Earth-2 Superman: Before and After

[aeka]

Oh boy. Just when I was starting to get excited for the rebirth of the Earth-2 universe, they just HAD to come out with THIS.

So do you remember what was special about the Earth-2 Superman and Lois?



That's right. They were the first incarnations of the characters to get married and live happily ever after, up until Crisis on Infinite Earths anyway.

And then, DC had to come out with this shit for their new Earth-2 Universe.



“Mourning the death of his beloved, Superman carries both a sadness in his heart along with the weight of Earth 2′s welfare upon on his shoulders, while never showing this and seeming to all that he is this world’s peerless champion,” said EARTH 2 writer James Robinson.

“What would you have to do to teach Superman to kill?” asks EARTH 2 editor Pat McCallum. “He’s endured the loss of his home world, and now the Last Son of Krypton must weather the death of his soul mate Lois Lane. Just how far can you bend the Man of Steel before he breaks?”

Sigh. So much for the Superman marriage. Whoever speculated on the last post that Lois Lane would be dead on Earth-2, you were right mate. DC why you do this? D:

James Robinson, if this was your "bright" idea, I think you should've campaigned to write an Earth-3 book instead. Earth-2 IS NOT Earth-3 damnit! I can understand making Batman's world dark, but extending death and tragedy over to Wonder Woman and Superman as well is a bit much. So far the only happy person from Earth-2 is Power Girl.

I'm not sure I want to still read about an Earth-2 where BOTH Selina and Lois--two of DC's most awesome women--are fridged in order to inspire both Batman and Superman into becoming killing machines, and Earth-2 Paradise Island is massacred on top of that so that Wonder Woman can gleefully chop heads off in rage. Seriously, DC. What the HELL are you doing? This is neither new, original, or compelling storytelling material. This is the same exact shit you wrote post-Crisis, only now it seems less dark compared to this new Earth-2.

At this point, if I pick up this book at all it'll only be for Peege and Hunts.

Comments

[bradygirl_12]

Silly me, I t hought that Earth-2 might be even lighter than Earth-1, considering that was the way it was often in pre-Crisis days. The heroes came from a simpler time comics-wise and were shown to be happy in their marriages while everything was still not all rainbows 'n' roses. In pre-Crisis days you got all the marriages mentioned by another poster and Diana/Steve as well.

Fridging Lois and Selina is an old, tiresome trope. Like many others here, I DO NOT WANT a darker, edgier Supes OR Wondy. Batman does dark, not these two, at least not to this extent.

And talking about fridging, notice how many times in canon or Elseworlds the Amazons get mass-fridged?

[aeka]

Hmmm...I'm not sure if I would describe Earth-2 as being lighter than Earth-1 since it didn't feel too different in tone, but I do think Earth-2 definitely had a more Golden Age feel than Earth-1.

That being said, yeah this was not the Earth-2 I had in mind either. I was at least expecting the Lois and Clark marriage to remain intact amongst all the changes they were making, which we now know this isn't happening. At this rate, if DC killed the Amazons and Lois to push Wonder Woman and Superman into becoming darker heroes (which how again is this different from what is happening on Earth-Prime right now?), I'm putting my money on Selina's death being the reason Batman is more ruthless on Earth-2, in addition to having his daughter stripped away from him.

All in all, someone at DC got the concept of Earth-2 completely wrong, and whoever is the marriagephobe over at DC that's deciding heroes shouldn't be happy and married needs therapy. One of the appeals of original Earth-2 was that it depicted positive portrayals of loving relationships, and it was the world where the heroes were allowed to age and retire, thus letting their kids take over the crime-fighting schtick.

[bradygirl_12]

I'm afraid that the 'darker, edgier Man Of Steel film will be a total flop due to that very thing. They see the Nolanverse films rake in the bucks with the darkness and conveniently forget that Superman is supposed to inspire people with light, not darkness. The majority of people you get in a movie theater probably aren't comics fans, so will they accept a dark and gritty Superman? Seems to me that would make him an object of fear if he goes around growling like Batman.

We won't even discuss Wondy's movie since, oh, SHE DOESN'T HAVE ONE AND NEVER WILL! /rant over. ;)

I get that comics can't be Silver Age goofy anymore and that's fine, since it's a far different world now, but can't we have a good balance? The Bronze Age did pretty well with adding layers of characterization and more serious themes but not going overboard with the deaths and gore. Gore that's just in there for its own sake really bothers me.

But then, I'm not the target demographic that DC or Marvel want, either. *shrugs*

[amaniwolf]

I'm so with you on everthing you've just said. I heard also, that they're considering doing a Green Lantern Movie sequel, and their answer to why the last one flopped was, it wasn't dark and edgy enough, so the new one will be. This is really tiresome and annoying.

[bradygirl_12]

Oh, for cryin' out loud! That movie tanked because it was badly-written and the casting for the lead, IMO, wasn't right.

I don't consider Marvel's Trinity (Iron Man, Thor, & Cap) movies to be that dark and edgy. Sure, there were serious themes but I didn't feel like I needed brain bleach to get rid of the gore when I left the theater after seeing those films.

I blame Miller for everything! His psychotic Batman just brought the fanboys drooling back in the '80s. Yeesh!

Looks like we're both in the fringe demographic, eh?

[arbre_rieur]

Keep in mind that before the Burton movie, a dark and gritty Batman was just as foreign a concept to the general comic-reading audience as 'a dark and gritty Superman', the public's image of the former character being shaped largely by the Adam West TV show. But people were able to accept the darker Batman easily enough, so... who knows?

[bradygirl_12]

True, but I think that people can buy a dark Batman much easier than a dark Superman. But, as you say, we'll see. I would like to see the movie do well but I have a lot of misgivings about it.