I think that I've rated every issue of this series at three stars, meaning that it's been "consistently solid" if not "amazingly brilliant." But, "consistently solid" clearly doesn't hack it in the comic industry now-at-days, so this issue is the last one.
Yost and Burnham do their best to wrap up the High Evolutionary saga, but it's obviously rushed. We never learn why Zuras wanted to eliminate all non-humans; he simply blames it on the High Evolutionary misinterpreting his instructions (something that we all know isn't true) and "kills" him to prevent him from dissenting from this view. Yost and Burnham are also forced to level up Vance to an almost unbelievable extent. The newly defined pet peeve #3 is in full effect here as Speedball and Sun Girl marvel at how they didn't know that Justice was so strong; just because they acknowledge that it's from left field doesn't make it OK. Moreover, the Warriors make short work of the Eternals, despite having fallen to them fairly easily the last time that they faced them. You'd think that they'd be even less able to win this fight after going a few rounds in the High Evolutionary's life-force draining machine, but you'd apparently be wrong.
Despite all that, though, it's still a solid issue. Maybe the Warriors just got a bunch of lucky critical hits and the Eternals got a bunch of unlucky critical misses. It happens. Also, nothing says that we always have to learn the villain's plans at the end of the arc. Yost and Burnham make it clear that the Warriors aren't going to disband, so we'll just have to trust that they'll be on the alert if Zuras tries whatever it was that he was trying again. After all, the sense of fun that Yost and Burnham have infused into this series makes you willing to make these leaps of faith.
Although this series was never my favorite, I'm still sad to see it ending. The authors really seemed to be building to something. But, it seems part of this trend lately to make sure no one ever gets to hit their stride. You can't risk a few mediocre issues of "consistently solid" to allow a creative team to find its footing. It's much better just to cut off the story and release a new #1 issue. As such, it seems that we're just more and more never getting to "amazingly brilliant." I'd really be game for a future arc where Vance finds the truth behind Zuras' plans and takes the fight to him. But, we're probably just destined to see the Warriors as supporting characters in some cross-over event or some sort of limited series, maybe comprised entirely of #1 issues. Fare ye well, Warriors. You deserved better.
*** (three of five stars)
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