Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Five Chapter #40 Review

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

Written by: Brian Buccellato
Art by: Mike S. Miller, J. Nanjan and Wes Abbot
Cover Price: $0.99
Release Date: June 20, 2016

This is the end, beautiful friend

This is the end, my only friend, the end

Of our elaborate plans, the end

Of everything that stands, the end

No safety or surprise, the end

I'll never look into your eyes, again

So play the game "Existence" to the end...
... Of the beginning, of the beginning
Of the beginning, of the beginning
Of the beginning, of the beginning
Of the beginning, of the beginning

The issue starts off with a near defeated Batman talking to Superman, Hal and Wonder Woman.  Sure, it's part of a whole stall game, but like Batman says, "It's a conversation.  One we should have had a long time ago."  Of course, this whole thing will be nothing new to any reader of this series...Batman thinks that Superman crossed the line while Superman argues his actions were for the greater good. It's more of the you say potato, I say vodka argument we have been getting since day one.

For those just jumping on for this final issue (?), Buccellato gives a little run down of Superman's atrocities and at this point I was just left wondering, "Why?"  Batman talks about the Joker, we see the destruction of Atlantis and the Green Lantern Corps and then most of the poor souls who were killed in the series.  Poor Ollie, you died a hero!!!

It continues with Batgirl and Batwoman trying to get the Dimensional Transporter to work while Batman attempts to talk sense to Supes.  Everything lines up as Batwoman volunteers to basically die and Batman tries to reenact the "It's not your fault" scene from Good Will Hunting with a twist...this time it is Superman's fault.  Come on, we all know it!

Superman finally realizes this is all a distraction and zips off to Batgirl and Batwoman, but he's too late to stop them.  Actually, it looks like he is just in time to kill Batwoman before all the heroes are scattered to "the Four Winds".

The issue ends with a couple of new sheriffs in town, if you can call them that and a shout out to the story continuing in October with Injustice: Ground Zero.  I just want to make note that a month or so ago, I predicted that we would be getting a continuation of this series taking place during the events of the video game so...Suck It!!!

There really was not much to this issue at all.  I realize that Brian Buccellato had the tough task of getting to the beginning of the game in a set amount of issues and while he did a good job, it went on for about two issues too long.  Oh well, we got here and I am interested to see who decides to continue the journey now that we've reached the beginning.  I'm not even sure I will at this point.

Mike S. Miller's art was okay here.  Nothing really stood out as either fantastic or horrible...it was pretty standard fare throughout.  His Superman was a little off, but I always like his Batwoman so i'll call it a draw.

Bits and Pieces:

Brian Buccellato ends the Injustice prequel comic with a bit of a whimper.  While I think he did a fine job getting us to the end (or beginning?!?), the whole thing seemed to hang around a little too long.  As a whole, I loved this series, really liked Year Five and was slightly disappointed by the ending.

6.5/10