Out of Continues

Somebody's parents were overachievers.

The eighth and final volume of Lewis Trondheim's Infinity 8, This is the End, starts where the previous volume left off. The cause behind their ship being caught at the edge of the immense space mausoleum is revealed as the ship's captain, one of the last 88 Tonn Shars. The reason the immense, deceptively happy-looking squid thing is doing this is because of why there are only 88 of its kind left.

This time the spotlight is on Lieutenant Reffo, the scruffy-looking guy that hit on every single one of the female agents that were the stars of the first six volumes. The one thing he seems to have going for him is an analysis chip that helps at least comprehend different courses of action. Well, that and the time-traveling AIs that popped up in volume 7, who have their own reasons for wanting the Tonn Shar stopped.

The problem for Reffo is the captain's already gone through the timeline 7 times, taking different approaches. It knows what's out there, what it's looking for, what is available to it on the Infinity 8, and what Reffo might try to stop it. Reffo and Hal don't know any of that, so they have to piece it together as they go. Of course, it's been a few years since I read some of the earlier volumes, so I can't really remember what some of the things they're referencing are, but Trondheim throws in enough expository dialogue to keep it clear.

The art this time around is by Killoffer, and yes, that's the only name the book gives them. The style is a mixture of hyper-detailed backgrounds and more simplified character designs. So the detail on the hulls of the ship or the device Hal uses to build Reffo a new lower half is there, but it doesn't distract from following the story.

Killoffer also seems to like having speech balloons overlap so they can draw the connecting lines with weird curves or humps as they're moving around each other. I'd think it was supposed to be for two characters talking simultaneously or over one another, but I don't think that's it. They just seem to like to do that.

As an ending, I'm not sure how I like it. There's not really a side I want to root for. Hal and the robots wanted to make sure the Tonn Shar are stopped because it otherwise interferes with their eventual conquest of the universe. The Tonn Shar have a valid grievance, but are planning to wipe out every person in the Federation. Reffo and the Federation killed the Tonn Shar's entire race and lied about it to try and maintain their position of dominance. And since they admit the Tonn Shar have no technology, the only way the Tonn Shar could ever have done anything is if someone approached them first. Like the Federation. So they would have done it to themselves, really.