3 out of 5

There’s nothing particularly wrong with the concluding issues of Waid’s initial DD volume, but similar to the Silver Surfer one-shot in issue #30, we seem to be rushing through some material just because it seems cool, and not because it was the most logical excursion for the story to take.  For how long he kept The Omega Drive thread going at the start of this run, to suddenly barrel through a meet-up with The Jester and an amusing sidetrip to Kentucky to team up with a squad of monsters, all within a couple of issues… it feels like some great ideas that aren’t nearly given enough room to grow.  One the one hand, you could say this – as was the general vibe of this whole DD volume – is a throwback to a “classic” age, when tales were one-and-done all the time, but it more feels like a forced wrap-up, since Marvel’s renumbering required a restart of things after issue #36.  Just speculation, of course; perhaps these interactions were always planned to be sleighted as such, but if so, it doesn’t really match the pacing of what came before, which was definitely a touch more organic.

The Jester working with the Serpents takes up issue #31.  It’s a really awesome setup – Jester using a recently notable trial to fuel riots in the city – ….and then the issue ends on a rather silly cliffhanger, somewhat foreshadowing the ups and downs of these issues.  Issue 32 and 33 send DD out of town to gather some intel on the Serpents, where he meets Simon Garth, Satana, a werewolf, a mummy, and Frankenstein.  And why the hell wasn’t this team-up given more than a hello-goodbye?  Dunno.  But it crazily disappointingly doesn’t amount to anything, and DD gets what he needs and heads back home, allowing for a nice wrap-up over the course of 34-36.  Waid brings things to a close well, giving us a nice reason for Matt to have to relocate to San Fran for the series reboot, but again, there’s a bit of a “been here done that” feeling as we’re shuttled along to an inevitable The End.  I realize with big books you can always rely on things essentially maintaining the status quo, but Waid’s run frequently surprised us with unique tales where we weren’t quite sure how they were going to resolve, and these final issues didn’t quite meet that mark.  Unfairly, it might be the reader’s awareness that the table is about to be re-set, so it is appreciated that Mark didn’t leave things a mess, even if he would be the one coming back to clean things up.  The conclusion might’ve felt pat, but it was the right conclusion.  I suppose in an ideal world, we just got there when Mark wanted to get there and not when Marvel did.

Art-wise, no surprises by this point – reliable Samnee (who sorta bores me in the wake of Rodriguez… but he’s on ish 34, yipee!), with Jason Copland covering issue #33 – definitely Samnee-esque paneling, but his figures have a Romita Jr. looseness to them – and Rodriguez’s awesome colors always putting us in the right mood throughout.

Still, despite the lower rating, this book would kick most major publisher’s books in the poo.  It’s only when compared to the amazing stuff that came before it during this run that it loses a bit o’ luster.