The End League

Wish this book would end already. And it's only been one issue. Oy vey!

My sights were set pretty high for this debut. I was a fan of Matt Broome back in his Wildstorm days. It's advertised as a thematic merging of Lord of the Rings and Watchmen. I feel like they've scoured the absolute worst that each of those masterpieces.

The standout character from the previews was Astonishman. From first glance- he's an obvious Amalgam of two archetypes. One part Superman- as evidenced by his costume design and vague origin. One part Miracle Man (or Marvel Man for you purist) as clued in by the logo on his chest (and again the color scheme of the costume.) Superman is always the basis for lead and archetype characters, so that doesn't tell the reader that much. But the Miracle Man comparison suggests this will be an adult/ mature book in tone. Alas, in this first issue, they've failed on that task.

Simply put, the book is not good. The other characters are loosely derived from comic legends of Captain America, Spiderman, Thor, and Wonder Woman. They all fall short. Way short. The Captain America character is known as Soldier American. Originally, I liked him, when all there was were previews. Once I'm forced to see the writer bring him to life, I'd rather Soldier American be dead. The previews show him with a light saber type weapon. Upon reading, you discover it's an energy machete. And the book keeps going down hill from there. Soldier American is too amateurish, childish, and untested. Seems more like Hawkeye.

The Spiderman knockoff is Arachnakid. Half man, half spider. There are attempts at humor in the dialogue that fall flat.

Their Thor is the worse. He maintains the moniker Thor, b/c we all know that's a Norse God of legend, so Marvel really have no rights against that no more that someone can prevent a character being named Jesus or Mohammed. I wish there were copyrights to prevent this Thor from dulling the comic shelves. He undergoes an augmentation, and blatantly rips off another Marvel character in the process. It doesn't feel like homage, as much as it feels like lazy writing that can only impress an eager 12 year old reader. Last I checked that's not the bulk of the comic book buying public.

Let me pull some punches. The characters are meant to be amalgams. They do achieve that. They are just worthless. And that responsibility falls on the writer. He dropped the ball. And so did Darkhorse when they green lit this.