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The Big Reveal Of The Massive #29 – As Explained By Brian Wood

Published Fri, 12 Dec 2014 12:30:43 -0600

Last updated Fri, 12 Dec 2014 13:41:46 -0600

Brian Wood writes,

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD – I'd advise anyone to not only have read the series up to this point, but also last week's #29 before going any further. The Massive is a 30-issue series leading up to a very specific reveal, and today we're going to be talking about this reveal.

I wanted to write a few words about these last three issues. I'm pretty proud not only of the comic we've* all worked hard to produce, but also proud of the fact we've kept the secret of the book to ourselves for all this time. I tell people: the ending of The Massive IS The Massive, it re-frames the whole book and puts everything into a new context.

(*And by "we", I mean Garry Brown, Jordie Bellaire, Jared K Fletcher, John Paul Leon, Kristen Donaldson, Gary Erskine, Declan Shalvey, Danijel Zezelj, Dave Stewart, Sierra Hahn, Jim Gibbons, Spencer Cushing, and everyone else at Dark Horse Comics that help this book month in and month out.)

I'm ending this in a similar way to how I ended DMZ – the final issue, #30 (due at the end of this month) is an epilogue of sorts. The main story climax is here, in the penultimate. There's still one secret left to reveal in #30, though.

Onwards:

Pages 1-8

There was really no other way to show this, but from space. No other way to show the scale. Continent-sized slabs of the earth's crust, detaching and exiting the planet. An astronaut-eye's view was the only proper POV. And that last bit of narration on pages 4 and 5 is a big wink-wink to the final issue, suggesting a past tense to the events, suggesting someone is investigating these events in the aftermath.

Page 9-10

I feel like at several points in this series different cast members have been privy to Mary's secrets, leaving the other's out of the loop, frustrated, angry. This has typically been Mag's role, but here he's the one in the know, and I enjoyed writing his perfect calm. Aided and abetted by Yusup's own perspective and Russian sort of shoulder-shrugging so-be-it attitude. Eh, it is what it is, why bother debating it? I miss these guys. Lars, too.

Page 11-13

Its alarming how easy it is to write stuff like this when you're a parent. For me, anyway. I'm pretty sensitive to seeing bad thing happen to little kids in media, but I can, with very little effort, imagine myself in a tragic situation as a parent. I'm still the dad that goes in to check my 8-yo kid in the middle of the night to make sure she's still breathing. Anyway, this follows Mag's insistence in the last issue that there must be something Mary can do. He begged her, repeatedly. What is Mary, exactly? Even I can't say, and I'm sure every single person in the story and in the book's audience could pick a name for her: a god, a superhero, an alien, Gaia, mother nature, a christ figure, etc. Mag sure as shit doesn't know, but he's guessing that whatever she is, she has the power to save Cal's life. To literally purge the cancer out of him. She does. At terrible cost.

I also enjoyed that Mary's final bit of explanation, probably the most direct explanation she's given anyone, was only to her baby daughter.

Page 14-17

I'm sure Garry Brown is happy to see the end of pages like this. Its basically unfair, as these are impossible sorts of scenes to draw. Give him credit – what we're seeing here is not only massive property destruction, but quite literally the continents shredding into new land masses. Page 17 – do any of those outlines match the place names?

Page 18-20

Mary's sacrifice. The final slab leaves.

Page 21-22

And Cal lives.

As does the ship and its crew. This precise location Mary gave them was another parting gift, a safe zone in the maelstrom that did untold damage to the planet.

I pitched this book back in 2010 to Vertigo, designed to directly follow DMZ. It was accepted and I was ready to sign paperwork (literally, staring at the contracts), until the Vertigo deal changed along with all the other changes that were happening at the time at DC. I had to go with my gut and take it elsewhere. But from that point in 2010 – or '09, when I wrote the pitch – the story has largely remained the same, and the ending was not changed one iota.

I recognize it comes as a surprise ending to a lot of readers. Probably seems out of left field. A few people have accused me of ripping off The Wake. All along I've said that the ending of The Massive IS The Massive. Its what defines the whole book.

More on that in the final commentary/interview, after the new year.

Thanks for reading.

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