COMIC BOOK REVIEW - Earth-2: Battle Cry
By The Masked Medic
novels this quickly, and I felt like I needed to capitalise on that momentum. So I thought to myself, I should probably return to DC’s Earth-2 series, because this world is kinda depressing these days, might as well see how an alternate world was faring against despots!
‘Battle Cry’ starts with a story introducing us to Captain Al Pratt, a soldier who, in the aftermath of the attack by Apokolips on his world, was imbued with abilities that allowed him to change his size. Given his newfound powers, he is immediately drafted into “The World Army”, the combined forces of all the countries that are still operating on a global basis. In the aftermath of the Apokoliptan attack, the enemy forces, led by Steppenwolf, a ruthless general, created giant fire pits which have remained on vast swathes of the landmass. After a mission to explore one of these fire pits goes awry, it appears that options are limited and the World Army must go after Steppenwolf, who has remained trapped on this Earth, with no way back home. However, it’s not just the World Army who are after Steppenwolf. The “New Wonders” consisting of the Green Lantern, The Flash and the Dr Fate of Earth-2 have come up with a plan to preemptively strike, which coincides with the World Army’s mission. Despite there being two groups of heroes trying to stop this maniac, Steppenwolf has a trick up his sleeve in the form of his three ’Terrors’, who are powerful beings enhanced with the powers of Apokolips. Will these new heroes be able to save the day and stop Steppenwolf? And who’s the new guy in a Bat-costume who is running around behind the scenes?
Look, let me start with the positives. This novel did so much laying down of lore and character development, which really helped to enhance the understanding of readers to the nuances of Earth-2 and how all these different organisations and characters interact. That being said, I felt like this novel was not as exciting as the previous two. Perhaps that’s because, honestly, I’m only interested in the main heroes and not particularly in side quests and all this other drama. Give me hero vs villain action!
The artwork was good, with very expressive faces. The one thing that I think the artist, Nicola Scott, did very well was create these huge expanses and battles. Really well done on those. I think the covers were perhaps where I felt that the novel was let down a little bit. Overall, though, a decent novel, not the best in this series, but I still love Earth-2!
Favourite Panel:
Doesn’t matter which Earth it is. Batman is as Batman does.
Favourite Character:
There were so many to choose from, and although I’m intrigued about this new Batman, I do really like the Flash of this world!
Rating:
Story Arc: ★★★½
Character Development: ★★★
Artwork: ★★★½
Enjoyability: ★★★½
Re-readability: ★★★
Level: Advanced