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ACT I

Recently Brian K. Vaughan?s acclaimed comic book series ?Y: The Last Man? came to an end with Issue 60. No, it wasn?t canceled. It just ended. Vaughan decided it was time to finish the story.

Now New Line Cinema is developing a film with screenwriter Carl Ellsworth (?Disturbia?), director D. J. Caruso (?Disturbia?) and producer David S. Goyer.

Now, I?m puzzled. How strange, an ongoing comic book series ending? It seems so logical, but if you look at all the ongoing comic book titles out there (I?m not counting miniseries) I can think of only a few that had real endings. Not just some half-ass attempt to wrap up some storylines and try to leave things so open that the characters could get picked up elsewhere for another title or the book could later be brought back.

And you know what? The same thing goes for genre TV shows. A series of stories has to come to an end sometime, but do the writers ever think about how they would like to end the series? We, as fans, get so upset about a favorite show getting canceled, but how often do the writers ever give us a satisfying ending?

ACT II

So, let us take a peak at some TV shows that gave us good endings and ones that did not.

Many of these shows didn?t get a proper ending, because they were canceled. Sadly, there are many of those. Some of these great shows that should have not ended so quickly: "Adventures of Brisco County Jr.," "American Gothic," "Angel," "Crusade," "Firefly," "Odyssey 5," "Strange Luck," "VR.5," "The Tick" and "Automan" (OK, just kidding with that last one).

It is a subtle difference between a show that couldn?t have proper ending due to being axed by the Power That Be and one that bowed out with a bad ending. Sometimes the creators know in advance, sometimes they don?t and sometimes they know but they don?t care (remember how ?Farscape? ended?).

I think the worst endings that come to mind are ?Crusade,? ?Sliders,? ?Star Trek: Enterprise,? ?Twin Peaks? and ?X-Files.?

Can you get anymore of a cliffhanger than the entire population of Earth possibly dying? Because of TNT?s crappy handling of ?Crusade? we may never know how they save Earth. Man, is there a show that needs a direct-to-DVD movie or comic book series to wrap it up more?

?Sliders? was a fun alternate universe adventure show that was a bit campy, but had potential. Alas, it just kept degrading in quality and turned into one of the most depressing endings ever. Two of the original four dead and another (who had been the lead) pretty much dead too (it was complicated). Oh, and that sad ending to Quinn?s Earth. It all just left a bad taste in my mouth.

What was up with the ?Enterprise? ending? Crewmembers from ?The Next Generation? talking and showing the events of the last episode and killing off one of their best characters in one of the most stupid ways possible. What were they thinking?

As for ?Twin Peaks,? I still don?t know what to think of it. It was such a strange trip and I just don?t know what to make of it. But it is a David Lynch series and he isn?t known for making things easy to understand.

Ah, and ?X-Files.? One of my favorite shows ever. Too bad they had no idea where the storylines were going. Why did they kill the Lone Gunman, why? They messed it up so bad that when Frank Spotnitz (who was a executive producer for ?X-Files?) wanted to make a ?Night Stalker? remake at ABC they made him tell them the answer to the big series long mystery, just to make sure there wasn?t a repeat of ?X-Files.?

The best endings that come to mind are ?Buffy the Vampire Slayer,? ?Journeyman? and ?Star Trek: The Next Generation.?

I?m a gigantic Joss Whedon fan and I never like to see any of his shows end. The way ?Angel? ended really bugged me. But, ?Buffy the Vampire Slayer? ended well. It should have spun-off into another series exploring the ramifications of the addition of new slayers, but the finale stands fairly strong. The ultimate enemy was always Sunnydale?s Hellmouth. The finale saw the destruction of the real big bad. Too bad they had to take the entire city out too. But that kind of irony is what makes the Buffyverse the Buffyverse.

?Buffy the Vampire Slayer? and ?Angel? didn?t really end, though. Now they have both found new life in comic book format. I would rather see live action stuff, but I?ll take it.

