Earth 2: Society #14 Review and *SPOILERS*

The Kids Aren't Alright

Written By: Dan Abnett
Art By: Federico Dallochio, Angel Hernandez, David Calderon, Travis Lanham

Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: July 13, 2016

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

While we've all been on a Rebirth kick lately, what with all the titles being thrown at us with an almost rejuvenated feel to them, I find it almost nostalgic to look at this issue today because while Rebirth wasn't some huge reboot or something silly like that, this series seems so far removed from everything else that's going on........ and I don't want to say that this is unimportant...... but it's closer along those lines than most things we're dealing with nowadays and because of that, there doesn't seem to be as much pressure in reviewing it...... Yeah, that scenario doesn't really apply to most, but I'm selfish like that so I'm going with it.  In our previous issue we saw Fury make her mark on Earth 2 by making her presence known to the rest of the Wonders and declaring her and Aqua Woman's intent on making this the best world that they possible can, but after a vision from Khalid, a bunch of the Wonders start saying fuck this world because apparently Fury's Pandora Vessel is capable of bringing the old Earth back into existence along with everyone who died with it.  Too bad that Ultra-Humanite was watching this conversation go down because he's sent his genetically altered and aged children to fetch him Fury's Vessel and Dick Grayson's son John just happens to be one of these lost boys.  Let's jump into this issue and see if bringing back the proper Earth 2 is something coming down the pipeline or if the Ultra-Humanite's super powered sour patch kids take it for themselves.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins in a weird, but understandable fashion, with Batman, Khalid, Power Girl and Huntress informing Fury of their idea of using the Pandora Vessel to bring their previous world back from the dead.  It's understandable because who hasn't wanted to go back in time and right some wrongs all Sam Beckett from Quantum Leap style?  The reason it's weird is that the conversation almost leads to fisticuffs when Fury tells this group of Wonders that their plan is dangerous and could leave them without a world at all if things went wrong.  It's funny too because Batman, obviously being the one who wants to see the Pandora Vessel used to bring back the world that came before so that he could be reunited with his dead wife and missing son, is the first to try and throw down and since he obviously isn't up to snuff against someone like Fury, he claims that he has Power Girl and Huntress backing him up........... which they immediately refute....... leaving Batman looking like a punk.  If it wasn't clear that maybe Batman doesn't have the friends he thought he did, Huntress then goes and calls him out when he claims he wants to use the Vessel for the common need....... and she just says........ no, no you don't.  Poor, poor Batman, but even with Dick Grayson feeling like the whole world is suddenly against him, our Wonders do have a point in not lying to or fighting Fury for the possession of a device that could destroy the world.

After the tensions have seized and Batman can start not feeling like such a piece of shit, Fury and him have themselves a little powwow about how the two of them have a great responsibility in being the successors to great heroes, while Power Girl and Alan Scott consider the fate of the world now that bringing back the original Earth could be an option.......... even if it is a long shot.  Too bad that all of these nice moments and thoughts of the future are just flipped on their heads when Ultra-Humanite's kids come to play.  While we were given a bunch of names for these genetically aged and altered children in the previous issue, like Scalpel, Firepattern....... and another....... the names don't really matter all that much, what matters is these kids mean fucking business more than I ever thought they could.  When these gorilla loving motherfuckers show up, the first one named Turncoat goes and steals Power Girl's powers, while the brat known as Scalpel straight up causes multiple slices and gauges across Captain Steel's midsection.......... and I was seriously disturbed here because not only is damn near impossible to cut Captain Steel, but I thought this teen terror actually cut him in half at first.  

In the end, Fury does her damnedest to put these kids in their place, while Red Tornado tries to create a distraction so that the Wonders can get Captain Steel to medical, but it all comes down to the kid known as Firepattern, who we all saw in the previous issue is actually John Grayson, going after the Pandora Vessel while everyone is busy trying to stay alive and whatnot. That's where he's confronted by a mask-less Batman, who went and got himself thrown out of the fight when it first began, when his exo-suite decided that walking is for people who have friends that back him up and we close this issue out with Firepattern seeing Dick and acting like me on a Saturday morning, sitting on the curb with my suitcase ready to go....... Daddy?

That's it for this issue of Earth 2: Society and while we did waste what seemed like a lot of time just reiterating that Dick Grayson misses his family and wants them back, it is kind of crucial for anyone just jumping in here and seeing the cliffhanger so I could let it go, especially since it led to Batman getting dissed in public, which is probably the best thing I've witnessed all week, but since we had this and Power Girl and Alan Scott rehashing how Alan is no longer the Green Lantern anymore, this issue really does just come off as a giant rehash of the last issue right up until things get heated with the Humanite posse, which was actually pretty intense and showed how dire things actually are.  As for the art, even though the majority of it was great, there were a few times during random action panels, where I wasn't quite sure what was going on do to the movement not having a lot of context or the characters being too small to really see what was happening to them.  Overall though, this is a so-so issue that kind of makes up for the rehash by the end, but with this series building towards something as it goes into Rebirth, I just expected a little more.

Bits and Pieces:

While you won't get much of anything new from this issue, except for a decent battle, I did find myself enjoying this story and the art for the most part.  Really though, it just spent too much time rehashing old information, while I found some of the action a little confusing to what was actually going on or who was getting hit.  I still look forward to where this story goes, I just hope that the recap each issue is kept at a minimum.

6.8/10