The Wrong Earth #6 Finale Will Leave You Clamoring For More

[*Warning: this review contains some mild spoilers!]

The Wrong Earth, Season 1, comes to an end with issue #6, available now from Ahoy Comics, and it certainly sets up a very different status quo for with parallel worlds, thanks to Dragonfly/Dragonflyman and a big wad of cash. Money, it would seem, does buy you happiness. Or at least a certain level of safety and support. For one, it’s the protection of a corrupt police force, while for the other it’s in order to pay for the silence of the goofy criminals who have unmasked Dragonflyman for the playboy billionaire he always was. But, in doing so, Tom Peyer and Jamal Igle (with inks provided by Juan Castro) deliver yet another novel approach that crimefighters simply never think about. Well, the wealthy crimefighters that is. And, there’s quite a few of them.

This approach, early on in the issue, sees both Dragonfly attired superheroes showing cash at the problem and the problem disappearing. That problem being, how best to protecting one’s secret identity and one that doesn’t require the requisite violence we expect of our caped crusaders. It’s an idea both of our heroes have in unison, too. That’s some synchronicity right there! Hell, they even quote the very same lines of verse from Shakespeare. And, let’s face it, the Bard had a lot of quotable lines.

But the real treat of this series to date is how both heroes deal with a world they are very much at odds with. And, it would seem this worlds have slightly shifted thanks to their interference. Or, is it an equal relationship? After all, even the newly reformed, Deuce, floats the idea that the pop-art world of Earth-Alpha has changed the grittier, glummer Dragonfly for the better. Well, he’s certainly smiling a lot more than he ever used to.

Or has it? There is one chilling event near the end of this issue’s main story, that will have you clambering for more, believe you me. That, and a final page that is equally as shocking but most welcome. It’ll only complicate matters even further, but should make for a riveting second season.

Developing and expanding this fairly new multiverse is the follow-up strip featuring Dragonfly while he was still on his original Earth and once again we get a taste of the violence he seems to be addicted to.

Having grown up with Marvel UK, it’s always a pleasure to see the underrated art skills of Gray Erskine once again; a style not too dissimilar to Igle’s own, but leaning more towards more solid blocks of black on his figures that only add a solidity to the strip that is almost tangible. It’s the same aesthetics I get from reading Bryan Hitch on Hawkman. I love it! And, writer Paul Constan – fairly new to comics – is proving he’s got the chops to write a top notch comic. And that’s before his own series, Planet of the Nerds, comes out in April. I mean, you have read our interview with him, haven’t you?

Holding everything together and creating a sense of colourful cohesion and linguistic legitimacy over the two strips, as well as balancing the different shades Earth-Alpha and Earth-Omega require to differentiate themselves, are our Master of Ceremonies, colourist Andy Troy and letterer Rob Steen. Another seamless job done, guys. I might not cover the hard work of colourists and letterers every time, but don’t think it has gone unnoticed. You make the art shine and the comic sing. Keep up the good work. And, if you can hurry along Season 2, that’s be nice too.

Having been one of the first comic book websites to offer an advance review way back in August, it’s only right that we take a final look, for now, at this flagship series that’s been a wonder and a joy to read from a team of seasoned vets of the comic book industry who are only enriching the medium with these amazing and astonishing tales. Tales that twist what we expect of our superheroes and their well worn narratives.

The Wrong Earth #6 is out now from Ahoy Comics.