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

Still reading this Tangentline book. Loving Ms. Scott's art. It's still beautiful. And the story is great. It really is. But it's not JSA. And JSA is what I want to read.

While I was still buying comics I found E2 to be one of the more enjoyable things to come from the new 52

While I have to admit I still need to give the latest issue a proper read, I need to tell everyone that Nicola Scott's art in this book is absolutely brilliant.

Is it wrong that I'm more excited for the reintroduction of than ? Whatever!

No, I liked her better as well. But they work so well together. I'm just hoping that they will still be a couple, and that we can get Ralph and Sue back as well.

Wife > husband as well, although having the silly husband made the strong wife a better character, in my opinion.

I picked this up for the New Gods connection (though I've strangely been avoiding the Orion/WW stuff). I didn't hate it like I do most Robinson stuff. I really liked this Jay Garrick and I want to get excited for Dr. Fate, an old favorite of mine, but the past decades have seen so many "new" Dr. Fates introduced, that it's hard to stay enthused for yet another one.

Apparently, James Robinson's leaving with #16. I didn't want to like Earth 2, but eventually did. I feel a bit blindsided, like someone on Survivor.

All his fine plans for this world/dimension/reality are soon to be clouds of dreamdust. I hope he gets to stick his version of Infinity, Inc. into his concluding issues.

It was a treat to see Molly Mayne, a Ma Hunkel-ish Red Tornado and Mekanique? in the news-ad thingie in the back of this week's books.

I should've known DC would make me pay for a second of joy.

I hope its taken over by a decent writer. Earth-2 is one of the few titles I actually look forward to reading each month.

Yeah, I've been digging this title quite a bit. One of the best from DC at the moment.

The wrong writer could screw it up pretty badly, however.

A lot of people over on Bleeding Cool seem to think Levitz is the likely replacement.

Dan Didio isn't writing anything at the moment...

That would make sense, as he also writes World's Finest. Not sure how I'd feel about that.

His WF has been better than his Legion. Not saying I want to continue reading E2 without JR and possibly Nicola, though. We'll have to wait and see.

Seems like Robinson has tried to remain professional but reading between the lines, he's pretty pissed at DC too these days (much like just about everyone).

Based on DC's current track record, I'm confident the series will tank shortly. I hope that isn't the case though.

Levitz has done a pretty good job on WF but I don't want him on a team book anytime soon.

Thanks to new artist Emanuela Lupacchino, I've been belatedly introduced to the charms of Paul Levitz's "World's Finest", so I borrowed the trade of the first six issues from the library.

I think, like a lot of veteran writers, Levitz is more interested these days in character interaction than in balls-to-the-wall action. It used to be that he was equally great at both, but there you go. And the characterization of Helena and Karen is consistently superb. I would go so far to say that the one good thing to come out of the DCnU is that we got Helena Wayne back. Unlike a lot of readers, I never learned to accept Helena Bertinelli and her cliched Catholic angst. Helena Wayne has always been a favorite of mine, and I hope she's here to stay.

Art-wise, these first six issues show that Maguire has never been better (this bodes well to his future with Marvel, and before anyone asks, no, I didn't read the Maguire-drawn final issue of LSH) while Perez and Ordway are shadows of their former selves, especially Perez. Ah, well, Emanuela's here now, hopefully for the long run.

Bump.

When I heard James Robinson was leaving DC after #16 of Earth-2, you have no idea how completely and utterly happy I felt knowing that hack was going to be gone. I can't remember the last time I ever felt as happy as I did that day.

Since this is the Earth-2 topic, I guess I can post my thoughts here. They aren't going to be pleasant thoughts, but, if I'm repeating myself from another post I apologize.

Understand that the main reason why I wasn't buying Earth-2 was because of my personal ban on anything and everything James Robinson has ever written until he apologizes for that lame excuse he gave at San Diego Comic Con 2010 about Roy Harper's dismemberment and war veterans.

These are the ancillary reasons, I guess. I decided to voice my opinion after being reminded of a few things upon learning Sandman Mystery Theater is being discussed on here.

*Combining Ma and possibly Maxine Hunkel with the robot Red Tornado in order to update the both of them. Ma didn't need any updating to be cool. She was a woman who sought out to protect her livelihood and her family and even if she did it by dressing up in longjohns and putting a pot over her head, and even if she was originally the joke character of the JSA, that woman had guts and we should all pray to be able to muster up even a tenth of her courage and her compassion. And now she's a $%^*^*( robot.
*Wesley Dodds gets turned from the Sandman into the leader of a commando squad called the Sandmen. As a very longtime fan of Sandman Mystery Theater I am surprised I haven't become physical ill yet.
*NO DIAN BELMONT.

