Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Fanboy Theories: Murder Mystery on Earth 2


Dead on Arrival

Hello all you Weird Scientists and welcome back to another Fanboy Theory!  Last week, Earth 2 was shaken to it's core, both figuratively and literally.  Terry Sloan, the greatest villain from the original Earth 2, attempted to use a terraforming device to recreate the original Earth. This is when the heroes stepped in. 
Power Girl damaged the machine, as Huntress and Red Arrow put down the monsters it was spawning. This is all wrapped up with Green Lantern finishing off the machine in his green light.  The day was saved, but as the smoked cleared, a body remained.  The body of Terry Sloan.
This leaves a body, but no one standing over it, creating a murder mystery on our hands.  For this Fanboy Theory, I have plucked out who I think are the most likely suspects for this murder. The suspects each have their own reasons of why they hate Sloan or why they want him killed, and that's what we'll be going over today. Enough babbling over the crime, lets get our thinking caps and take a look at the suspects!


HEROES:

Val-Zod:
So the first suspect up to bat seems to be the one character no one would expect at first.  This guy was a renown pacifist before the original Earth 2 was destroyed.  Despite trying to kill him, Val tried to beat the evil Superman clone into submission. So what could have changed his mind? 
In the time he's been out of his room, he has witnessed two world ending crisis, the deaths of thousands of people and more timelines than anyone should.  He has been hurt, but he has also learned.  He knows that worlds can now just be wiped out in a matter of hours if given the opportunity.  Knowing this, when he saw Sloan with a terraforming device, he knew he had to stop him and while Kara took care of the device herself, he could have put an end to Sloan to ensure the safety of Earth 2.  This would explain why he flew off before anyone found the body.

Alan Scott: 
Out of all the heroes on Earth 2(and who Eric believes to be the actual culprit), Green Lantern seems like the most likely option to kill Terry Sloan. Terry was the man who set up the train accident that killed Sam, Alan's fiancé. Along with that Sloan set up quite a few incidents and kidnappings that lead to the creation of most of our heroes as well as leading up to the destruction of the old Earth 2 and ruling of the new.
I bring up these facts for two facts because of Alan's current personality. He is becoming an omniscient being that wishes to protect the planet. If he retained any of Alan's former personality, he might feel the need to finally avenge his dead lover. If this is not the case, there is still the matter of him becoming the guardian of this new planet. As we saw in the previous issues, he saves its people, but then just goes off to protect the earth, not checking to see if any are actually injured. His protection of the planet was put in jeopardy the moment Terry activated the terraforming device. He stepped in and stopped the device, and perhaps in all the commotion, he used his energy to just crush him with it.



Jimmy Olsen: 
Now you are probably thinking, "Why Jimmy?" The answer my friends is actually a little like Green Lantern's reasoning. During the entire World's End crisis, Doctor Fate used his helmet to fuse Jimmy with a Mother Box. This action alone has transformed the brilliant hacker extraordinaire into the newest New God. In the back half of the crisis, he used this power to get his people off the planet. Hooray Jimmy you are a hero...but for how long...after all the saying goes, "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
As we see in this issue, he is slowly losing his grip on humanity. He has begun to develop something of a God complex with his new power. People line up outside his home to praise him. To a teenage boy, it would swell his head up quite a bit. Sloan suddenly reappears and chooses to use a device that could change the world in a blink of an eye...one could call that god-like power. What would the current "God" of Earth 2 possibly think of such power? As a teenager, he could think,"The world ain't big enough for the two of us," and decided to remove Sloan from the equation.

VILLAINS:


Johnny Sorrow:
First up to bat on the villain side of things is the first villain we actually meet on the new Earth 2. While most of his backstory is shrouded in mystery, from what I can deduce he's a survivor of the crash to the new earth, and was already planning to kill Terry Sloan for all the trouble caused in the past decade for a higher power.  This would have happened too, but thanks to one name forgetting bat vigilante getting in the way, Terry got away...Then ten minutes later, he died...well that's just convenient.
I looked into the power set of Sorrow and it turns out if you get caught in the gaze without that mask on, it can be fatal. This is what Sorrow was going to use to kill Sloan and why Batman used a reflective cape against him.  Batman used it to reflect the gaze back at sorrow, reverting him back to normal...with the exception of a twisted horrified face. When I looked back at the confrontation to get this picture, I thought the face Sorrow was making looks familiar. Then I realized its a face similar to what Sloan was making! Sloan could have been a victim of Sorrow's deadly gaze after all.




Anarky:
This picture is from the cover of Earth 2: Society #6 and to those who can't put it together, this is the Anarky of Earth 2.  This might be a bit early to presume this but actually think about it for a second.
 Terry Sloan, despite being a criminal, is the closest thing to a leader this new world has.  He is a politician, a scientist, and someone who knows how to get things done.  In a time of recreating society, it would make perfect sense to put the smartest man in the world in power, as he could help change it for the better.  The world would become peaceful, but under his thumb.
That is where Anarky would come into play.  Anarky is a villain who believes that we are being controlled by the government and we must break the chains.  With Sloan being in charge, this could actually be the case.  So if he is the killer, this could free Earth 2 of oppression.
 What if there is no control though?  Keep in mind this Anarky could be different to the "righteous" Anarky we know on the Prime Earth, as you can see he also seems to have a bit of the Joker in him.  Joker wants anarchy, and with the death of Earth 2's greatest mind, Anarky will have it.



Terry Sloan: 
Yes. I think Sloan ended his own life after the terraforming failed. Eric believes he is dead as a door nail and for all we know he might be.  However I have learned something in my time of reading the saga of Earth 2; NEVER BELIEVE TERRY SLOAN.
Terry has always had a plan so it wouldn't surprise me that his death actually contained an ulterior motive.  The heroes could have found a way to finally get him out of power and into a cell. Of course, Sloan has a greater plan in the works and needs to disappear for a while.  Enter the terraforming device!  If he could activate it, ramble on about a terrible threat coming, he could be taken serious enough to get the heroes off his back. 
What if he were to die though?  It could cause confrontations between the heroes and tear apart the team.  While the team continues their conflict, Sloan could come back like the chosen savior.  In a world practically begging for miracles, the sight of a resurrected man could inspire many into following him...leaving Sloan a true king among men.
This might be the longest stretch but I must ask: Would you put it past him?

That's it for this Fanboy Theory!  Who do you think committed the murder?  Leave a comment and I'll see you all next time!

4 comments:

  1. Yes...I'd have to agree that Sloan did it himself to get a little me time. Sloan has had access to other realities before and been shown working with and double crossing alt-earth versions of himself (i think, right? It's been awhile since I read the FUTURES END issue of EARTH 2...which was, coincidentally, Wilson's first as writer).

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    1. Futures End went and showed us that Terry Sloan isn't from Earth-2 or Earth-0. Man, I hope he stays dead

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  2. I will say this, though: your article makes the book seem much better than it had actually been.

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    1. XD well its been a roller coaster for me
      sneak peek:meh
      issue 1:YAY!
      issue 2: CRAP!
      issue 3: YAY!

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