Earth 2 #17 Review

When Superman cuts loose, two former friends may be the only ones who can stop him.

Tom Taylor takes over the Earth 2 title from James Robinson. And fresh off his Injustice digital comics, he’s back to writing a mad Superman.

And no surprise, it works wonderfully. Even better than Injustice, I might add.

With a great reveal and a familiar hero in tow, Earth 2 has got very interesting.

The art is still spectacular as Nicola Scott remains on this title.

SPOILERS FOLLOW…………..

Superman Is now a brainwashed minion for Darkseid and was under Stepphenwolf until the New God decided to become sole ruler of Earth, which Dark Superman wasn’t too happy about.

And he got barbecued.

We shift our focus to the World Army Airbase as chaos is the order of the day. And the fact that Superman, especially an unrestrained one, is so ridiculously powerful is hammered home again and again.

As one group turn towards magic for help, another man is taking a different route (somewhat along the lines of what is happening in Forever Evil). And that man is a new Batman.

As Khalid aka Dr Fate is badly hurt by the rampaging Dark Superman (leaving him mad when the helmet cracks), Batman decides to release all the criminals who were captured earlier.

But the real reveal is that the Red Tornado android is Lois Lane.

Apparently, General Lane uploaded Lois’s consciousness into the android before being killed when Dark 

Superman punched Dr Fate into their base, causing it to collapse.

It will be interesting to see how Tom uses roboLois here, especially given how briefly he handled her in Injustice.

SPOILERS END………………….

In conclusion, this is a brilliant beginning to the next arc of Earth 2. And given all the tell tale signs that there may be a major DC crossover in the making, things may be about to get interesting.

Readers, who have been following this title, and even those who haven’t (start with this) need to pick this up, even only to see an unrestrained universe where the old rules are kicked out and nothing is predictable.

So, I give this 9.0 out of 10

+The setup is quite engrossing

+Tom writes a really good malevolent Superman

+The art is stellar

+The reveal 

- Some characters are being under-utilized