Written by Daniel H. Wilson, Marguerite Bennett, & Mike Johnson
Art by Tyler Kirkham & Joe Weems, Stephen Segovia & Jason Paz, Jorge Jimenez, and Eddy Barrows & Eber Ferreira
Published by DC Comics
It feels that for every step ‘World’s End’ takes forward it takes one back. While this series strives to take on the massive cast of ‘Earth 2’ and streamline the snares in the numerous stories and subplots, it hits serious problems when dealing with inconsistent art, bizarre hang-ups on how parts of ‘Earth 2’s world functions, and unnecessary tie ins.
The plot so far involves the planet Apokolips teleporting into the moon, causing unfathomable destruction across the globe due to gravitational forces on top of the already devastating might of the New God forces. Jimmy Olsen has become merged with a Mother Box and the helm of Dr. Fate and is achieving a state beyond human existence. Power struggles are breaking out amongst the World Army as Commander Khan is off leading the puny assault against Apokolips. John Constantine assembles a posse of imprisoned magic users from the now abandoned Arkham Base within the ruins of Gotham. Lastly, Superman, Power Girl, Red Tornado, and Batman search the expansive labs of Desaad searching for the abducted Huntress.
It goes without saying but bears repeating that ‘World’s End’s’ greatest and most infuriating crime is the art. Every single issue is drawn and inked by a paragraph of artists, none of which receive page credits which makes criticizing specific teams difficult. There is no reason why ‘World’s End’ doesn’t have a rotating art team like DC’s other weekly books ‘Batman Eternal’ and ‘Futures End.’ This would be forgivable if the art was a stand out, but that is far from it. The art, for the most part, is mediocre to subpar. Any panels featuring Hawkgirl and the Flash are nothing short of painful as everyone turns into rubber. The same goes for anything featuring the Graysons and the newly introduced Ted Grant. There are good sections, the Superman and Batman families are the highlights of this issue but it’s only a few scant pages.
What makes this issue especially difficult is that despite an issue coming out every week, this time around there are tie-ins. Two story segments (the Graysons’ and John Constantine’s) end with editorial captions telling the audience to read more from ‘Earth 2’ and ‘Constantine’ respectively.’ Earth 2’ may have been reduced to only a side series at this point, but shoehorning in John Constantine is just sad. His new team of magic users are genuinely interesting but they do nothing in this issue. It’s two pages that contribute nothing to the plot besides telling readers to check out ‘Constantine’ even when this week’s cover features them. ‘Earth 2: World’s End’ #8 highlights the problems that have plagued this series thus far. There is potential to make this story into something great, but it’s caught up in excessive art teams and tie ins. A good idea is to avoid this week, there’s little to miss.