Written by Daniel H. Wilson, Marguerite Bennett, Mike Johnson, & Cullen Bunn
Art by Eddy Barrows & Eber Ferreira, Eduardo Pansica & Julio Ferreira, R. B. Silva & Marc Deering, Tyler Kirkham, Jorge Jimenez, Scott Cohn & Walden Wong, Pascal Alixe, Juan Jose RyP & Paulo Siqueira
Colors by Hi-Fi, Andrew Dalhouse, & Ulises Arreola
Published by DC Comics
It’s finally come down to this, the end of World’s End. This drawn out excuse of a weekly has been going on for a good half a year and now the oversized creative crew gets to do their final send off to the book and this entire world. It’s about as disappointing as one would expect.
If there is one thing this issue does right, it’s that it finds the closest thing to a focus point in Alan Scott. It’s a very fitting choice as his narration bookends both the introduction and ending of this world. He’s the closest tied to this world and it makes sense for him to have the last say. It’s about as near to catharsis that the entire book has had. That being said, the story is effectively a waste. Most of the pages are simply a drawn out fight scene with Darkseid that is so chaotic that it lacks any of the weight that it should have. Effectively none of the characters achieve anything resembling character arcs and the ones that do are so poorly defined it’s hard to call them such. Son’t aide players like Yolanda Montez dmount to anything. There’s a cameo by a minor pointless character created by Scott Lobdell that adds nothing aside from reminding the reader that DC still thinks Scott Lobdell is a writer worth keeping around for some undefinable reason. Of course this issue also indulges in World’s End’s habit of summoning powers out of nowhere to convenience of the plot. The issue ends on an embarrassing note, pretending to kill off a number of Earth 2’s heroes despite them all appearing in promotional art for next week’s Convergence #1. In the end, after everything is said and done, Earth 2: World’s End is exactly what it’s always been, a pointless waste of time, money, and energy to justify the end of one the New 52’s few genuine gems.
The art is exactly the same it’s been every week, but this time even worse. There are a total of thirteen pencilers and inkers on this book. That’s one contributor short of the same team size behind Action Comics #900, the reason that an issue this disappointing and a third of the size of that one is baffling. It’s been said every week but it bears repeating, this is one of the most poorly handled art teams on any of DC’s books. There is no reason for this many artists. The art changes in the midst of fight scenes and makes it a chore to follow. The poorly defined backgrounds (when there are any) don’t help either. There’s no sense of scale. There’s no telling if this is taking place indoors, outdoors, or underground. Not to forget the real bane of this book, Jorge Jimenez who will go on to draw for the post-Convergence Earth 2: Society book. The colors are wretched and monotone. There are so many reds it would give the much maligned Teen Titans: the Culling event a run for its money. Not to forget there are moments where the colorists white wash Hawkgirl.What’s a shame is that there are a few pages that are genuinely good. They’re not necessarily the greatest, certainly no comparison the beautiful world of Nicola Scott, but it’s lightyears beyond this book’s norm.
Earth 2: World’s End concludes, not with a bang but with a whimper, the saddest whimper imaginable. This series had no reason to exist, let alone as a six month long weekly series. With so little accomplished and so little worth reading, it’s proof that DC will throw any series under the bus if they can. Despite what seems to be an honest attempt by Daniel H. Wilson to tell a compelling story, every element is so half-hearted and poorly executed that the whole series is a big mess and this issue is no exception. There’s no reason to read this comic, even with hints leading into Convergence, this book was and is completely inconsequential. There is no reason to read it.