The Middle of the End
This is an especially odd foldout cover. The solicit kind of ruined the twist with the word choice, but the twist happens fairly early in the issue, enough to say this is the foldout cover done right. But there's something else hidden, even in the non-foldout part that doesn't even get acknowledged until the final page.
Last issue, Michael Alan Nelson punched me right in the heart when he whiplashed from sickeningly sweet right into sweetly sickening. This issue, however, doesn't really keep up that pace, but rather flails about to throw in everything possible for a climactic finale, while also attempting to tie up some of the more self contained loose ends.
The big appearance of Animal-Vegetable-Mineral man is just... it serves only as a nod to longtime Doom Patrol fans, and this series is not Doom Patrol, despite the appearance of Niles Caulder. But that's just his identity, at the core he's still a surprisingly impressive foe, and a massive threat truly worthy of being part of this finale. But he doesn't truly work as this 'teamwork final battle' because of the nature of his presence. He was a security measure designed by Niles who rampaged. How was that thing supposed to keep them safe? It was just a mindless monster of destruction! I get the idea of it being a last resort, but it's made clear that it was designed to protect the team, yet instantly it becomes their greatest threat, there's hardly any lead-in to it, they just needed a common enemy besides Deathstroke, so they threw in A-V-M-M. It was cool but out of place.
In Conclusion: 3/5
The art was nice and consistent despite having two artists, but this issue tried too hard for it's climactic tone. The big boss battle for this issue was completely out of left field, and the way it was loosely connected gave it's context even LESS validity for it's role. Also Deathstroke killed Warblade. That dude was awesome. I'm not saying he shouldn't have been able to, because he DAMN sure should be better than Warblade, but I'm sad to see Warblade go. He was just so awesome.
