Earth Two #15 – Review

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

The Story: Our heroes get the faintest inkling that they may be wandering into a trap.

The Review: It’s axiomatic that publishers may feign a lot of pride in their critical darlings, but in reality, reviews come a long second to receipts.  Why else would a truly creative and well-crafted series like Dial H fall prematurely to the axe while Earth Two continues to survive?  It’s also obvious that quality has little to do with popularity, otherwise Earth Two would never beat the likes of Hawkeye, Daredevil, Swamp Thing, The Wake, and so many other reputable titles.

What really baffles me is how Earth Two manages to consistently rank higher than series with more overt popular appeal like, say, Wolverine and the X-Men.  Actually, scratch that; I know exactly how.  I know because it’s the same thing that keeps me attached to Earth Two despite being disappointedly monthly by its awkward, heavy, almost embarrassingly simple-minded scripts.  What keeps the Earth Two engine going is the combustion produced by constant new additions to the parallel world and by the revival of fan-favorite characters.