Earth 2/World's Finest

Thoughts?

I have not yet read WF, but I thought Earth 2 was pretty interesting. Made a nice counterpoint to the opening Apokolips invasion arc of Justice League. And more interesting is that they're apparently ditching the traditional WWII roots of these characters, so we'll see how the Justice Society might come together if they had been created in the present day.

Funny thought that came to me after reading it: Jay Garrick's new origin seems to have more parallels to Hal Jordan's than Barry Allen. Makes me curious to see where Green Lantern gets his powers from in this version...

Just to be clear here, this is Earth-2.3, that is its not the original Earth-2, nor the previous version.

World's Finest was okay. Nothing great, but not bad. Same with the art. I did, however, finally pin down what I specifically hate about Power Girl's redesign: the chest emblem. First, it was going to be this ugly giant red mantle with a horribly stylized "P". Now it's this weird red "P"-shaped section that covers - and draws attention to - her left breast and splits up the torso of her costume in a really jarring way. I'd rather she just have a shorter, pointed red mantle/collar section of her tights with no letters or emblems.

Her Earth-2 Supergirl costume is by far closer in overall design to what a good costume would be for her (namely because it's closer to the costume she's more or less worn her entire existence).

Haven't read World's Finest yet, but Earth-2 was an interesting premise. Really enjoyed Nicola Scott's work.

Beautiful art by Nicola Scott. Interesting story. I still absolutely hate that they're discarding the Justice Society's WWII origins. I get the whole updating for a modern era and all that, but what MADE the JSA who they were was where and when they had come from.

One thing that isn't clear, is how long Earth-2.3's trinity was active( Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman)
the closest we have is this, they were active 5 years ago
Helena was at least 15 at this time
assume she is still the daughter of Batman and Catwoman
That would put their Bats being active for at least 20( maybe a couple years less)

Its a little unlcear what the exact background of E-2.3 is, that is were there any heroes or villians around in WWII or not

One of the things that I really loved about the recent JSA and Justice Society series was that they touched on the generational legacy of the "first" superheroes. I can see their point of view in trying to attract new readers by essentially taking the JSA back to being young and rebooting the entire group of characters. I just don't happen to agree with it.

I would be much more intrigued to see them really play out the long term story of the JSA, starting from the 40's. That's 70 years of time now. I would love to see them expand upon the old original Earth-2 elements. Show the children of the JSA, and their children, and their children. Generations of heroes, legacies, sidekicks growing up into heroes, and so on. The possibilities there are endless. Really take hold of it and run with it. Open it up, go crazy, and have fun.

You'd have Kryptonians (Superman and Power Girl) who don't age normally, Amazons (Wonder Woman) to play with, Nth metal and the Hawk legacy, the Helmet of Fate, a Flash (and what would be the ramifications of that being in your gene pool), a Green Lantern ring, Hourman's Miraclo (drug improvement and genetic impact), the Atom's atomic powers (and their genetic impact), the Thunderbolt, Starman's cosmic rod technology, the Bat-mantle and everything that goes along with it. The potential storylines are limitless.

You'd have some of the original heroes still around to appeal to the traditionalist, and you'd have free rein to complete recreate and reimagine the rest. Say Flash has a super-powered kid, who ends up with someone's else's super-powered kid. What would their kids be like? And so on down the line. Its an opportunity to populate a well-known existing world with an entirely new cast of characters while still respecting the legacy of the old.

That's just my take. Making everyone young and starting over just seems too simplistic. I'd like to see them really go for it. Take the names and the legacies and run wild with them.

Having read both, i knew Earth 2 #1 was just set up for what's to come later and a lead in to Worlds' Finest #1. It served it's purpose in that Earth 2's Trinity is now gone and sets up the stage for the next generation of Heroes who are coming.

My biggest problem was how Wonder Woman got dispatched by Steppenwolf, Kal didn't use his heat vision (he was seeing what was happening) to give Diana a fighting chance? Oh well plot device I guess.


Worlds' Finest #1 I thoroughly enjoyed. Decent story and fills in a little bit the 5 year gap. It'll be interesting when Huntress meets 2 members of the Bat family. Nightwing just because of the relationship they had on the Original Earth 2. Maybe it'll be love at first fight.
Batman should have discovered the seed money Helena "borrowed" by now. Although he'd probably have an easier time tracking down Karen then Helena.

Um... I thought the New 52 was an Elseworlds story... you mean it's staying?!?!?

It's 106 miles to Grandville, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing faceless helmets

... Hit it ...

For the most part, I thought this was a good comic. I liked the story and Nicola Scott's artwork was gorgeous. The only issue I had with it was I felt it spent too much time on the backstory (trinity vs. Apokolips) and not enough time introducing the main characters of this series.

As for rebooting the JSA characters, part of me will greatly miss the characters I remember from the last JSA series. I loved that the DCU has some elder statesmen characters who the Justice League admired. And I loved the generational aspect with their kids and all the other new legacy heroes that populated the previous JSA book. Those are all aspects of the JSA that I will miss in this reboot.

On the other hand, I'm looking forward to seeing the classic JSA characters revitalized. They've never really had the chance to be modernized like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman have. They've usually just been replaced with legacies or new characters with no connection to them. The JSAers themselves have largely remained unchanged, except for the ones who were killed off.

Now we're returning to the era of the JSA being peers to the JLA like they were during their original team-ups. And they're bringing back characters that were killed years ago. When was the last time Al Pratt was a featured character? I think it'll be awesome to see these characters as modern superheroes (no matter how ugly Jim Lee makes their costumes).