A chaotic and incomplete ending.
Creative Staff:
Story: Rick Remender
Art: Jonathan Wayshak
Colors: Jordan Boyd
What They Say:
The last humans on Earth face Neanderthal hordes and the bastards who started this whole mess. Can there be a solution? A death. A compromise. A lie. The big twist comes. Check out the thrilling series finale from Rick Remender (Black Science, Deadly Class), self-described as “a heavy dose of high-octane action, character drama, a world of strange reverse mutations, and social commentary – as we follow the last tribe of humans inoculated from the devolution agent as they set out on a desperate journey to try to find a way to re-evolve life on Earth.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I definitely went into the fifth issue feeling wary of the book just in wondering how it would bring things to a close, at least in the sense of an arc if not the property since another run could always be in the offing to continue the world. I’ve been hit or miss on Remender’s work since day one, but the book has kept me glued to it for Wayshaks’ artwork as he brings something really great here with its style and raw intensity at times with the detail and line work. That we had the seeming twist at the end the last time around was partially expected, not in detail but in general idea, and this issue just kinds of runs with it. It at least makes Raja the main focus, which is what it should be considering the run of the book to date.
With Raja having made such progress through so many obstacles that really should have left her dead, having the serum essentially ripped out of her hand at the end the last time around was strong. That it comes from people in what initially look like spacesuits only adds to that, but it’s great to see how that doesn’t deter her. Through the narration, we really get to see how this experience has been the last final push for Raja to devolve herself, at least in her thinking, in order to survive in this world. And she’s not going to let go of getting the serum, going after it at any cost and tearing apart those that get in her way. It’s definitely a powerful moment for her because she doesn’t snap but rather just makes it clear in her own mind that she now just has to do what she has to do in order to right the wrongs of her father. And that even if it wasn’t her father, she’d be compelled to do the right thing.
The book has some great action sequences as she goes through this, that’s one hell of a sea beast!, and we see why the guys that grabbed the serum did what they did since there’s a tight control for folks that aren’t getting injections for this. It’s a crazy ride as we see her trying to make her way to the real boss behind everything and going the distance in a raw and powerful way, something that Wayshak just drives home beautifully. That we get the kind of expected twist leaves me feeling underwhelmed here with the real boss and how it just kind of sidelines things, combined with watching Gil go through his survival by waiting things out and doing his best to keep his sanity after losing everything that he had built, it’s just got an incomplete feeling to it, like the opening arc to the larger story. I won’t be surprised if there’s a second miniseries, I hope that there is, but it feels like we needed something that wasn’t quite so rushed in some ways or had been spread out with the previous issue more, with less Gil in order to expand Raja’s story.
In Summary:
At this point in the game, I’ll admit that end run of the series I found myself reading more to see how Wayshak was going to have fun with the devolved types, the crazy action sequences, and just the rawness of the artwork that brought this world to life in its own way, especially with Boyd’s solid coloring of his work. Remender’s story is solid enough but the structure and pacing of it kept it from being as tight as it needed to be and coming across as both rushed at the end and without enough of a sense of closure to it to make it feel like the destination was worth the journey. The journey is worthwhile because it’s a fun ride overall, but it feels like it was just shy of being a lot better if it was tighter.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: June 15th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
