Credits: Written by Alan Moore, pencilled by Jim Lee, inked by 8 different people and edited by Mike Heisler.
Cast: Hadrian 7/John Colt/Yon Kohl/Spartan (seriously that’s one guy), Maestros/Mr Majestic, StormWatch (Batallion, Hellstrike, Winter and Fahrenheit), Gen-13 (Fairchild, Rainmaker, Burn Out, Freefall & Grunge), WildC.A.T.S. (Warblade, Zealot and Maul) the Sword of Damocles, the Sword’s creatures (One-Eyed Jack, Hardball, Rake and Jade), Wetworks (Mother-1 and Dozer) and Union.
The battle on Earth has ended, Gamorra Island is free of the Kaizen, but now the battle is above. The moon is about to be pulled from it’s orbit and fired at the Earth, the world looks upward, afraid. It’s heroes, such as they are now race to the moon to face Damocles. Leading them is the 1930s adventurer John Colt, with his memories intact, in the body of Spartan. He flies alongside Mr Majestic and are flanked by Hellstrike, who was a big fan of John Colt. The fly towards the captured StormWatch Moonbase and come across the fight between Union and the Sword of Damocles, which was looked at here.
When Union finishes his fight, the group splits up, Majestic, Union, Hellstrike and John Colt/Spartan fly on to the engine that is moving the moon, the rest of the group, led by Zealot head off to the Moonbase to free it from Damocles’ forces. They quickly defeat the Sword’s creatures, One-Eyed Jack is turned into No-Eyed Jack by Fahrenheit and Jade is quickly dispatched by Zealot. Jack, Hardball and Rake teleport out, since the rest of the invaders are at the engine, the Moonbase is free. At the Engine, the four big hitters are wading through the bounty hunters guarding it. The battle is intense, but it’s ended with the arrival of Wetworks’ Dozer who has been dragged by spaceborne tugs and dropped onto the moon, the impact destroying the Engine entirely. Then Majestic just mentions to John Colt that he was the one who killed him years ago and tries to apologise for it. Colt’s reply is, a no worries, let’s be friends type of thing. Then as the Moonbase team arrives, the reunited heroes head for a nearby plateau, where the former members of Team 7 and Sigma face off against Damocles and the sky is light up with energy, the climax of this battle is coming.zr
Notes: The end of this story has on it’s way. After a lot of fill in artists and also rans, we have the quality team of Alan Moore and Jim Lee. We get all the pieces into place and set up for the end of this saga. But it’s a little over populated. So many characters having little to do there’s even a moment when Gen-13’s Rainmaker and Burn Out have a conversation about how superfluous they both are. Zealot, John Colt/Spartan, Hellstrike, Union and Mr Majestic do most of the heavy lifting with Dozer coming in as Chekov’s Wetworks member near the end. So that’s a lot of unnecessary characters and that is kind of the downfall of the story as a whole, a whole lot of moving parts and yet not a lot of cohesion between them. It does bridge the gap between the end of the Gamorra Island part of the story and the climax regarding Damocles.
Verdict: Writing – 2 out of 5: Well let’s get this out of the way. This isn’t Alan Moore’s best work, or his best 90s work, but any stretch of the imagination. It’s work for hire that he can do in his sleep, evidently. We don’t get much in terms of character, nor much in the way of solid story-telling. We get a couple of nice moments and a telegraphed appearance of Dozer and that’s all you get.
Art: 3 out of 5: Jim Lee is one of the great talents of the 90s. I can’t say he wasn’t, responsible to pencilling and plotting the best selling comic of all time. His designs are iconic and his good work stands along with the greats. This isn’t one of them. It’s competent enough, nothing is wrong with it, it’s just aggressively okay. The last page, is a little unclear and that does take away from the drama of the reveal.
Overall: 5 out of 5: This isn’t bad, but it isn’t good either and for where we are with the story and the talent on deck, shouldn’t it be good? I’m ready for it to be done.
Next Time: The Man of Tomorrow arrives
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