The End League #1 - #2

Dark Horse Comics
Writer: Rick Remender
Pencils: Mat Broome
Inks:

I'm in love
by Chad Boudreau

I have a serious writer's man crush on Rick Remender.

He caught my eye with the first issue of Fear Agent, impressed in the art department with The Last Christmas, hooked me with Strange Girl, and then turned me into an adoring fan with the knockout one-two punch of Fear Agent volume 2 and volume 3: The Last Goodbye, the latter of which expertly brings together everything we've seen in the first two volumes through one of the best origin stories told in my recent memory.

Now completely committed to Remender, I headed with purpose to my local comic shop this Easter long weekend. I was set on picking up The End League, a new superhero book written by Rick Remender.

Whoah! Wait a minute! What in the heck am I-- the guy who turned his back on superheroes because of the crossover events being foisted upon us by Marvel and DC-- doing reading a comic book about superheroes?

Good question.

The answer is simple: Rick Remender made me do it.

I knew the premise: A handful of remaining supermen and women embark on a desperate and perilous journey through a world dominated by powerful villains in hopes of locating the one artifact that can save humanity. It sounded like routine super heroics to me, which is why I've avoided it until now. What convinced me to check out the series was Fear Agent volume 3. I've enjoyed that series' presentation of pulp sci-fi, but with volume 3 (and to a degree even volume 2), Fear Agent became much more than a book featuring a tough hero fighting the universe's creatures. It became a series about characters. Yes, it was still a comic featuring fantastic ideas, deadly planets and alien ass-kicking, but all of that was just entertainment until writer Rick Remender fleshed out his cast of characters and gave us folks we could identify with, cheer for, empathize with and mourn.

Having seen that complexity of writing in Fear Agent, I decided The End League could be a solid read if Remender was able to bring a similar focus on characterization to his story about desperate heroes fighting a losing battle for humanity.

The End League hooked me with its first page. We are presented with the thoughts of Brian Terrance, also known as Astonishman, the defender of humanity, and he tells us that in May of 1962 he destroyed the world. Remender and artist Mat Broome then show us how it happened.

There are no splash pages-- no giant one page panels or two-page spreads. Each page has four or five panels and yet the colossal scale of the event that triggers the destruction and Astonishman's desperate attempts to save the world he has doomed are depicted in such a way that none of the physical magnitude is lost. Neither is the emotional-- Astonishman's thoughts from the present describe these events of the past.

In the present, we learn Astonishman is one of a small band of heroes fighting to save the last remnants of humanity from the greater population of super-villains that now control the world and its remaining resources. It's a bleak post-apocalyptic future, and it's presented with impressive talent by both writer Remender and artist Broome.

As mentioned, I was hooked as of the first page, but as the first issue progressed I thought I began to see the writing on the wall. Astonishman is racked by guilt, a guilt he has shared with no one other than Mother Hive, a seemingly catatonic telepath that serves as the team's communications officer. I figured Astonishman's eventual forgiving of himself and redemption would be the focus of the series. I gave a quiet sigh and, to be honest, felt the hooks begin to leave my flesh.

Then midway through the second issue, Remender and Broome pulled the rug right out from under my feet, making me realize Remender had set me up. The hooks were back, deeper than ever, and I was being reeled in. I didn't mind though. I was in love after all.

Rick Remender has managed to bring this jaded reader back to the realm of superhero comics. His characters are variations on the standard archetypes, sampling multiple eras of comic history. He then takes a familiar premise (heroes outnumbered by villains in a world run by villains) and through deft writing focusing on characterization and fresh perspective, creates a superhero tale I can say I'm proud to read.

Rick Remender: I love you. Thanks for making the comics you do.

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