The Unexpected #8 - DC Comics

THE UNEXPECTED No. 8, March 2019

Announced as far back as October 2018 that the title was being cancelled, Steve Orlando’s script for Issue Eight of “The Unexpected” at least provided its remaining 6,857 readers with the satisfaction of successfully wrapping up Neon the Unknown’s battle against Mandrakk on the planet Nil - the “capstone of the Multiverse.” However, just how exactly the matter manipulator is able to achieve this victory, considering the Dark Monitor had just previously torn Colin Nomi’s throat out, is another matter entirely, and one which will doubtless have many of this comic’s owners scratching their heads in bemusement for years to come.

For starters, the GLAAD Media Award-nominee’s narrative would have its ever-dwindling audience believe that in extinguishing their physical lives the Vampire God somehow instantly transported both the Bad Samaritan and Neon’s souls to the World Forge in order to be annihilated. This intriguing plot-twist is certainly as surprising as its action-packed ride in boiling hot lava is eye-catching, but it arguably makes little actual sense, especially when all Nomi needs to do to avoid both himself and Alden Quench being “vaporised at the core” is to simply ‘will’ the pair of them back to the Monitor World; “I can get you out of here, get us out of here… It was never about winning! Never about beating you…” 

Equally as contrived a solution is Orlando’s suggestion that The Unexpected and Hawkman never needed to destroy Dax Novu with a “kill-shot”, just completely rewrite the villain’s personality in order for him to become a ‘good guy’. This lack-lustre answer is seemingly produced from completely out of the blue, just as Mandrakk appears on the verge of brutalising his opponents into oblivion, and debatably must have struck many of this book’s bibliophiles as a serious anti-climax to such a sense-shattering showdown.

Mercifully, much of this bizarre “Multiverse on life support” storyline, which as an aside bears absolutely no resemblance whatsoever to “DC Comics” marketing synopsis, is dynamically-drawn by Ronan Cliquet and coloured by Jeromy Cox. The creative pair’s work on the aforementioned volcanic-themed scene set on the World Forge looks excellent, and more than makes up for the occasional decline in the Brazilian artist’s (potentially rushed) pencilling later in the book, when perhaps this comic’s end was in finally sight.

Storytellers: Ronan Cliquet & Steve Orlando, and Colors: Jeromy Cox