In the last arc, Captain Marvel went into the future, learned his son would become evil, came back to the present, then suffocated him as an infant. An interesting riff on the “go back in time and kill baby Hitler” philosophical exercise.
This issue is a bit of a wrap up. Moondragon, who has had a relationship with Rick’s wife (due to the meddling of Genis Vell’s future son and Magus), leaves the scene so Rick and Marlo can go back to a married life. But don’t worry, she doesn’t leave empty handed…
…She and Phyla appear to hook up.
We then an amusing “cosmic entity” finish. Rick’s boss at the comic book store was actually a being called Eulogy. He, along with other “E” named cosmic entities like Expediency and Entropy, are part of the “Seven Friendless”–beings who have no friends.
It’s Eulogy’s job to wrap the series.
You see where this is going, right?
Expediency’s hands appear and give Rick and Marlo their happy ending. But Genis Vell doesn’t want it to end. For the whole issue, he’s literally been waiting for a phone to ring.
When Eulogy and Rick and Marlo all leave, he’s the only one left. Some janitors show up and wipe away his backgrounds and he’s stuck in a void with a phone. He gives up.
Then, of course, the phone rings.
This is the PERFECT ending to a series that I didn’t even want to read because I thought it would be stupid and boring. I mean, before Peter David got to him, stupid and boring was Genis Vell’s whole shtick. But this book was genius. One of the best Marvel series I’ve ever read.