Well this is it, the final episode of this highly underrated miniseries. It starts with a sad ending. It’s almost a year past the events of the previous issue. We learn that Denny had been beaten into a brief coma while in jail, which forced Max to sell the rights to The Escapist to Omnigrip at a much cheaper price than Mr. Linklater had initially offered him in order to pay for all of Denny’s medical bills (and get all the charges against him dropped). This promptly left Max broke again, and he has since returned to his old elevator repairman job.

To add insult to injury, we see that Omingrip printed the final issue that Max, Case, and Denny had worked on, then tacked on a new ending by a new creative team, which revealed that Max’s story was all just a dream, and then relaunched the series featuring new stories of  The Escapist, picking up from where the original golden age series had left off. And that appears to be even more successful than Max’s series was.

Denny has recovered and continues to work for his father, while Case have moved to New York to work at a graphic design company, although that job is not as fulfilling as he imagined it would be.

Now, despite all of this, the story turns around and gives everyone a very happy ending. I’m not going to say how, as I don’t want to spoil it for you, as you really should read it for yourself. Brian K. Vaughan has written an entertaining, informative, and heartwarming story. First-issue inker Eduardo Barreto (who sadly died in 2011) joins Jason Shawn Alexander and Steve Rolston on the art team for this issue, and everyone did an excellent job in bringing this tale to life. I highly recommend it.

Chacebook rating: FIVE STARS

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