Endtown Review
Endtown is an ongoing a web comic about the aftermath of a mutagenic virus turning people into antorhmoric animals ,followed by a global war sending the world into a post-apocalyptic state. The survivors of this war are the citizens of the various endtowns, which are underground city sized bunkers that are about the size of a small city. The furies live in these endtowns to hide from the main antagonists and second group of survivors, the Topsiders, who patrol the above ground hunting mutants. The Topsiders are humans who have protected themselves from mutation by wearing special suits and want to ethnically cleanse those who are not genetically pure.
The comic Endtown is all about life of the mutants dealing with struggles or conflicts, usually divided as arcs. They can be either personal, political or just about survival, these struggles could lead them to different locals such as the topsider infested above ground or the ruins of a city. This provides the comics with a degree of looseness that helped allow it to go on for 8 years with out getting repetitive, as well as flesh out different aspects of their world.
A few of the characters in Endtown are driven by a certain thing or event that made them who they are, and most have a place in this world. They work well as part of the world
The Art for works because it conveys what’s happening through its small allowance of 4 panels a comic and it’s very expressive. A good example of this is the Topsiders and how they visually communicate how they’re feeling and there position in a conflict even though they are wearing a mask with prevents them from making facial expressions, which endtown also does well.
Many of the conflicts of Endtown ideological or are driven by some ideology. These ideologies can sometimes be compared to the real world, but they are driven events, ethnic clashing, and conditions of the comics.
For example, the Topsiders kill humans who are not genetically pure, as they are carriers of the mutation and must be killed in order to perverse an identity of being genetically pure. Though we never know there entire definition of genetic purity besides the fact that certain genetic conditions and mutation disqualify you from being genetically pure. This means that Endtown doesn’t really focus on issues of real life races and instead focus on the issues of the racial or ethnic groups that exist in this comic.
Endtown created a system of choosing a few random and anonymous people to lead their town based on a history that would create a distrust of politicians.
The one thing that truly bothers me about Endtown is how it messed up the resolution of many plot arcs. One plot arc had a none ending where we see an escalation of political tension in Endtown. But then the characters just leave Endtown and when they return we never know what went on and it continues to another plot. Though their return was recent so this criticism might be outdated. There was this one piece of fantastical tech that easily resolved two plot arcs as well as both of them having major plot holes. But there are more good plot arc endings than bad ones.
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