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Earth 2 #1 Review

5 May

The majority of DC’s New 52 relaunch have been both financially and critically successful: from Aquaman to Wonder Woman, Batman to Animal Man. Unfortunately, some of the books have been far less successful and DC decided to drop 6 of the worst selling titles. But every cloud has a silver lining, and with these cancellations come 6 brand new titles. Earth 2 #1 is part of this Second Wave and it brings a fresh & interesting alternate-Earth (hence the name Earth 2) to the latest incarnation of DC Universe.

The opening section of this book has Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman kicking more ass than the entire 8 issues of the current Justice League series. Every blow thrown by the trinity of superheroes is gorgeously displayed by the art team of Nicola Scott (Birds of Prey, Secret Six), Trevor Scott (Superman, All New Atom) and Alex Sinclair (Batman: Hush, 52) and the details of all the characters, even when dozens are on a single page, are never lost. With so many things going on, the dialogue could easily get messy and unclear but well executed captions and bubbles prevent this from ever happening. Even the alternate costumes for the well known characters, which could have also easily gone wrong, look great.

The writing of James Robinson (Justice Society of America, Starman), while not as striking as the artwork, is solid throughout. Superman and Wonder Woman are fairly typical and don’t appear to be particularly different from their main universe counterparts. The differences in the Bat-Family, however, are apparent straight away. The most obvious being that Earth 2′s Robin, while still the child of Bruce Wayne, is not Damian Wayne but Helena Wayne. Some of you who know the previous Earth 2 stories will recognise this name as the daughter of Batman and Catwoman, who will later be known as Huntress (as it says in the book, her adventures as Huntress are continued in World’s Finest #1). Also, this Batman seems far less pathological and sociopathic (he unusually refers to himself as Bruce and says “I love you” to his child, two things Bruce Wayne never does) than his Earth 1 counterpart.
A nice link to the current Wonder Woman series is the direct inclusion of one of her gods Mercury. However, like Robin, there is a quite difference between the two incarnations of the same character. In Earth 2 he is known by his Roman name of Mercury and shown as a golden man with a recognisable winged helmet while in the current DCU he is known by his Greek name of Hermes and is a considerably less godly looking man-bird hybrid. Mercury’s inclusion is key in setting up the second section of the book where the origins of the Justice Society of America are put in to gear. Jay Garrick is well written and, as a 21 year old man who’s about to graduate myself, is particularly relatable. In the last page, Mercury makes his way to Garrick and is seemingly about to bestow his godly powers of superspeed to the man who will become Flash. It’s safe to assume that Garrick will serve as the centre of the Earth 2 series and will be experiencing new things in this new universe much in the same way as the reader.

Earth 2 #1 isn’t entirely positive however. The swiftness with which DC’s three most established characters are taken out plus the fact Super Girl & Huntress are transported to another universe is rather jarring. This seemingly leaves only Jay Garrick (who isn’t even Flash yet) to defend Metropolis against Steppenwolf and the Parademons. I’m left wondering if Robinson will go back and explore the history of Superman, Batman & Wonder Woman or will strive to build the Justice Society of America back to it’s former glory. Only time will tell.

Overall, Earth 2 #1 is a good reboot and a nice addition to the New 52. It serves as a nice jumping on point for people new to DC’s multiverse and an interesting take on Earth 2 for fans of the previous series’.

Rating: 8/10

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The Flash #8 Review

26 Apr

As a child, I was never a fan of The Flash. I had nothing against the character but the concept of a guy whose only power is to run really quickly hadn’t ever interested me in the same way as seemingly more multi-layered characters like Batman and Swamp Thing. Fortunately, DC Comics’ relaunch of 52 of it’s biggest titles in August of 2011 gave me the opportunity to experience some of the heroes and heroines I’d never previously read. Francis Manapul (Witchblade, Necromancer) and Brian Buccellato’s (Witchblade, Heroes) The Flash is one of the first books I picked up as part of The New 52 and, despite my initial scepticism, I’ve loved every issue so far. Thankfully, that hasn’t changed one bit with issue #8.

The thing that will instantly stand out to someone picking up this book is the artwork and presentation. Manapul and Buccellato utilise water colours and soft inking techniques that are usually associated with paintings, not the heavy outlines and hyper-bright colours that are so regularly used in superhero books. Even something as potentially silly and cartoony as Barry Allen’s costume itself looks cool and interesting. The water colours are particularly apparent in the backgrounds and always give wonderful contrast to the characters. Another unique artistic touch that has been consistent through the issues so far is the brilliant page layouts. A large image accompanied by interwoven panels tells a story in a way that a standard 5 panel page never could, the impact of almost every single page is incredible.

The main complaint I’ve had about this series so far has been the, sometimes bordering on patronising, captions used to explain things to the reader. Previously, bizarre things such as the definition of an EMP (electro-magnetic pulse, just in case you didn’t know) and hints for future issues (“This is explained in issue #6!”) have been included. I’m a big fan of leaving some mystery and letting the consumer work out what’s going on for themselves. This lack of subtlety would ruin things like the current Batman series (it would be the equivalent of Scott Snyder saying “Look, an owl! You’ll be seeing more of them later…” every few pages) and it really detracted from the otherwise phenomenal presentation. This feature has been dialled down with every issue and finally seems to be completely removed.

Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato’s partnership seems to be quite different to many writer/artist pairings in the industry today with both men contributing to the story and art (Manapul handles pencils and inks, Buccellato handles colours). The chemistry between the two is clear, every word of dialogue and monologue is well placed and thought out. The duo’s success is particularly evident in the way that the art and writing perfectly compliment each other, it’s easily as good any other book on the shelf. Another great point about this series is the development of the star of the show, Barry Allen. He is learning how to use his formidable powers, how to innovate new abilities and, possibly most importantly, deal with the consequences of his actions. Genuine character development can be a rare thing for well established superheroes so seeing The Flash actually learn things that carry with him in to future issues is a delight. The major development in The Flash #8, however, is the origins and background of the source of his powers, known as The Speed Force. The Speed Force is extremely powerful (it literally made the universe this story is set in) and is, at least to our knowledge, neither a force for good nor evil. Exploration of such a thing could easily turn in to a “bitten off more than you can chew” situation but, in this case, it adds intriguing insight and twists in to it’s influence on the history of Earth itself.

Unfortunately, the villain of the piece is somewhat forgettable. A man named Hynes, now calling himself Turbine and dressing like a superhero for some reason, helps brings real reasons for some of the bizarre events from earlier issues but fails to hit the emotional notes he seems to be aiming for. We will almost certainly see him again and I’m sure he has the potential to become much more than we saw in this issue.

The last few pages, building up the return of The Flash’s most iconic Rogue, are a fantastic cliffhanger ending that will leave any reader wanting next month to get here as soon as possible.

The very minor flaws, namely Turbine, do nothing to detract from the overall incredible quality of The Flash #8. Put simply, The Flash is one of the most interesting and unique superhero series’ around today and should be picked up by anyone and everyone.

Rating: 9.5/10

Available in print on Inter-Comics.com: https://www.inter-comics.com/shop/flash-vol-4-8

Available digitally on Comixology: http://www.comixology.com/The-Flash-2011-8/digital-comic/FEB120169

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Avengers vs X-Men #2 Review

20 Apr

The official second issue of the Marvel’s comics event of 2012 is here and boy, is it a big one!

Avengers vs X-Men is huge in everything from the amount of action in it’s pages to the creative team behind the project. The list of personnel is truly astonishing, including greats such as Brian Michael Bendis (Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, New Avengers), Ed Brubaker (Winter Soldier, Captain America), John Romita Jr (Kick-Ass, Uncanny X-Men) and Jonathan Hickman (Fantastic Four, The Manhattan Projects). However, even with good creative teams, these big events have developed a trend of failing to meet expectations.

Brian Bendis’ issue #1 was fairly slow, deliberately building up the tension and motivations for Marvel’s biggest super-teams to fight each other. Now, with Jason Aaron (Wolverine and the X-Men, The Incredible Hulk) taking over for issue #2, the pace rapidly increases with many of the promised hero vs hero fights. For the most part, this is very much an action-heavy ‘popcorn flick’ type of comic book. All hell, officially, breaks loose.

Aaron’s writing is fairly non-distinct, his dialogue often feels obvious and heavy handed with no particular stand out lines from any of the characters. The captions accompanying the action panels add an extra layer, regularly hearkening back to classic Stan Lee style of melodramatic descriptions of superheroes. Much like Civil War (I’m sure many comparisons have been and will be drawn between these two events), the writers seem to have an idea as to which side the reader is supposed to be rooting for. This is most evident in Wolverine who, as a member of both the X-Men and Avengers, has to make a difficult decision on which side to take. He is very much the moral centre of the conflict and his speech bubbles are often like reading your own thoughts as you progress through the book.

The art is as simple and straight forward as the script and John Romita Jr’s work is decent for the most part. However, like many artists, he does seem to lose considerable amounts of detail when dealing with a lot of characters in one panel. With so many members on each team, this becomes more of a problem than usual. His best work is clearly shown in the blows thrown between the heroes, each punch and blast containing a real sense of impact. Unfortunately, the main problem with AvX #2 is that both the storytelling and art feel extremely rushed. This is almost certainly due to the sheer amount of characters and the much-hyped match ups themselves rarely last longer than a single panel at a time. Wolverine alone takes part in a few seemingly completely separate fights in the matter of a few pages and almost every single one of them is a single panel. This makes the issue feel very sporadic, constantly building the reader’s hopes up for intriguing conflicts and then dashing it straight away afterwards. The centrepiece of Cyclops vs Captain America is nice and could really be an interesting read if the writers choose to focus on it.

The final page is the least action packed and actually builds more interest than all the previous 24 pages by showing the missing Avengers preparing to face the Phoenix Force in deep space. I’m certainly interested to how a team of Thor, Beast, Captain Britain, War Machine, Valkyrie, The Vision and Protector will try to stop the Phoenix and it’ll be enough to bring me back in two weeks for issue #3.

Overall, Avengers vs X-Men #2 is a decent book. It has considerable flaws, the rushed fights really are far too shallow, but as it’s only the second issue of a 12 part series, this can be excused to a certain extent. If you’re looking for a fairly bright and brainless superhero book this week, to contrast to the levels of grittiness you’ll see in so many titles today, you’ll probably enjoy this issue.

I think I speak for many readers when I say that I hope this event is able to excel past the first two ‘OK’ issues and build to something that doesn’t fall in to the often too predictable formula of so many major comic book events.

Rating: 6.0/10

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