Review: Earth 2 #20

Ok, as I slowly get through my backed up pull list, I'm beginning to wonder if I made the right call in terms of the what order I should be reading everything. I say this because it seems all the bad stuff is at the bottom of the pile. So far, Daredevil and Think Tank have been terrific and, based on prior issues, I was pretty confident the same could be said about Earth 2 #20 and, after reading it, I'm glad to say my confidence paid off.



Earth 2 #20

This issue continued the opening of the (presumably 2nd) Apokolips war with Hawkgirl carrying the rest of the gang to the relative safety of the Batcave so that they can take a breath and catch up on what's going on and who everyone is (us too in case we missed it during the last few issues). Meanwhile, Superman and his Darkseid minions begin their takeover of Earth by destroying its various religious churches, temples and so on.

Tom Taylor currently gets a lot of praise for his Injustice: Gods among us comics books series (which, admittedly, I haven't read and probably won't) but I really don't get why he doesn't get equal that praise for Earth 2. Since taking over writing this series, Taylor has really cranked the story up to awesome. Even this "quiet issue" has tonnes of tension, action and drama. As much as I enjoyed the book when Robinson was on the book, I find myself wishing Taylor had been writing the title since the beginning.

Meanwhile, Barry Kitson comes in to cover Nicola Scott on the art and, I gotta say, he nails it perfectly. His work is so gorgeous and consistent I didn't even realise that Scott wasn't on this issue until just this second as I was writing it (teach me to read the credits more closely). In fact, his skill is more than proven with his showing the new Aquawoman showing her power set in a ful page spread. If he wants to cover Scott or even job share with her, I wouldn't be opposed to it.

If there is anything wrong with this title (and trust me, I tried hard to think of something) it's that I'm kind of missing the original 'Wonders' that started this series. While it's good to see all these newer characters fleshed out I am missing GL, the Flash, Atom and the Misters Terrific. They started the ball rolling on this book, it's about time they returned.

Nonetheless, this book continues to be more and more enjoyable with each passing issue. If I could only pick up one DC book (which, to be honest, I do. I don't know why) I am sure glad that it is this one as I think this is DC's best title at present.. Of course, if anyone knows of a book that's better, they are welcome to challenge me on that.