Earth-2

[Arsenal]

I still don't like his costume though. (1)

I still wish the JSA was in the main universe. When I'm reading the main universe books I miss them, but when I'm reading this book I don't miss the other JLA characters because I take this book as an Elseworlds kind of book, so the differences don't really bug me. The same thing goes for the changes to the JSA members.(2)

1- I like it, just not the helmet. The chinstrap looks off and the eye shields while practical make me think he has to clean the bugs off every time he stops. I hope they made a joke in book like that

2- Agreed, this is how the DCnU should be, this is a new origin, built off of nothing, it is exciting and new and I really dig it, its like the Ultimate U for Marvel, much better then most of the DCnU.

[Batman25JM]

I still don't like his costume though. (1)

I still wish the JSA was in the main universe. When I'm reading the main universe books I miss them, but when I'm reading this book I don't miss the other JLA characters because I take this book as an Elseworlds kind of book, so the differences don't really bug me. The same thing goes for the changes to the JSA members.(2)

1- I like it, just not the helmet. The chinstrap looks off and the eye shields while practical make me think he has to clean the bugs off every time he stops. I hope they made a joke in book like that

2- Agreed, this is how the DCnU should be, this is a new origin, built off of nothing, it is exciting and new and I really dig it, its like the Ultimate U for Marvel, much better then most of the DCnU.

The helmet is definitely my biggest problem with the costume. I've warmed up to the rest of it for the most part, but that helmet is just bad.

Exactly! As much as I didn't want them to wipe everything when DC rebooted/relaunched, now I wish they had. What they did has really wrecked a lot of stuff and made continuity a mess. It would have sucked to not have had characters like Tim Drake if they'd restarted from the beginning, but we don't really have him as it is now. That character running around in Teen Titans is NOT Tim Drake. Earth 2 is a fresh take on the characters in a way that really doesn't have me pissed off that they changed things. Meanwhile, I continue to be pissed about changes made in the DCnU.

[Jherek Carnelian]

When you think about it the really interesting thing about the 'old DC' Earth 2 was the way it interacted and affected Earth 1 (which was kinda lost post Crisis when the various Earths smooshed together, causing problems like 80 year old JSA members requiring more and more elaborate and unlikely excuses for their ability to still stand up without a zimmer frame let alone fight crime). Here in the 'New 52' I can see the thinking is - let's have a bunch of new young heroes as replacement for the dead old ones. So, in a way, the new Earth 2 is the equivalent to 'old DC' Earth 1 and we are the equivalent to the old Earth 2. Which kinda makes sense as I always thought that logically and chronologically the Earth with the WW II vets should be Earth One.

So I can see that potentially, with this actually quite clever reversal, there's the scope for some great stories dealing with the new young replacements of the JSA meeting and interacting with our Earth's heroes, Which seems to be being set up with Mr. Terrific's arrival on Earth 2 and Helena and Kara's escape to Earth 1.

The conflict and drama should come from the Earth 2 JSA treating the Earth 1 newbies as the 'legacy heroes' they remember and finding that they don't quite yet live up to the legend of their own dead and revered heroes.

[Aussiemandias]

Personally, I'd rather this book took a good couple of years to get the world built here before starting crossovers to Earth 1 but I'm sure that's not going to happen.

Earth 2 #2

First of all - Nicola Scott is killing it on the art! Good to see an Aussie doing such great work.

Secondly, it really is a relief to see Robinson doing way better work than the stuff he was producing on Justice League.

I like the book. Two issues in and I'm on board. In my opinion these characters aren't the old characters. Sure, there may be a character named Jay Garrick but he's not Jay Garrick in anything but name. These are brand new characters and I really don't mind. I think it's fun (and like a few others have said I would have rathered this approach with the main DC Universe also). Anyway, I'm enjoying the set up and I can potentially see myself liking Earth 2 more than anything going on in the main DCU!!!!

I definitely like Mr Terrific being over there - I think that works well with Huntress and Power Girl having been shifted the other way. Is Terry Sloan a name from the past? Any hints who he is?

[Arsenal]

Is Terry Sloan a name from the past? Any hints who he is?

He is/was the original Mr. Terrific

[D-Rock]

As far as the issue itself goes, I mirror everyone else's comments. It's good to see Robinson writing a decent story again. I too am looking forward to seeing how Alan gets his ring and if it'll come from the actual GLC of this universe, or still be magical as before (personally, I'm hoping for the former).

The Ted Grant easter egg was cool too.

[Batman25JM]

^I think I completely missed the Ted Grant Easter egg. What was it?


As far as a crossover with Earth 1, I'd prefer they didn't do that. I think having Power Girl and Huntress on Earth 1 and Mr. Terrific on Earth 2 is more than enough. I know they'll eventually cross them over in a bigger way, but I don't really think it's needed.

[Aussiemandias]

^I think I completely missed the Ted Grant Easter egg. What was it?

It was an advertisement for an upcoming fight.

[Batman25JM]

^I think I completely missed the Ted Grant Easter egg. What was it?

It was an advertisement for an upcoming fight.

Ah, thanks! I tend to skip over stuff like that becuase 90% of the time it's meaningless.

I really hope that Wildcat is part of this book.

[Dr. Wade McNasty]

^I think I completely missed the Ted Grant Easter egg. What was it?

It was an advertisement for an upcoming fight.

