After giving up on the rest of the DC New 52, I thought I'd give the superhero comics another chance now that they're reintroducing the multiverse to their continuity. With alternate worlds, maybe there's a happier one, less focused on big fights and gross, blood-soaked images.
Earth 2 #1 quickly showed me that assumption was wrong. The company has been very close-mouthed about the book and its premise, so forgive me for discussing SPOILERS following.
Darkseid attempts to invade Earth, and the big three ' Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman ' are presumed dead after battling him. This will lead to the formation of a new hero group, some of whose members are shown briefly in this issue. Writer is James Robinson, who is far away from the guy whose work we all loved on Starman. Did he have brain surgery? Replaced by a doppelganger, like those old 'Paul is dead' rumors? Simply burn out? Art is by Nicola Scott and Trevor Scott.
In order to get there, though, these heroes have to die. Superman, portrayed much the same as the character we used to know, gets this:
Batman, still the strategist, is presumed gone after a heartfelt farewell to his daughter Helena and another explosion. Helena is Robin, before becoming the Huntress and moving into the pages of Worlds' Finest (see below). But Wonder Woman, the bloodthirsty warrior, is lovingly impaled in this half-page:
I suppose, if I was being charitable, that I could infer that we see the woman's death in such detail to show how down-to-earth a hero she is, how her character is less cosmic and less mysterious than the other two. But I'm really tired of the bloodthirsty warrior as the driving motivation behind Wonder Woman. There's so much more to her than that, but that's all the writers these days seem to want to focus on.
Worlds' Finest #1 is a much better read, featuring the Huntress and Power Girl (who was previously Supergirl) as buddies trying to survive a difficult situation together. They've been thrown into another world, and they're trying to get back home. That makes for a nice, simple motivation most can relate to, if a bit of a departure from traditional heroism. It's a real pleasure to see two women starring in a DC superhero series, without worrying about them flashing body parts at the (presumed male) reader to keep their interest.
I'll be following this series, written by Paul Levitz. I like the double art structure, too, with 'present day' illustrated by George Pérez and Scott Koblish and flashbacks drawn by Kevin Maguire. I've missed seeing his clean lines.
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