Written by Daniel H. Wilson, Marguerite Bennett, & Mike Johnson
Art by Scott McDaniel, Tyler Kirkham, Eduardo Pansica & Paul Neary, Robson Rocha & Guillermo Ortego
Published by DC Comics
Another week means another issue of Earth 2: World’s End, the series that would have been cancelled by now if it didn’t tie into Convergence. The odd thing to talk about this time around turns out that this entry is considerably better than the rest of the series as of yet. The title is still little more than a shameless cash grab as DC wrings what little money they can out of what’s left of Earth 2. However, when an issue of World’s End manages to just be middle of the road instead of painful to read, something’s changed.
That change is that, for at least this issue, World’s End stops trying to tell six failed stories across each issue. In fact, this marks the resolution of two of the series’ dullest and most dragged out plot lines. The narrative crawl that’s been the Superman and Batman families bumbling around Desaad’s oversized laboratories finally ends and the group can get back to Earth. This means that Val Zod, Power Girl, Lois Lane, and Batman can be of use. The needlessly drawn out fight scene that has been everything involving Green Lantern and the life Avatars finally comes to a conclusion when the Superman/Batman team arrives. One has to wonder if the Superman plotline was simply to allow this asinine fight last an entire eight issues. While it’s wonderful that these stories are finally going somewhere, it comes at a price. Once again, World’s End can’t be bothered with basic naming of their characters and concepts as Thomas Wayne has swapped Miraclo with Venom. It’s a very minor detail, but one would thing with three writers on board this sort of thing wouldn’t be an issue. What’s much more offensive is how this comic once again dips into people using powers and abilities they never had before to serve the plot. What’s infuriating is how minor they are in the grand scheme of things, but it makes the writing feel very weak, and that’s saying a lot from this series. Also, this issue marks the fourth pointless character death in as many issues.
In term of artwork, given that this book has a measly six artists on board, the penciling and inks are a big improvement. Given World’s End’s baffling decision to split art duties along plotlines instead of whole issues, this week features fewer cases of artistic whiplash. Sadly, much of this is ruined by the gaudy coloring. There’s far too much red in this issue and difficult to read. Still, one should be thankful that none of Dick Grayson’s dreadful artwork appeared this issue and that is always an improvement.
Earth 2: World’s End #16 salvages the dreadful storylines on the Avatars and Superman/Batman families. This means less artists on the book but what good that does is undercut by continuity hiccups and sloppy writing.