in Kaliber in an ensuing mission. The cyber-soldier fought with Ra's al Ghul to take Katana's crew out and he's back, stronger than ever with upgrades of his own. But he's simply not ready for Katana, as she's able to roll like a ball at high-speed and once more boost her power levels and speed to ward him off. The fact she cut through dozens of soldiers with ease to get to him says it all.
However, right when she's about to kill Kaliber, she's ambushed by an incoming battalion and loses the upper-hand. Kaliber preps to take her out instead, but this creates a window for Black Lightning to arrive. Except for this time, Jefferson Pierce literally is black lightning. He drops down as an electric entity and with the impact of Thor. But he's a legit thunderstorm, using electricity to fry Kaliber's circuits and send the soldiers scrambling with scary currents.
As they retreat, Katana's shocked by what she's seeing, so much so she warns Jeff to get back, unsure if it's him. He grabs her blade and stuns her a bit, apologizing as he tells her there's work to be done.
It seems he's upgraded even more since the fight against Ra's. Batman experimented on him but we're not sure if this is the full result or if it's something like dark magic, as Katana suggests. It may even be due to Jeff pushing himself after Ra's vowed revenge on Jeff and his loved ones so only time will tell. But what's worrying is Jeff seems to have lost his humanity and comes off like a cold god. Katana needs to figure him out ASAP, though, as he admits Duke has a spy on his team, which is going to make saving Gotham even harder.