The final issue of the ongoing Prophet series does something really lovely for us: it relieves us of the necessity of choice.
SPOILERS FOLLOW. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED
The various characters we've followed through this series have been depicted in a fully-realized manner. And where Old Man and his cohorts are painted at the "good guys," the supposed bad guys working for the Earth Empire, poor, dead Newfather John and his arc, John with a tail, are every bit as well-written. You end up caring about them, hoping against hope that they'll relinquish their fascistic mission, but knowing how unlikely that is. And then Graham and Roy give us just this gift. John Ka sums it up nicely when he says "Brother Greenknife, it looks as though we've got a new arc." I was taken aback by the death of Newfather - we've followed him for so long, and it was, sadly, something of an inauspicious death. Perhaps not all is lost with him, though I somehow doubt a return.
The Earth Empire secures a power that might make them unstoppable. They must be stopped.
But first...
The next couple of issues are the Prophet: Strikefile series that came out in the months before Earth War. They're pretty good, filling in some of the missing millennia of the Earth Empire and the future of the Extreme Universe. They're a timely addition to the series, I think. Though I appreciate the kinds of fiction that simply throw you in, eventually, especially in a world this rich, I want a bit more detail. Strikefile, named for an encyclopedia series that featured Youngblood characters (I think), delivers.
I am concerned at this point that I might not be able to find the final issue of Earth War before I finish what I have. It's only another week. I'll poke about this weekend, but fair warning that both you and I may well be left with a bit of a cliffhanger for a while.
To be continued.
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