Did they give it a proper ending?

Here's a review of it:

The overall news is...somewhat disappointing.



The comic opens in a very clever way, nice tribute to Ginndy and his unconventional storytelling. It's not from the point of view of Jack, but from a scribe named Mako (see what they did there? It even looks like him!) who is traveling around the land a few years in the future trying to find anyone who's heard of the legendary warrior Jack so he can write down his history. He meets a bar owner named Sarino (nod to the author of this) who tells a tall tale of Jack actually being a Bear-Man from outer space. Big surprise, Mako doesn't buy it. So he goes on and on interviewing anyone, trying to get Jack's real story. Finally he meets a traveller named LaMarr (again. see what they did?) who says he knows Jack, Jack helped him and his daughter from Aku's robots. He even offers to take him to Jack. But they come to what looks like a war camp. Once there (and this is where the comic gets REAL good) Mako goes around and meets all sorts of people who've known Jack and have been helped by Jack. The fun part here is that this part of the comic plays like a varible "whos' who" of Jack characters. Almost like 'Where's Waldo', how many of them can you find? I saw Totaro II from epsiode 33 (how did he get there?), the Woollies from ep 4, the Gentilemen Thief, The Big Mouthed Hip-Hop Samurai from ep 43, the Imakaldi from ep 32, the Dogs from ep 2, the Hunters from episode 7, Exodor from episode 8, the Astronauts from episode 5 (they finally came back...hope they did a LOT of apologising to Jack when they found him again), the Triceraquinns, the Monks from episode 36, even a small glipse of Verbeena (when did she come back?)



And of COURSE when Mako finally gets to Jack's tent, who's with him but the Scotsman! (ya can't have a final Jack without one more glipse of him!) serving as his right-hand man. But, be warned, it's a MUCH older Scostman, all grey-haired. And remember how Jack looked in that Blue Guardian's Portal at the end of ep 32? He looks just like that now. Really...not appealing, Sarino. Not appealing at all.



Anyway, when Mako introduces himself and asks to record Jack's word, Jack is as modest as ever and replies that he doesn't know if his word will be worth quoting (oh you know it will be, Jack). But he invites Mako and LaMarr along.

Now, this is when it starts getting disappointing. Jack tells Mako the Wandering Samurai is no more. He's given up trying to find a way back to the past and is now concentrating on the future.



OK, say it with me:, "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!" That's been his quest from day 1!! He vows in ep 20- he would NEVER give up...and now he's given up?! In issue 19, the one right before this he says again he'll never give up!! But now he GAVE UP?!?! The theme song even says "Got to get back, back to the past!! GOTTA get back..." and he never ever did?!?! He just decided to stay there and form a rebel army?! A war camp?! HIM?! OK, maybe he got help from the Scotsman, but even so...a WAR CAMP?!

That's like the ending to Quantum Leap where the screen at the very end of the show just said "Sam Never Returned Home." Now we can add "Jack Never Returned Home."



Anyway Jack and the Scostman gathers all his followers together (with Mako and LaMarr of course) and gives a massive speech (again, shy quiet Jack giving a MASSIVE speech?!) thanking all of them for giving up a lot and fighting with him and the Scotsman to end Aku's tyranny. He then says that he and the Scotsman finally cracked the code to Aku's teleporting and his massive fortress will appear to the North any minute now. He declairs that they will storm the fortress and attack, all joining together to finally end Aku. They mount up, take off....



and that's it. That's how it ends. With Mako writing a final speech in his scribe



"I will never forget the words and images of that day. And I will insure no one else will either. Jack's Legacy is larger than the man. The courage he inspires is real. No matter what happens, these stories will live on. The legend will never die."



That's it. That's how it ends. They're marching into battle against Aku...and it stops. You expect the whole cast to gather together and sing "Will you join in our crusade."


Seriously Aku didn;'t appear in this at all! I mean we've been waiting for years and year to see Jack kick Aku to the curb, him to be beheaded, destoryed, and for Jack to go home...and NONE of that happened!! None! I just hate it when things are left wide open! How can they end it like that?! We don't know if any of them made it!



All in all, not a bad comic but as far as finales go very disappointing.



The good parts:

The tribute to Mako and to Phil Lamarr

The who's who easter Egg pages where you can play a cool game of how many charatcers can you find.

The animation was top notch

The final speech from Mako WAS powerfull and sums up Jack



The bad parts:

We NEVER find out the mystery of Jack's real name. It was never ever mentioned.

Jack giving up trying to get back home

Future Jack does not look good

No Aku at all

The endiing was wide open!



There were notes of goodbye by the editors at the end urging people that if they loved Jack let CN and IDW comics know. I will do that if for no reason than to maybe redo this ending and get Jack home and SEE him defeat Aku..it's what we've all been waiting for!



I read some other reviews of this comics saying it was great and it had a message about not focusing on the past, but concentrate on the future. OK< well and good, and the speeches were powerful, but that still defeats the purpose of the original show. The point of the show is that Jack is trying to get back HOME! And for him to give up and just stay where he his founding a rebellous army...it just isn;t like him.

It was kinda a combination of the Angel ending when they all marched into the final battle...and that's it...and the Quantum Leap ending...

Samurai Jack Never Returned Home.



If I have to be like Linkara and grade it, I'd grade it a 7.5 Good writing, but disappointing as far as finales go.



And for now, that's the story of Samurai Jack. Still a better ending than CN or Toonami gave it!


Don't say anything bad about Jojo
If she's a disciplinarian, I'm the Queen Of England!- Stella