Hoopla! - Episode 37: The single most unappealing solicitation of the week...

Hello and welcome to Hoopla!


A couple of quick things for your perusal-ing pleasure...


First, a look at the cover to Umbrella Academy #4, due out in December.

Now that's a damn nice cover...

Also coming out in December from Dark Horse is one of the most annoying soliciations I've read in a while...

The cover itself is okay... not really my kind of thing, but I've certainly seen worse...

Kind of a mess, huh? And I'm not sure that particular color-scheme was the best choice... it actually makes me think a little bit of vomit... but that may say more about me than it does about the cover itself...

But then there's this...

THE END LEAGUE #1
RICK REMENDER (W), MAT BROOME (P), SEAN PARSONS (I), and WENDY BROOME (C)

On sale Dec 26 FC, 32 pages $2.99 Ongoing

A thematic merging of The Lord of the Rings and Watchmen, The End League follows a cast of the last remaining supermen and women as they embark on a desperate and perilous journey through a world dominated by evil, in hopes of locating the one remaining artifact that can save humanity-the Hammer of Thor. For his return to the world of comics renowned artist Mat Broome (WildC.A.T.S.) teams up with critically acclaimed writer Rick Remender (Fear Agent) for this, Dark Horse Comics's newest superhero series.

o An all-new series from Fear Agent creator Rick Remender and artist Mat Broome!

Our darkest hour, one last hope for salvation . . .

Okay, so, this commits a few of my least favorite sins...

1) Whenever I read something like "A thematic merging of The Lord of the Rings and Watchmen" I immediately flash to that Robert Altman movie, The Player, which is set in Hollywood... over and over again in that movie we hear people pitching movies by saying things like "It's like Star Wars meets Meet the Parents!" or "It's like The Terminator meets The Lion King!"

[Actually, come to think of it, I'd definitely pay to see a movie that was pitched as The Terminator meets The Lion King. But I digress...]

At any rate, not only is this comic "A thematic merging of The Lord of the Rings and Watchmen" but it also has the hammer of Thor tossed in for good measure.

Wow.

Then it has one of my biggest pet peeves (of comic-book soliciations, that is) which is The Tag-Line.

Our darkest hour, one last hope for salvation . . .

Ooh. Dramatic...

For some reason, tag-lines at the end of movie trailers seem perfectly acceptable, but they just look silly in a comic-book solicitation.

And then, finally, there's the fact that this is yet another ill-fated attempt by Dark Horse to do super-hero comics.

Why - o - why does Dark Horse feel that it must do super-hero comics? It never, ever pays off.

DC and Marvel have that particular niche well-covered. Dark Horse, you need to focus on your strengths...

I can promise you, no good will come of THE END LEAGUE. Even if it does have a similar title to The Justice League.

"It's Lord of the Rings meets Watchmen meets the hammer of Thor meets the title of The Justice League of America! The kids are gonna love it!!!"

Oh, well.

At least the weather is nice outside today...

- Paul