The last issue of DCeased: War of the Undead Gods is one that I think readers of the series are going to remember for a while; because it was pretty wild. We've had our heroes have to adapt over the course of the DCeased franchise run, changing into new versions of themselves or taking on new identities. Black Canary became a Green Lantern and is now Green Canary, Damian Wayne became Batman, Cassandra Cain gained the powers of Shazam. Things have taken some wild turns from the Earth-1 universe we all know and love. But perhaps the most unforeseen, and most surprising change came at the end of the last issue, where Alfred Pennyworth became the human host for the spirit of God's vengeance. Yes, Alfred became the Spectre!
This issue picks up where that one left off, with Earth-2 (the planet, not the universe) under attack from the assembled forces of Erebos and its infection. The New Gods, Thanagarians, the Sinestro Corps, and the Forces of Apocalypse, along with anyone else infected along the way, are laying siege to the human colony world. Things aren't going well, heroes are dying, allies are being lost, and it looks like the planet is about to fall. You'd think that this would be the moment when Alfred, now infused with the power of the Spectre, would lay the hurt down on the monsters coming for the people he loves. But no, after a plea from Damian, who's just lost his mind to the infection, to find another way, Alfred flies off into space; seemingly running away.
Following this, Jon Kent and Brainiac try to take down Darkseid, but the anti-life infection manages to get inside the Coluan and turn one of the best allies the heroes have against them. Rather than attacking the planet, however, he heads back to his ship, where he plans to destroy all of the bottle cities held within. This is where Cyborg is able to confront him, and overwhelms his systems. Cyborg takes the Brainiac powers and abilities into himself; giving us another new version of a hero. Using the knowledge that Cyborg has now gained, he heads to Earth-2, where he frees the inhabitants of the bottle city of Kandor, unleashing an army of Kryptonians to help fight against the forces of evil.
This is when Alfred returns, with masses of the cure in tow. The heroes begin to administer the cure to the infected, including Darkseid. Upon learning that he was being used as a puppet by an even more evil entity Darkseid joins out heroes in their mission to destroy Erebos.
So, a lot happens this issue. This is perhaps one of my biggest concerns about this book. It feels like a lot of stuff is being crammed into a relatively short space. With only one issue left it seems like our heroes and their new allies are going to be taking the fight to the entity behind everything. But can that really be done in one issue? And on top of all that there's the fact that Darkseid is back, and how that's all going to work going forward. Things are either going to be hugely rushed in the final issue in order to put everything to bed, or this isn't going to get ended.
I wouldn't be surprised if the final issue of this series is just setting the stage for another series in the DCeased franchise, one where it will deal with Erebos directly. I'm not against that idea, and if anything I'm more for that than the book trying to wrap everything up in one issue. I'd like the series to try to take its time rather than rushing for a conclusion that will probably not feel all that satisfying. Make the last issue of this series this new group forming their plan, have them dealing with the losses they've suffered, the changes some of these characters have gone through, and the forming of an uneasy alliance with Darkseid; but have the Erebos stuff happen in a new series please.
DCeased has always done wild stuff, and a big part of the appeal of the series is that fact that it can do things like kill Bruce Wayne, make Alfred the Spectre, and annihilate the Green Lantern Corps and it have consequences because it's not part of the main continuity. It doesn't matter if the events of this book break the world, because it's not our world. Tom Taylor seems to do really well with these out of continuity books, and his best stuff comes when he's told 'go wild, do whatever'. Hopefully the sales have been high enough that DC will continue to let this happen, and that we won't have to try and end it all in the next issue.
No comments:
Post a Comment