Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Earth 2

Thing to remember here (and I have not read the issue yet, as I am waaaay behind) is that these are not the heroes we used to know...(cue song).

Just as the original Earth-Two itself had some intriguing differences from our own world (South Africa getting rid of apartheid earlier, Quebec leaving Canada), the new Earth-2 seems to have a few of its own quirks as well. It'll be interesting to see where Robinson goes with stuff like a global military force and other things that happened as a result of the Apocalypse invasion.

The issue contains two stories. One is brand new by Darnall, Ross, and Lau.

The second is an ashcan story that Peter Cannon's creator, Pete Morisi, prepared for DC for a Secret Origins issue that never saw print. Apparently, Morisi retained rights over the character that the creators of other Charlton heroes didn't. This led to a delay in DC's plans to reintroduce him with the other Charlton characters. By the time a deal was struck, DC had moved another direction. Morisi passed away in 2003 and it looks like Dynamite has entered into a contract with his estate.

Interesting. Thanks for posting that Jerry.

There was an invasion from Apocalyse on Earth 2? Does this mean there are w (or more) Darkseids? Or that the Fourth Worlds has access to the Multiverse and operates on all earths, or at least those in which they are interested?

That's a big unanswered question. I think the latter would be interesting.

It's been kind of implied that the latter is the case, but not confirmed.

Wasn't it already the case pre-Crisis that the Fourth World operated across all the universes? I seem to remember hearing that a loooooonnnnggg time ago. (I think it might have even come up in the Crisis?)

It makes sense when you think about it.

Yes, but either makes sense. (And it's not as if sense is always the guiding principle anyway.)

Major powers, such as the Guardians, that have been around for millions of years either have no apparent interest OR counterparts in other Earths.

Seems to me that with many Earths, either Darkseid would have found that only ONE had the proper Anti-Life Equation, or he would have succeeded in obtaining it by now. With so many targets, it's exponentially harder for the forces of New Genesis to protect them. And not every Earth's heroes can be as competent as ours. :-)

In fact, I also wonder... if Darkseid is supposed to have been around so long (or at least he thinks he has been), why did he wait till the Age of Heroes to start messing about on Earth?

Anyway, either story they want to tell is fine, but hopefully editorial will pick one and stick with it instead of a confusing mess.

Hmm... the plot of the JLA/JSA/New Gods crossover involves Darkseid moving Apokolips into Earth-2's place, so that he could conquer a universe without Old Gods or New Gods to thwart him. That seems to suggest that it has a different relationship to Earth-1 than to the other Earths, though it's not exactly definitive.

When did that crossover come out?

^ 1980.

http://www.comics.org/issue/34744/cover/4/
http://www.comics.org/issue/902234/cover/4/
http://www.comics.org/issue/902441/cover/4/

Can someone explain the gist of what happened with the 0 issue? Totally don't understand Terry Sloane's behaviour! He's known as Mr. 8?

The people of the four or five locations that got blowed up at the end had been mind-controlled / anti-life-equationed by Darkseid, and Sloane arranged for the stuff meant to shut down the machines to instead cause them to explode, both to eliminate the threat, to keep the other heroes from getting diverted into trying to save them, and to 'show' Darkseid what lengths humanity would go to repel his advances.

That's what I got from it, although it was not a story that really resonated with me, since it wasn't a version of the character I had any connection to, and therefore came across as less of an Earth 2 story, and more of a 'fanfic.'

It was a little too 'Sloane as Ozymandius,' and, while comics are 100% repeating the same cool stories over and over (sometimes even with the same characters), Ozy's shoes are too big to fill with a character that has just been introduced (and Earth 2 is only, what, four issues out of the box?, and really hasn't had time to grow on us...), IMO, and that sort of magic can't be captured in a one-issue story.

While I'm still trying to scrub it from my brain, I do seem to recall from the JL story that Darkseid isn't explicitly seeking Anti-Life, but is jumping from world to world looking for his daughter. Have they mentioned Anti-Life at all in the Nu52?

My problem was that Batman is that character in many ways already, especially seeing them together slinging high technology at Para Demons. That alone was enough to make me put it back on the shelf.

Its like evil Tony Stark Deus ex machina vs. good Tony Stark Deus ex Mmachina. Its not interesting when there is one of them, much less two.

It so annoyed me, Because these types of characters are so over exposed, I put it back on the shelf.

Soon, instead of 20 batman titles (and/or wolverine titles) its going to be 20 batman titles where he fights evil versions of himself!



there's a satire waiting to happen in there somewhere.

In the Anti-Matter Universe ALL comicbooks are Batman or Wolverine titles and they fight each other!

Earth 2 #5 gives a brief appearance by another rebooted classic JSAer, and references to two more.

The storyline is still moving annoyingly slow, but I'm enjoying it nonetheless. I'm loving the characterization of Jay, and poor Alan now has to make a gut-wrenching choice.

All in all, I'm definitely still enjoying this in a groovy Elseworlds kind of way.

Set, you're right that it had less impact without gettting to care about the character first, but perhaps it's for the best that they showed early in the DCnU how different this Sloane is from the previous version, rather than let us assume otherwise and think it's out of character for him if they did the story later.

Like 'Battle for the Cowl,' only Batman is there, and the Earth-3 Owlman, and the Midnighter, and every other Batman-pastiche! Is there a Bizarro Batman, who fights crimefighters with his profound stupidity and array of completely inappropriate gadgets and incredible lack of preparation? There is now! Bam!

I always thought Battle for the Cow sounded more interesting, but could never figure out why a bunch of Bat-folk would be fighting over Old Bessie.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love Nicola Scott? She brings magic to everything she touches. Her work on issue #5 totally rocks.

This was a fast paced issue with lots going on. The best parts were Green Lantern, Atom, Flash and Hawkgirl fighting side by side. The team is coming together. The chemistry is good. Green Lantern is showing some early leadership skills. His intuition to trust his teammates with his life provides a foundation for lots of believable teamwork to come.

She is amazing. There needs to be more Nicola Scott ... I especially love her Hawkwoman and Flash.

The fantastic artwork on World's Finest also really makes the series. Mesmerizing and dynamic, both Perez and Maguire keep the story interesting (possibly more than it deserves to be) and make Kara & Helena more endearing with every panel.

On Earth-2, Nicola Scott is also nailing it. There's a kinetic excitement on the page that enhances the world building.

Let the record show that Nicola Scott is amazing.

I almost hate to say it, as my love for Perez is well-known ... but MAGUIRE IS KILLING IT. This may be some of his best work, from the usual amazing expressions, to the detailed body language, backgrounds etc. ....

Its not right to think of it as a competition but I was afraid the pro George Perez side by side with Maguire would make one of my beloved favorites from the JLI days ... look flawed. And while GP is throwing down some of his best work in ages as well ...when I turn the page from GP to Maguire's flash backs .... they just glow off the page!

props to both of them.

Yeah, Maguire on the #0 issue has made that the best #0 I've read so far. His depiction of a younger PG is so well done--slimmer and younger, with less confidence in her posture. It's filled with all kinds of subtleties.

EDIT: weird, my thumb image stopped working and redirected. Another good joke ruined.
Anyway it showed the Tiny Titans "Battle for the Cow" image.