It’s been months in the making but Death is finally here. Yes, the only time that I can safely say I am excited to see Death right in front of me. It’s not often everyday you see Death; but thankfully Paul Cornell delivers the sweet embrace of Death to me and I appreciate it.

A lot of this series so far, since Cornell has taken over, has been very silly. Almost like a surreal trip into the life of Lex Luthor. For this issue, since Gaiman’s Death character is at play; the tone of this issue changes a bit. Oh it is lighthearted and Cornell isn’t trying to be too serious here. But what I like is that this could be the first time, in maybe forever, we see a new personally in Luthor. In this issue Lex actually seems to be a bit humble and seems to actually care about the meaning of life overall. Cornell balances this by some witty banter with Death and also an amazing sequence into why Lex is adamant on being an Atheist. This issue proves that while Cornell can deliver the laughs in abundence, he can really slow things down and make a thoughful and serious depiction on Death.

I was so upset at first that Pete Woods came back for this issue. Again, he is much improved here then he was with the World of New Krypton stuff; but I would still prefer to see Sean Chen be the artist here. However, for the most part, this issue does look pretty good. It’s all talking heads so Woods has to be consistant with the faces here. I say 90% of this issue looks consistant with only a slight iffy look to Luthor in the early beginnings of the issue. There’s also great coloring in this to set the mood for each section of the issue. Brad Anderson should be getting some major props for this issue as a whole just as much as Woods will get.

I’ve been loving this series since I caught up with it a couple of weeks ago. This is just a fresh, and new look into the mind of Lex Luthor. Here, Cornell takes away the over the top humor and gives us a witty but thoughtful look into Luthor’s views on Death and Afterlife. It looks like the series is going to go back to it’s silliness next month with the reveal at the end. But that’s okay; it’s nice to know Paul Cornell can just turn this series around a complete 180 when needed.