Earth 2 #4
Written by James Robinson
Art by Nicola Scott, Eduardo Pansica, Trevor Scott, Sean Parsons, Alex Sinclair, and Tony Avina
The short of it:
Things open with an absolute BANG as we see the origin of the World Army’s own superhero THE ATOM! Things are crazy in DC and he’s about to make his public debut to stop it. The source of the disturbance? GRUNDY! And Grundy wants the Jade Champion! Meanwhile in Poland Jay and Hawkgirl are arguing over which one of them is rotting the ground around them before deciding to go find the source and heading for D.C. At the same time, you’ve got Alan Scott in green armor Supermaning towards D.C. at top speed.
Grundy is killing people left and right, still demanding his fight with the Jade Champion, when the first wave of heroes shows up to fight him. This means lots of Hawkgirl shooting things while Jay tries to help the crowds until Alan shows up to tank the fight. Things are evenly matched until we see just what exactly the World Army has to offer!
What I liked:
- This book opens with an awesome looking bang and I thought it was a great splash page. A mushroom cloud with a mans face that leads directly into the World Army finding Al Pratt. I assume the face in the cloud was Cyclotron (if they go by the classic origin at all), but it could be some random Apokolips soldier too. Either way, great way to open an issue.
- I love that Jay and Hawkgirl have an actual discussion about whether or not her tagging along for a run would slaughter her or if she’d somehow be safe as long as she held on. So often in comics we just accept that things like this work, so it’s really nice to see a character actually wonder if such a thing were possible.
- This is how you bring together a team of heroes. Have two team up, meet a third, fight the bad guy, then the fourth shows up and there’s another connection made. It’s a very similar formula to what Geoff Johns did in Justice League, but the pacing and fact that these characters are having their debuts and origins in this book while coming together as a team just completes the package.
- Alan really is the Superman. Flight, super strength, seemingly super fast in the air. He doesn’t even attempt a construct before the end of the issue, and it’s an interesting power change. A Green Lantern that is more than a construct maker, it really pushes the fact that he has a different power source than we’ve been accustomed to.
- Top notch art, again. Great character designs across the board, and seeing Grundy’s face regrow puts it over the top.
What I didn’t like:
- Can I pay an extra buck for ten more pages?
- As much as I liked the opening, the lack of a time stamp until they cut to the present led me to believe that the World Army was just nuking countries for Apokolips tech. It was made a little better when I realized it was in the past and filled with Parademons, but then again, I see a lot of normal people bones in these pictures too.
Final Thoughts:
Al Pratt is Captain Pratt in the World Army, which makes him Captain Atom. That’s a nice subtle touch to continue the subtle links to the heroic age on, what I presume, is Earth 1 (or Earth New 52).
Alan’s Green Lantern logo is more and more clearly becoming the Jim Lee redesign that Kyle Rayner used from the time he relit the Central Battery up until the Corps was back and he took a more Green Lantern like uniform that no longer had a dog collar. I know people who would call the recycling of the logo lazy, but I think it was a good look that was under appreciated because, despite how great Green Lantern was when Judd Winick was writing it, when they gave it to Ben Raab it fell to crap and really did deserve to end in favor of Hal. It’s nice to see it getting some love here.
Al’s power set is the best of about three different worlds. The best way to describe him, from what I see in this issue, is Al Pratt meets Atom Smasher meets Damage. That is an amazing combination that I can not wait to see more of. Already so much more interesting than a short guy with an atomic punch.
Hawkgirl’s wings are real, right?
So when can the Red Champion show up? Is Wildcat going to be in a red costume? Oh man, I want to see Wildcat’s new costume.
And despite the big time cliffhanger, next issue is a zero issue to give us flashbacks and make us wait even longer! Curses!
Overall: 9/10
