Elfquest: The Final Quest Vol. 3 (Graphic Novel) (Fantasy)

By Wendy Pini, Richard Pini, & Sonny Strait

Publisher: Dark Horse Books (Jully 11, 2017)

Softcover 136 pages 

Collected here are issues 13 through 18 of the Elfquest: The Final Quest story arc. It’s with sadness and relief that I read these stories. Sadness, that a series I always admired and one that inspired me is ending. Relief, that they’ve decided to go out with class.

If you’ve never read Elfquest before, then this is not the story arc to jump into. The story collects and ties off characters from all of the previous runs and series, and there are a lot. So many that I have had to jump into my back issues to remember just who each of them is. While the standard collection of protagonists and antagonists are front and center, there are many more minor characters that have come to the fore.

They’ve also introduced one of the most interesting tribes of elves yet. Along with the Wavedancers, the Sun Folk, the Wolfriders, the Go-Backs, the Gliders, and some silent guy that rides a horse, we have the Rootless Ones. These are a group of elves that have merged with the wood, and they have become like trees. Their skin is bark and their blood is sap, and they eat rotting meat and vegetation through tendrils, like their sylvian brethren. They can move, but their understanding of the world is almost completely alien. These newcomers, along with the Troll equivalent of the High Ones, brings the world full circle. While these may seem odd changes they all do fit into the cannon of the Elfquest world in subtle fashions.

As the loose ends of the world are tying up, the fate of various elf tribes, the human tribes versus the war machine, the trolls, the ultimate question will boil down to what will become of the Wolfriders. The Palace of the High Ones is primed and ready, the call has been sent, and any elf that wants off the planet is on their way. Not all will go, but that is what adds to the tension to the story which of our heroes will remain. That is part of the bittersweet sorrow of these last chapters of Elfquest.

Apart from the movement of elves, most of the plot is taken up with Cutter coming to grips with the big revelation on the true nature of his soul from the previous volume. He retreats and rushes off, only to discover more elves. He is almost an inverse Hamlet character, not wanting to deal with reality, but eventually he makes his decision as to whether he will leave or stay when the palace heads towards the heavens.

The art, as always with Wendy Pini, is superb. The colors blend together in almost hypnotic hues. This adds to the sadness that this is the final adventure of the World of Two Moons. But I’d prefer a good ending than a zombie continuation of the series under some hack in twenty years. And the one thing that the Elfquest always does well is have a good ending.

           For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.