In recent months, Earth 2 has served as a sort of supplement to it’s weekly cousin, World’s End. This week the formula is changed, and instead of getting another origin story or a one-shot of less-featured characters readers were treated to what is basically another issue of World’s End. So that’s two issues this week, and while I’m not very enthused by the format shift, it is at least a chance for the Daniel Wilson, also the writing lead on World’s End, to move his story along.
Seeing as how most of this takes place in or around Atom’s Haven and runs concurrent to this week’s World’s End, instead of categorizing each section by location, I’ll split it up by which Wonders are featured.
The majority of this story involves all the Wonders getting together to defeat their greatest threat yet…a giant drill. Doctor Fate arrives back on Earth 2 following his adventure to Apokolips in the previous issue and reunites with Jay and Kendra. Khalid has more of the internal struggle that we’ve seen him deal with in his last few appearances, and seemingly throws the helmet away in disgust.
Meanwhile, the giant drill is bearing down on Earth 2, and it’s unclear whether or not this is some kind of super drill, or the only drill Apokolips has, or is one of a thousand such drills coming down all over the planet. We’ve reached the pinch point in the Earth 2 storyline right before the climax, where all seems lost. Green Lantern and the Avatars have fallen, everyone on Amazonia is presumed dead, the Endurance is cut off from Earth 2, and Deathspawn (remember him?) has been destroying the planet. It is in times such as these where we look to our Wonders to rally, and thankfully we’re given just that.
Major Sato gathers the remaining Wonders in what is a very cool shot of each one’s face around her as she tries to muster the last of humanity’s forces. Steel reveals what happened when he went into the firepit (I won’t even go there), and the other Wonders – Batman, Huntress, Red Green Arrow, Flash, Hawkgirl, Red Tornado, Powergirl, and Zod – prepare to fend off the incoming drill. That looked way cooler on the page than it looks right now writing that sentence.
The artwork was penciled by Andy Smith and Airi Kamiyama, with Trevor Scott and Kamiyama on inks. The team does some of the strongest work for any World’s End-related title and upholds the standard that I’ve come to expect from Earth 2. I’m glad to say that after his fantastic run on this series, I will gladly give anything drawn by Trevor Scott a chance in the future.
- Doctor Fate has another prophecy. As all Earth 2 readers know, the last one predicted the return of Superman/Bizzaro and the rise of Val Zod. This one is a bit less cryptic, ensuring that at least one more Wonder will die in the coming issues.
- There’s a weird cutaway to Kendra’s origin, which I didn’t think was too necessary, but whatever.
- Oh, they manage to destroy the drill.
Favorite Quote: “We’re here to save people, not the planet.” – Steel
Recommended If…
- You’ve been reading World’s End.
- That’s about it, because this is an issue of the above-mentioned comic.
- You like Trevor Scott’s artwork.
Overall: It’s official: Earth 2 has been swallowed by the pedantic monstrosity that is World’s End. It had a good run, and the first twenty-six issues are some of the most creative and fun arcs in the New 52. With the arrival of Convergence, I hope that we can get a fitting conclusion to this story.
SCORE: 6.5/10
