Review – He-Man: The Eternity War #15 (DC Comics)

Publisher: DC Comics
Story: Rob David
Script: Dan Abnett
Artist: Pop Mhan
Release Date: 24th February, 2016

With the ultimate battle between good and evil taking place in the previous issue, this final chapter sees the aftermath of the Eternity War as Adam and the rest of the survivors struggle to come to terms with their individual and collective losses, and try figure out exactly what their futures are going to look like. After the gradual ramping-up of the scale, stakes and action sequences over the preceding fourteen issues, it’s nice to see a slower, more contemplative pace in this final issue.

Rob David checks in with Teela and Adora along the way, with each of the powerful female leads struggling to cope with the losses they have sustained, the former in particular all but destroyed by the passing of her father. It’s worth clarifying though that this issue isn’t quite as much of a downer as I’m painting it, with a powerful feeling of positivity and optimism throughout, and one particular moment which will… well… yeah. You’ll just have to read the issue to find out, won’t you?

Okay, so this is going to be a difficult issue for me to review without laying out some pretty major spoilers, so I’ll focus on what I can say…

While he doesn’t get to draw much in the way of epic-scale conflict or supernatural warfare during the course of this issue, artist Pop Mhan still gets to cut loose with several typically impressive splash pages along the way, with an opening image that mirrors the beginning of issue one, and a final page that I challenge any He-Fan to read without a massive smile on their face. He also proves that for all his bombastic, in-your-face, thick-lined insanity, he can also carry some serious emotional heft with his work, providing several truly touching scenes over the course of this final chapter.

While it may be a little cheesy and just the tiniest bit pandering, I honestly can’t think of a more fitting finale to this series than this. We have happy endings, endings tinged with tragedy and endings that are merely new beginnings, and each of them are handled with delicate care by Abnett’s typically stellar script. It’s also encouraging that, rather than tying up everything into a near and tidy ball, the creators leave a few unresolved plot threads dangling for the future, including a powerful hint that the forces of evil may not necessarily be vanquished for good. Let’s hope we get another series that picks up on these threads sooner rather than later.

Overall then, this is a perfect send-off for what has been an absolutely fantastic series. As a lifelong He-Man fan, I often longed for the day where I could read a monthly comic that not only paid its respects to the classics of the past but also helped push this captivating universe forward in new and exciting ways, and for the last year and a half, thanks to Messrs David, Abnett and Mhan, that’s exactly what I got. So, while it’s sad to see the series come to an end, I’m definitely hopeful for the future, and if whoever picks up this mantle down the line can carry it half as far and half as well as this particular creative team has, we’re going to be in for an absolute treat.

Rating: 4.5/5.

PREVIEW ARTWORK
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