Review: Joe The Barbarian #8

Written by Grant Morrison
Illustrated by Sean Murphy

All of Joe’s new allies and enemies descend upon the same battlefield as he and his army have their final showdown with Death itself! Hearts will be broken and sacrifices will be made as the white-hot team of Grant Morrison and Sean Murphy wrap up one of the most talked-about miniseries of the year in an unforgettable final showdown.

It’s here. The much delayed but highly anticipated finale of Joe the Barbarian has finally come out, with extra pages and an added on dollar. Now that the story is complete (5 months after the last issue, over a year since the first), how does it wrap?

Click behind the cut to find out.

There is a lot to be expected from an issue like this. Joe the Barbarian (which is for all intents and purposes the new/modern Neverending Story) has been an absolutely wonderful aside to Morrison’s quite prolific run on Batman, giving fans of his more original content to enjoy that don’t revolve a man with a cowl (although he makes an appearance!). Now that it comes to an end, with tensions quite high and Joe face to face with (possible) Death due to a lack of sugar in his blood, we finally get to turn the pages of this slightly oversized issue. The good news is that despite the long delay we’ve had to read the story, the ending is still just as wonderful and full circle as we could’ve originally hoped (if not a tad matted down by it’s own loftiness).

As the issue begins, we are immediately thrust back into the realm that Joe has fictionalized for himself. As the final showdown begins, Joe is left to question who is allies will be as the axe falls, and all is left desperate as the prophecy of the “Dying Boy” is closer and closer to being fulfilled. It’s a very emotional issue for those that have been following Joe’s story, because as much as this has the markings of a “winner takes all” book it’s still a Morrison story, so you’re almost guaranteed an unhappy ending. However, the ending offers up a lot of resolution, as many of the elements come full circle with the wide growth of character we’ve seen as well as a few quiet but ultimately poetic revelations. For those that have been following the story closely to the point that they’ve become rather attached to the various protagonists and their plights, it’s a very solid resolution, within both Joe’s reality and fictional universes. It’s nice to see that in a story that began with so many loose threads that were assumedly dangled out there as footnotes (like with Joe’s father), more than we could have originally assumed is addressed, especially in the final three or so pages. It really is a very solid story, from front to back.

It’s with that in mind that we can say: when Morrison is on fire, he simply is on fire. I don’t know what chaos magic Morrison is practicing these particular days, but it’s clearly working quite well. In comparison to what Morrison has been doing in Batman, his Joe the Barbarian work has been much more streamlined in it’s storytelling, focusing less on the abstract and more on the action as it happens. As much as the intense nature of Morrison’s usual writing is to be expected, the lessening of this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. While the more “out there” Morrison is certainly just as (if not more so) entertaining, Joe the Barbarian is still definitively infused with the machinations that are oh-so familiar in his writing. The speech in particular is very true to Morrison’s habits for characterization, and the plot still has it’s tricks to follow as dots are connected and we flip between two visions of reality. Even down to the core of the title, the book is seeping Morrison themes and stylizations at the very core. As things wrap up, this is arguably one of the cleanest endings Morrison has ever delivered, with a rather solid closing that doesn’t necessarily invite the possibility of future stories and musings. A lot of the time Morrison leaves things open ended, but not here. Everything, including the title, finds a definitive home at the issues finale, and this closure offers up a very interesting element to the story, making this one of the most accessible stories he has ever told – and all the much better for it.

Sean Murphy just kills it in the issue – there’s no other way to say it. He has shown an incredible amount of talent with this title (even to the extent that in between finishing this, he actually drew another five issue book and a one-shot!), and this issue is no different. While it is not as big as others in it’s display of war (at least, compared to the previous issue), it has plenty of rather large and full moments where Murphy utilizes all that the page has to offer. As much as there is a lot to gleen from the story via dialogue, it’s the beauty in how Murphy interprets Morrison’s scripted scenes that draw the reader in and keep the vitality of the action alive. It’s so good to the point that you can actually hear that familiar triumphant music playing in the background as you watch some of the books more bombastic sequences. The ending with Queen Bree in particular that features “the return” (so to say) is a wonderfully powerful moment of victory that pulls through only via Murphy’s imagery, for example. Since it’s a silent scene, all the power lies within his art, and it’s reflected back wonderful, especially with Dave Stewart’s colors as the two make quite the artistic pair.

However, it’s impossible not to note that the delays did hurt the issue. While the story is still quite wonderful, this finale could have – for all intents and purposes – been issue of the year due to the emotional steam it had had running behind it. With some of that dulled down, the issue is still easy to pick up, read, and enjoy (and is admittedly my most anticipated title of the week), but it lacks the timeliness that would have really put the punch home for one of the top spots of the year. As it stands right now, it’s still a wonderful finale and will definitely be a fantastic read in trade for those that didn’t buy in single issues, but for single issue readers some of the punch is a tad lost.

Either way, Joe the Barbarian marks yet another fantastic note in the ever expansive career of Grant Morrison. On top of that, it has turned this reviewer on to a new artist, whose career I look forward to following quite closely (having bought two new titles for his work alone since Joe started). Grant Morrison shines in creator owned work, as he has shown time and time again, and with Sean Murphy as hopefully a long-term collaborator I would certainly be excited to see more in this vein of work in the future.

Final Verdict: 9.6 – Buy