Our cosmic heroes face a terrible choice… as one of the Quartet pays the ultimate price in Psi-Lords #8!

Psi-Lords #8 is the final issue (for now, hopefully) of this eight-issue run that may or may not have ended before it’s time. A shame, because this was a great read across each issue.

So what’s the series about? It opens up with four humans in a prison of sorts. As they come to awareness, they’ve seemingly have lost all sense of themselves. They discover they have superpowers and escaped with the help of a mysterious stranger. They find themselves among some pacifist cat-like aliens and defended them against another alien, a Widower, by killing him. Somehow they gain the incredible team name of The Astro Friends. Now, they’re about to face the consequences of those actions in what they assume to be a court of law. That basically amounts to a trial by combat. They fight for control of the asteroid hurtling toward the Earth that also happens to be the prison of a potentially horrific space god.

Psi-Lords #8 dedicates almost the entire comic to whether the Astro Friends are able to complete the mission they were sent on prior to losing their memory. That’s to divert the asteroid from hitting Earth in a cataclysmic event. Fred Van Lente wraps the story up in such a way that unless you’re specifically told that Psi-Lords was to be an ongoing series, you’d always have expected it to end as an eight-issue mini. Maybe I’m wrong, and it was always going to be a mini, but regardless Van Lente’s pacing is perfectly balanced. He’s able to add weight to the story that despite us knowing the outcome, there isn’t any less tension. Yes, we know Earth will (more than likely) be saved, but how and at what cost?

Throughout the series, much has been made about the lack of memory for the Astro Friends. Van Lente caps that thread off with a question I’ve been pondering since finishing the story; is who you were indicative of who you are? The Astro Friends probably aren’t the same people they were when they left Earth. They’re able to forge an entirely new path for themselves. I think the question is every bit as potent in the real world as it is in comics. I’m not going to delve into the question here, because it’s neither the time nor the place, but any time a comic leaves me with a thought that lingers like that, I know I’ll be reading it several times.

At this point, it should come as no surprise that Renato Guedes‘ art is simply stunning. This is another visual delight spread across the surprisingly colorful vastness of space. This comic never once feels like you’re not getting your money’s worth from the art alone.

Psi-Lords #8 has the task of closing out the series after eight issues whilst still leaving enough for readers to want more. That makes it feel more like the end of the second chapter to an as yet untold story than an actual ending. It does leave off at a satisfying place, which is all I can hope for in a series that ended earlier than I hoped it would.

Story: Fred Van Lente Art: Renato Guedes Letters: Dave Sharpe
Story: 8.9 Art: 9.9 Overall: 9.2 Recommendation: Buy

Valiant provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review