The train wreck of First Wave comes to a crashing halt in this penultimate chapter to the mini-series that spawned pulp resurgence. Considering how well this all started it seems almost ironic that it’s ending on such a down-note. The charm and integrity of the story is gone replaced by some wacky, nonsensical action and characters who feel like nothing more than cardboard representations of their source material. Brian Azzarello has proven before that he is a genius, but somehow he’s managed to fail dismally when it comes to this series; unless the final issue of this is spectacular then only a third of it will have been entertaining. It’s upsetting to think that the first two issues of this series were so spectacular and powerful. The art by Rags Morales is the one saving grace of this issue; Morales can’t draw anything that isn’t amazing to look at, but even he has started to slump over the course of this series. It’s not bad, it’s just less spectacular now than earlier in the series, which is surprising as this penultimate instalment was an action-packed piece that should have been marvellous fun.