"No Wonders. Wonders Pose The Greatest Single Threat To The Maintenance Of World Order. They Cannot Be Allowed To Exist On This Earth. They Must Be Erased."
It scarcely seems worth considering Issue #19 of Dan Abnett's Earth-2 resuscitation given the news that the title comes to a complete abrupt end come #21. The end was long anticipated, but that it comes just as Abnett manages to take charge of the titles direction and skillfully steer it into a remarkable about face in its tone and setting is without doubt one of the saddest sequence of events I have seen this year in comics.

From a mandate of three years of nihilism and deconstruction of a world that was barely even established in the first place Abnett's success, and it IS a success, in restoring a tangible air of reality, optimism, and hope to the series comes largely from the fact that there was nothing left to do with the title regardless. Three years spent burning the rich imaginative world introduced by James Robinson and Nicola Scott had left nothing but a hollow shell of a series, which meant a writer like Abnett was never in any danger of experiencing the editorial mismanagement and meddling that his predecessors had to endure and service. But then this is all irrelevant at this point. With only two more issues to go before certain oblivion for this series and its world none of its four year run matters in the slightest anymore as we know that in the coming year something altogether different and removed is destined to replace any claim it had to be a modernday take on the Justice Society of America...

But in spite of the futility of it all I must still congratulate both Dan Abnett and artist Bruno Redondo on making a fine effort to restore some of the energy and bright wonder that first marked this title out as one of the few genuine successes of the 2011 New-52 push. As this latest issue opens up it is a very different sight, tone, and setting that greets us to the one back in this volumes first issues with their dystopian futurism and bleak dark cathederal-like environments. Finding themselves in a reborn Metropolis that is both familiar and strange the surviving heroes of Earth-2 are forced to adapt to this unknown new place and Dan Abnett has some small fun in returning to the original ethic of James Robinson's vision for a bright upbeat utopia setting. How peculiar it is to see the one-dimensional superheroes taking on the trappings of secret identities, with Val Zod opting for a familiar look of suit and glasses it seems the mantle of Superman comes with certain requirements whatever the earth. But as the bright sunny world in which the heroes find themselves adjusting to seems as remarkable to them as it is to us the reader the contrast as we follow the Batman, Huntress team as they are spirited away below into the dark sewer systems seems entirely in tune with Val Zod's perceptive observation that appearances aside this seemingly wonderful new chance at a world hides a sinister aspect. As we learn of the nature of this new reality so too do we learn that something wicked does indeed lurk just out of sight, and in doing so perhaps we see some hint as to what Abnett's longterm themes and directions for the series might have been if only time and sales had been more kind to the title.

Despite the readers sense of resigned inevitability now in the air the sheer upbeat optimism being generated on the pages of Society #19 by Abnett and Redondo & Co is a heady experience for the loyal reader of Earth-2. Perhaps I am being far too generous in my praise in all of this I admit, and yet despite its evident thinness as a title and concept Earth-2's appeal came initially from the strength and inherant potential of its cast of characters. That potential was grossly squandered, and yes Dan Abnett has barely managed any advancement on that front, and yet given the challenges in simply devising a means to reinvigorate a dead-en of a series one can hardly cast accusations on that front. And yet if we looked at this current issue as a signpost on his intentions for the cast it seems clear that the choice in reformatting the series and introducing a hidden authoritarian control to the running of society Earth-2 might well have been taking a far more conventional superhero formula to drive itself along, with our heroes being forced by their circumstance to work hidden away in secret identities, and their superhero selves being their proactive offense against their amorphous unseen foe, of superheroes versus the system. In that Abnett's approach to the EARTH-2 reinvention might well have been the very thing that should have been there all along... alas, now too little coming too late.

Yet brief as it is, slight as it is, these last days of the title and its curtailed renaissance are nevertheless a fitting way in which to depart the world introduced back in 2012. With some of the same lustre and optimism being restored the title regains some small respect as it heads off into a final sunset....

This universe was already a deconstruction universe before its Earth blew up. The early war, the fire pit holes on Earth, the dead trinity. Etc. It was also a war comic.

Now they rebooted the universe sans all the destruction and the characters. Only 10 survived characters. No clue where Alan went. Seems the planet has Earth 2 cw vvibes and the 1980's positve tone. I guess they could relaunch again as infinity inc someday.

They're allready going to move on with the Jsa on Prime Earth. Just one with a covert past and no legacy characters.

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This universe was already a deconstruction universe before its Earth blew up. The early war, the fire pit holes on Earth, the dead trinity. Etc. It was also a war comic.

