Wasteland #58 (Oni)

writer: Antony Johnston
artist: Christopher Mitten

via Previews World

"The Final Chapter" Part 6 (of 8), also known as the big reveal of what exactly the apocalypse looked like that created the world of Wasteland, or what exactly the Big Wet was.

Epic, epic stuff.  I have not had the opportunity to read the whole arc yet, but I'm very happy to have at least read the previous issue and especially this one, which as far as I'm concerned does a large part of explaining the whole series.

Way back when the series started I liked to try and sell the series to potential new readers by pointing out the similarities between the character of Michael and the, ah, far more famous Wolverine.  Nine years later or so and I still stand by that assertion, but as it turns out there may be a better comparison, one that wasn't even possible at the time: Wasteland, as it turns out, may be a lot like Hancock.

Hey, remember this year's Noah, and pop culture's first-ever exposure to the idea of the Nephilim, a concept probably even most Christians had never heard of?  (You know, the rock creatures in the movie?  The movie no one else has described this way but it really is: brilliant.  By the way.)   That's part of it, too.

You remember how in Hancock you thought you were just watching Will Smith being Bad Superhero, but then you realize that not only is Charlize Theron in it, too, but she's incredibly important, and that the story is really about a couple of angel protectors who can't spend any significant time together without massive consequences?

So it turns out the good folks such as Michael and Abi and Marcus (...okay, not all of them good folks) are a lot like Hancock.  The whole extended Newbegin arc that sometimes seemed like it was the whole point of the series was actually a massive illustration that these guys were not actually cut out to be rulers (thanks again, Marcus!) of mankind.

I don't want to spend too much time analyzing that whole situation, because I need to read the whole sequence, and that probably won't happen until next year, and besides, there are two issues remaining and who knows what else Antony Johnston has yet to reveal?

The crux of what makes this issue so brilliant, so important to the whole series, is how perfectly it presents a portrait of the panicked end times of the hundred years in the past, the Big Wet that was the hidden mythology of Wasteland all this time.  There was some of that tapestry last issue, and maybe there was more in previous ones, too, I don't know at this point.  I know that I loved how it was done in this one.  Loved it.

For a series built on a mystery that could easily have been, in anyone else's hands, the way it actually started, I'm loving having reached this point.  Sad that it's the end of the series, but great that soon the whole story will be available so that maybe us die hard fans will finally be able to convince everyone else to read it.  No more excuses, right?  It's been a fantastic journey.  One for the ages.