Threshold #8 – Review

Keith Giffen (Writer), Tom Raney, Phil Winslade, Timothy Green II, Joseph Silver (Artists), Andrew Dalhouse, Hi-Fi (Colorists)

The Story: The Hunted is cancelled and most of the players have to deal with that, Caul included. In the backup, Star Hawkins discovers just who the first player is and why she’s still alive.

The Review: Well, this was different. With the way the story had been going on, I had no idea how Keith Giffen could actually conclude everything and how he would close this very title. I did not have much hope for this to be satisfying, yet there are actually some nice ideas in there that are actually fun.

Going meta-fictional in the very last issue, the show in which Jediah Caul and all the characters takes part is cancelled, which prompts a lot of meta-jokes from the cast and the book itself. Dealing with how the book tried very hard to put new stories and how it accommodated a lot of changes during its tenure, it’s hard not to chuckle a bit during some of the scenes of the book in which Giffen himself seems to admit that he cannot actually conclude this series on a high note and that some subplots will never be resolved. The Blue Beetle scene especially is hilarious, with the author explaining via his characters and the context of the cancelled show why he had been included to begin with.

However, as much as Giffen tries to combine the literal and figurative elements with a touch of metafiction, it does not make it a particularly satisfying ending. Those who had become invested in the actual conflict and the setting will not find a lot to like in this different portrayal found here. In the end, many of the characters developed and their situations don’t add up to much as the story instead focus on Caul and the ephemeral nature of entertainment and fiction.