Worlds will live and worlds will die, and for Earth 2 the end is nigh. After twenty six weeks of the watching a world burn, there is only one question that needs to be asked. Was this series worth the time and effort and should you read it if you were a fan of Earth 2? If you’ve read my previous reviews you know my stance of this series but as with anything the finale can make or break the story presented. You can have an undefeated season, then lose in the Super Bowl thus making your season a failure in the eyes of fans. Is that the case for World’s End?
I have to give credit where credit is due, when it comes to the climax in superhero comics I love the scale and action that this genre of comics can bring. The spectacle of seeing colorful characters face off against the forces of evil, and the closing chapters of World’s End delivers just that in spades. Wall to wall action as each character for the most part gets their time to shine. Seeing Kara go toe to toe with Darkside or Alan Scott using his avatar abilities to prevent Apokolips from absorbing the planet. It’s a great testament to the writing staff to be able to give most of their characters their due diligence. The exception being Oliver Queen but that’s simply due to his late introduction. However for every shining moment, there are moments that leave me scratching my head.
When Dick Grayson was introduced I was a worried what his role would be for the series, and he’s been repeating line after line week after week. Lucky that pretty much stopped and my prediction came true, in that Dick Grayson in this series was completely pointless. If the whole point was just to get him along side Batman feels completely arbitrary. What makes reading about an alternate universe is seeing different interpretations on characters for good or ill. To have Dick and Batman work with each other just feels lazy. Had Dick Grayson been given actual character development instead of crying over his kidnapped son every single issue I might be more lenient on how his storyline “ended” but it’s not and the end result just makes Dick’s storyline like wasted real estate.
Speaking of fears, with Convergence fully underway and with promotional posters using various Earth 2 characters I was worried that World’s End conclusion would serve as a lead into Convergence. Which did happen, but it also didn’t happen. Thankfully the writers manage to give a conclusion for Earth 2, and it’s the exact opposite of what I expected. It’s a dour ending but given the narrative theme that’s been constant since the first issue it works. It’s a case of DC having their cake and eating as well, however thanks to solicits we know those characters will all be back in June. Not a fault of the writers just a fault of letting the general audience see solicits.
The only other detraction from this month of World’s End was the artist. Not because of the quality of art but because of how quickly art styles would change before the reader could become comfortable with any given style. Each own individual artists brings their own unique flare but it all becomes a jumbled mess.
World’s End delivered on most of my expectations, but the Grayson storyline and the constant artist switch change in the final batch of issues hurt the end product. It does deliver on the epic scale that summer blockbusters could only dream of replicating. Finally despite my fears, the writing staff manage to give a solid conclusion while also giving readers of Earth 2 a reason to check out Convergence.
Earth 2 World’s End #22-26 earns a 3/5
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