The long-awaited conclusion to Crawling From the Wreckage! Orqwith has nearly completely replaced reality.
Some lovely prose from Morrison here. And a wonderful use of sentence case in comics. These days it’s all sentence case, which I feel takes away from the declarative feel of superhero comics. But here it adds a subtle, poetic element.
Cliff, Rebis, and Jane made a mad rush into thousands of Scissormen last issue… so what happened to them? They’ve appeared in Orqwith proper, where Cliff spies…
… Joshua, who was victimized by a Scissormen and hollowed out.
The limp way Josh falls back here has never left my mind.
Meanwhile, back in reality…
Seems so obvious to put missile launchers on a wheelchair, doesn’t it?
Caulder has tracked down one of the philosophers who wrote the Black Book, the text that spawned Orqwith.
This ain’t your Dad’s The Chief, kids.
Meanwhile, the Negative Spirit has left Rebis’s body and is distracting the Scissormen.
It’s blasted to pieces, but it’s okay…
… Rebis absorbs the shattered pieces and everything’s fine. But more than that, Rebis has now absorbed some key pieces of information.
The pieced-together language of the Scissormen, as translated by Mama Pentecost (one of Jane’s personas), has revealed a key aspect of Orqwith.
This guy outlines Orqwith’s fatal weakness. But how to implement it?
See? It’s simple.
So Cliff and Jane are going to run interference for Rebis until they can get to the two priests that run — or maybe that’s not the correct term, but it’ll do for now — Orqwith.
Cliff’s being a big tough guy, telling Jane to stay behind him. But of course, Jane can take care of herself.
Holy crap.
The tension builds!
And this is just a gorgeous image.
Remember, each of Jane’s personas is its own person, with its own power.
Inside, Rebis confronts the two priests, who tell him this.
It’s an old logic puzzle. Do you get it? If the one who tells you SAYS he’s a liar, then he’s LYING about BEING a liar. Therefore he’s telling the truth. And once Rebis knows THAT…
Orqwith is made to realize its own paradoxical reality.
Rebis does the badass thing of walking away from the explosion without looking.
Later, the Chief makes his pitch.
The answer that makes a powerful superteam is always “Ehnh, why not?”
And thus ends the beginning of the amazing Grant Morrison Doom Patrol run. We’ll return to it soon enough, but join us on Wednesday for a brand-new comic!
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