The Comics Professor

Earth 2: The return of dignity and heroism to the DCU, or its death knell?

OK, the title is a little melodramatic, but I think this book deserves it. Earth 2 #1, written by James Robinson and drawn by the incomparable Nicola Scott, has me wishing (with qualifications) that this new Earth 2 were the mainstream DC Earth. (Its companion book, Worlds' Finest, by Paul Levitz, George Pérez, and Kevin Maguire, was also excellent, but pales in comparison to the cinematic bombast of Earth 2.)

I can't discuss this book without massive spoilers, so proceed with caution! More below the jump...

You mean DC's new Earth 2 is going to be darker than the New 52 Earth?

New from The Source is a teaser about the new Earth 2's Batman and the design by Jim Lee:

“Who will Batman kill to save his own daughter?” asks EARTH 2 editor Pat McCallum. “Right out of the gate that should tell you we’re dealing with a different kind of Dark Knight here. More ruthless, dangerous…the costume is familiar and yeah, there is a Wayne under the mask, but we’re looking at a man desperate to save the only family he has left. EARTH 2 is about to become a very bad place to be a bad guy.”

"A Wayne" means it's not Dick Grayson under the cowl (unless on this Earth he took the Wayne name), and it's not Damian (unless he's aged enough to sire Helena). But it also suggests it's not Bruce--and definitely not a Bruce we know. (Unless "we" are Frank Miller, maybe.)

I'm still intrigued by the new Earth 2, but I'm more ready to be disappointed by what may end up being DC's Ultimate line.

An idea for DC's new Earth 2: Why not the pre-Flashpoint Earth?

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?

Earth 2 and Worlds' Finest bring the classics back to DC in May [UPDATED AGAIN!]

According to a brand spanking new press release in USA Today, DC is launching six "new" titles in May, including the long-hinted JSA title Earth 2 (supposedly written by James Robinson and pencilled by Nicola Scott) and Worlds' Finest, which is said to feature Power Girl and Huntress. The article they both spotlight "alternate worlds," so we can presume that this Power Girl and Huntess are on Earth 2 (the post-52 version of it) and are not Karen Starr as seen in Mister Terrific and Helena Bertinelli as seen in Paul Levitz and Marcus To's current (and excellent) Huntress mini. (I wonder about the Huntress, though, since Paul Levitz created the original Huntress, daughter of the Earth 2 Batman and Catwoman. And are we sure Mister Terrific doesn't take place on Earth 2 already? Hmm...)

UPDATE: A second article at USA Today gives more details on these two books:

Writer James Robinson reteams with the Justice Society for the new series Earth 2, which is being drawn by Nicola Scott, while Huntress and Power Girl are stranded on our world and want to return to theirs in Worlds' Finest, written by Paul Levitz with art by George Perez and Kevin Maguire in rotating story arcs. "What does that mean to be exiles from that Earth 2?" Harras says. "We thought it'd be a nice thing to bring this concept back and to really, as we did with the 52 initially, reconceive it and freshen it up."

UPDATE 2: This article just up at Newsarama confirms that the Huntress in Worlds' Finest is Helena Wayne, not Helena Bertinelli.

Of course, it is far too early to tell if (or, more likely, when) the residents of Earth 2 will meet the rest of the DCnU. (Note all that Worlds' is plural; I wonder if this will be an anthology title featuring other alternate universes as well, perhaps after Grant Morrison gets "done" with the multiverse.) I hope these books will restart to restore the sense of legacy that the traditional DCU possessed since the first Crisis collapsed the original multiverse and put the JSA and JLA on the same world (and earlier, given the frequent crossovers between Earth 1 and Earth 2). I don't mind the essential concept of superheroes being explored in a reinvented world that is meeting them for the first time--that has marvelous story possibilities--but at the same time I am partial to younger generations learning from these elders.

And I dream of seeing DCnU Superman get schooled by the older, wiser Earth 2 Superman--if Kal-L was upset in Infinite Crisis, wait til he sees the DCU now!