Ah, thanks! I tend to skip over stuff like that becuase 90% of the time it's meaningless.

I really hope that Wildcat is part of this book.

The anticipation of how various characters will look like in this universe takes me back to when the Ultimate Universe was new. Fun times. I'm enjoying this book. The dialogue and everything made me wonder if Alan Scott's partner is going to be the Shade in this universe. When he asked him why he was "hiding in the shadows" I couldn't help but wonder if this was a deliberate attempt at foreshadowing or not. Maybe the explosion that we saw at the end could give rise to Shade here (driven-insane lover). DC making a compelling gay villain would be pretty damn impressive. Makes me wonder how Obsidian or Jade will play into this if at all.

[Aussiemandias]

Earth 2 #3

Mostly not bad. I didn't mind "the Green" giving Alan Scott his powers but I have to say I found the way it somehow all connected to the name and look of "Green Lantern" pretty clunky. It felt really forced and didn't feel terribly organic. I don't object to the idea of what's giving him his powers just to the way Robinson has made it happen. Solomon Grundy as the big bad is definitely interesting.

Dr Fate gets a mention this issue - that's one costume I hope doesn't change too much. I've always liked Dr Fate's look - I think it's pretty iconic.

[Arsenal]

I liked how Green Lantern got his powers, but it did feel forced. So does that mean the green has Swamp Thing and GL on his team now?

Also Grundy apparently wanted fetish pants

[Batman25JM]

Earth 2 #3

Mostly not bad. I didn't mind "the Green" giving Alan Scott his powers but I have to say I found the way it somehow all connected to the name and look of "Green Lantern" pretty clunky. It felt really forced and didn't feel terribly organic. I don't object to the idea of what's giving him his powers just to the way Robinson has made it happen. Solomon Grundy as the big bad is definitely interesting.

Dr Fate gets a mention this issue - that's one costume I hope doesn't change too much. I've always liked Dr Fate's look - I think it's pretty iconic.

I think "clunky" is a good way to put it. I liked the issue, but the Green Lantern stuff to be clunky.

[Jherek Carnelian]

So E2 Green Lantern is Captain Planet now? Bad exposition heavy issue. Alan Scott's just had his fiance (of two seconds) blown up and stands around in the wreckage chatting to big green energy blob for six pages and then is all ' Oh yeah Imma fightin for the earth now!' Not up to Robinson's usual standard. This is heading for the drop list.

[jaydee74]

That's a shame. This was on a possible "pick up in trade" list for me. The more I hear about this though, the less I am interested in it.

[D-Rock]

Yeah, the groan inducing Robinson reappeared in this issue. Wasn't a fan at all. Grundy appearing at the end was the only cool part, the rest felt like a bad JLA flashback from 2 years ago.

[Aussiemandias]

Earth 2 #4

Well, I think I'm going to have to drop this. Give it a couple more issues but that will be it if the writing doesn't improve. I don't get James Robinson. His work on Justice League I found to be pretty awful. His recent work on The Shade maxi series has been terrific - I've really enjoyed it. But this I am now not enjoying. I just don't like the writing - it's awkward. It just seems to me that Robinson can't write a superhero team book. Not at the moment anyway. I find myself not caring about the characters and the story isn't grabbing my attention.

I'd been looking forward to Solomon Grundy's appearance. Well, quite frankly, I've found this version of Solomon Grundy to be crap. You could have come up with any new character and made it this "Solomon Grundy" character.

Anyway, a couple more issues and I'm done.

[Arsenal]

I like the book less each issue. Once the arc is over I will decide about it.

I think like the JLA book they are trying to fit too much in at once. You get a good back story on Flash and Green Lantern, and some on the Atom (Atom Smasher? Damage? They mixed all three) But then we have Hawkgirl and now Pratt is there to take out Hot Topic Grundy and capture hawkgirl?


I think this book shows my issues with the new 52, they are trying too hard. It's a new universe, you can build up to these big moments, lets not mix team building, with multiple origins (that are new and different) with a new villain (the grey) plus adding in a side story about the government being involved with supers. A slow burn isn't a bad thing.

[Batman25JM]

I'm with you guys. JLA era Robinson is back. While issue #4 wasn't god awful, it wasn't good.

Really, at this point the only thing I'm enjoying is the Flash.

I don't know for sure how much longer I'm going to stick with the book. I'll probably give it until the end of the arc before I make my decision.

[Strider]

I will admit that while his work on this book hasn't been up to par with the phenomenal Shade maxi-series, I am intrigued by Earth 2's The Gray and the Green.....and am curious to see if they are similar to the Red and the Green and the Rot that is currently running through Swamp Thing and Animal Man.

[Aussiemandias]

Earth 2 #0

Well this issue highlighted the stupidity of this blanket zero issue idea for me. This series was only 4 issues old. I really don't see that it suddenly needed to backtrack and do a flashback issue losing momentum out of what I thought was already an ordinary looking story/series.

Anyway, this didn't do anything to convince me not to drop the book after another issue or so.

[Batman25JM]

Earth 2 #6

Yeah, I'm done. This series started out pretty good, but it rapidly deteriorated. I can't take it anymore. This is the same type of crap that Robinson's JLA run suffered from. It's just poorly written.

I can't even begin to describe how much I hated Alan seeing the Sam illusion. I HATE stuff like that (with a few exceptions).

I've been holding out hope that this book would get better, but I don't see that happening at this point. I'm done.