And finally, what I feel I have to say about Alan Scott being gay. I'm not trying to speak up for every gay person, just how I personally feel, but Alan being made gay does absolutely nothing for me. I don't feel like I can connect with him, I don't feel like DC is reaching out to gay fans, I feel contempt and disgust. To me this is nothing but a sorry excuse for a publicity stunt. He's confirmed as gay in one issue, which introduces the boyfriend he's going to propose to, and then said boyfriend is killed in the incident that turns Alan into the Green Lantern. Oh, and am I correct in understanding that Alan's ring was originally going to be Sam's engagement ring? So his item of power is basically a living reminder that his boyfriend had to die for him to be Green Lantern. It's like they took Alexandra DeWitt and Terry Berg and shoved them into one character.

But another aspect of this is Obsidian. Todd struggled with his sexuality and mental health for about a decade, then after a lengthy run as a villain we saw him in Manhunter, out of the closet in a healthy relationship with another man, which lasted for about another decade to the point that they were considering starting a family. We even saw in the future of Manhunter that they indeed adopted a child who grew up into a young woman. All that gets pushed aside and making Alan gay is supposed to rectify it. No. I don't accept that. Losing a healthy/openly gay couple for a gay man whose boyfriend died so he could be a superhero is in no way a fair trade, and I don't care what excuses Robinson or anyone else has.

Unfortunately, I really do enjoy Nicola Scott's artwork and I'm worried if I see her at NYCC this year I may go on a rant about my feelings regarding Earth-2. As with Justice League 3000, I wouldn't really have these strong negative opinions if we could have the original JSA side-by-side with the Earth-2 book. I can't even buy Batman/Superman with Greg Pak's commentary on the awful state of Batman and Superman because it would still be supporting this version of Earth-2.

I do like the Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman designs though.

I had to look up the Robinson war veterans (pretty unsettling even as a concept frankly). I'm boycotting him for as many issues as I bought his wretched JLA run. A JLA run I had on advance order (Grrr). Utterly wretched. Plus the issues I had ordered for the Rise and Fall of Reginald Harper. Again, utterly wretched.

Has Alan Scott had any sort of budding relationships since his boyfriend's death? Otherwise it looks like a "he's gay, but we killed his partner so we don't have to see it" approach they've adopted there.

"Bring back Lian Harper" indeed. Having dropped the Titans somewhere in Titan's Hunt give or take, the first issue I picked up was a fill in showing a day in the life of Roy Harper (#114 perhaps) A single dad, trying to juggle a few career options while being all to aware of his iffy history. Great issue.

Emanuela only did the cover of the most recent issue of "World's Finest", which is a shame because the current villainess has an obsession with sabotaging fashion shows -- Emanuela would have drawn that story beautifully! Instead, the guest artists are so bad, I won't even mention them by name.

Levitz's story is, once again, decent, no more, no less, but still and all worth the $2.99.

Hope it doesn't get cancelled, but its exclusion from the current DC "event" does not bode well.

I've been loving this series, but one of the things I liked was the absence of the Big Three. It did feel that the first eight Wonders were a parallel to the JSA, with the new heroes (Jay, Scott, et al) being the JLA trying to live up to their memory. Now that's been undone with the appearance of Batman II and Brutaal. If Fury ends up being Diana reincarnated...
This month's issue was a disappointment. None of the storylines were really advanced. We almost found out who Batman is, but were interrupted in mid-sentence. sigh. No Hawkgirl, no Mr. Miracle, Green Lantern and Dr Fate were presumably nearby, but weren't shown. The three latest additions (the dead wife, the cub, and the queen) belong in another title, IMHO. It seems less than desirable that new people are introduced at the sacrifice of further characterization of the heroes we have, and we already have quite a few.
Perhaps I should take my own advice and wait to see where the new creators are going with this before I exclaim that the sky is falling. Still, while I'm waiting for something (anything!) to happen in the three Justice League books, this is by far my favorite DC title.

Ms. Scott's art is still fantastic.

That said...

I'm not groving on the story. With the latest issues, it seems more and more like a weird elseworlds story where you just get through it waiting for the real JSA to show up.

I like WF, but the story needs to move along a bit. It's not bad by any means, but it seems like a split personality book half the time.

I've just cut out so much of DC now, it's like a long lost friend has left, and you've got his weird second cousin that hasn't dated in ever, has waaaaaaaaay to many Ultraman dolls for anyone's comfort, even the hard core collectors, and is crossed with Alan from The Hangover. Without the fun parts.

If E2 loses Ms. Scott... well, my pull gets even lighter.

Meh. Crisis killed the JSA. This series had some interesting ideas, but at the end of the day I just lost interest in where it was going. Robinson leaving turned out to be a nice jumping off point.

Yeah. This series never got the hard stop cancelation from me like so many others but eventually just became a monthly moment of "wow, I really don't give a shit about any of this."

The JSA rejoin so many others in the wait for a new era category.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't like this Aquawoman character they introduced. And Nicola Scott told me she's not based on any pre-existing characters, in case anyone was making parallels to Tsunami.

Hey so guess what.

You know that Red Arrow character Robinson said was called Roy McQueen?

Tom Taylor now made him Connor Hawke.