Also, to me, the steampunk spaceship Spike arrives in at the end reminds me a bit of the owlship in Watchmen. (The scene where the ship crashes in the snow in the Antarctic outside Adrian's fortress, specifically - really, aside from some surface detailing, it's even got a similar crash effect here.)

Why? WHO KNOWS!?!?

Obviously because Spike is impotent without his leather dust...wait...nevermind.

But TBH, I've been reading comics since the mid 70s and I still have no real idea what's happening in this one.