A delicious plot twist and a surreal fight scene in the midst of Armageddon make for a fascinating issue that could only have sprouted from the mind of someone as inventive and insane as Grant Morrison. The writer reminds us of the ambitious nature of the larger plot with this issue, and it sparks my interest in the Seven Soldiers experiment all the more. This concluding issue doesn't really read like one, and I suppose it needn't, since it's clear the story is going far beyond Justin's adventures in the present day. The only thing that might match Morrison's mesmerizing madness is the rich, dark but seemingly magical artwork from Simone Bianchi. There's a slightly disjointed quality to the pacing of the story, but ultimately, the strength of the ideas and visuals more than compensate for it.
Sir Justin is faced with an undead and unthinking incarnation of Sir Galahad, a fellow Knight of Camelot, but any memory of Justice or his life as a hero is lost to Galahad. Now he's only a monster, intent on ripping the junior knight limb from limb. Meanwhile, gangster Don Vincenzo, rejuvenated by the Sheeda Queen's Cauldron of Youth, realizes that the giant spiders and weird creatures outside his walls are mythological harbingers of an apocalypse, and he leads his men in a fight to the finish against the weird hordes.
Binachi's art reminds me of a cross among Ariel (Space Ghost) Olivetti's richly textured style, Igor (Smoke) Kordey's gritty approach and Alex (Justice) Ross's photorealistic painting. Bianchi manages to sell Morrison's plot twist pretty well with the art, making the idea quite plausible, but at the same time, there's a subtle change in the way the protagonist is depicted as well. Reinforcing the weird atmosphere that's key to this story ar Dave Stewart's colors. There's an unnatural look to much of the color art, and it makes for an appropriately unsettling, eerie effect.
Justin's connection to Galahad is a natural one once we learn of the story's twist, but it also serves to enhance the surprise even more. Morrison's dialogue for the undead Galahad conveys his mindlessness, but it's also effective at conveying the creature's rage and sadism. It's odd... the monster is crude and practically monosyllabic in tone but also articulate when it comes to communicating cruelty and hate.
The subplot featuring the gangster who found Winged Victory, Justin's talking, flying steed, is even weirder than the main story, but damn but it's fun watching Tony Soprano play at being Thor. That's the sort of feeling I get from this odd mix of genres, and it's honestly just a lot of fun. It's morbidly funny, but the absurdity of it makes for a nice balance with the much darker and emotional material explored in the main plot. The end of this series really doesn't feel like much of an ending at all, but then again, the publisher has made it clear this was only one chapter in a much larger epic. Still, I would have appreciated some sort of formal ending (such as what we saw in the final issue of Seven Soldiers: Guardian), but I find it hard to lament it given the strength of what the creators offer here instead. 9/10
