Metropolis Is A Mess
Written By: Dan Abnett
Art By: Vincente Cifuentes, Rex Lokus, Travis Lanham
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: January 11, 2017
*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*
Man, I'm so curious about what's going to happen to Earth 2. I've been following these characters so long now that it's weird to have this book ending in March without an announcement about it continuing with another title........... Right when the characters get interesting again! Yeah, it seems that our Wonders have finally found a home to call their own in the remade world of Earth 2, but this miracle of the Pandora Casket just doesn't seem right..... you know, with Ultra-Humanite running the show and no one knowing what an actual Wonder is. When we left the previous issue we saw the majority of our heroes taking on more of those shadow looking Sandmen, which happen to be the main police force of this world and the closest thing to a Wonder that there is and Batman, Huntress and John Grayson getting shot at by a new Sergeant Steel, who believes that these three are working for Ultra-Humanite and trying to bring him down. Let's jump into this issue and see how our heroes fare in this new world and what surprises await right around the corner. Let's check it out.
Explain It!:
Our issue begins with Val-Zod leading the Sandmen on a chase through Metropolis, but that really doesn't seem like a "Superman" thing to do because even though these Sandmen are supposed to be the protectors of this world, they don't seem to care much about innocent lives or collateral damage because goddamn are they just firing everything they've got at Val-Zod in trying to bring him down. This pretty much brings the whole crew out and we get to see all our Wonders of this group get down and dirty and while I've been bitching about having to see this fight over and over again throughout the last couple of issues, here it works because we actually see the stakes and the innocent people involved. It's a cool dynamic, where the Sandmen are known by the people and don't seem to think it's wrong that they're being injured by their attack on our Wonders, but when they see our heroes help them and save them from debris and energy blasts, they look at them in disgust and think of them as monsters........... which sucks, but it's not like our main characters are about to stop saving them. The battles in this issue really up the stakes to what we've been dealing with and finally make the fights at least interesting.
So yeah, the fight's going on and Ultra-Humanite afraid that the Wonders might survive this encounter decides that he better send out every Sandman he has in order to do maximum damage and to put our Wonders down for good and while all of this is going on, Batman settles things between Sergeant Steel and them and realizes that the Central Control will be completely undefended with all the Sandmen kicking the shit out of his friends and even though Sergeant Steel says that he doesn't have enough time to rally his "Movement" together for an all out strike against Ultra-Humanite, Batman tells him that they don't need them because Huntress, John Grayson and him are enough to take the whole thing down.
In the end, Ultra-Humanite realizing that his foes might be a little too formidable for even his entire Sandmen squad decides that it's time to pull out his big gun. That's right, even if you haven't been thinking about it this whole time our heroes have been on this new Earth-2, Green Lantern's been missing and apparently he's been held in an energy field by the Ultra-Humanite and for whatever reason, he can be used as a weapon by the villain of this book.
That's it for this issue of Earth 2: Society and even though I complained non-stop for the last two issues about all the fighting between our Wonders and the Sandmen, here it actually makes sense in the book because it raises the stakes by adding the populace of Metropolis in the mix and showing how they seem to hate and fear our heroes even when they're going out of their way to save them. It's a cool added dynamic to this arc that I really found myself enjoying and wondering how that's going to play off in the next two issues to the point where hopefully the people except our heroes. Besides that though, which again, I did really enjoy, there's not much to this issue besides for Batman declaring his intentions to take out the Central Control and showing that Ultra-Humanite has had Green Lantern captured. It's a cool reveal that I can't wait to explore more. With all that, we had excellent art and colors all the way through, really making our heroes look great as they took it to the streets and showed Central Control that they're not to be fooled with.
Bits and Pieces:
While we continue to get a lot of fighting in this issue, it's revitalized by adding the new dynamic of having the people of Metropolis involved and somehow this small feature makes all the difference in making this a more enjoyable issue than we've had recently. The art looks great and we get an awesome cliffhanger that really gets you excited for what's to come.
Explain It!:
Our issue begins with Val-Zod leading the Sandmen on a chase through Metropolis, but that really doesn't seem like a "Superman" thing to do because even though these Sandmen are supposed to be the protectors of this world, they don't seem to care much about innocent lives or collateral damage because goddamn are they just firing everything they've got at Val-Zod in trying to bring him down. This pretty much brings the whole crew out and we get to see all our Wonders of this group get down and dirty and while I've been bitching about having to see this fight over and over again throughout the last couple of issues, here it works because we actually see the stakes and the innocent people involved. It's a cool dynamic, where the Sandmen are known by the people and don't seem to think it's wrong that they're being injured by their attack on our Wonders, but when they see our heroes help them and save them from debris and energy blasts, they look at them in disgust and think of them as monsters........... which sucks, but it's not like our main characters are about to stop saving them. The battles in this issue really up the stakes to what we've been dealing with and finally make the fights at least interesting.
So yeah, the fight's going on and Ultra-Humanite afraid that the Wonders might survive this encounter decides that he better send out every Sandman he has in order to do maximum damage and to put our Wonders down for good and while all of this is going on, Batman settles things between Sergeant Steel and them and realizes that the Central Control will be completely undefended with all the Sandmen kicking the shit out of his friends and even though Sergeant Steel says that he doesn't have enough time to rally his "Movement" together for an all out strike against Ultra-Humanite, Batman tells him that they don't need them because Huntress, John Grayson and him are enough to take the whole thing down.
In the end, Ultra-Humanite realizing that his foes might be a little too formidable for even his entire Sandmen squad decides that it's time to pull out his big gun. That's right, even if you haven't been thinking about it this whole time our heroes have been on this new Earth-2, Green Lantern's been missing and apparently he's been held in an energy field by the Ultra-Humanite and for whatever reason, he can be used as a weapon by the villain of this book.
That's it for this issue of Earth 2: Society and even though I complained non-stop for the last two issues about all the fighting between our Wonders and the Sandmen, here it actually makes sense in the book because it raises the stakes by adding the populace of Metropolis in the mix and showing how they seem to hate and fear our heroes even when they're going out of their way to save them. It's a cool added dynamic to this arc that I really found myself enjoying and wondering how that's going to play off in the next two issues to the point where hopefully the people except our heroes. Besides that though, which again, I did really enjoy, there's not much to this issue besides for Batman declaring his intentions to take out the Central Control and showing that Ultra-Humanite has had Green Lantern captured. It's a cool reveal that I can't wait to explore more. With all that, we had excellent art and colors all the way through, really making our heroes look great as they took it to the streets and showed Central Control that they're not to be fooled with.
Bits and Pieces:
While we continue to get a lot of fighting in this issue, it's revitalized by adding the new dynamic of having the people of Metropolis involved and somehow this small feature makes all the difference in making this a more enjoyable issue than we've had recently. The art looks great and we get an awesome cliffhanger that really gets you excited for what's to come.
8/10
8 or 8.5 out of 10, definitely. I really enjoyed this issue, and was shocked by the big reveal at the end. If I remember correctly, the last time we saw GL, Ultra-Humanite had given him his ring back, but it also seemed to turn Alan into a murderous psycho. So I think the reveal makes sense. Great review, Eric!
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