WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the story "The Beginning of the End" from Future State: Suicide Squad #1 by Jeremy Adams, Fernando Pasarin, Oclair Albert, Jeromy Cox & Wes Abbott, on sale now
In the many futures of the DC Universe, tomorrow's heroes have taken inspiration from past legends and heroes. Sometimes, that comes in the form of heroic legacies like the Superman dynasty of heroes. But other times, unlikely defenders are honored in a new form, such as the newest hero of the DC: One Million timeline.
Now, we're taking a closer look at the newest of these heroes, the Gold Beetle, a surprise ally to the Justice Legion who appears in the Future State: Suicide Squad #1 Black Adam back-up story, and how she sets herself up to help save the distant future of the DC Universe.
The distant future of the DC Universe is a radically different place than the modern-day, with powerful inheritors to countless heroic legacies spreading out to create a near utopian universe. Or at least, they used to spread out across the galaxy. The coming of the mystical menace known as the Unkindness -- along with her champions of chaos and the Seven Deadly Sins -- quickly leads to chaos across all of the galaxy. Superman-Prime is defeated, Mogo disappears, and the Atlanteans are wiped out in battle when they confront the Unkindness. Even the Justice Legion isn't able to fully counter the thrall of the villain, with the dark magics of the Seven Deadly Sins resulting in all but the Wonder Woman of this era being corrupted and possessed.
Wonder Woman barely escapes with the original, seemingly immortal Black Adam, who has survived into this era. The two are at a loss over what to do, but they receive a last-minute save in the form of an unlikely new hero, Gold Beetle. Arriving in a large ship, Gold Beetle barely has time to shout out that she's coming in for a landing before crashing between the powered figures and seemingly crushing the Superman, Batman, and Flash of this era. Given that she's seemingly connected to Booster Gold, it's likely that this mysterious hero has arrived within a time-traveling vehicle. Her connection to Blue Beetle also suggests the potential for some expertise with technology.
With the amount of destruction and death that has been wrought across the cosmos, time-traveling to a time before the Unkindness attacked might be the only real way to counter her and even potentially undo the damage she's wrought. While Gold Beetle isn't fully identified in the issue, but it's clear that she's taken inspiration from two of DC's most loveable Justice League International screw-ups. She might even have the same kind of skill-set that Booster eventually perfected as a time-traveler, which allowed him to protect the Post-Crisis DC Universe for a time as an unsung hero. It'll be interesting to discover what kind of connection she really has to the time-traveling Booster -- as that freedom to explore the time-stream at his leisure could explain how someone so clearly tied to him could appear in such a distant future of the DC Universe.
Gold Beetle's potential status as a time-traveler could even allow her to come to the modern-day, making her one of the handful of characters who could tie Future State concretely to the DC Universe. It also means that she could be the only one who can save the distant future version of the DC Universe and restore the future to how it should work.