I?m not thrilled that ?Journeyman? was canceled. It started out so-so, but grew into a really strong series with fantastic acting and terrific blending of events in modern day with the time travel to the past. But, it still wrapped up in a pleasing way. Things are still open for another season if they got the green light, but most of the mysteries were answered and we left the character in a happy place.

?Star Trek: The Next Generation? finale was classic. We see the present, the possible future, and visit the events from the first episode. I suppose it didn?t really end and we did get the movies, but I think writers could learn a lot about how to end a TV series in a satisfying while still leaving things open for future opportunities.

I could go on and on, but my fingers are getting tired and my editor will kill me if I don?t start wrapping this up.

Normally I would talk about the comic book examples at this point, but honestly almost every non-miniseries title could be on the list. The only ones I can think of that tried to have a real ending are ?Preacher,? ?Y: The Last Man,? ?Bone,? and a few others. Usually the strongest superhero books are the ones that were miniseries with endings (mostly) like ?Kingdom Come? and ?Watchmen.?

What do you feel were some of the worst and best endings?

ACT III

Is it wrong for us as viewers/readers/costumers to expect a proper ending to a series that we may have been watching or reading for years?

The comic industry needs to quit seeing their storylines as never ending tales of status quo that only create an illusion of change. I think the whole medium would benefit from a quality over quantity attitude.

The TV industry needs to recognize that fans want to see an ending ? and hopefully a good one. That may mean telling the writers early enough that they need to wrap it up, like when the music pops on during acceptance speeches at the Emmys. But, I know enough about the biz to know that isn?t always possible. So if that fails, then there should be a commitment to add a ?bookend? of the series. Examples like the straight-to-DVD Stargate movies, the ?Farscape? miniseries, and the ?Serenity? feature film. These are not just ways to continue the franchise ? not that that is a bad thing mind you ? but they are also a way to properly wrap up storylines in a satisfying way.

Heck, if the ending sucks why not at least continue it in a comic book series? Look at the success of ?Buffy the Vampire Slayer? and ?Angel.?

I think the TV industry is finally starting to come around. Look at how much ?Lost? has improved after knowing how many more seasons they are going to have, and ?Battlestar Galactica? knew well advance that they were going to call it wraps. And ?Supernatural? series creator Eric Kripke has stated that he has a five-year plan.

So, lets keep it up and maybe comic books will learn from TV.

I mean come on; all stories should have an ending, right? Well, except for Doctor Who, who just keeps regenerating like the Energizer Bunny. FADE TO BLACK

A couple of quick new bits before I leave:

The hugely successful ?Angel: After The Fall? comic book miniseries from IDW is getting more issues added on and is getting a miniseries spinoff called ?Spike: After the Fall.?

Dimension Films has gotten the screen rights to the new supernatural comic book series called ?Locke & Key.?

Kristin Kreuk (?Smallville?) is joining Michael Clarke Duncan, Chris Klein and Rick Yune in the new film version of ?Street Fighter,? based on the Capcom video game by the same name. I hope it is better than the first one.

Marvel Comics hopes to duplicate the success of the ?The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born? miniseries by doing a graphic novel adaptation of Stephen King?s apocalyptic novel ?The Stand.?

Okay, that is almost it for this installment. Just one more thing about endings ?

Sadly, stories aren?t the only thing that comes to an end. Many great creators have died over the last couple of months. The legendary science fiction-writer Arthur C. Clarke (?2001: A Space Odyssey?) died March 18 in his adopted home of Sri Lanka at age 90, Gary Gygax (co-creator of the game ?Dungeons & Dragons?) died March 4 at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin at age 69, Dave Stevens (creator of ?The Rocketeer?) died from Leukemia at age 52 and writer Steve Gerber (creator of ?Howard the Duck? and (?Omega the Unknown?) passed away in Las Vegas due to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis at age 60.

Their worlds and characters may continue on forever, but sadly they do not. My thoughts are with their families and I hope they are always remembered for their fantastic contributions to our collective imaginations.

Until next time ? Marx out.

Marx Pyle is a staff writer with Airlock Alpha, writing out of Vancouver, B.C. He can be reached at mpyle@airlockalpha.com.