Review: Earth 2 Vol. 6: Collision hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

At the outset I can tell you that Earth 2 Vol. 6: Collision is not required reading to follow or enjoy Earth 2: World’s End. (This is a throwback, I know, but I recently decided to go back and finish the Earth 2 books I never finished before.) At its best, Collision fills in background details on some of the World’s End characters, but never importantly; at its worst, Collision fits clumsily if not outright implausibly between the pages of World’s End in such a way as to be better off unread.

Part of me is glad DC Comics did not cancel Earth 2 outright before World’s End, and I’m heartened by the support DC gave this title, the concept of which I like very much but probably wasn’t the most commercially plausible. But given Tom Taylor’s strong(er) finale at the end of Earth 2 Vol. 5: The Kryptonian, I’d as soon have seen Earth 2 itself go weekly and have the World’s End stories there, than have Earth 2 be a milquetoast supplement to World’s End for six months without much to show for it (even with Earth 2: Society to follow).

[Review contains spoilers]

The first two chapters of Collision (Earth 2 issues #28 and 29) are legitimately strong, if not wholly important. Issue #28, by Marguerite Bennett and Tom Taylor, examines the various interconnected origins of Earth 2’s dysfunctional new World’s Finest: Power Girl, Superman Val-Zod, Red Tornado Lois Lane, Batman Thomas Wayne, and Huntress. It is sweet, especially the childhood friendship of Power Girl and Val-Zod; this is “previously unrevealed” because it’s an invention of Taylor or a later Earth 2 writer, and so in this way the issue does work as a “secret origin.”

[See the latest DC trade solicitations.]

Issue #29, by Bennett with Taylor, is a series of short stories telling the origins of the four Apokoliptian Furies that attack Earth in World’s End. They are minor villains, hardly needing of origins, but the writers posit them on the edges of known aspects of the DC Universe: Lobo’s Czarnia, Starfire’s Tamaran, Martian Manhunter’s Mars, Mongul’s Warworld. This gives the stories some unusual alternative-universe interest; additionally, they’re all cogent short horror stories. This raises an unimportant issue to a higher level purely on the basis of being a good read.

Unfortunately, the book’s quality decreases from there. The next chapter spotlights Barbara and Dick Grayson, by Bennett and Mike Johnson, in which the two walk into an entirely predictable trap and just as quickly escape. That the issue’s cover matches the interior not at all suggests maybe some last minute changes here. Dick and Barbara leave their refugee camp entirely, are kidnapped by a woman whose bad intentions couldn’t be more obvious if she announced them outright, and lose their son, all supposedly between the pages of World’s End proper where they’ve totally separately lost their son. World’s End never references these events and they’re just boilerplate comics anyway; the art by Andy Smith is in DC’s baseline Dan Jurgens-esque house style, adding to the chapter’s generic feel.

Collision ends with three kind-of loosely related issues, one spotlighting the World’s End Earth-avatars Sam Zhao and Yolanda Montez, with “Aquawoman” Queen Marella in the background, and the other two mostly starring Dr. Fate with Marella and other characters also in the background. The avatar story, though not particularly moving, works in the book’s “secret origins” aesthetic, but the latter two issues are kind of a hodgepodge, without obvious focus and essentially re-telling events of World’s End — hard to tell exactly where they fit, but what’s more important is that one can read World’s End and never miss them. It’s over-telling, kind of hurried, seemingly just to put something in the Earth 2 title.

I would point out, however, a couple of scenes in these chapters involving Montez that, here at the very end of the first Earth 2 series, do iron out some lingering plot holes. Montez, of course, was a pre-Flashpoint Infinity, Inc. Wildcat — though more a metahuman then than her godfather Ted Grant, here Montez has supernatural animal powers. In Collision, we learn how and why she gained those powers, but also the writers explain (or recast) why in James Robinson’s run, Captain Steel claimed a “Red Lantern” was responsible for the Apokoliptian fire pits on Earth, but in Taylor’s run, it was revealed Montez was responsible for them. The incongruity was minor, but it’s fun the writers handled it (even if I’d prefer to see Montez in a role closer to her original appearance).

Collision’s worst sin is that it does not redeem World’s End’s egregious problems. Toward its end, World’s End glosses over a lot, especially as relates to Constantine and a couple supernatural characters, and also Dick Grayson, his son, and Batman. Reading over these holes in World’s End (how did this character get there, how do these characters know each other, etc.), I figured they’d most likely be smoothed out in Collision or in Constantine Vol. 4: Apocalypse Road, but Collision doesn’t address them and Constantine tells a World’s End-set story that conflicts with World’s End! I really liked World’s End Vol. 1, but the farther I got into it, and into its spin-off titles, the more its problems have shown significantly.

I’m an ardent JSA fan, but I’ll admit I liked the New 52 idea that Superman and the Justice League are the “first” heroes, and the Golden Age-type heroes live on a parallel Earth 2, not unlike the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Justice Society. I recognize I’m probably in the minority preferring this to that, but I appreciate that DC doubled-down on Earth 2, preserving the title from DC You and into Rebirth when more voices might suggest otherwise. Earth 2 Vol. 6: Collision does this title no favors, but I’ve already ventured a bit into Earth 2: Society and I think better things are coming.

[Includes original covers and variant, and cover sketches]

Rating 2.0