Earth Two #16 – Review

By: James Robinson (story), Nicola Scott (pencils), Trevor Scott (inks), Pete Pantazis (colors)

The Story: Investing in disaster insurance on Earth 2 must be a very lucrative career.

The Review: I don’t mean to rub it in, but I’m pretty relieved to know that Robinson will be off this title soon.  There have been a lot of creative shake-ups in DC lately, many either undeserved or controversial, but a few have been warranted.  The funny thing about this one is that Earth 2 is actually quite a popular book, generally landing somewhere in the top 50 comics each month.  It makes me wonder if I’m just an idiot who’s not seeing what everyone else sees.

It’s never been lost on me that Robinson has made a lot of effort to really make Earth Two its own place, not just Earth Prime with a little bit of interior decorating.  When you look at this world’s culture, history, its physical rules—heck, even right down to its very geography, you can see the work Robinson has put into this universe over the last two years.  If anything, the end of this issue drives the wedge between the two Earths even deeper, leaving Two a scar that will set it apart from its sister planet forever.

Earth Two #7 – Review

By: James Robinson (story), Yildiray Cinar (pencils), Trevor Scott (inks), Alex Sinclair, Dave McCaig, Allen Passalaqua, Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: What a waste of a beautiful woman with wings suddenly appearing on the balcony.

The Review: I’ve never understood the superheroes who go out with their heads uncovered or their faces exposed.  It’s just begging to draw the readers’ attention to unexplainable narrative gaps.  Take Alan Scott.  What?  Like no one’s going to get a good look at that lustrous blond hair, the chiseled jaw, and his hoarse whispers of “Sam, oh, my Sam,” and not make the connection?  But this, of course, is one of the basic indulgences we give to comics.

So usually, I would never spend a moment nitpicking at such a contrivance because once you start pulling at that loose thread, suddenly the entire world of the superhero comic starts coming apart at the seams.  That’s why I find it puzzling that Robinson would actually point out how easy it is to figure out the identity of this newest Green Lantern.  It’s not as if it took Kendra a series of mental gymnastics to figure it out: