Earth 2: World's End #17 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Daniel H. Wilson, Marguerite Bennett, Mike Johnson
Art By: Scott McDaniel, Robson Rocha, Guillermo Ortego, Eduardo Pansica, Paul Neary, Jorge Jimenez, RB Silva, Walden Wong, Blond
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: January 28, 2015

Just When You Think You're Winning.......

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Here we are back in Earth 2 during the World's End and man has this title been letting me down lately........ I mean it's just been horrible.  Inconsistencies left and right, things happening just because and the whole damn story feels like it's been put on fast forward because the writers are running out of time.  Last issue we had the Red Avatar released by the Superman/Batman heroes and do you know what she did for the Avatar fight?  Not a goddamn thing.  It actually took the Superman/Batman heroes showing up to defeat the Furires of Apokolips, but I guess freeing the Avatar was a good thing either way because it also shut down the cloning labs and the parademon factories.  At the end of the issue Huntress was magically cured of her Fury-isms by Power Girl just hitting her really really hard and the battle of the Furies might have ended but something worse might have come from it's aftermath.  The last Fury: Death gave birth to a monster and you know that can't be good.  Let's check out what this issue holds in store for us and let's hope beyond hope that it starts getting Earth 2 World's End back on track and away from the suck that it's been

Explain It!:

It's funny, right away in this issue I start feeling better about this series as a whole.  Due to the many weeks of shitty issues, I've found myself being very cynical towards this title due to all the things that I stated in the opening paragraph, but here I see a beacon of hope shining down as the book tries to explain it's actions as of late and let me in on what it's been up to.  During the opening scene where Huntress is magically okay again, (okay not that part) Batman let's us know that while he was in the Fire Pit, he originally took Miraclo, then cloning solution and then Venom, which he uses to jog Huntress's heart, kind of like the OD scene in Pulp Fiction.  This might not seem like much but if you've been reading this series before this, it really felt like the writers just forgot what he was taking to give himself superpowers.  So we've got that.  We've also got an explanation about why Desaad said "Yes" when our heroes destroyed the Fire Pit.  It seems that since he loves all that pain and torture, he even got off when it was against him.  So yeah, I can get behind that and I really really appreciate the explanation.  Now to the nitty gritty of the story.  

Okay, since Death went and gave birth to this new monster calling itself, Deathspawn, our heroes are regrouping to take out the new threat but it seems that this monster wants none of what they're selling and simply vanishes into the Earth and we leave this aftermath of the Avatar/Fury battle with Alan Scott saying that the monster is going for the Parliament of Earth............. So yeah, that makes sense if you go with why Alan Scott isn't in Futures End........ The monster won.  Poor poor Alan.  We really need the future rewritten at this point.  I don't want to live in a world without Alan in it............. Yes, I just stated that I live in the New 52 universe........ I need to rewrite my own future because I see therapy there.

Down in Desaad's now defunct Cloning Labyrinth, we see Barda chastising him for failing Darkseid, but the old torturer still has a trick up his sleeve.  Somewhere down in that Labyrinth he was working on a new kind of soldier that he calls Proto-Furies and man are they.........stupid looking.  Pretty much just look like people in Parademon armor but apparently they can take a hit, so what do I know?  Once Barda has her new soldiers they go and try to take out everyone that are still making their way underground to Atom's Haven, but what they didn't count on was the love of a mother.  I'm talking about our Superman heroes showing up to stop them and after a couple Proto-Furies put their hands on Power Girl...........not that way!  Red Tornado goes ape shit and whirlwinds all the bad guys away.  So as of right now, the civilians are safe.............kinda.

In the end, we see that some of the survivors that are down in Atom's Haven have become possessed........ or something along those lines.  Their eyes are whited out and they're acting nasty, so yeah, I'm going with some sort of possession.  If that wasn't bad enough, after Barda and her Proto-Furies return to Desaad after getting blown away, we see that Kalibak is now in the mix and that can't be good for anyone.

That's it for this issue of Earth 2: World's End and even though I've done nothing but bitch and complain about this series for weeks now.............. I'm starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel.  We might have just hit a bad patch people and now shit is getting back to normal, I don't know but I kind of want to believe it.  We're heading to new territory with this series now, so this had a bit of setup going on but with the action that was going down and the explanations to my past bitchery given to me, I kind of enjoyed this issue.  So if things continue on this track, I can totally see this becoming a decent story again until it's end in March.  Only thing I wish is that the art was as strong as last week's issue.  Only thing decent that came out of the last issue was the art and here it seems to be lacking a bit but not enough to make you not want to read it.  See you next week where we find out if I'm a sucker for believing in this book again.  See you then.

Bits and Pieces:

I was actually shocked that when I finished this issue that I didn't hate it.  At this point I figured the writers had just given up and I was about there myself.  This issue though gave me a moment of hope that everything that's been awful in this series could be turned around.  I'll stay optimistic and say that if you haven't given up on this book yet, give it a few more issues.  I only wish that the art was as strong here as it was last week because I might have actually considered believing in miracles....... Yeah, I'm hyping this issue up and I don't want you to think that this issue will blow you away but after having the issues that we've had, almost anything would have been an improvement.

6.5/10