The Last Fall (Comics) | Review

What happens when grief becomes the only fuel keeping a soldier alive? Writer Tom Waltz (Ghostbusters/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Wolverine: Blood Hunt) draws from his Marine Corps experience to craft The Last Fall, a five-issue series from IDW Publishing that transforms interplanetary holy war into personal tragedy.

Published in 2014 with artwork by Casey Maloney, this military science fiction story positions revenge as motivation and poison. Marcus Fall isn't your typical hero. He's a weapon pointed at the wrong target and the series asks uncomfortable questions about the wars we fight.

The limited series stands alone with no connection to previous or future arcs, making it a self-contained meditation on war, loss and the dangerous clarity that comes from finally seeing the truth. What starts as a straightforward revenge tale evolves into something challenging and morally complex than appearances might suggest.

Marcus Fall is a battle-hardened sergeant fighting in a brutal interplanetary conflict between Merkonia, his lush home planet and Krovin, a harsh desert world populated by religious zealots. After multiple combat tours, Fall finally earns leave to return home to his wife and son.

His reunion lasts exactly one day before a suicide bomber detonates in a crowded market, killing his family instantly. The blast doesn't just destroy Fall's world. It burns away whatever humanity he had left, leaving only rage and the drive to make every enemy soldier pay.

Fall voluntarily returns to combat with one mission: kill every Krovinian he encounters. His superiors tolerate his reckless behavior because he's effective. He's becoming dangerously unpredictable, treating missions as opportunities for slaughter rather than strategic objectives. His commanding officers choose not to intervene.

The conflict functions as more than backdrop. Waltz establishes parallels to modern warfare, conflicts framed around religious differences masking resource extraction and control. The holy war rhetoric sounds familiar because it's meant to. This is allegory wearing battle armor.

During one brutal mission, Fall's squad encounters unexpected resistance and the engagement goes badly. Fall takes severe injuries that would normally mean death but he survives through stubborn rage and luck. What happens during his recovery changes everything he thought he understood about the war he's fought for years.

A captured enemy soldier reveals information contradicting everything Fall's government told him. The zealots he's been slaughtering aren't aggressors but defenders against Merkonian exploitation. The bombing that killed his family wasn't terrorism but retaliation for oppression.

The truth hits harder than any weapon. Fall's entire justification for his rampage collapses. The enemy he's been hunting with single-minded fury isn't responsible for his family's death. His own people are. The government he served, the cause he believed in, the mission giving his grief purpose was entirely constructed on lies.

Waltz doesn't offer easy resolutions once Fall learns the truth. The soldier faces an impossible choice: continue following orders for a corrupt system that murdered his family through policy, or turn against everything he's known. His rage remains but now lacks a clear target.

The series explores Fall's internal struggle as he attempts to reconcile years of military service with the devastating realization that he's been the villain in someone else's story. His character degradation throughout earlier issues re-contextualizes as a man subconsciously aware something was wrong but unable to confront it.

The final issue pushes Fall toward a decision that will define whether he remains a tool of oppression or becomes something else. Waltz refuses to provide comfortable answers about redemption or whether someone who's committed atrocities in service of lies can atone.

What makes The Last Fall effective isn't originality but execution. The plot beats feel familiar because they mirror real wars dressed in science fiction aesthetics. That's the point. Waltz wants readers recognizing these patterns, understanding how governments manipulate grief and patriotism into weapons against enemies.

Casey Maloney brings anime-influenced aesthetics to The Last Fall, particularly in character expressions and color choices by Dusty Yee. The style won't appeal to everyone. Battle armor designs feature bulky shoulder pads and oddly-shaped helmets prioritizing visual distinction.

Maloney excels at sequential storytelling and action choreography. Battle sequences move with kinetic energy, clearly depicting spatial relationships between combatants. His panel layouts convey the difference between Fall's focused combat efficiency versus his increasingly desperate fighting style after learning the truth.

The world-building benefits from Maloney's environmental detail and color work. Merkonia appears as vibrant greens and blues. Krovin gets rendered in harsh oranges and browns. These visual distinctions reinforce the economic disparity driving the conflict underneath rhetoric.

Tom Waltz's writing draws from his four years as an active-duty Marine, including deployment to Desert Storm. That military background provides authenticity to how Fall thinks, moves and processes trauma. The dialogue feels grounded in how soldiers speak, alternating between dark humor, casual profanity and clipped efficiency.

The Last Fall won't win awards for subtlety. Waltz positions the story as protest against conflicts where religion masks resource wars and terrorism becomes justification for continued military action. Some readers will appreciate the directness. Others will find it preachy.

The series works best when focusing on Fall's personal journey rather than broader political allegory. His struggle with realizing he's been manipulated into becoming a weapon against innocent people carries emotional weight. The moments where Fall confronts what he's done and who he's become hit harder than any battle.

For readers interested in military science fiction prioritizing character psychology, The Last Fall delivers a complete arc in five issues. The collected edition from IDW Publishing includes all chapters. It's not groundbreaking but it's competent storytelling with genuine emotional core.

This is war fiction for readers who want their military stories morally complex and politically engaged without soft-pedaling the cost of propaganda. Waltz and Maloney understood that sometimes the real enemy isn't across enemy lines. It's the system that pointed you there and The Last Fall accomplishes that revelation brutally.

The Last Fall is published by IDW Publishing as a five-issue limited series and you can read it through physical issues or as collected trade paperback, which is available through major retailers. A digital edition also exists on platforms like Amazon Kindle and ComiXology.