DC's New 52: Reviews and Discussion (Spoilers welcolme and likely)

The design art for the character features a cape design similar to the one on the current main universe Superman - coming to a point at the back rather than hemmed straight across. In fact the Earth 2 costume looks generally like a more traditionally comic book version of the Lee outfit - tights instead of armor but the similar cape, red belt rather than the Speedo, etc.

The picture of Jay Garrett is...not traditional. Wonder what Alan Scott will be like?

 

I liked Earth 2 and Worlds' Finest (the latter is probably better), but I'm wondering how Jay and Joan had time to finish a college degree and look for work while the world was suffering through total war with Apokolips. Michigan looks pretty untouched by the universal conflict. (I mean, I get why Apokolips wouldn't bother with Detroit - the car industry kinda already did the end of the world there.)

 

The war finished two years before they went to college.

 

I am just not reading these things closely enough on Comixology, I think.

I guess I always think it's an oddity of the modern superhero genre that things always recover so fast; not just cities and physical space, but attitudes. It's happened after every Crisis and it happens here. If the war was five years ago and places like Metropolis and Italy were completely destroyed - Superman says his city is dead - then the infrastructure was in place for Jay and Joan to start college within two years.

People went on about 9/11 for years, and that was three events on one day. Does it seem reasonable to set up an apocalyptic event, following which society looks exactly as it did the day before that even started?

 

Issue #1 for all of the titles in the "First Wave" are now $0.99 on Comixology.

 

I loved the fact that it implied Jay was an alumn of University of Michigan (U of M was always a dream school, although it's far too expensive), although shouldn't they have been in Ann Arbor? Lansing is where Michigan State is.

 

If comics attempted to portray realistically the social and psychological effects of the kinds of events that superheroes apparently exist to deal with, all the characters would be in a more-or-less constant state of trauma. It's like they're having "9/11 events" every month or so, all the time.

 

Sure, but then don't base your entire new world on an earth where such an event "changed everything." Earth 2 seems like an ideal opportunity to portray a world that is scarred. But I liked it well enough for what it is.

I re-read the issue, and realize where I made my initial mistake: There's the five years ago bit, and then there's Alan Scott recording an anniversary special. I read "anniversary" as one year, not five.

 

Action
Detective
Smallville "Season 11" #1
Dial H for Hero #1

Non-DC:
Ghostbusters

 

Interestingly enough, in the latest Superman Beyond story Superman is strolling through his Fortress of Solitude and all of his old costumes are on display. We see two different costumes with the red speedo, but don't see his current Nu52 costume.

 

The cover to Earth 2 #3 has Alan Scott on it, in what appears to be his Green Lantern outfit.

 

Hmm - on first glance he looks a lot more like one of the Oan Green Lanterns - other than the variation in the shape of the lantern and ring, which do hark back to his oldDC incarnations.

 

I'd be surprised if Earth 2 didn't have an Oa. I wonder if Alan Scott will be a kind of Kyle Rayner, last of the Green Lanterns? Hermes hints at the end of Earth 2 that there's something worse than Darkseid coming, and that something might have wiped out the Corps.

 

I liked Earth 2... not as good as I hoped, but I really liked the IDEA of it... It feels like the real shake up that they really couldn't do on Earth 1 or Prime or whatever it's number. I'll stick around.

 

Milligan's debut issue on Stormwatch wasn't bad, despite some moments of exposition. A Red Lantern made an appearance, but most interesting was the character who had a history with the Shadow Lords. I'd like to see where he takes this, though the issue was a good read in itself.

 

Earth 2 and World's Finest were both good. better than i anticipated. don't mind the new origin for Jay at all. but then i wonder what other origins they will alter. Dial H for Hero was also really good.

 

So Jay didn't just get hit with super heated steam this time?

 

I picked up Earth 2 yesterday, the first comic I've bought in over a year. As someone who preferred to read about Earth-Two over Earth-One since my first encounter with the JSA in '73 or '74, I've been interested to see what a reboot of the Golden Age heroes would be like.

While I've loved the history that goes with the group, I've also understood that that and the "old men" thing was keeping them in niche status and that for them to truly flourish as characters, they would have to jettison quite a bit.

While I will probably pick up a couple of trades for some of the other "new 52" titles, this book is the first I will probably pick up monthly. I rather like the idea of an entire super hero world largely confined to a single book, and that's why Jack Staff is probably my favorite comic in recent times.

I also think it would be cool (as I thought DC might do years ago) if "Earth 2" became the masthead for a line or small line of comics.

Agree with Dennis on his point, but like Derishton, I think the idea that the world could come back to the semblance of normalcy that it has with that level of devastation is a bit jarring. If the world had super heroes helping to rebuild, it would've been less jarring.

In addition, I thought it was only a year later as well, but recalled reading that there was a "five years ago" thing going with it as well. It is comics though, and it's not a deal breaker.

I noticed that as well and while I always liked how Alan stood out when teaming with Oan lanterns, I think this is being done so that new readers aren't like "why does that guy look nothing like this army of GL's he's with?" I do like the updated look of his symbol, the other one that's been used for the last decade or so, seemed a bit clunky and overly detailed even by Golden Age standards.

There does seem to be, unfortunately, a bit of the KC armor there, and that's one of those concepts that's tied with Alan that I'd love to be put to rest. I suppose it'd be too confusing to new readers if Alan's ring was back to it's earliest powers which I don't think included ring constructs. He could walk through walls, make green flame and I think he could see remote events from a distance. I'll have to break out the Golden Age Green Lantern Archives and check.

Again, I'm interested in seeing what James does regarding Alan....I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw regarding Jay. The scene with Joan, to me, was a nice way of saying "don't expect our heroes to simply meet their new E2 counterparts and go down the same road".

Agree with your final sentence, Prof. and I was pleasantly surprised to read this in a review at AICN: "Where JUSTICE LEAGUE felt like a long yawn, a surprise beginning that was a slow decrescendo to the finish line, EARTH 2 is a surprise scream--"

I think it was better than I expected. Robinson's Starman is my favorite comic of all time and I think it was a great idea to once again give him his little corner of the DC Universe (or multiverse) and let him have the freedom to do what he wants.

Did he? At the beginning of the book it says the parademons swarmed Earth led by their brilliant and unstoppable leader, not a "general", named Steppenwolf. They don't mention Darkseid at all or really reference him, so that "greater threat" may actually be Darkseid himself. It may look as if they're referencing a bigger bad, but that's only because you know that Steppenwolf serves Darkseid. A new DC reader wouldn't pick up on that reading this issue. For all they would know, Steppenwolf is the leader of the parademons.

Will be interesting finding out who the big bad is at any rate.

 

I thought the strongest titles this week were definitely Swamp Thing and Action Comics. The whole story in Action really does read like an attack against DC and entertainment companies in general and what they have done to pervert and cheapen creativity for their own gains.

Swamp Thing was just fun. It's pretty amazing how seamless the Paquette and Rudy art blended together. Alec gets his happy ending with Abbey though they are both no longer human, but Anton is back.

 

Really? Sounds interesting.....would you mind elaborating in spoiler code please? I'd like to know what they said.