The End League #6 (Dark Horse – Remender / Canete)
There are men and women who would do wrong by us to further their own personal agendas. There are unknown wars fought on our behalf in wretched places-blood sacrifices laid down for masses of strangers who will never know what was given for them.
With all of his friends now gone, the man known only as Black would stand tall to hold these villains back. But he is already too late.
The premise of this book is exactly what DC is trying to do right now with Final Crisis, what if the bad guys win? Except The End League takes it a step further, what if they did win? What if slowly but surely all of the hope is taken away from the heroes? To What extent will they go if the odds aren’t even close?
This book had some of the best potential of the last year, and probably still does. The shipping of this book is such that I have forgotten it is on my pull list and then get it and realize it hasn’t been canceled, it’s just slow.
Outside of that black mark, it’s a pretty decent read. Nice and dark, for those of you chomping at the bit waiting for Watchmen to come out, this might be a good alternative between now and March. The writing is complex enough that it grabs a reader’s attention and keeps it. But those of us who have been reading the book knows that Remender isn’t afraid to decapitate someone we just got to know and started to connect with, so the reader is almost trained to follow the events and not necessarily the characters. The plot is very dark (well, with the good guys dead and the bad guys in charge, what else do you want) and moody, but it’s able to keep a good balance and not take it self so seriously. I hope it takes off.
Grade: B
Given the shipping issue with this series, it might be nicer to get the trades, the first comes out in December. At $12.95, it would make a pretty good present!
