CREDIT: DC Comics
Rating: 2.5/5 – Lack of Story Focus.
by ComicSpectrum senior reviewer Shawn Hoklas.
Earth 2: World’s End is DC’s third weekly series focusing on the heroes of Earth 2 and the world of the New Gods. To say that there’s a lot going on in this series is an understatement. You have a large cast of characters in epic scale events. Unfortunately, this issue throws too much into the mix, hitting on too many plot points that make this issue feel scattered and confusing. Since I’m not following some of the characters who make an appearance within, I felt even more lost on just what’s happening.
The story itself has a lot of different tangents and the art goes in many different directions too. Although Scott McDaniel provides the breakdowns, seven different artists handle the finishes and they range in both the look and quality. The art in the story’s opening pages is the strongest, and something I would have loved to see more of, but that quickly changes as they head into the Grayson storyline. While there are some nice pages in this issue, including a full splash page of Darkseid, there were also those pages that really stood out from the rest in terms of having a feel that I didn’t care for.
That inconsistent feeling carriedover into the writing as I felt this was the series’ weakest issue yet. Again, after a strong opening that is surely one of the larger storylines in the series and one that goes back all the way to the first issue of the Earth 2 series, it jumps around to no less than five separate stories. If you divide that by the page count you can see how little each story moves forward, or how each story line doesn’t get enough time. Also, although Constantine has showed up in an earlier issue, his appearance here seems out of place, and since I’m not reading the main Constantine series, I’m not sure how he showed up or who his traveling companions were.
I’ve enjoyed this series up till now, but this issue, despite the big villain on the cover doesn’t read well. There was just too much going on and when comparing this to DC’s other weekly series Batman Eternal that has a more focused feel, this series did not measure up. I’ll be back for the next issue as Darkseid seems like he’ll get more time. I’m hoping that this series doesn’t end up the same way the Future’s End series did, and that one is now off my buying list.
Reviewed by: Shawn Hoklas
(shawn@comicspectrum.com)
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