The phrase ‘Earth 2’ conjures up the Golden Age heroes of yore for many, and in years past has served as the parallel universe that houses the Justice Society of America. With DCdefinitely keeping the word ‘relaunch’ in mind they are seriously taking a gamble with their newest title by completely revamping Earth 2 and its Golden Age inhabitants.
Earth 2 begins in the midst of the Justice League’s first story arc, except with one definite twist. In this universe their first encounter with Darkseid doesn’t end quickly and lead to the formation of the Justice League…in fact just the opposite. The conflict with Darkseid’s army is long and bloody, and eventually fractures the Justice League before it ever even begins.
Similar to the Justice League arc except more compressed, the issue skips forward five years to a world moved on from superheroes. Civilization is rebuilding and the world, once again, seems to be moving along at a brisk.
Alan Scott is introduced as a charismatic media mogul, and without his traditional Green Lantern ring and garb. The issue then shifts laterally to catch Jay Garrick clumsily fighting with his unsympathetic and downright mean girlfriend as she finalizes their breakup and moves on. Jay Garrick has always been portrayed as a rather intelligent and scientific character, but in DC’s newest iteration Garrick is a rough around the edges, unfocused, and hopelessly clueless. He is a college grad without the hint of path; however, Jay does end up filling his old shoes by the end of the issue by gaining his speedster abilities from a rather unusual, but clever source. And, at that scene, the issue is closed.
Nicola Scott’s pencilings are great and are really the highlight of the issue. Her artwork is detailed, and incredibly colorful due to Trevor Scott’s inking. From the big three battling their way through hordes of minions to the mundane nature ofAlan Scott conversing on his private jet to the climatic last panel--the art is of top quality and catches the eye from cover-to-cover.
James Robinson’s plot is coherent and understandable assuming that readers have read the first several issues ofGeoff Johns and Jim Lee’s current Justice League run. If you haven’t caught the first Justice League story arc Earth 2might seem confounding to some and not at all coherent as aforementioned. I’m a tad surprised that Earth 2 would directly build off of a specific event in a parallel universe, but maybe it’s a Doctor Who thing—a fixed point in space time that if tampered with would unravel the universe (we’ll go with that for the sake of sanity).
Personally, I appreciated the drastic alterations made to the two characters introduced, but I have heard through the grapevine that the many avid Golden Age fans are quite aggravated by the changes and claim that they damage the legacy of the character.
With the dust settled, I picture Earth 2 being a bone of contention and ripe for controversy as the run continues forth, but because of this conflict I have a gut feeling it’ll have the Starfire affect and boost sales in the long run--to a degree, both negative and positive PR increases the sales of products.
I am giving Earth 2 three-and-a-half stars out of five due to the fact that it’s entire existence owes itself to another comic set in another universe and that the drastic changes made to core DC characters might be off-putting to some. However, the art was slick, and like a coin, some might like the shinier side of Alan and Jay.
Personally, I’ll be picking up the next several issues, because I fell on the side of the positivity when all was said and done, but I can definitely see Earth 2 heading south very quickly if handled poorly.
(SOURCE: The NEW 52: Earth 2 #1)
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