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.
Well, it’s finally come, the last issue of Earth 2. The reason Earth 2 and its weekly series Earth 2: World’s End gets reviewed every week is that despite all the bad worlds said about in the last six months, Earth 2 used to be one of the best books coming out of DC. In fact, it was one of the few books that made the New 52 somewhat justified in its existence. Instead of rehashing older stories or making embarrassing changes to characters older than the company that published them, Earth 2 did something different. It build a whole new world from the ground up, embracing its comic book roots by being a series about ordinary people swept up into the world of the impossible and altruism and hope overcome the darkest to times. It broke standards by bringing Lois Lane, who’d been killed off panel for little purpose, back from the dead as a superhero and making Val Zod a more true-to-nature version of Superman than Superman has been in years. It was helmed by the great James Robinson and continued by the excellent Tom Taylor. Yet that golden age has come to a close, for the past six months DC has done everything in its power to sabotage this series. It turned this book into little more than a tie-in to World’s End which itself is little more than a sloppy mess of a title, stumbling its way to the finish line. What little gems of aspiration could have been found were buried under editorial mandate and terrible management. While this series will live on after the upcoming Convergence event as Earth 2: Society, the damage has been done. There is little to no hope for this series to ever reclaim its greatness. Hence it is with a heavy heart that this is the last issue of Earth 2.
Last week, Earth 2: World’s End did something unexpected, it improved. With the help of Cullen Bunn, issue #19 has some moments to shine with great characterization and heart-felt moments to wash out the terrible artwork and redundant Life Avatar battles. All of that goes right down the tubes as World’s End falls back into line with over-stretched plot lines, sloppy science fiction, and egregious artwork.
Earth 2: World’s End #18 Written by Daniel H. Wilson, Marguerite Bennett, Mike Johnson, Cullen Bunn Art by Scott McDaniel, Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira, R. B. Silva, Walden Wong, Eduardo Pansica, Marc Deering, Jorge Jimenez, & Tyler Kirkham Colors by Andrew Dalhouse Published by DC Comics So, another week means another issue churned out by …
Earth 2: World’s End #17 Written by Daniel H. Wilson, Marguerite Bennett, & Mike Johnson Art by Scott McDaniel, Robson Rocha & Guillermo Ortego, Eduardo Pansica & Paul Neary, Jorge Jiminez, R. B. Silva & Walden Wong Published by DC Comics If there’s one way that World’s End in any way thematically follows Earth 2, …