The End League was a series published by Dark Horse Comics, written by Rick Remender and pencilled by Matt Broom, featuring Expies and Captain Ersatzes of well-known comic book heroes (and villains) battling it out After the End.
Originally intended as an ongoing monthly, the eventual creative team broke apart as they took on other jobs, and the series was wrapped up after nine issues.
The story begins with Astonishman detailing how he caused the end of the world. In the present day, the last remnants of the titular team attempt to protect and salvage what's left of humanity, fighting against their evil, destructive counterparts, all while unaware of a greater danger fast approaching...
Tropes:
- Apocalypse How: Class 1 with elements of a Class 4. The Green Event starts by killing 3 billion people in 1963 (when there was less than 4 billion people on earth), then mutates one-in-1,000 into "Magnificents." Astonishman's attempts to "help" contain the disaster actually make things worse down the line.
- Body Snatcher: Scarecrow Sinister likes to force people to kill their loved ones by taking over their bodies.
- The Cape: Astonishman and Soldier American try to be this, though both of them are heavily weighed down by cosmic levels of
wangst. - Captain Ersatz/Expy: While characters like Astonishman, Codename Black and Dead Lexington are quite obvious, others like Arachnkid, Grimwood and the Prairie Ghost are more "same foundation, different execution" characters.
- Omnicidal Maniac: The Big Bad, Dead Lexington.
- The Reveal: Many. The series opens with the twist that "Superman caused the apocalypse," and gets in a few more good ones after that: the Captain America was originally a telekinetic Child Soldier of the Nazi Youth, Joker was actually Loki all along, and the whole thing is a Stable Time Loop.
- Shaping Your Attacks: A bright, noble hero in the form of American Soldier. He has a gift to create blades of energy.
- Stupid Jetpack Hitler: Actually, The Cavalry (in the form of the Howling Commandoes expies) use jetpacks ala the Rocketeer; the Nazis we see are more a combination of this and the Ghostapo.
