Meanwhile, over in a part of Big Two comics that it seems no-one’s paying attention to – or, at least, not those in the parts of the Internet I tend to frequent – DC’s Earth 2 series is turning out to be this strange, slightly confounding thing.
It feels, in some way, as if it’s a comic that’s taking its lead from online fandom, even as it’s also being ignored by that same fandom. For those who haven’t been paying attention, since new writer Tom Taylor came onboard three issues ago, the following things have happened:
- Lois Lane has been resurrected (kind of) as the new Red Tornado (It’s actually a robot with Lois’ thought patterns, because comics).
- We’ve met the Earth 2 Aquaman, who is actually Aquawoman, Queen of the Seas.
- Jimmy Olsen has been reintroduced as an Anonymous-style “hacktivist” – I genuinely hate that word, but everyone knows what it means as shorthand – who can telepathically interact with computers.
- We’ve met a character who just might be a new Superman (The old Superman having turned evil and started serving Darkseid because, again, comics), who – somewhere, someone got annoyed by this – is black.
(Taylor has also seemingly abandoned both Hawkgirl and Green Lantern, although the end of the most recent issue suggests that that latter won’t be true for much longer.)
The changes/new characters, being introduced so quickly can’t help but be read as Taylor reshaping the book from what Robinson was intending to whatever he wants it to be. But what is that?
There’s something about the broadened demographics of the new cast and fan service of bring back Lois and Jimmy that feels very… I don’t know, unusually self-aware for a DC book. I keep coming back to a comparison with Marvel’s Young Avengers – specifically, Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie’s Young Avengers – which doesn’t serve Earth 2 very well at all.
YA spoke to/was aware of/played up to and against the expectations of its audiences, both the “mainstream superhero” and “online fandom” groups (which are very different in terms of demographics and expectations of the genre) in a way that was far more organic and invisible than Earth 2 is doing – if that’s what Earth 2 is actually doing, of course.
Earth 2 is an oddly (and, for me, charmingly) clumsy book, and one that is undergoing a very public, very obvious makeover right now. I can’t help but feel as if its intentions are good, even if its purpose seems to be slightly obscure currently. It’s something worth keeping an eye on, if only to see where it ends up at the end of this transition – but not something where I can confidently recommend that everyone involved will enjoy either the transition or its eventual destination.
Like I said, it’s a confounding book.