Zeb Larson reviews The Last Fall #4…
IDW’s original sci-fi/military drama continues! Marcus Fall has survived his bloody brush with death and finds himself peacefully healing both physically and emotionally. But when a dark secret is revealed about his own people, will the killing machine that smolders deep inside him be reignited again?
After months of waiting without any sign of the book, I’d effectively given up hope that The Last Fall would ever be finished. My favorite series from IDW appeared to have faded away without any finale. Imagine my pleasant surprise then when it found its way into my collection of review copies. I can’t say that I’m pleased with the seven month wait for the book, but I’m glad it’s finally here. I will not be discussing spoilers in this review.
As Marcus Fall recuperates with Kasha, his faith in the war is further eroded. Fall’s cynicism about the war is balanced by his desire to return to his men, who he feels responsible for. Yet Kasha wants to show him that he cannot simply return to his men without seriously questioning why he has been fighting this whole time. While this goes on, the Merkonians are launching a massive strike to secure more of the fuel source-and as the attack happens, we learn some new things about Priest-Major Roland.
How much of this book is intended to be a parallel for the Iraq War or the ongoing struggles in the Middle East? Up until now, I would have said that the parallels were not the main point of the book, and that this book was largely intended to make statements about the nature of war. While I still think that holds true, the similarities to America’s recent wars are difficult to ignore. The chaplain uses the phrase “shock and awe,” the combatants belong to different religions, terrorism is part and parcel of the struggle, and it’s amid a pending environmental catastrophe. Fall notes that two of the reasons given for the ongoing war are the clash between the two different religions and terrorism, but Kasha disregards one as nonsense and the other as a symptom, not a cause. No, the root causes of this conflict were greed and a thirst for conquest, specifically for a natural resource. It’s hard to ignore the similarities.
The action sequences in this book balance with the dialogue between Fall and Kasha, so the end result is an issue that doesn’t devote too much attention to one or the other. The past issue was pretty much explicitly dialogue (if you can remember back that far), and Casey Maloney’s combat panels are fun to look at. The revelations about Roland are also interesting, as we learn a bit more about his endgame. Now the question is whether his endgame is one of complete cynicism, or only partial cynicism.
Hopefully the final issue doesn’t take so long to get to us, but I’m glad that this series is going to get a finale. There aren’t enough comics taking a look at war and its human dimensions, and we need more like this.
Zeb Larson
Originally published June 3, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
