It feels like it's time.

[Ruck]

I'm totally with ClaimingLight as far as wanting the story to have a defined end, not just go on until Rich runs out of steam and then abruptly end--and would be even if a genie promised me that Rich would continue to make comics for the rest of my life. Good stories have defined beginnings and endings. I'm just not with them as far as wanting to brush the plot with Vampire Durkon out of the way and get to the final volume already.

I have no doubt it will, though.

This part is important to me because not only does the team need Durkon back (and, of course, needs to make sure that there is still a world to save before they resume saving the world), but it's also another whack in the head from the Master to Roy-- "When are you going to start listening to your teammates?"

One thing Durkula was right about: "You've never been very good at listening to any idea that didn't originate inside your own skull." How often have we seen Roy blow off someone because he thinks he knows what they're going to say, or it's not what he wants to hear? And now-- as he realized after Hel's vote in #1000-- he has authored his own misfortune; the very world he is trying to save may well be destroyed because of his denial over who Durkula really is, a denial that springs from the same well of "Not hearing what you don't want to hear."

For Roy to be the real Hero What Saves the World, he's going to have to start listening to his teammates, and, as Belkar put it, become "emotionally equipped to deal with bad things happening to good people." I see this stage as crucial character development for Roy. (And Durkon as well, but that's a separate topic.)