There’s something nerve-wracking about reading the last issue of a series you’ve come to love. The expectations are piled up so high that anything less than awesome can feel like a major disappointment. Happily, while things do come together a bit tidily (and they are liable to do so in a miniseries, where the plotting is obliged to be compact), the concluding chapter of “The New Deadwardians” is a solid end to one of the more charming and complex comics of 2012.
Written by Dan Abnett
Illustrated by I.N.J. CulbardThe notorious Hinchcliffe Case closes, but it may not do so quietly and cleanly. Secrets have emerged that will shake Deadwardian Society to its foundations. That is, if society survives…because the Restless are inside the zone.
A major Zone-B incursion — and that’s New Deadwardian for “the zombies have breached a fence and also people are rioting” — brings Inspector Suttle back to Whitechapel just as he deduces the solution to the mystery of Hinchcliffe’s murder. But of course, there’s more waiting for him there than shambling hordes of the undead, and soon Suttle finds himself face-to-face with the architect of the Hinchcliffe murder… and much else besides.
On the level of plot, the weakest aspect of this issue is its use of the trope we’re all familiar with, the villain giving a speech on the eve of his triumph. And while this is something that the villain in question acknowledges, and offers an explanation for that doesn’t have too much to do with gloating (“I need you here to be my witness and confessor, Inspector”), it still feels a bit awkward and transparent, so far as devices go. As for the reveals, though, it turns out that there’s a conspiracy here, and while that’s no surprise (Suttle guessed as much a few issues go), what turns out to have been the murderer’s role in the state of society at large certainly is.
That reveal, by the way, is the kind of discovery that you would expect to have a something of a ripple effect by the end of the issue, and it’s a pretty brave move on the part of Abnett that it doesn’t. We’ve always known that Suttle has a strong feeling of commitment toward his country, with all its flaws (and there are many), but we see it exemplified here in a way that is truly gobsmacking, bearing in mind what he’s been through to get to this point. Extreme as it is, however, it fits Suttle’s character as well as the dire circumstances of his nation well enough, at the same time as leaving room for some speculation as to Suttle’s underlying motivations.
It certainly wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that an overall feeling of pessimism permeates the universe of the series, but as the last page gets across loud and clear, individual triumphs — and individual happiness — can still exist, and be just as meaningful, if not more so, in a society that’s lost its vitality. It’s a nice little coda in a story where one of the chief worries of its protaganist has been that he’s lost his humanity, and will never fit in with the world of the definitely alive.
I don’t think I can say much more about I.N.J. Culbard’s art without repeating myself, but as for this issue in particular, there are some great moments to be singled out. Chief among them, though, is a dizzying high-angle panel, in which a character dangles over a horde of zombies. It took me the longest time to figure out why Culbard’s zombies look so eerie, but here it’s hard to miss: they don’t shamble and they don’t oustretch their arms. They just stand there. They wait. So far as undead beings go, these ones seem particularly aware that they have plenty of time.
Then, of course, there’s that last panel, and even here Culbard doesn’t allow sunniness to prevail entirely: a couple of silhouettes loom in the foreground, never letting us forget what has become of this society, and how irrevocably it has been changed by the enchantment that brought the dead back and kept the living from dying.
All told — and while it does feel quite compressed — this last chapter is a fitting and satisfying end to what has been a fun and thought-provoking series. Which is to say, while some of the devices are a little worn, the parts that really count — the world-building, and the development of the characters — all stay true to the general spirit of the comic, while still managing to surprise us a little in the end. That’s a tricky balance to strike, but this comic — and this series as a whole — has pulled it off with nonchalant elegance and ghoulish charm.
Final Verdict: 8.0 — Buy