No, It was introduced as a world recovering from a War, one they won. As the series opens the future belonged to a new age of 'wonders', brighter, younger, stronger than the previous age who sacrificed themselves to win the victory. By all accounts having beaten back Apokolips the next time the Earth-2 heroes would face the threat of Darkseid would have been centered on the first meeting with the heroes of the Justice League...

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Now they rebooted the universe sans all the destruction and the characters. Only 10 survived characters. No clue where Alan went. Seems the planet has Earth 2 cw vvibes and the 1980's positve tone. I guess they could relaunch again as infinity inc someday.

The world James Robinson introduced had a positive tone too, one quite distinct compared to the world of the Justice League, here the public revered their their heroes and we were introduced to many familiar faces as the first year progressed. What Dan Abnett has done is very much reset the series and returned it to the same open page as James Robinson developed - Alan Scott, Hourman, Yolanda Montez, Ted Grant, and just about everybody left alive on the old world are out there. And given The Ultra Humanite was a character Abnett rammed into the book from out of nowhere it is fair to say he could conjure anybody he wants out of this brand new environment.

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They're allready going to move on with the Jsa on Prime Earth. Just one with a covert past and no legacy characters.

Maybe. All I know for sure is that apparently there was a Justice Society operating in the World War era and something (Johnny Thunder?) erased them from memory in the same way The Titans were forgotten until recently.
Anything else about them is conjecture.

Not really. The fear on prime earth was only in it's first years. This earth 2 had a war ravaged planet not resembling ours. The vast majority of the book centered on a looming war with Darkseid with forshadowing.

None of the new versions of the characters are the same as the old robison one. The new ones overwritten the old. Steel was a different race. The new earth never been in a war, in fact it's more in line with the near perfect earth of old Earth 2. Dan created something new.



The covert mystery man past was already mentioned and is the best way to go.

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Not really. The fear on prime earth was only in it's first years. This earth 2 had a war ravaged planet not resembling ours. The vast majority of the book centered on a looming war with Darkseid with forshadowing.

No it didn't. You are saying the book was introduced as inherently deconstructionist in nature and was a War comic, an ongoing War comic, ignoring the fact that the launchpoint for the debut is built upon the backdrop that the war described in the first issue was over and in the past, Earth-2 #1 was a post-war world looking to the future and recovering. Everything about Earth-2 was about looking to a brighter, stronger, future and celebrating being alive. This spirit of positivity was a large part of the books initial appeal and set it apart from nearly anything else that the publisher had released at that time.
Yet now you add to that reading by claiming it was also introduced as a book with a siege mentality, a war book that had its cast and tone geared towards expecting Darkseid's forces to return imminently, which again is patently not true - thanks to a heavy sacrifice and cost, the War was over. A new age was dawning. And this was a book of hope and new era's, as embodied in the new heroic age characters.

All of this was one writers vision, but Somewhere after the first year all of James Robinson's plans (were) changed and the result was he walked away from the book in a very abrupt fashion. If you were a regular listener to his Comicvine podcast in 2012 you will remember his vague outlines for the first meeting with the Justice League, and the restrictions he worked under in choosing cast and wardrobe etc. All of these restrictions disappeared the moment he left and new writer Tom Taylor came onboard, and the book about-faced from well crafted world building into being a full-on War book and violently deconstructionist venture. The rest is history.

The last three to four years since Robinson left have seen the worst case of vandalism to a book I have experienced since the mid-1990's and the sales crash...

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There will be other easter eggs, hints and clues of the relationship between both universes seeded in Earth 2, and in this bit of epic world building, it was also important to Robinson that he not create something so "science-fiction different" that it seems completely alien for readers.
"There is definitely aspects of it that are very familiar — familiar in terms of our world and familiar in terms of the main DC Universe," the writer explains. "However, there are other things that happened in the past that have changed that world and made it distinct and different, both in terms of its landscape, countries that might not be there anymore, areas of the world that are changed and different, and also just the way people go about their lives in the day-to-day comings and goings in America and civilized countries."
Robinson has talked with Levitz as well as Justice League scribe Geoff Johns about planning large-scale crossovers between worlds, but that will all come later, Robinson says. First, he wants to focus on Earth 2 and build up his Justice Society there — even though it may be that only in concept for now.

Earth-2 Launch, April 2012

Disagree, the book still had negative undertones. Almost every James Robison book has deconstructionism too. Taking things away to shine on the things never mentioned or built on.


You don't start a light hearted universe where the heroes lose. Or easily kill the trinity when they're far more powerful comparared to the other Wonders.