Review by Frank Plowright

DC dipped their toes into the water with a line of comics based on video games, but came a cropper with End of Nations when the game was developed, but never released.

The scenario was to have been the world as we know it having ended with all governments overthrown and organised civilisation breaking down. It led to a period of those with weapons able to do what they liked until a bigger bear came along. That bigger bear was the Order of Nations, armed with futuristic weapons and claiming to have united 80% of the world, except there’s no room for argument or complaint. Shout too loud and you’re shot dead.

Had the game been released, the object would have been for a multiplayer revolution against oppression under the control of the US army, and that’s what Ricardo Sanchez personifies in Shane Barrett. He’s sent on missions commanding small forces targeting the Order, but there are complications.

Artist Yvel Guichet is presumably working from design sheets supplied by the game company, and the game was presumably intended to be heavily reliant on vehicles as Guichet draws a lot of them, all distinctively different, but recognisable as the equivalents of current day war machinery. Only two people really count in the story, Shane and a Commander Dern, and Guichet ensures they can be distinguished from the background players. With all technology designed to be seen from distance as per the game, Guichet puts a lot of work into End of Nations.

In terms of comics, once the scenario has been established this is basically G.I. Joe, but with the sensationalism stripped back. Sanchez provides a decent war story with good cliffhanger endings to the chapters, and as this is finite, there’s absolutely no way of knowing how things will end, so the tension is high throughout. In the end this is far better than you might expect from a game tie-in.