The final issue of this series wraps things up, but also leaves many things unclear. Scott Free and Big Barda have a quiet domestic life with their son and soon a daughter in a condo in Los Angeles. Funky Flashman, the one-time Stan Lee parody created by Jack Kirby, is their babysitter. They apparently commute by Boom Tube to Apokolips, where they take on Darkseid’s minions for control now that Darkseid has been defeated. In this issue, the ghosts or digital hallucinations of the many characters who have died in this series talk to Scott about his life, his choices, and what his actual reality might be. Nothing is clear. Did he succeed in committing suicide in issue #1, making all this an afterlife experience? Is he trapped on Apokolips dreaming of his family life? Is he in hell or in heaven? Those are all possible answers. Scott’s answer remains, “I can always escape.” And no doubt he can and will escape into another reality in the future, in which this entire series will be largely ignored. Kind of frustrating, but that’s comics for you. I had hoped for more of a resolution, but I did enjoy reading each issue of the series, including this one.
Recommended.
I loved this series as well, but found that the second page of this last issue was telling. It was a literal lift from the Bobby Ewing “back from the dead” shower scene in Dallas. Because of the amount of detail involved in copying that scene, I’d believe that anything seen in the previous 11 issues was a dream, or otherwise not actually happening. But that’s only my take. Still that detail is a powerful piece of support for my take. Plus, we don’t actually believe Highfather, Oberon, Orion, or Darkseid are actually dead, do we? Thanks for allowing me to post my thoughts.