Review by Ian Keogh

In a future of alternate Earths controlled by one Higher Earth, a warrior named Rex has sought a fugitive named Heidi, locating her on a world where others dump their trash as Vol. 1 opened. As it finished, it was revealed he was leading a revolution against Higher Earth, and against many of his duplicates from other Earths, while the queen of Higher Earth was an alternate version of Heidi.

While this concluding volume again begins in the past, Sam Humphries supplying a little more background, when we hit the present time has moved on. Rex’s revolution has begun and he’s moving through the alternates to Higher Earth. Francesco Biagini’s art impressed previously, but with Heidi and Rex now in the belly of the beast his pages look even better. Channeling Jack Kirby’s visions of Apokalips. Biagini designs ever more stunning looking technology in service of appalling deeds, and his pages of alternates attacking each other have all the necessary power and energy.

Humphries plots well, eventually distilling a threat extending over so many different Earths to mere human desire and jealousy, and there’s character evolution for Heidi, and definitely not in expected ways, at least not at first. However, the ending is unsatisfactory. This isn’t due to the primary shock, which Humphries builds to well, but due to the convenience of a couple of events, and that ultimately, the revolution continues. It suggests that either Humphries decided to end the series earlier than planned, or that he couldn’t come up with a viable conclusion. There’s a case to be made of Higher Earth concerning the journey, not the resolution, but with such high stakes and such an epic journey the expectation would be of a better climax.