Let's Get Political
Written By: Dan AbnettArt By: Jorge Jimenez, Alejandro Sanchez, Travis Lanham
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: February 10, 2016
*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*
Oh Earth 2, will you ever find a direction.............. and if you do, will it ever be something that people can gravitate towards? If you've read all of the Earth 2 stories, you'll know that this series has been struggling for awhile and I was really hoping that Dan Abnett coming on this series would straighten it the hell out and give us some serious re-imagined Golden Age character action and get the bad taste of World's End out of our mouths and even though I didn't mind our first outing with our new writer last issue, it seems that the "Society" in the title is taken a little bit too seriously. I mean, when this book was first announced I jumped for joy because I thought we were finally going to get these heroes banning together and becoming a team, but from what it looks like, it's going to be more about the society on this new Earth.......... or as it's called in this issue, Earth-2.......... being that this is actually our character's second Earth. Alright, let's find out all about the society of Earth-2 and what our heroes are going to do to make it work or tear it apart. Let's check it out.
Explain It!:
Our issue begins with our Wonders getting political as hell and doing their best to maintain a shitty situation. We have Ark Home Colony and Erebus City on the verge of war because of the lack of natural resources and the possibility of a new source being grabbed by a city that the other city feels doesn't deserve it as much........... Come on, can't we just have heroes punching bad guys in the face? Yeah, I know we need a little thing called "story", but even though we've been dealing with this series for nine issues now and the whole plot where the survivors of the previous Earth-2 came to this world and made cities out of their downed spacecrafts............ I still have no idea off the top of my head which city is which and what their significance is and just throwing these two cities at me with no context besides that they're feuding does nothing for me........... and then throwing areas of these cities and the outskirts of them by name means nothing at all. So yeah, Commander Sato with Sandman are heading up a Wonder operation where Khalid simply looks at angry politicians at a distance and Huntress stands in the middle of a committee. Fun stuff.
Elsewhere, Green Lantern and Red Tornado are busy talking about writing a new constitution for this world and musing whether people should believe if Alan is a god or not............... and thankfully the boring-ness is broken up by Power Girl taking on some more of those terraformed monsters, but even that is quickly taken away from me so we can get back to the political talk, when Green Lantern excuses himself from his constitution work to immediately show and and take all the monsters down........ and I was so close to a superhero battle....... Even though we get this small monster beat down going on, the most exciting part of this book is Batman getting Red Arrow and Wildcat together so that they can help him take down a corrupt energy company that is stealing from people and murdering others, while not being up to proper OSHA standards. Yeah, it isn't much, but it's definitely exciting knowing that we'll have some proper team up action coming in future issues.
In the end, we find out that Flash, Val-Zod and Captain Steel have been spending their time in this issue trying to find out if the natural resources that everyone is pissed at each other about are even viable and not only do they find out that they aren't, but that this planet is a barren husk and isn't capable of sustaining human life and the way that they live for a long period of time. So hopefully that means that our heroes will be moving on to a more exciting planet or Universe in the future. As our issue closes we get some more info on what Fury is up to and we find out that she's doing some weird ass power conversion that's allowed the people of the crashed ship she was on to become Amazons themselves.......... I'm guessing blood drinking is involved, but really that's my answer for everything.
That's it for this issue of Earth 2: Society and I was just bored out of my mind at all the politics involved because even though we have an entire planet to deal with and all the survivors of the old Earth-2.......... I just want to see heroes doing heroic things that aren't tied directly into running a society. Now that might just make me a big dummy who doesn't understand the complex and exciting nature of politics and making a government run, but I'm okay with that because what I want is a fun book and this wasn't fun at all. I am excited for what Batman, Red Arrow and Wildcat will be getting into in upcoming issues and a bit about what Fury and Hawkgirl are up to, but those parts were really short and the rest of the issue didn't do anything for me except make me wonder how the hell Green Lantern didn't know about this planet being a husk since he's all god-ed up with The Green. The art and colors in this issue were great as always though and they're the strongest part of the book and almost make it worthwhile........ almost. Hopefully, in future issues we'll get a little more Earth 2 and a little less Society because everyone who aren't heroes in this issue are just assholes and I hope that they all kill each other over their wars because obviously they didn't learn anything since their world was destroyed by Darkseid.
Bits and Pieces:
If you're a fan of politics and how to make governments work then this issue is right up your alley, but if you're like me and want to read a superhero book with good old fashioned good vs. evil and all that jazz.......... well, you might be a bit disappointed. I found myself bored out of my mind with this story and even though I saw potential for future story lines here, this book is still a mess as it was before. The only saving grace really is the continued excellent artwork from this art team.
