Review: Earth 2 Volume 3 - Battle Cry

After staging a violent coup, Steppenwolf becomes the ruler of the nation of Dherain and immediately engages in a war with the World Army. The wonders of Earth unite against this threat, but Steppenwolf’s warriors may be too powerful for them to defeat. Meanwhile, Hawkgirl continues her search for answers regarding the death of Green Lantern’s fiancé.

Earth 2 Volume 3: Battle Cry collects Earth 2 #13-16, Earth 2 Annual #1, and Earth 2 #15.1, written by James Robinson and illustrated by Nicola Scott. Additional writing is by Paul Levitz and art by Yildiray Cinar.

Battle Cry is a bit of a mess. Where the previous two collections featured some solid character development, this one fails to deliver on that end and instead focuses on a war between the World Army and Steppenwolf that doesn’t quite get the build-up it needed. There are also numerous subplots – namely the introduction of a mysterious new Batman, Fury’s pursuit of Mister Miracle and Big Barda, and Hawkgirl’s investigation into the death of Sam Zhao. As such, Robinson is throwing too much at the reader and doesn’t spend nearly enough time developing the cast he’s reinvented. I would have preferred for him to focus more on Hawkgirl, Fury, and Big Barda since the few female characters in Earth 2 have very little to do.

There are some highlights to this trade. I really enjoyed Robinson’s take on Commander Steel (named Captain Steel in this series). He manages to reinvent the character’s origin in order to make him more relatable and to increase the diverse representation Earth 2 has become known for. He’s a character I’d loved to have seen more of, but he’s sadly not folded into the main cast. Robinson manages to get in a few good twists as well. The appearance of a new Batman adds intrigue (though the cover to this trade kind of spoils that surprise) and there’s a surprising reveal during the battle against Steppenwolf that I certainly didn’t predict. Finally, Nicola Scott’s art continues to be excellent throughout. The men she draws continue to be scrumptious and I’m glad that she’s finally given more women to draw besides Hawkgirl.

This is the final volume collecting James Robinson’s work on Earth 2 (he is replaced by Tom Taylor by issue 17) and he unfortunately goes out with more of a whimper than a bang. He began the series with a lot great ideas and concepts, reinventing Golden Age characters brilliantly for a modern audience. After two decently entertaining arcs, he stumbled with this collection and ended up delivering a lead-up to Taylor’s run rather than neatly tying up the loose ends of his own. The art and high octane action compensates for this, but the drop in quality is far too noticeable not to lament.

RATING: C+