Last issue, Alan Scott entered the Grey in an effort to stop Solomon Grundy’s assault on all living things on Earth, only to seemingly find himself enthralled by the Grey granting him his greatest wish, the return of his beloved Sam. Back in the real world, The Flash, Hawkgirl and The Atom are struggling to battle Solomon Grundy and his killer tangle vines. Meanwhile nuclear missiles are headed toward Grundy and the heroes in Washington DC!
I was impressed by the last issue, but this time around, this book slid right back into the mediocrity that’s plagued it since it began. I was really hoping it would come together and it’s really just not. The art is consistently fantastic. In fact, I think Nicola Scott gets better with every issue. The Green Lantern scenes in the Grey have a really excellent dreamlike quality! And her work seems to be getting increasingly detailed.
The problem is in the writing. The dialogue is unremarkable. The plot was rather bland. The mystery of this Earth’s history is fairly interesting. I liked that the World Army’s base floats over the ruins of Metropolis. I’m intrigued by the recasting of Terry Sloan from hero to villain, even if it’s kind of derivative of Ozymandias in ‘The Watchmen.’
Another problem I had is how much the characters don’t get along. The Atom is determined to capture the other heroes and attempts to do so mid-battle. Green Lantern makes a real jerky comment toward Hawkgirl and Flash that really rankled me and made me dislike him. (I wasn’t that nuts about him in the first place.) It’s getting tired. Remember when super hero teammates liked one another? The idea of them hating each other up front, only to bond later has been done relentlessly in all kinds of media. It feels stale here and just adds to the overall generic feel this book exudes.
The art’s nice, though.
EARTH 2 #6
Written by James Robinson
Art by Nicola Scott and Trevor Scott
Cover by Ivan Reis, Rod Reis and Joe Prado
