Review: Earth 2 Society Vol. 3- A Whole New World

Quick Summary

Pros: The continuation of the previous volume’s storylines is logical and interesting. Some moments within the book are exciting and a few are emotional. The conclusion places the series in an interesting position.

Cons: The bulk of the action in this book is chaotic and messy. Some of the story elements simply don’t end up making sense. The artwork ranges from lackluster to bad.

Overall: Though not a downright bad book, this collection ends up being one of the least appealing volumes in the entire Earth 2 series. It manages to have a few positives, mostly from some fun action and a few worthwhile plotlines that were carried over from earlier. However, all of this is brought down by a chaotic narrative and some of the most unappealing art the series has seen. This book may still be worth reading for hardcore fans of this comic universe but it definitely isn’t worth it for those on the fence about this world.

Story

Earth 2: Society Vol. 3: A Whole New World, by Dan Abnett, is passable but is not nearly as instantly entertaining as the previous two volumes. The collection starts out strong and has a few compelling moments as it makes its way toward the conclusion. However, along the way, there is a lot of chaos and mess. Many elements of the story are either left completely unexplained or simply don’t make much sense. This makes it hard to become fully invested in the narrative and makes the reading experience less enjoyable. A Whole New World does manage to sign off with a thrilling cliffhanger, so hopefully, the following volume will restore the series to its previous glory.

(spoilers start here)

A Whole New World starts out pretty strong by immediately continuing the Amazonian and Ultra-Humanite plotlines from the previous volume. The Amazonian plotline quickly develops in a unique way, as Fury tells the Wonders that she was impressed with Green Lantern’s sacrifice and is now willing to work with the rest of the world. It is an unexpected twist that, I believe, makes more sense than the direction the story was previously headed. Meanwhile, the Ultra-Humanite is set up as an incredibly dangerous enemy in charge of an array of other dangerous enemies.

However, as the battle between the Wonders and the Ultra-Humanite begins, things start to go downhill. The Ultra-Humanite’s forces go from being an almost unstoppable threat to being completely absent from the action entirely. Then, the Ultra-Humanite suddenly has the ability to take over the mind of anyone he chooses, yet is it never explained why he stops after taking over Alan Scott’s mind. The showdown finally concludes when the Ultra-Humanite unexpectedly shows up at the Wonder’s base, despite having the ability to simply take over another mind or simply call in his super-powered minions. The entire narrative here is simply too chaotic and flies by in a way that is hard to really enjoy.

However, these problems don’t necessarily mean that the entire showdown between the Wonders and the Ultra-Humanite is completely unappealing. There are moments of fun action between some of the Wonders and there are some decently emotional moments when Dick Grayson is reunited with his son. Plus, the conclusion to the entire collection was a very effective cliffhanger, one that made me want to immediately read the following volume.

(spoilers end here)

Art

The artwork in A Whole New World may be the most disappointing feature in the volume. Federico Dallocchio’s work is alright but it is a far cry from Jorge Jiménez’s gorgeous work in the first two volumes. This means that the awesome character designs seen previously look somewhat drab here and the backgrounds are not nearly as detailed and creative as before. There are even moments where it is unclear how injured characters are because the artwork fails to properly convey their injuries. In addition, there are pages in this book from other artists that look downright bad and significantly take away from the drama of the moment. The sudden switches in artistic quality also make the volume feel less cohesive and take away from its overall appeal. All in all, there are a lot of problems with the visuals in this book, enough to hurt the book as a whole.

Continuity

Earth 2: Society Vol. 3: A Whole New World continues the story from Earth 2: Society Vol. 2: Indivisible (Review).

The story here continues in Earth 2: Society Vol. 4: Life After Death (Review).

This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:

• The creation of the new Earth 2 is brought up in this volume. This world was created at the conclusion of the Convergence (Review) event.
• Dick Grayson’s wife died in Earth 2: World’s End Vol. 1 (Review).