Explain It!:
Our issue begins with our Wonders getting political as hell and doing their best to maintain a shitty situation. We have Ark Home Colony and Erebus City on the verge of war because of the lack of natural resources and the possibility of a new source being grabbed by a city that the other city feels doesn't deserve it as much........... Come on, can't we just have heroes punching bad guys in the face? Yeah, I know we need a little thing called "story", but even though we've been dealing with this series for nine issues now and the whole plot where the survivors of the previous Earth-2 came to this world and made cities out of their downed spacecrafts............ I still have no idea off the top of my head which city is which and what their significance is and just throwing these two cities at me with no context besides that they're feuding does nothing for me........... and then throwing areas of these cities and the outskirts of them by name means nothing at all. So yeah, Commander Sato with Sandman are heading up a Wonder operation where Khalid simply looks at angry politicians at a distance and Huntress stands in the middle of a committee. Fun stuff.
Elsewhere, Green Lantern and Red Tornado are busy talking about writing a new constitution for this world and musing whether people should believe if Alan is a god or not............... and thankfully the boring-ness is broken up by Power Girl taking on some more of those terraformed monsters, but even that is quickly taken away from me so we can get back to the political talk, when Green Lantern excuses himself from his constitution work to immediately show and and take all the monsters down........ and I was so close to a superhero battle....... Even though we get this small monster beat down going on, the most exciting part of this book is Batman getting Red Arrow and Wildcat together so that they can help him take down a corrupt energy company that is stealing from people and murdering others, while not being up to proper OSHA standards. Yeah, it isn't much, but it's definitely exciting knowing that we'll have some proper team up action coming in future issues.
In the end, we find out that Flash, Val-Zod and Captain Steel have been spending their time in this issue trying to find out if the natural resources that everyone is pissed at each other about are even viable and not only do they find out that they aren't, but that this planet is a barren husk and isn't capable of sustaining human life and the way that they live for a long period of time. So hopefully that means that our heroes will be moving on to a more exciting planet or Universe in the future. As our issue closes we get some more info on what Fury is up to and we find out that she's doing some weird ass power conversion that's allowed the people of the crashed ship she was on to become Amazons themselves.......... I'm guessing blood drinking is involved, but really that's my answer for everything.
That's it for this issue of Earth 2: Society and I was just bored out of my mind at all the politics involved because even though we have an entire planet to deal with and all the survivors of the old Earth-2.......... I just want to see heroes doing heroic things that aren't tied directly into running a society. Now that might just make me a big dummy who doesn't understand the complex and exciting nature of politics and making a government run, but I'm okay with that because what I want is a fun book and this wasn't fun at all. I am excited for what Batman, Red Arrow and Wildcat will be getting into in upcoming issues and a bit about what Fury and Hawkgirl are up to, but those parts were really short and the rest of the issue didn't do anything for me except make me wonder how the hell Green Lantern didn't know about this planet being a husk since he's all god-ed up with The Green. The art and colors in this issue were great as always though and they're the strongest part of the book and almost make it worthwhile........ almost. Hopefully, in future issues we'll get a little more Earth 2 and a little less Society because everyone who aren't heroes in this issue are just assholes and I hope that they all kill each other over their wars because obviously they didn't learn anything since their world was destroyed by Darkseid.
Bits and Pieces:
If you're a fan of politics and how to make governments work then this issue is right up your alley, but if you're like me and want to read a superhero book with good old fashioned good vs. evil and all that jazz.......... well, you might be a bit disappointed. I found myself bored out of my mind with this story and even though I saw potential for future story lines here, this book is still a mess as it was before. The only saving grace really is the continued excellent artwork from this art team.
5/10
The first comic I ever bought was Vol. 1 of Earth 2 in the New 52, and I have bought most comics including these characters since then. It's just so disappointing what DC has done with these characters.
ReplyDeleteThis is a big step up from World's End and the first issues of earth 2 society, and at first I wanted to give it like a 8/10. On second thought though I would give it a 3. It's just boring and lame and I don't give a fuck any more. PLEASE DC LET THESE CHARACTERS JUST BE SUPERHEROES, NO MORE WAR AND DUMB BULLSHIT!!!!!!! Sorry for the rant but it could have been a lot longer.
listen im gonna be frank: if your gonna have the JSA in a war...PUT THEM BACK IN WORLD WAR II
DeleteDon't be frank...I like you as Jody!
DeleteIn Dan Abnett'd defense, he was given a shitstorm to clean up. I get the impression that he is just trying to define this world a little more before moving forward. However, after two plus years of Daniel H Wilson fucking this book left and right, the readers, including myself, understandably don't have the patience for a slow burn read.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, at this point, I'd even accept a shitty time travel story. Send these guys back in time, to Earth 2.1 and do whatever is necessary to prevent its destruction. Retcon WORLD'S END and SOCIETY right out of existence. What would we sacrifice, really? Dick Grayson as Batman? I'll take that loss.
I don't know how you would do that, but I'd be down for that too! And ur right Abnett isn't the problem Wilson fucked up this book for a long ass time.
Delete