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Earth 2, thoughts? No spoilers.
CaptainCarrot
Posts: 69
Well I was pleasantly surprised, ok it's not the old Earth that I loved but it's started off interestingly. Prefer it to the way they started of the JLA.
Was shocked at the state of the world and interested in where they will go from here. Looks like I 'might' have been right about where Jay could get his power, wonder if all the other's get theirs in similar ways.
Thoughts?
Was shocked at the state of the world and interested in where they will go from here. Looks like I 'might' have been right about where Jay could get his power, wonder if all the other's get theirs in similar ways.
Thoughts?
Comments
Side question: I got DCnU Justice League #1, and thought it was OK, but not great. Did it get better?
I did get World's Finest, though, and was surprised by how much I enjoyed that. I was going to skip that, too, but the draw of Perez and Maguire on the same book was too hard to pass up. Dug the story, loved the characterizations, and am likely to pick up the next issue. Levitz's return to the Legion left me feeling kinda meh, but he's off to a good start here. Probably because even though he's written Huntress and Power Girl before, these versions actually feel new.
@LibraryBoy I get what you're saying about the "snuff book", but I think they just needed to get all of this out of the way at once to set up the differences between the worlds and from here on out, I bet it will be different. I mean, we all know how Starman started out and it wasn't really a snuff book from that point on.
I read too many previews about it, so very little was a surprise, but still enjoyed it.
Really liked the moments with Al Pratt and Jay Garrick. I have the feeling a certain character who died is not as dead as we think, but I guess we'll see :)
Should I also be reading World's Finest, to get the whole story?
I also like how different it is-- not only that we are getting significantly different versions of the JSA characters so far, but that we also are seeing an Earth that has a history with its heroes very different from the rest of the DCU. And I like the way that Robinson and Scott have let that altered history really affect the history of that world, and how the citizens see their "wonders" as they call them. I like the Elseworlds-ness of it. I hope it is in for the long haul, and hopefully with this creative team.
I wasn't thrilled about the jerky pace of this book. Things that I was very much interested in, to see them developed more, were over in moments (spoiler text: (The relationship between Batman and his daughter, for example)), and then things started to drag.
I'm also not sure what the audience is for this book. Obviously, taking characters that were familiar pre-New 52 was an aim to draw fans of those characters, but as a fan of those characters, I was left pretty cold by this treatment/update. I suppose the audience might be new fans, but them I'm kinda mystified by the idea of using the identities of the previously established characters. (That is, to say, I have no problem with this "Earth 2" having a Superman, Batman, Flash, etc., but trading on the secret identities of characters that have been around as long as they have, in part, due to their familiarity, it just seems odd to me.)
Sure, I'll fully admit, as a fan of the JSA, I was hoping for that more familiar feel to this group that is being established. And, I'd argue that this was a perfect case where they could have done that, going with a more traditional feel, and not "interfering" with the idea of the "new 52" relaunch. (Though, I would also argue that since two properties, Batman and Green Lantern, were left virtually unchanged in the New 52, there really isn't an established, written in stone statement that everything has to be brand new and shiny.) Earth 2, having so little to do with the original JSA, could have gone completely different with secret identities, and I think I'd be more willing to accept it, because I wouldn't have preconcieved notions of what the character "should" be like. The title wouldn't be carrying that "baggage" of what JSA fans were expecting. I'd still want that original JSA at some point, but I, personally, wouldn't have that sense of loss of what the characters used to be when picking up this book. (I hope that makes sense.)
I'm just not taken with what has been established in the first issue. And, in that same regard, I'm not overly thrilled that the extended first issue was essentially a prologue. Spoiler-ish rant statement: A prologue that established characters that didn't even make it past this issue! (Putting on my "old man" hat - I remember when books were introduced and had an actual adventure in the very first issue! It is true! They didn't have an origin that took four issues or have to wait an additional two to four issues after that to get costumes! I know, unbelievable, right? It was an amazing time.)
I'm just left not really interested in this book. It isn't that it is particularly bad, but it also isn't particularly good, either. It is pretty enough, though the costume redesigns are questionable at times.
In the past, I've always tried to give books three issues to prove themselves, but now that I'm old and crotchety and impatient, I find myself giving the heave-ho to books much quicker. I don't have the time or money anymore to wait for books to get good. I'm pretty sure I've already dropped this title in my own mind.
The biggest problem with this book is entirely me - it isn't what I wanted. That may not be a good enough reason for anyone else to drop it, but it is a good enough reason for me.
However, by the time it was released, there had been plenty of advance word that it was gonna be what it is, not what we wanted.
I bought the first issue out of morbid curiosity and didn't expect to like it. And I didn't like it.
Something in the background art in the spoiler pages about Alan Scott's relationship intrigued me, though.
So I bought the second issue, and am now intrigued.
Not so much for the characters, but to see what they do with a world which has been irrevocably altered by the Apokalyptian invasion. That's a different story than I'm seeing elsewhere, and could be very interesting.
This might (might) be a Science Fiction book masquerading as a superhero book. If so, I'm in.
Not people like you with no DC lore.
Not people like me with too much DC lore.
Like I said above, I have hopes that it turns out to be a stealth SF book.