How quickly the mighty have fallen!  As the world recovers from Solomon Grundy’s assault– remarkably quickly, by the way– Green Lantern Alan Scott topples from the high-and-mighty position he occupied last issue.  We finally get to see Alan come to grips with the death of his beloved almost-fiance Sam and it’s not pretty as he spirals into a violent depression.

Hawkgirl reveals her true identity, Kendra Munoz-Saunders as well as her occupation as a treasure hunter, a clever, modern spin on Hawkman‘s old occupation as an archaologist.  In an interesting twist, we learn that her wings are real, not strap-on implements.

Kendra confronts the wallowing Alan and tries again to convince him to join her and The Flash as a new Trinity, since this universe’s Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are dead.  Alan is again resistant.

Most of the rest of this book is filled out by the verbal cat and mouse game between Amar Khan, the head of the World Army and Terry Sloan (Mister 8) a secretly fiendish super genius, responsible for the deaths millions.  Sloan has been appointed as a civilian advisor on the same level as Khan.  This is not a match made in heaven, as the infinitely dangerous Sloan is now in possibly the ultimate position of power and Khan knows it and takes steps to undermine him.

Elsewhere, we get some action involving Wesley Dodds and his Sandmen and the return of Michael Holt, the Mister Terrific from the main DC Universe, although significantly altered by this reality.

This was a nice breather issue after the epic battle of the last few issues.  It was certainly nice to get some further development on the leads of this series and not just Green Lantern and Hawkgirl.  Sloane is clearly being set up as a major baddie and Amar Khan is shaping up into an intriguing supoorting character.  There are also some really fun Easter Eggs referencing other Golden Age characters.

Yildiray Cinar’s art is quite nice!  It’s dramatic at times, grand and sweeping in others.  His action sequences have a real energy to them.  There’s lots of detail.

This series is a roller coaster for me.  This issue was really interesting and solid.  Others have left me wanting or have felt very trite and stereotypical.  It’s a real middle of the road series for me.

 

EARTH 2 #7
Written by James Robinson
Pencils by Yildiray Cinar
Cover by Ivan Reis and Gabe Eltaeb