It's the End of Civilization as we know it. A mutagenic plague followed by a global war fought with disintegration weaponry has left much of the Earth a desert of fine powder and what remains of humanity fragmented into humans, animal-like mutants and bloodthirsty monstrosities with lots of teeth. The surface, still teeming with the mutagenic virus, has become the domain of the dreaded Topsiders — well-organized, technologically advanced, and heavily armed un-mutated humans sworn to exterminate mutations of any kind in order to clear the way for the eventual resurgence of a new, genetically clean humanity. Faced with annihilation, mutants and "impure" humans have retreated into the depths of the planet to form communities and hope to win, or at least survive, what may prove to be mankind's final war. Endtown is the continuing story of one of those communities. (Author's description of Endtown, found on the GoComics site.)In short, Endtown is an apocalyptic Webcomic by Aaron Neathery that enjoys making silly jokes, and contrasting its Funny Animals and many jokes with the fact that it's the END OF THE WORLD. Alternates between being a funny comic, a serious comic, and a really friggin scary comic.Note that the strip was originally hosted on Modern Tales. When it moved to its new home at GoComics, Neathery pretty much wrapped up the then-current arc and switched the focus of the action to a new set of characters; this was not a ReBoot, and most of the original characters have gradually reappeared. The old Modern Tales strips have recently been added to the GoComics archives.
Tropes Featured:
Alliterative Name: Albert Anderson, Gustine Greene, Wally Wallechinsky, Allie Alvarez, Holly Hollister, Jacob J. Jackrabbit, Mike Mole, Louie Lynx...
Apocalypse How: Probably class 2, depending on where you look.
Blue and Orange Morality: Linda sees the mutants' taboo against using mutant eggs and milk as food products as this, since it would alleviate, if not solve, Endtown's food shortage. But it's not much different than the Real Life taboo against the general consumption of human breast milk.
Body Horror: What happens to people who get hit with the virus and can't resist it; the lucky ones turn into bipedal animals.
Cats Are Mean: Flask's character design probably had this in mind. There's also the lynx catnip addict who kicked Holly, the two thieves at the hotel... seems the only feline who outright averts this is Wally.
Contrived Clumsiness: Two waitresses have various "accidents" for their new co-worker, Linda, until she goes berserk.
Drugs Are Bad: Arguably takes the form of a Space Whale Aesop. Those who mutate in a badly drugged state rather than fully unconscious become peculiar hybrids with no obvious classification, which makes them an easy target for Fantastic Racism even within Endtown. Of course, it's still better than mutating while fully awake.
Eat The Bomb: Technically, Aaron Marx eats the explosion itself, or at least inhales it.
Empathy Doll Shot: Interesting variation. Holly finds an old teddy bear in the wastes and decides to bring it back to Endtown for one of the kids there. When a monster mutant suddenly attacks, she realizes the monster was a little girl and that that bear is still very much in use.
Extra Eyes: Mutating while conscious almost invariably results in these.
Fantastic Racism: Apart from Topsiders' treatment of mutants, there's a growing movement in Endtown for the mutants to fully embrace their animal natures, complete with meaningful renames to a Species Surname. Immune humans or mutants who don't conform to any particular species have no real place in their version of society. Mutants who want to keep their old name? Uncle Toms.
There's a parallel movement for mutants to preserve their humanity as much as possible, such as keeping human names and legally outlawing things like the consumption of mutant-produced eggs or milk.
Interspecies Romance: Not uncommon in Endtown. Of course, "species" doesn't have the same meaning for mutated humans.
Kangaroo Court: Set up for Al and Gustine. The trial is kept secret so as not to panic Endtown with accusations of treason.
Another seems to be in the works for Holly, Linda and "Maw" Maude for the purpose of making the use of mutant byproducts explicitly illegal rather than just taboo.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: Part of the Topsider process for making brain-controlled machinery.
Meaningful Echo: Wally's at first weirded out by Oscar the Crab mutant and is relieved when the offer to shake hands is a joke. After Oscar ends up saving his life (and he's come to grips with some things), Wally asks to shake hands for real.
Meaningful Name: In Endtown, by Contrived Coincidence, even the names that don't roll easily off the tongue often indicate what animal the character's mutation resembles: Allie Alvarez the alligator, P. Foxworthy the fox, and Linda Kowalski the koala.
There's also a practice among the Endtown mutants (such as Jacob J. Jackrabbit) of changing one's surname to the name of one's new animal form.
Mercy Killing: Flask shoots a child-turned-monster for this reason. Also, some Topsiders seem to see their massacre of mutants this way.
Mood Whiplash: The entire comic is this, because it balances funny animals with how humans would actually react.
Pet the Dog: Considering her usual attitude about killing people in cold blood, putting the little girl Eldritch Abomination out of its misery is possibly one of the kindest and most reasonable things Captain Flask has done in the story. Yet it's regarded by many as Shoot the Dog, if not Kick the Dog.
Proud Merchant Race: The Lucranians, apparently. According to Aaron Marx, there are only three things you need to know about them: "greedy beyond comprehension, cheat as readily as they breathe, and absolutely love bargains."
Rule of Scary: Why else would those monsters — and the Dittos — look like they do?
Schizo Tech: Justified, as Endtown has to make do with whatever works. Candlestick phones make sense in a land of many species; there's no telling how far apart their mouths and ears will be.
Species Surname: Adopted by some of the residents of Endtown after their mutation.
Tap on the Head: Averted. One swipe didn't just knock Wally out; he was still on death's doorstep in the hospital.
Truth Serums: Albert and Gustine are injected with them during their interrogation. They give the exact same story as before, and Flask still doesn't believe them.
Wetware CPU: Topsider computers, made from those mutants whom they capture instead of disintegrate. Such as "Petey."
Your Princess Is in Another Castle: Wally and Petey manage to foil Flask's plan to explode the rocket they thought they were just sabotaging, killing an entire Topsider city, only to find out that not only was the rocket they were after was a decoy; it was specifically set up as a trap for Flask.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Aaron Marx When he grants Flask her second chance he also loses her forever ironically to another Realities Aaron Marx who loves her equally and when the Oracle ask's if he is envious he says yes, but that not everyone is granted a happy ending."
. When it moved to its new home at GoComics
0 reviews