It’s the end of everything.
Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Buccellato
Art: Mike S. Miller
What They Say:
Dr. Fate forms a desperate plan to stop Mxyzptlk and Trigon, but he’s going to need one of Superman’s allies to make it work. Can the new Deadman get them to cooperate?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As the series gets ready to hit its finale, we had a lot of things going on in the last couple of issues as the fights started to get more personal and a few extra twists came into play. There was a surprising death with Huntress and then a plan to try and save everyone – for the moment at least – with Constantine opting to free The Flash so he could rescue everyone that was collapsing under the weight of the battle outside of the House of Secrets and the House of Mystery. With Mister Mxyzptlk and Trigon throwing a celestial battle on a grand scale here with magic, it’s pretty much tearing the fabric of reality apart and making a huge impact on those that were just going at it a few minutes ago.
While Constantine did do the smart thing in agreeing to what the Flash wanted to do in saving everyone, Flash also pulled a fast one along the group lines that exist as he set all of his allies over in the House of Secrets while throwing Constantine’s allies into the House of Mystery. Though that works tactically when going up against each other, both sides have to work together to deal with the threat at hand and this move by Barry has complicated things in a really big and unfortunate way. There’s a sense that the moments are just ticking away with what can be done and a kind of frustration from those in the magical know as they realize there’s very little they can do. So watching as the tensions rise and the risky plans start to surface is fun, especially with Batman throwing an accusation at Constantine that he surely must have something up his sleeve.
But as he notes, who could have imagined that Mister Mxyzptlk was involved in all of this and that it would go as crazily as it did. That means everything is beyond expectations, which means that it’s a lot more fun seeing the kind of on the fly plan that comes up, which has the general idea of having Doctor Fate using Shazam’s transformation lightning used as a way to send Mister Mxyzptlk and Trigon “elsewhere” so that they stop impacting things. It largely turns into a race against time towards the end here as the protections of the Houses is starting to fall off, but also the fun of Constantine’s side trying to make it clear that they have to focus on this rather than beating the snot out of each other more. Suffice to say, Superman’s side really continues to come across badly.
In Summary:
There are some fun moments in the issue, from Billy not really being sure about all of this and seeing Superman insisting that it can’t end like this while still largely just wanting to go fight, but we also get some decent character bits. The light touch regarding Huntress works well enough as Batman removes the lariat from around her neck and as Batwoman simply wails over the loss of such a good friend. Watching as Constantine basically lights up and wonders where they’ll go from here is still one of the more amusing aspects, but I also liked that when a plan starts to come together, they figure it out on the move and just work towards doing something, which has them with a leg up over Superman’s team at this point.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: March 3rd, 2015
MSRP: $0.99
