By Jarred A. Luján — By this point, you’ve surely heard of Once & Future, but just in case, I’ll give you a quick primer anyway. It’s a Kieron Gillen/Dan Mora collaboration that takes Arthurian legend, an unrivaled character dynamic between a guy and his grandmother, and just a hint of English nationalism, and it stuffs it all into a blender and puts the sucker on high. What results is a topsy turvy tale with some of the best art in the industry, but enough about the book in general, let’s talk about Once and Future #6, the conclusion of the first arc.

Gillen has continued to write the hell out of the aforementioned character dynamic between Brigette and Duncan. Anybody who has read any of my previous reviews of Once & Future is likely tired of hearing me praise the duo, but what an absolute perfect pairing. I love their interactions so much because they feel so authentic and so funny; it really is a great coupling of characters. Character-wise, Duncan really comes into his own in this issue, and he’s really been the character to watch throughout this series. Some really big changes have happened to him and his development has been one of the best parts of these six issues.

One of my favorite parts of endings in general, meanwhile, is when everything properly wraps up, things hinted at in the beginning become relevant again, the circle is closed, and fin. Gillen really pulls all of this together here in the final issue of this arc. It really is a nice, clean, impactful ending. There’s obviously a lot of room left for some more expansion — epilogues are always nice — and we’re getting a new issue and another arc in March, but if the book did conclude right here and now, it’d still be satisfactory. Obviously, I’m excited to see more, but I sincerely love how neat most of this ending is.

Art-wise, Mora deserves much credit, with this ranking as his strongest issue yet. The melting sequence is really something to behold, something that is elegant and eye-catching. It sharpens the intensity of the book at just the right moment. One of the things that may fly under the radar is the way the panel borders shift from rigidly straight to a little wobbly in the midst of the climax, something that I sincerely loved because it feels like panels themselves are disintegrating to match what’s happening in the story. It’s a small detail that adds much to the immersion of the book. I think Mora has done some of his best workout throughout this series, and I hope we get to see him doing more of it for a long time.

True to my Once & Future review tradition, this is the section where I talk about how absolutely awesome Tamra Bonvillain is because DAMN. The color work in this issue, this series, has been one of my favorite parts. Like I mentioned earlier, the melting scene has one of the most INSANE full page splashes where Bonvillain really digs in and crafts an insanely beautiful page. If you don’t buy books for the colorist on them, Once & Future just might be the series that changes that. 

Overall: A fantastic end to this book’s first arc, the entire creative team is at its best in this issue, playing on the Arthurian legend, excellent character dynamics, and sheer Englishness that have driven this book from the start. 9.0/10

Once and Future #6
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Dan Mora
Colorist: Tamra Bonvillain
Letterer: Ed Dukeshire
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Price: $3.99

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Jarred A. Luján makes comics, studies existential philosophy, and listens to hip-hop too loudly. For bad jokes and dog pictures, you can follow him on Twitter.