What do you call the end of a series about the apocalypse? Doubly apocalyptic? Anyway, things certainly do come to a head in this final issue of “The End Times of Bram and Ben”, and as in all good apocalypses, there are plenty of revelations along the way.
Written by James Asmus and Jim Festante
Illustrated by Rem BrooMINISERIES CONCLUSION
After last issue’s shocking ending — Ben is left alone to face the Antichrists! Did we mean for that to be plural? Will Ben die before having sex with Laura, the Gym teacher? Why does God let bad things happen to good people???
FIND OUT IN THIS FINAL ISSUE!
Last issue revealed the identity of the Antichrists – and yes, there were two of them – so I think it goes without saying that they figure prominently here. If you haven’t been keeping up with the series so far, you should know that last issue they turned out to be a pretty familiar pair of people, and so far as surprise reveals go, this one is both hilarious and kind of… believable?
Anyway, this issue capitalizes aplenty on the humour inherent to these two characters, before moving on to some explosive action scenes and a revelatory finish, and the overall arc is more than satisfying. It would be understandable if a book with so many jokes in it skimped on the plot, but things progress at a good rate here, and the ending really feels like an ending, tying up loose ends and giving a reasonable explanation for everything that’s happened.
On the other side of the equation, it’s a testament to Asmus and Festante’s talent that even a concluding issue with a lot of heavy lifting to do plotwise gets so many laughs, all without feeling forced. While the humour is highly concentrated, with a lot of it on each page, Asmus and Festante are careful to keep the jokes pertinent to the action. They arise naturally from the circumstances and the characters and feel more like icing – delicious icing – than the cake itself.
The only sour note here – and it’s not something that’s going to bug everybody – involves Bram and Tipul being super impressed that Ben accidentally drugged the girl he had a crush on. It’s supposed to be horrible and politically incorrect in a funny way, and for a while it is, but a lot of emphasis is put on her wandering around acting like a four-year-old, and it gets tiresome and mean-spirited by the end. She does get some great lines, all things considered, but it would have been nice if she could have earned some slightly less roofie’d laughs.
Broo’s art keeps to its high standard, pushing the extreme elements of each panel and setting down action scenes that are both complex and completely legible. A gigantic and monstrous character toward the end really steals the scene, and there’s an appealing diversity to the rest of the characters, whether angelic or demonic or human. The flames – and of course there are flames in this story – look a bit like orange puffy insulation, and take a moment to puzzle out as, in fact, being flames, but otherwise there’s a wonderful clarity to the visual storytelling going on here, which may after all be essential for a story this tightly constructed to work.
Meanwhile, Overdrive Studio’s colours keep things vibrant but never clashing, and don’t smooth out Broo’s pencils inordinately. A little bit of texture goes over well in a story that’s full of shock-humour, and the energy of the looser lines is nicely preserved. Crank!’s letters also add a lot to the flavour of the story as differently themed and coloured speech bubbles mingle and clash.
Overall, this has been a fun miniseries, with an excellent laugh-per-page ratio and a pretty solid story. It’s not a big stretch to imagine this title garnering a cult following over the months, and while it’s worked very nicely in single issues, it’s sure to spread out well as a trade. We need more funny comics nowadays, and with its potent mix of irreverence and intelligence, “Bram and Ben” is sure to enrapture.
Final Verdict: 8.0 – Buy
