This issue concludes the team's brief but refreshing trip to the country in support of Her Majesty's (very sketchy) Government, based at Rendlesham.The previous issue kicked it off with a mixture of dry character comedy and old-school superhero dust-up, as Midnighter found himself trapped in a time warp as a rural clergyman (no, really) before he, Swift and Angie squared off against a quaint all-British superteam sent out to defend the eerily idyllic village from interference. The away team won the day, of course, only to be outgunned by a clock-faced mystery superhuman who was very displeased to be working the weekend.
Sound hectic? It was; but also fun, as is the continuation in this issue – in which the man with the Magritte clock-face plunders history for things to throw at the Authority, from dinosaurs to WW2 bombers. It'll be no surprise to anyone following this series that Simon Coleby draws a mean T-Rex. I also liked the way the fight gave each member of the team adversaries that more-or-less 'suited' them: pterodactyls and biplanes for Swift, the engineering might of the Blitz for Angie, armies of footsoldiers for Midnighter (who'd clearly seen '300' and was unimpressed). As befits comic book fights, the dialogue was minimal and snarky.
But then, just as I was enjoying the big splashy fight scene, Abnett and Lanning hit the brakes and did something I wasn't expecting at all, namely to show us why our 'villain' was doing all this. His motivation was basic, human and utterly heart-breaking, and gave the story a tragic depth that changed it completely. Even the last panel back at the Carrier (which contained an intriguing revelation) didn't change the genuine sense of grief I was left with. A solid emotional gut-punch is something too few comics bother to achieve, and the fact that they did it with a passing character, not one of the 'cast' we've invested in, makes it all the more notable. Kudos to the writers for demonstrating what the World's End concept is capable of in the right hands.
