The heroes of Earth 2 have gone to war, seeking vengeance on Steppenwolf, the New God responsible for devastating their planet and killing their champions, Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. But Steppenwolf isn’t alone and deploys his horrific soldiers, Brutaal, Beguiler and Bedlam to fight back. Unfortunately, the heroes find themselves outmatched by these terrors from Apokolips.
Elsewhere, Hawkgirl encounters the New 52 versions of Hazard (interestingly recast as a man) and The Fiddler (a woman), while Mister Miracle and Barda must battle Fury, this world’s corrupted daughter of Wonder Woman. The issue climaxes with another classic character reinvented.
There’s a bit of unnecessary time-jumping in this issue that I could have done without. There’s plenty of action, but for whatever reason, the portion featuring the bulk of the cast felt a bit restrained. Things opened up when the scene shifted to Mister Miracle and Barda’s sequence, which is odd since they’re technically guest stars. You’d think the main cast would get the real attention, but that isn’t the case. The story is told from The Flash’s perspective, but that doesn’t do much to beef up his character. All in all, I was expecting a lot more and this issue didn’t live up to expectation.
The art, by Nicola Scott, is awesome as always, but overall it doesn’t make up for the weak story. I was expecting a lot more plot development and despite all the action, it really felt like filler.
EARTH 2 #15
Written by James Robinson
Art by Nicola Scott
Cover by Juan Doe