The End League

I really don't know how I got into this one.

I got the first volume from a thrift store for 3 euros. It had some smoke stains due to some fire, but I was able to clean it up a bit.

Surely, the very first thing that got my eye was the 'the thematical merge of Lord of the Rings and Watchmen', as it says on the back. That immediately raised my Eyebrow of Disbelief and I got it. I mean, how it was gonna be; dysfunctional vigilantes in a D&D world with elves and dwarves and orcs, dressed up ridiculously? And afterwards, I bought the second volume just to complete. Hell, it's only two volumes, so I might as well complete the series.

First of all, the guys who typed 'the thematical merge of Lord of the Rings and Watchmen' in the back must have been high as hell or they had to type something in order to make it sell, 'cause I didn't see any elves or dwarves or orcs. What it was, was simply make copy-paste famous characters in a post-apocalyptic world, trying to find the McGuffin (Thor's hammer) and restore the world. I suppose the Lord of the Rings theme comes from the search of a magical McGuffin that if used by evil, darkness will fall to the world? Well, here's the thing: ALMOST EVERY SINGLE MEGALOMANIAC IN SUPERHERO COMICS ARE LIKE THAT!!!

OK, some details are required. This story's Superman copy-paste character called Astonishman (..........seriously, that's his name. Astonishman. I don't want to know what kind of thought process was put in order to make up) has accidently caused the end of the world, setting off some missles, and mysterious gasses that gave powers to people, called the Green Event (..........seriously, New Universe's White Event anyone? or the event in the Wildstorm universe that gave people powers?) and the Magnificents were born and most of the cities were wiped out. Last hope they have is find Thor's hammer, Mjolnir and restore everything. But the catch is that Thor is considered dead and many more people want it for their purposes. EEEEEEEEEVIL people.

OK, number one problem I have with this series: EVERY single major character is a ctrl+c-ctrl+v of some of the most famous superheroes, like Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Spider-Man, Captain America, Ghost Rider, Joker, Marvel's Loki, Luthor. It's the same with Ennis' The Boys, Squadron Supreme/Supreme Power. But, while in the case of Squadron Supreme its creator loved the JLA characters and he made his own version for Marvel and loving every bit of that work and in the case of The Boys, it's supposedly for satire (even though I read in .cbr files almost every single issue and I didn't find anything satirical), here I don't see why we got this. At least do some goddamned changes. Most of the time I was reading, I was saying stuff like "Superman, why are you such an idiot?" or 'Right behind you, Cap!" and a few moments later, I remembered I wasn't reading any of them. Believe me, there is hardly any changes on the characters of End League, but they are more cynical and more brooding, since they have to repair the unrepairable and give hopes to the people, especially Astonishman who did this mess. I suppose this is to show they are so 'adult' and 'maure', but still you won't get that feeling off you.

Also, when reading the second volume, why do I have the feeling I turned a few pages ahead and suddenly adding more crap that made no sense?

Another thing I want to mention is the drawings. While for the first 3 issues and most of the 4th issue we have some nice detailed artwork for both characters and background, towards the end of the 4th issue we see a drastical change and it's not very good. And during the final issues, we get yet another change, this time for the better, I suppose this had to do mostly with the first four issues going bi-monthly and then going monthly, still it can be a major annoyance when reading.

I'd prefer a complete edition of this title to be released, rather than those two volumes, since they are uneven in terms of content and kinda breaks the mold.

Still, I think that this is mostly for the people who want to read anything that resembles Watchmen than any other book, and not releasing that Watchmen succeded due to the excellent writing of Moore, who set up an entire UNIVERSE, and having all characters developed slowly but steadily to big, whereas The End League fails to shows us how the world is, expect for some plot exposition right in the beginning and failing to introduce the characters, much less develop them in this chaotic mess. Still, it's not that big of a mess. Remender did a good job for trying to make this story, even though I doubt that many people will remember it.

Star Brand Classics Vol. 1

A few decades ago, Marvel decided to create a new line of comic books to celebrate their 25 years on being Marvel (hoooray) and that line, ladies and gentlemen and various asexual beings, was called New Universe.

It would have no connections with the regular MU, where Spider-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men live and do something that it wasn’t done before back then, give super powers to regular humans, like you, me, the sexy girl that lives next to you, the plumber, the delivery boy and it would be extremely realistic, with seeing the protagonists of each series living their daily boring lives, doing their daily boring jobs, and while they would be fighting villains and such, it wouldn’t be the main focus. And let’s not forget the event that gave those people their powers, the so-called White Event, where the sky went complete white and those super-powered humans, called parahumans, were born.

One of the titles of this line and the biggest one was Star Brand. Here, our main character, Ken Connell, was driving his bicycle doing stuff when he notices a crash and when he went there, he finds a dying alien, and in his dying breath(TM), he gives him the ULTIMATE WEAPON OF THE UNIVERSE, which is a fucking tatoo. I suppose it’s better and more efficient than a ring, since you could lose the ring, while a tatoo is permanent on your body, especially when said tatoo can be moved to any part of your body you wish to be.

Anyways, Ken gets powerful tatoo, buries alien and goes on with his boring life, working on car repairs and going dates with two hot chicks and trying to nail one of them. Oh, and somewhere in the between of those, he fights some people and one or two aliens. OK, as I said above, the whole thing it’s not about seeing big superhero/supervillain fights, like with the regular Marvel titles. It’s more seeing the hero’s daily life, a concept that was never done back then. It’s more or less how this new power affects his daily life with his work, his love life and his social life, which it can be a good thing.

The artwork is done by John Romita JR and it’s great as always, but sometimes some lines, especially in the faces seems to fade. I don’t know if it was drawn like that even back then, or it was the printing of the TPB, but it can be a minor annoyance. I don’t have many complains on the artwork.

This particular TPB contains the first seven issues and it can be a pretty decent read, especially if you get it cheap. I got it for 7 euros from the discount boxes of the comic book store, and I swear to God if I paid full price for it, it would feel like a rip-off. I wish it had some sort of intro to the concept of the New Universe line, how the character’s idea was concived, various drafts and many more extras that would fill the TPB, since it’s kinda dull and many people will see this on the shelf and ignore it. Also, it doesn’t help the fact that they don’t publish the rest of the issues. The whole Star Brand series has 19 issues and 1 annual. I hope we see the rest of it being published, along with the other New Universe titles, or better an omnibus of the entire New Universe line.

How much I recommend it? Well, like I said, get it cheaply, but only if you are interested to see something different being brewed back in the 70s, and was gone due to creative teams being changed constantly, missing the point of the line and low sales.