The Power of the Dark Crystal #12 is published by BOOM! Studios under their Archaia imprint. It is written by Simon Spurrier and Phillip Kennedy Johnson with art by Kelly and Nicole Matthews.
Well, here we are at the final issue. While I’m always excited to see how a story ends, I’m also sad to see it go.
The creative team for this comic really did a fantastic job giving new life to this world that had been gone for decades. Simon Spurrier and Phillip Kennedy Johnson gave us new and inspiring characters and Kelly and Nicole Matthews made them look gorgeous.
I don’t know how they’d do the planet core dwellers, with all the lava and stuff, as puppets but I would totally be on board with another authentic Jim Henson puppet version for this story.
We open with Thurma and Kensho fighting off the Chamberlain to protect the crystal shard. Before Kensho can tell Thurma what he figured out about the prophecy, he is stabbed through the chest. No, that’s not a spoiler, it happens on like the third page. And don’t worry, Kensho’s adventure doesn’t abruptly end here. Have some faith in Spurrier and Johnson. As Thurma and Tumby follow the shard into a pit, Thurma realizes something. And as she bursts through the rocks, we see the ground beneath the crystal in the palace shatter.
Thurma’s world did need the crystal’s light, because the world above had shut them out. It wasn’t about one world surviving and the other dying, it was about them coming together to make a new world. And as she puts the shard back in it’s place, the crystal glows brightly…and shatters. GASP! No, but really, it’s fine. Just read and find out because I don’t want to spoil the rest, but trust me, it’s fine.
Simon Spurrier and Phillip Kennedy Johnson give us one last surprise of a new species to truly bring everything together. I have to say, I did not see Kensho getting stabbed. I mean, I know what kind of story this is and even though I knew he would survive, it still slapped me right in the face when it happened.
It still pulled at my heart to see him struggle to speak with Thurma crying magma tears. That’s some good story telling. I also didn’t predict how it would all turn out in the end. I mean, yes, I figured it would be happy. And it is, although a bit bittersweet as we do say goodbye to some faces we have come to know. But even so, they tied it all together so nicely and in a way that was original.
Not the generic “Skeksis are back in the crystal but could come back” blah blah blah. No, we get a new ending. A possibly more permanent one, but this is a world that can always be expanded on simply because its set up to have so much potential.
Kelly and Nicole Matthews made such a dramatic, yet not bloody, almost death scene. Which is nice because any more all we see is blood everywhere because we’re all about violence and gore, but this was done in a tasteful manner? Yes, I think tasteful is the appropriate word. It’s a way that I think most adults would be okay with their kids reading because of its lack of violence.
Even though it’s a death, it’s still stays beautiful. Because everything in this story has been beautiful. Maybe not the Skeksis….eh, they’re beautiful in their own way. The colors in this issue are superb as well. The underground, the above ground bathed in light, Thurma sticking out as bright orange when everything else has turned a faded purple. I just love looking at it.
OVERALL SCORE: 9 / 10
A wonderful end to a wonderful series. Make sure you pick up the final issue of The Power of the Dark Crystal from your local comic shop! Happy reading!
