Earth 2: World’s End #3
Written by: Daniel H. Wilson, Marguerite Bennett, & Mike Johnson
Art by: Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira, Tyler Kirkham, Joe Weems, Eduardo Pansica,Jaime Mendoza, Jorge Jimenez, Paulo Siqueria, & Cam Smith
Published by DC Comics
This week’s issue of Earth 2: World’s End is where some problems with the series as a whole begin to form. The major failings here are a scattered story and lack of a consistent art team. This issue, like the last two, divide up their massive artist team amongst the various storylines. This results in some segments looking good and crisp while others are drawn sloppily, there’s even a case where characters are missing their faces. This is especially bad when most of Earth 2 has been shown to us through the excellent pencils and inks of Nicola and Trevor Scott. They mastered the look of the Earth 2 main book and this is a real downgrade, not to mention it’s tough to stay focused on a story where the look of the book keeps changing every few pages or so.
Story-wise, this is a mixed bag. One of the biggest developments this week is the arrival of Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon. They were introduced in issue #1 as married with a son, Johnny. They’re forced forced to live in a refugee camp. What role they have to play in this series is yet to be determined. It’s best to keep an eye out for them. This issue also wins some points for once again streamlining some of the stories dropped in the Earth 2 main book, this time it’s a reference to Commander Steel, who hasn’t been mentioned since his single appearance.
The greatest flaw of this issue’s story is that it’s too scattered across its numerous plot lines. The main story of these last three issues has been the new members of the Superman and Batman families fighting the Apokolips god, War, in Geneva with other plots unfolding in World Army headquarters, London, Chicago, and Rio. On top of that, we get a cross over with the DC main universe when John Constantine simply shows up out of nowhere with no explanation given save for an editor’s note to check out Constantine #19. This series isn’t even a month old, and it’s crossing over with other books even though World’s End is already having some issues explaining where issues of Earth 2 falls in its continuity. Sadly, it’s a case where the plot is so divided, very few of these plots seem to advance. This could easily be justified next issue, but it made this week felt like the story was spinning his wheels, a bad sign for only the first story arc in this weekly. This series had a strong start but it’s starting to seem like there are too many chefs in the kitchen.