Broken Frontier

A thematic merging of The Lord of the Rings and Watchmen, The End League follows a cast of the last remaining super men and women as they embark on a desperate and perilous journey through a world dominated by evil, in hopes of locating the one remaining artifact that can save humanity - the Hammer of Thor.

Dark Horse does not have the greatest reputations for straight superhero action. Their last real effort was Comics Greatest World, a shared superhero universe that didn't really offer anything else other publishers were already offering. Their superheroes retired after a few years of mediocre service but don't worry, someone somewhere out there will always love you, Barb Wire and X. The End League - great name - is the new Dark Horse superhero project from Rick Remender and Matt Broome, the lost sheep returned to the fold after spending 4-5 years doing work for the gaming industry.

So what better way to lure the fanboy to your new & improved Dark Horse superhero project than tying it into ultimate nerd trope: The Lord of the Rings and Watchmen. But as it turns out, it's nothing like that at all. It's more Wildstorm post-Armageddon or  X-Men Days of Future Past and other dystopic superhero nightmare scenarios. The Lord of the Rings ... you can see it lurking somewhere in the distance. The rings replaced by the Hammer of Thor, the odds appearing insurmountable with evil ruling the land. But the only possible connection with Watchmen is the band of heroes trope and ... no wait, that's it. They both feature a team of heroes (which is not even all that heroic in Watchmen). But hogdarnit, the Dark Horse marketing copywriters had me fooled, I fell for it hook, line and sinker. I went in, thinking it would be much better than it actually was.

But I still liked it anyway.

Because, for all it matters, supervillains have already enslaved the world in regular DC and Marvel - thank youse Dark Reign. Superheroes are by nature reactionary in order to instill the obligatory slugfest. So this means that they are never the instigators, always the preventers. Just let this roll around in your head: if you are always the one reacting and the other one is always acting, who exactly has who on the ropes then? There will always be way more villains than heroes out there so stagnation is the key to a good superhero. Because if you cross 'the line' than you're not a hero anymore. The scales can never be balanced. Oh those simpler times of the Thirties and Forties when being a hero meant that you could chuck a villain out of window or transform him into a delirious husk screaming all the way to hell. But these days of moral absolutes are long gone and we have to be less judgemental and more understanding and forgiving. A hero doesn't kill, a hero never dies. I'm sorry, Grant Morrison.

Remender has written his share of corporate superheroes and realizes that the perversion of the basics can lead to unorthodox results. With the Big Two you're in Never Never Land where no-one really ever ever dies - I'm looking at you Hawkeye. Things have become jaded and after the quadrillionth crossover and continuity in-joke, I bailed out of superhero comics altogether. But I like me some popcorn superhero tales once in a while: Iron Fist by Fraction, Batman by Lapham. But I like them continuity free and I like them full of surprises. And that's why I liked The End League. Because I didn't guess the fate of alpha male Superman stand-in Astonishman, because I liked the attitude of Blur Girl, because I liked the torn soul of The Blue Gauntlet, the loneliness of the Arachnakid and the breakdown of the Prairie Ghost. Because I liked that the Batman-stand in has a little troll for a computer guidance system. I liked the little reversal of the-way-things-work in The End League and that it is actually the heroes who do all the acting and the villains the reacting. I liked a lot of things about the comic. You can see the germs of a great comic growing in this first volume. Allthough it is more exposition and world building, you can tell Remender has a good grasp on the characters. Hopefully the more intimate and character moments will get some more playtime now that the world building part is over.

And hey, Matt Broome is back! I was never a big fan and his work has improved some for sure but I must say his painting skills have exploded. Those covers are gorgeous with great colour, posing and character work. On the inside of the comic however, Broome quickly loses touch in some panels. Awkward faces and stiff posing leads to confusing scenes, good thing the spandex lets you differentiate between people. His wife Wendi's coloring helps some when she colors very "plastic-ally" and when she gives some roundness to Broome's often delineated style. However, there are also times where she goes for a more flat coloring and it is there that the artwork fails the most. For such an exciting story, I found the artwork to be a bit too much on the posed & detailed stiff side.

At the end, we get a taste of Eric Canete who will infuse some needed maniacal energy with his angular and singular design work. Broome has stepped off after four issues and is on his merry way to Marvel Comics Entertainment group. For volume two, Canete seems a much better artistic choice than Broome. It is just a matter of what the audience's wallet will decide: will they miss Broome's classic posing and detailed work or will Canete break open the traditional mold and give The End League a more prominent look on the shelves? I'm routing for option two and I'll be there to support them all the way.

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The End League is published by Dark Horse Comics, is a 104 pages tpb and retails at $12.95 US. It is available in finer comic shops everywhere.