The Future is ****** by Fred Van Lente

Hackers, heists, AI sidekicks... and did we mention the killer whales?

I always start things off with an introduction. This one is not going to be any different but the introduction is its own thing. Why? I am deep.

If you have the time please read the above it makes sense in the end and bonus point, you get to know me a bit better by the end of it.

Story

When I was a kid, I remember reading a pirate story over and over again. I was completely hooked. The freedom, the adventure, the anarchy—it was everything I wanted. I lived in a mountain village, with no sea in sight, but somehow, pirate life spoke to me. I’ve always been a bit of a difficult child. My mum insists I was the best, but honestly, if my kids grow up the way I behaved, I might just die of a stroke.

As I got older, my uncle introduced me to Star Wars, Dune, and the brilliant worlds of Isaac Asimov. So my pirates leveled up. They became space-faring rebels, system-hackers, rogue thinkers. Different ships, different weapons, different rules—but always the same rebellious spirit. They were still beings who refused to let others step on the necks of the innocent.

That spirit is exactly what *The Future is ****** * captures. At its core, this is a story about beings protecting other beings from control, exploitation, and power run amok. I originally wrote “people protecting people,” but in sci-fi, that term starts to lose meaning fast.

The official summary puts it best:

The Hacker Wars are over. The Black Hats won. Who will save us from the world that’s coming?

Black Mountain—a rogue band of digital ronin, freebooters, and hackers—fight against a world ruled by data barons, artificial overlords, and technological terrorists. Each operative is paired with a sprite, an AI partner as unpredictable as the human it serves. At the center is Wheeler, a former black hat hacker dragged back into a war he thought he’d escaped. His team includes:

Martina De León – an Olympic-level infiltrator who operates in the real world.
Sally Chu – a hardware engineer fresh from nine years living in orbit.
Eli Nilsson – a system vulnerabilities expert stuck between reality and augmented reality.
Art & Arf – a machine intelligence obsessed with human creativity—and the dog it’s tethered to.

Their mission? Stop Jason Roanoke, a self-declared visionary who once controlled global supply chains, private armies, and the lives of millions. Now ruling from Tranquility Base, a lunar fortress beyond the reach of governments, Roanoke has become the first corporate king of space. The future itself is his to shape—unless Black Mountain can stop him.

This is *The Future is *******, a 60-issue cyber-sci-fi epic fusing the shadow warfare of Mr. Robot, the kinetic action of The Matrix, and the high-stakes espionage of Ghost in the Shell.

And yes, this is ambitious. A 60-issue arc in today’s comic landscape is no small thing. But Van Lente pulls it off by building a fully realized world. I don’t know if he used his usual panel-by-panel script style here, but if he did, it’s even more impressive. That writing method means everything you see—the pacing, the visual cues, the environments—started with his words. That’s not to take away from Ennio Bufi’s phenomenal art, but it does highlight the level of collaboration and vision required.

Now just so you don’t get the wrong impression: this isn’t a team of hackers sitting behind desks typing code. This is more like Ocean’s Eleven meets The Matrix with a bit of Mr. Robot thrown in. They break into AI-guarded facilities. They create malware to disrupt enemy systems. They storm lunar fortresses. They rescue the innocent from techno-tyrants.

Oh—and did I mention space? Killer whales with guns? Yeah. That happens.

I’ll admit, I had to stop halfway through (kids, life, you know how it goes) and came back to it a couple of days later. I ended up re-reading the whole thing from the start—and honestly, it was even better the second time. There’s a lot packed in: AI, MI, dense hacker slang, layered conversations, and action. But if you don’t have twins bouncing around the room while you're reading, you’ll be just fine.

Art

I don’t recall ever reading a comic illustrated by Ennio Bufi before, but he’s definitely on my radar now. His art hits the mark in every panel. I have to say, and I have no idea if it was intentional, but come on… Wheeler, the leader of the Black Mountain gang, has to be based on Dolph Lundgren. There’s just no way around it. I’m half-expecting him to take off that visor and confirm it.

Random Images but you get the idea

Now picture being an artist and getting a brief that includes orcas with guns and lasers helping a team of digital ronin in exchange for keys to a salmon farm. It’s wild, and Ennio pulls it all off brilliantly. The characters, the environments, the AI sprites—they all flow together with style and clarity.

Andrea Meloni’s colors elevate everything. I’ve said this in other reviews, but I’ll say it again: I love the purple and pink hues, and they’re everywhere here. From the digital UIs to the weapons and even the MI characters floating around, the color palette helps guide the eye and set the tone.

With such a wide cast of characters and elements, the coloring really helps differentiate what’s what. The lettering by Taylor Esposito is also spot on. Whether it's emails, newspapers, holographic overlays, or the crack of gunfire, the typography adds just the right layer of polish.

This is one of those comics where everyone involved deserves a serious round of applause.

Conclusion

The Future is ****** is big, bold, and unapologetically dense, and that’s a good thing. It throws you into a world that feels just a step ahead of our own, filled with rogue hackers, unpredictable AI, corporate overlords, and high-stakes chaos that makes every panel feel urgent.

Fred Van Lente and Ennio Bufi are not just telling a story. They are building a full-blown universe that feels lived in, dangerous, and strangely believable. This is the kind of comic that rewards your attention and challenges you to keep up. If you’re anything like me, you’ll end up flipping back to the beginning just to enjoy the whole thing all over again.