What happens after the end of the world?
Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Wood
Art: Garry Brown
Colors: Jordie Bellaire
What They Say:
Dead calm. Quiet seas. Second chances? The Ninth Wave crew enter a brand-new chapter in Earth’s history.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Ragnarok is often used as a poetic way to refer to the end of the world; however, many use it incorrectly. It sounds cool, and it is a term for the death of the world, but what many forget is that it’s also a cycle. Ragnarok-and-roll: the end is the beginning is the beginning is the end. That’s what this final issue is about—what happens when the world has ended. Issue 29 was the climax, and issue 30 is the resolution.
The story begins with a series of panels depicting various biomes on the Earth. It then moves to the deck of the Massive, the huge ship that’s been the MacGuffin for the entire series. Lars stands there, talking to Mag and sending out drones to map the world. We learn that since the slabs rose, the entire surface of the Earth has changed, and Lars is obsessively trying to chart it.
From there we check in with each of the major players in the series and see how they are dealing with being caretakers of this new world. While this occurs, an unseen and unnamed narrator writes about the people, what happened, and what the future might hold.
Issue 30 is a quite story—in some ways anticlimactic—but it serves as a fitting coda for the series and ends it all on a hopeful tone. The basic premise seems to be the same as the first issue: we are stewards of this world, and we need to take that responsibility seriously. It’s a good message and a fitting end for this story, but as was the case with 90% of this series, I felt emotionally disconnected.
Try as I might, I can’t explain why I don’t connect with this story. The quality of the comic has remained consistently excellent from the writing to the art, so I can only conclude that it just doesn’t work for me. Despite this issue, I am glad that I read it, and I recommend everyone give it a try.
In Summary:
The Massive presents a bit of a quandary to me. On the one hand, I appreciate the excellence of writing and art, but on the other, I was never able to quite connect with it emotionally other than the first trade. It could be that this is a series that reads better as a whole than in single issues, or it could be that it just doesn’t resonate with me. Either way, it’s still a fine comic and this is a worthy resolution to it. Recommended.
Grade: A
Age Rating: N/A
Released By: Dark Horse
Release Date: 24 December, 2014
MSRP: $3.50
