The End League


The End League is a fictional superhero team appearing in a self-titled bi-monthly comic book series by Dark Horse Comics, which began in January 2008.
The series was created by Rick Remender and Mat Broome and focuses on the struggles of the last of the superheroes in a world in which the supervillains have prevailed and enslaved what remains of the world.

Publication history

The series was written by Rick Remender, with pencils by Mat Broome, and inks by Sean Parsons.
As of issue #5, Broome left for Marvel Comics and Eric Canete took over art duties, with Dave Stewart providing the coloring. With the new art team in place for the start of the second story arc, the title started appearing on a monthly basis.
Due to Remender also signing an exclusive deal with Marvel Comics, he wound up both of his creator-owned Dark Horse series, with The End League ending in a double-length issue #9.

Characters

Team members

During the Green Event, Astonishman uses his super-hearing to determine which city needs his help the most. While doing so he overhears survivors of the Green Event gaining and using their powers for the first time. Most of these survivors become selfish and corrupt, looking only for ways to exploit their new-found abilities for any type of monetary gain. The majority of the Magnificents live in "Dead" Lexington's city, but the few heroes that survive live with Astonishman in his Citadel of Seclusion in Australia, now a snow-covered wasteland.

Plot

In May 1962, the superhero Astonishman triggers a worldwide cataclysm known as the Green Event. His archenemy, the villain Dead Lexington, leads Astonishman to believe that an alien ship at the bottom of the ocean is a Communist nuclear facility. Astonishman detonates a nuclear missile in the ship, which explodes the alien power core, releasing a wave of radiation and knocking the Earth off its axis. The resulting radiation kills three billion people, with one in ten thousand of the survivors later developing superhuman abilities. Astonishman's responsibility for the Green Event is a fact of which only he and Dead Lexington are aware.
The Norse god Thor is the sole remaining classical god on Earth. Believed to be the only being whose power equaled Astonishman's, Thor goes missing on the day of the Green Event and is believed dead. In reality, he is slain by Divinity using her father's sword . Only Divinity and Zeus know of this.
Selecting the most noble of the super-humans, Astonishman forms the Squadron of Righteousness. Its mission is to repair the damage done to the planet and to protect humanity against the other super-humans who have become super-villains. Eventually, the super-villains join forces and eliminate the world's superheroes in an event known as the Day of Annihilation. Astonishman and the surviving superheroes escape to his Citadel of Seclusion located in Australia, which has turned into a frozen wasteland. There, they remain hidden for twelve years. Known as The End League, the heroes spend that time focusing on survival and searching for the hammer of Thor, Mjöllnir, which they believe can save the world.
On the twelfth anniversary of the Day of Annihilation, the starving members of The End League plan a raid on Scarecrow Sinister's food facility in northern Canada. Astonishman gathers a strike team consisting of himself, Soldier American, Prairie Ghost, Divinity, Brother Occult, and the rookie Blur Girl. When they arrive, Brother Occult's demon servant, Azul, attacks the team and betrays them to Dead Lexington. Dead Lexington appears via remote monitor, gloating that he knows the location of the Citadel of Seclusion and would be attacking it shortly. As Blur Girl runs off to warn the team, she is stopped by a now-lobotomized Thor, who stands ready to kill his former allies.
The brain-damaged Thor and The End League battle. Blur Girl and Soldier American are quickly incapacitated. Astonishman is initially paralyzed by doubts about his team's ability to defeat Thor, but ends up joining in the fight. Divinity temporarily restores Thor's lucidity with her sword. Thor warns Astonishman that a greater danger threatens Earth and then tells Astonishman that he must kill him. When Thor loses his mind once again, Astonishman is still reluctant to kill him. Thor strikes a mortal blow against Astonishman with Mjolnir by piercing the armor that holds in Astonishman's energy. The energy released from Astonishman's body explodes, apparently killing both men. Mjolnir is undamaged and recovered by an unknown figure who may possibly be Lexington.
Lexington proclaims Astonishman's death to the public and moves to consolidate his power. He sends his agents to abduct Kelly Klein, the leader of an underground church and Astonishman's wife. Promising Astonishman that he would protect her, Codename Black battles the agents, even going so far as to utilize a lethal, throat-crushing maneuver against his sister Sonic Eel to stop her from using her powers. Unfortunately, he fails to stop them from capturing Klein.
In the Nether Realm, Azul gloats to the captive Brother Occult and tells him that while Lexington freed the demon, Azul himself serves a greater power known as Nargor'ri the Ravager. Nargor'ri appears in the final scene of Book 1 with a promise to "end all."
In Book 2, we see a familiar-looking boy dressed in Nazi attire in 1941. He is brought to Wolfsangel and trained to kill Jewish prisoners. He is among a group of other children, each of whom appear to have been experimented on, and possesses super powers. When one of the children, a girl named Elsa refuses to kill the Jewish prisoners, Wolfsangel murders her. The execution of the Jewish captives is interrupted by Astonishman and a group of soldiers known as the Flying 33rd. The young man seen at the beginning of the book can form light daggers and possesses telekinesis. He seizes Astonishman's shield and uses it to kill all of the Nazis except Wolfsangel, who teleports away. The reader is led to believe that the boy is the future Soldier American. After this incident, Astonishman never uses his shield again.
More to come...

Collected editions

The series is being collected into two trade paperbacks: