Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Guest Review - The End League #1


 Our first guest review is by Lyle Tucker, who kindly offered to join the team to cover while Chuck takes a brief vacation.

The End League #1, Dark Horse Comics, 2007. Written by Rick Remender, art by Mat Broome.

   What to think of a comic book with the lead character of Astonishman? Who is patently based on Superman. And with a Lex Luthor-type villain named Dead Lexington. And with other characters that are obvious nods to both Marvel and DC heroes. Well, the first thing one thinks is, they better have a damn good story to pull off such a conceit. And if not, at least the art had better be top-notch.

   Sorry, wrong on both accounts.

   The book reads like it's written by someone who wants to be a writer but isn't, and drawn by someone who wants to be an artist but isn't.

   The story is all over the place, but begins with Astonishman screwing up mighty badly and killing off millions of people because of his arrogance. And then the world population starts to mutate, and Astonishman tries to mitigate the damage he's done the best he can by setting up a team of heroes by choosing the best mutated people in the world. Or something like that. 

   The story and dialogue are clunky, and I found myself embarrassed by how poorly most of it was put together. The reader is suddenly and jarringly thrown into action with a bunch of characters spouting inane banter with a sense of backstory that isn't there but which you're somehow supposed to know.

   And then there's the art. Broome's sense of anatomy and proportion are terrible. There's something drastically wrong with just about every figure and it usually involves the head. Wendy Broome, whom I assume is Mat's wife, does a wonderful job as color artist, almost hiding the deficiencies of her husband's work, but not quite.

   I tried, but I honestly could not bring myself to finish this comic. It was that bad.

Grade: D

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I don't remember this at all, but not surprised that you walked out on it!
Pete