Earth 2 #7

I have only been reading Earth-2 on and off, picking up about every second issue (I don’t have a set DC series the first week of the month) but every time I come back to it I keep wondering why I don’t stay here full time.  Having skipped what was presumably mostly an action issue in the previous installment, the drama picks up here up again as well as the plot developments.  Evidently we can see the coming together of this team, and it is interesting to see exactly how that is happening.  To start off this from the cover, this is one of those covers that almost completely misrepresents the interior of the issue.  This was a common enough ploy in the silver age, but it is not really used the same way here.  This scene kind of happens, but it is more so a scene of friendship not of aggression between Alan Scott and Hawkgirl. 

On the subject of Alan Scott though, it is nice to see one of DC’s new 52 big reveals (the fact that he is gay) is not being used as just a prop, but that they are actually making it realistic (as opposed to the Wonder Woman-Superman romance.)  This same sort of attitude permeates the entire issue, with a few other Justice Society regulars showing up, all playing their part in the quasi-dystopian world in which they all live in.  There are lot of schemes, hard to say what will lead where, but it is evident here that the recreation of Alan Scott is not a stunt at all, and more indicative of the entire approach to this issue. 

To tie into that, the art is pretty good here as well.  I often don’t focus as much on the art, but for a compact and streamlined story, the art only helps to achieve that end result.  The redesign of several characters is pretty compelling.  This is really the DC series that should be a complete hit.  It seems that the creators here when told to go for something new and that the previous restraints were off that they really took that to heart.