Earth 2: Society #4

I decided to continue my catch up of all of my September comics last night, after reading the Daredevil finale earlier in the week. This time came a choice between Lazarus, a Sci-fi/political book I'm loving, or Earth 2 Society, a superhero book I'm just not feeling.

The choice was simple: Earth 2 Society as then I wouldn't finish the completion of all books on a low note. Start good, finish good, leave the bad stuff in the middle!

Well, I read it and, surprisingly, Earth 2 Society #4 was a lot better than I anticipated.

This issue focused on Val-Zod, the Earth 2 Superman, as he builds and maintains a new city on Earth 2 during his self-imposed exile. When he is approached by Batman who is wanting answers about what happened last issue, the Man of Steel tells the story of why he is in hiding, the reasons for his actions and why Power Girl can't stand him.

I really enjoyed this issue, which is quite a shock because I've struggled on the last three and that's why it's been cut from my pull list. However, it's almost like the book wants to fight as the story focused more on explaining some of the things which happened between Convergence and the present day, giving me a better effort of getting me invested in the world this story inhabits. Of course, it's better that it is Superman's story as I think Val-Zod is the best creation of this series.

However, while it is a better issue, I still found a lot of problems with it which kept me from fully enjoying it. These include the big bad which, while is not the main focus here, still looms in the background. The problem I have is, while a villain has been provided for this story, I was kind of hoping for this book to be more about the world building than 'New World, same stopping villains' mentality. Instead it feels like I've been dropped in the middle of a story with little explanation as to the why these things are happening.

And then, as a side note, there is Batman. I'm starting to think that there must be a corporate mandate to making all versions of the character have identical personalities because the Dick Grayson Batman feels less like Dick Grayson and more like every other Batman I've read.

For me, the draw of this book continues to be Jorge Jimenez's art, which is totally out there and away from superhero standard, but still makes the book look epic(ish). That said there were a few flaws in it here and there this time around which dropped it's greatness (though not enough to dismiss it entirely).

As a whole, issue 4 was a better issue to me than the past three. However, it still might not be enough for me to change my mind on the series when my final mandatory pick up (I had to order issue 5) comes along. That said, if the fifth issue improves upon this one, then at least I'll get a good send off from the book.