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chuckroOn the alternate Earth where Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman died to drive off Darkseid’s forces, new heroes have emerged. But will they been enough to stop the renewed assault from Apokolips?
The World’s End storyline looks like it was pushed too long and ran out of ideas, from the fact that several plot points just repeat over and over. How many zombie apocalypse-style humans-into-monsters tools does Darkseid really need? How many times can Alan Scott get a new burst of power that’s still not enough to save humanity? How many times can Terry Sloan not be dead? And how many tries will it take to get those goddamn shuttles to the rescue ships? (Seriously, it makes me wonder if, pressed for time, the writer just submitted the same script three times and no one noticed.)
Val-Zod’s interest in being a pacifist is something I would have liked to see explored in more detail—“What if Superman didn’t want to punch anyone?” Unfortunately, this is exactly the wrong setting to be exploring the ramifications of that, as they spend the entire series literally at war with inhuman monsters. In practice, it just means Val-Zod is neutered and Kara and Alan have to do all of the heavy hitting.
Honestly, a number of the changes to these characters would be fun to explore in a less all-encompassing setting. Black pacifist Superman meets the real world! Gay Green Lantern deals with superhero dating! A long-term rivalry between Terry Sloan and Michael Holt, the two smartest men in the world! Or heck, just some additional focus on characters like Kendra, Jay, and Khalid, who were the original focus of the series but then got pushed off into secondary (or tertiary) plotlines.
For that matter, Volume 6 is a collection of side-stories that take place between chapters of the World's End series. It was disappointing, really.
All that said, I appreciate the fact that the Earth-2 series, which effectively ran the length of the New 52 initiative, managed to tell a full story with a beginning, middle and end and that required virtually no interaction with other titles to follow. Such a rarity in this day and age.
Overall: While the Wildstorm line did the, “We’re really ending the world and it’s not getting undone” plotline first, I give them credit for going through with it here. I liked this series from the beginning because it was a genuine full reboot (one of relatively few in the New 52) and wasn’t bogged down by the requirement to fit with other books.
The World’s End storyline looks like it was pushed too long and ran out of ideas, from the fact that several plot points just repeat over and over. How many zombie apocalypse-style humans-into-monsters tools does Darkseid really need? How many times can Alan Scott get a new burst of power that’s still not enough to save humanity? How many times can Terry Sloan not be dead? And how many tries will it take to get those goddamn shuttles to the rescue ships? (Seriously, it makes me wonder if, pressed for time, the writer just submitted the same script three times and no one noticed.)
Val-Zod’s interest in being a pacifist is something I would have liked to see explored in more detail—“What if Superman didn’t want to punch anyone?” Unfortunately, this is exactly the wrong setting to be exploring the ramifications of that, as they spend the entire series literally at war with inhuman monsters. In practice, it just means Val-Zod is neutered and Kara and Alan have to do all of the heavy hitting.
Honestly, a number of the changes to these characters would be fun to explore in a less all-encompassing setting. Black pacifist Superman meets the real world! Gay Green Lantern deals with superhero dating! A long-term rivalry between Terry Sloan and Michael Holt, the two smartest men in the world! Or heck, just some additional focus on characters like Kendra, Jay, and Khalid, who were the original focus of the series but then got pushed off into secondary (or tertiary) plotlines.
For that matter, Volume 6 is a collection of side-stories that take place between chapters of the World's End series. It was disappointing, really.
All that said, I appreciate the fact that the Earth-2 series, which effectively ran the length of the New 52 initiative, managed to tell a full story with a beginning, middle and end and that required virtually no interaction with other titles to follow. Such a rarity in this day and age.
Overall: While the Wildstorm line did the, “We’re really ending the world and it’s not getting undone” plotline first, I give them credit for going through with it here. I liked this series from the beginning because it was a genuine full reboot (one of relatively few in the New 52) and wasn’t bogged down by the requirement to fit with other books.
