Rather than update my last post on Earth 2 and Worlds' Finest yet again, Vaneta Rogers' latest Newsarama interview with Paul Levitz gives lots of new information and sets up some interesting possibilities that deserved a whole new post. (Good thing they're free.)
First, the news from the interview (which is very good, no surprise from Ms. Rogers and Mr. Levitz): The Huntress in Worlds' Finest is in fact the same as in the current mini (drawn by Marcus To), and Helena Bertinelli is simply one of several aliases she uses. She is actually the Helena Wayne of Earth 2, daughter of that Earth's Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle. And Power Girl is the Karen Starr we've seen in Mister Terrific. And both books take place on the New 52 Earth, but the Huntress and Power Girl were somehow stranded here from Earth 2, with the "how" being explained in James Robinson and Nicola Scott's Earth 2.
Wow.
So it seems that this Earth 2 may be similar to the "retro" Earth 2 shown in JSA following Infinite Crisis to which New Earth Power Girl found herself transported, with a combination of the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths JSA and Infinity, Inc. (And which was drawn by Jerry Ordway, no less--quite a treat for fans of the 1980s Earth 2 books, such as me.) That also makes Worlds' Finest similar to Superman/Batman #27, which featured an adventure with the Earth 2 versions of Power Girl and Huntress "back in the day," after Infinite Crisis brought them back into continuity. And apparently there is going to be an "older" Batman (and Superman) on the new Earth 2, which got me thinking...
Why couldn't they make the new Earth 2 the pre-Flashpoint Earth? After all, the original Earth 2 was where DC shunted the Golden Age heroes to make room for the Silver Age revamps, so why not do the same with the pre-Flashpoint and post-Flashpoint worlds? If the point of rebooting relaunching the DCU is to introduce "fresh" younger versions of the characters, why not put the pre-relaunch ones on a new Earth 2 and continue their stories--and letting them age "naturally" (or what passes for naturally in the comics)? If this aging were retroactively allowed, then the pre-Flashpoint versions of Bruce and Selina could have easily known each other long enough to have an adult daughter by now--which would involve a little tweaking of the pre-Flashpoint continuity, but it would be a drop in the bucket compared to what we see now.
I doubt they would go this far (unfortunately), but I do suspect that when we see the new Earth 2 versions of Batman and Superman, they will look more like the Silver or Modern Age versions than the Golden Age ones; why go back to the very beginning of the DCU when newer fans will think that Superman and Batman with their "underwear on the outside" means the "old versions" anyway? In any case, the emphasis of the new Earth 2 will presumably be on the analogues of the original Earth 2 characters from the JSA and Infinity, Inc., with the possible addition of some of the newer JSAers added in the years leading up to Flashpoint, so we likely won't see any versions of the JLA or Teen Titans in any case.
I'm tremendously gratified to see the renewed emphasis on the original concept of Earth 2 and its rich group of characters, but I do think DC is missing an opportunity to revive the pre-Flashpoint DCU in a way that can placate old readers while not disturbing plans to gain new ones. But they do have dozens of other worlds to play with... hey Mr. Morrison, can I speak to you for a minute?
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