Earth 2: Society #8 Review and *SPOILERS*

Wonders, Guns and Money

Written By: Dan Abnett
Art By: Jorge Jimenez, Alejandro Sanchez, Travis Lanham
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: January 13, 2016

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Woah boy has Earth 2 been a wreck since it began.......... well, more accurately, since World's End but with any luck all of that will change here since we have Dan Abnett taking over the title and as anyone who read Masters of The Universe or He-Man: Eternity War will know, Dan Abnett has the ability to write the hell out of a bunch of characters.  Yeah, I'm intrigued and after dealing with Jimmy Olsen becoming Doctor Impossible and quickly getting his god ass beat, I'm all for something new that gets these characters together and hopefully gets us towards something that seems just a little bit more run of the mill........... I know that's a weird thing to say, but we've been dealing with some far out Sci-Fi shit for awhile now and run of the mill sounds awesome right now.  Let's jump into this issue and see what Dan Abnett has in store for us and how our heroes will redeem themselves from their previously awful feel and work together to make a better world and a better comic.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with a long missed Hawkgirl going about her merry way, exploring her new world and recording her findings so that everyone can have a proper map of their new home........ You know, some actual useful type stuff.  Along the way though, she finds a strange opening in a cliff face and goes exploring because there shouldn't be any strange openings like this because there shouldn't be any ruins or anything like that since like I said earlier, this world is new.  This little section of our story is cut short though so we can get back to the rest of our heroes and what they're up to, but before we do we see Hawkgirl getting shot up from inside this strange opening that looks to be rocking some high quality technology for being in the middle of nowhere....... and being on a cliff.  

In Neotropolis, I'm shocked when we find out that our favorite Earth 2 Wonders have actually gotten together with what's left of the World Army.......... well, Commander Sato anyway and have made themselves a sort of comity and are actually discussing what they need to do to make this world a safe and productive place.  Most shocking is that we have Green Lantern acting like a human again........which is not a bad thing at all and we have Khalid as a part of this comity as well.  I was starting to wonder if he was simply retconned out of existence because we haven't seen his fate loving ass since before World's End.......ended. Anyway, we've got Commander Sato, Captain Steel, Val-Zod, Green Lantern, Khalid and Sandman all talking about things they need to do to bring the peace between warring cities, who want to fight over resources and the like........... and while this is kind of interesting...... it's also kind of boring as well.  I know I want to see these heroes working together, but focusing on the politics isn't what I had in mind.  The meeting of the Super Friends is interrupted when Green Lantern flies off to go do that hero thing and we see a giant ass monster taking on Power Girl, Huntress and Flash........... which is immediately taken down once Green Lantern shows up rocking his giant god look.  So yeah, it's a bit of an amalgam with what we've got from Alan Scott here, but I do enjoy a bit of the human character shining through.  After the monster is defeated, our heroes discuss where it could have come from....... you know, whether it was bio engineered by one of the cities competing with another or if was created during that botched job at terraforming we had in the previous story arc.  It's all up in the air for now.

In the end, we head off to New Gotham, where Batman is taking out some goons sent by a shyster energy company, who's plan is bleeding people dry with their power, but now they've upped their game by taking out the black market competition.  It's kind of all over the place this issue with trying to give most of the characters panel play, but I do enjoy seeing Batman being Batman like.  As our issue closes, we head on back to Hawkgirl so we can see her get her ass kicked by those tech savvy assailants some more, but the beating stops when their leader comes out and says that she knows our Hawkgirl and we see Fury's first appearance in Earth 2: Society.

That's it for this issue of Earth 2: Society and I have to say that this run of the book seems to be off to a decent start.  We've got our heroes acting like heroes, even if some of it is relegated to politics, but Dan Abnett really needs to build this world from the ground up and give us some background in what's going down and how our heroes will truly save this world and make the people believe in wonder again.  So yeah, this is just set up for what we'll be dealing with in the upcoming issues, but with fun art and colors popping off the page the way they do here, well it's a decent time.  I just hope that in the future we get to see these individual heroes shine, while being able to become a team in the process............ yeah, I want a lot of things, but with how much damage that's been done to these characters......... well, there's a lot of work to be done.

Bits and Pieces:

While this won't immediately come out and "WOW" you, it does a decent job in setting up what we'll be dealing with on Earth 2 and since it all felt like it rang true to the characters, while even bringing us back a more human Green Lantern, I have to say that Dan Abnett's first outing into this world was half decent and I can't wait to see what he does with it from here on out.  Along with that, we continue to have Jorge Jimenez's awesome style bringing this story to life and just making these characters look great.

7/10