Thoughts on Earth 2 #8

Cover to Earth 2 #8, Illustration by Yildiray Cinar,
Art Thibert, & Gabe Eltaeb

I'll be completely honest, I'm not the biggest fan of the 2011 DC reboot. While I'll probably go into further detail about it at a later date, I just feel like the company missed a lot of potential with the reboot and made a number of really stupid decision over the past year.

With that being said, there are a few of their new series that I absolutely love and remain on my weekly pull list month after month. Earth 2 by James Robinson is one of these series.

I know some people don't like the series (you can't please everybody), but I love it. I think the main reason is because I see it as what DC should have done when they did the reboot: Create a universe that pays homage to the history of the characters, but makes it easy for new readers to approach the series and give old characters a new, interesting spin.

Earth 2 #8 reintroduces the general of the armies of Apokolips, Steppenwolf, and explains where he has been after the defeat of his parademon armies and the death of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman five years ago.

We are also introduced to a new character: Fury. Apparently, she is the daughter of Wonder Woman and is the Last Amazon. During the Apokolips War, Steppenwolf kidnapped her and conditioned her into being his greatest soldier.

From the appearance and the attitude she has in the comic, it feels like they took Wonder Woman and combined her with Big Barda, and I'm rather digging it. I'm really interested in seeing what happened to the character and if she'll remain a bad guy or not. I also really like the little glimpses at the relationship between the two, giving me the feeling the two have a adoptive father/daughter relationship that I find really interesting and can't wait to be expanded upon.

This issue, unlike the others, is not illustrated by Nicola Scott. For this issue, the art is by Yildiray Cinar, and it's pretty good. While it isn't as stunning as Scott's, it gets the job done and conveys the story and action very nicely.

The only real complaint I have with the issue, and it's probably the complaint I have with the series, is that Robinson tends to put dialogue into scenes that actually don't need it. There are a couple of moments in the issue where the art does a good job at conveying the story, but there is a speech bubble placed in the panel and tends to weaken it a little.

However, this is still a great issue and the teaser that we'll get to see Dr. Fate's introduction in the next issue has me really excited for February. If you like Earth 2, I highly recommend going out and picking this issue up. You will not be disappointed.