So it ends. Well, this volume, at least. With the last issue of the Rising Action arc, the book finally sees the six issues of battle really come to a head with some major twists, turns, and big changes to go along with the witty banter and classic Keiron Gillen humor that we’ve come to know and love from the series.

The battle with Ananke has hit its crescendo, so to speak, and with Laura (Persephone) leading the charge, things look as if they’re going to get messy and stay that way. Ananke’s plan is coming in full force: Her attempt to kill Minerva, her huge villainous turn, and the battle between her side and Laura’s side work themselves out by the end of this issue, and it’s glorious. Between Ananke’s plan to kill the Gods and the Gods’ complete aversion to being murdered, it’s a pretty fantastic fight, and one that we might not see again in the series. At least, not in the way it was presented this time.

Rising Action is just that: a series full of huge, knock-out fights between the Gods we’ve come to know and love (most of them, at least). Everyone gets their moment, but as it’s been throughout the series, the Destroyer Persephone gets the spotlight in its bigger moments.

Gillen has made this very difficult for me, because I really want to shovel all this praise onto him for his hand in creating such a brilliant story, but I’ve done that a bunch of times already. His dialogue is always fun and full of the humor we’ve come to expect of him, and the story is as well crafted as ever, even if there’s more fighting in it than usual, which can be something that can weaken a writer, since having less words can sometimes be a bad thing. But he does this very well and seems to know what he’s doing. This arc ends as it began: purely amazing.

Also, Jamie McKelvie needs to be stopped. Not really, but in the way that his work is so amazing that it’s almost as if we don’t really need much else out there. This has been a series that’s just been an artistic masterclass from him, and it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. In this action-heavy arc, he’s shone brighter than ever before, really showing off his skills in visual storytelling and movement. Especially those splash pages. Those are seriously brilliant.

I’m going miss this book as it goes away for a few months, but come November, the gang is going to be together once again to bring us what could be the final two arcs in the series. Not sure about that, but it looks like this story is cruising towards an end point in the next year or two. I’m not hoping for that, but I’m looking forward to seeing what this team can do with this book. If this issue is anything like the next, it’s going to be pretty great.