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A review by rorycb
Earth 2, Vol. 1: The Gathering by James Robinson
3.0
I am quite the fan of James Robinson's comic book output, but I wouldn't count this is as part of his best work. As interesting as the plotting was, some of the dialogue was a "Stan Lee" level of clunky. However it must have stood out at the time of the New 52 roll-out as something unique and gathered itself a strong following.
It's a bold direction to take a DC Superhero Universe, albeit a parallel one, and it's a boldness you'd wish the mainstream continuity might take. But it only in these creator driven titles, parallel to the mainstream, that interesting superhero stories get told it seems. Interesting that this wasn't to last. Due to it's success, DC management wanted to add another companion title, not written by Robinson, so he walked away from it.
But again I thought it was good but not that good.
I'm a fan of Nicola Scott's art, but I feel her work was robbed of it's specialness by the inking. As evidence I'd point to the original pencils included in the extras that look so much better. Also the title page credits attributes art to another person but doesn't indicate where that starts from, which is annoying. You can only guess when the quality of art drops that it may be this other artist, mimicking the style of Scott's.
Once again it was good, but didn't convince me as being anyone's best work.
It's a bold direction to take a DC Superhero Universe, albeit a parallel one, and it's a boldness you'd wish the mainstream continuity might take. But it only in these creator driven titles, parallel to the mainstream, that interesting superhero stories get told it seems. Interesting that this wasn't to last. Due to it's success, DC management wanted to add another companion title, not written by Robinson, so he walked away from it.
But again I thought it was good but not that good.
I'm a fan of Nicola Scott's art, but I feel her work was robbed of it's specialness by the inking. As evidence I'd point to the original pencils included in the extras that look so much better. Also the title page credits attributes art to another person but doesn't indicate where that starts from, which is annoying. You can only guess when the quality of art drops that it may be this other artist, mimicking the style of Scott's.
Once again it was good, but didn't convince me as being anyone's best work.