CHECKMATE #31 Written by Bruce Jones. Art and cover by Manuel Garcia. All the pieces on the Checkmate board have converged on China. Is it the end of the world as we know it in this series finale issue? Or will Chimera save the day? On sale October 29. 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US FINAL ISSUE
Scrolling through the solicitations I came across this doozy. It looks like DC finally did what I jokingly asked them to do a couple of months ago. What has the book been doing since you and I dropped it? Why, it has been building up the sensational character find of ’08, Chimera! Who is he? He’s pretty much a super soldier who can turn into his enemies’ worst fears. His ongoing story has hijacked everything I found interesting and wonderful about the spy thriller Checkmate was before Jones got on to it.
John Rogers in an interview stated that some sort of Magic Event would be spinning out of Checkmate post Final Crisis. This event has to be why they decided not to go with the collaborator of the original writer and with Bruce Jones instead. Chimera has been the only thing the book has been about since the switch. So now that Chimera has been introduced and established, they can turn off the lights on the book so he can move on to what ever great things they have planned for him. I guess Checkmate as an organization will languish in the background, used the same way SHIELD was pre-Civil War. Great Job DC!
Wait… what’s this?