This review contains spoilers.
Earth 2: Society #9 is written by Dan Abnett with art by Jorge Jimenez and colors by Alejandro Sanchez. In this issue, the heroes try to deal with the rising conflicts between the cities.
Previously, Hawkgirl discovered a tribe of Amazons living in secret despite believing that they had all died on the original Earth 2 with Wonder Woman’s daughter, Fury, in charge.
The cover by Jimenez and Sanchez is pretty cool. The colors are particularly great; they’re incredibly vibrant and jump off the page.
The issue begins with Fury training while speaking to Hawkgirl. Fury tells Hawkgirl that she wants the Amazons to be a force to stop war if one ever broke out.
It seems as if Earth 2 might need the Amazons stop them from war. Two of the cities are practically at each other’s throats over the lack of resources. Huntress tries to reason with the civic council of one of the cities, unsuccessfully, while Green Lantern and Red Tornado discuss creating a new constitution. Alan suggests that Lois write the new constitution because he has become too much of a God to properly think of people. Green Lantern leaves to help Power Girl fight several monsters similar to the one from the last issue while Lois begins writing.
The art is quite good throughout the book but it is spectacular in this action scene. The detail combined with Sanchez’ bright colors make for impressive pieces of art.
Red Arrow and Batman discuss the war. They point out that there just aren’t any resources on this new Earth despite it supposedly being an exact copy which is why everyone is fighting. The population is desperate for survival and they might not be able to have it.
Meanwhile, Superman has been testing parts of the world for oil but cannot find any. He comes to the conclusion that this new Earth 2 is just a stage set with no actual resources.
This is a fascinating idea. It gives the series a set of stakes. They only have a certain amount of time to live on the planet but it also makes for good social commentary. Draining Earth’s resources is something a lot of people are genuinely concerned about; this is a good topical issue.
The issue ends with Fury revealing that she wants to rule Earth 2 to keep people from destroying it.
Verdict
This is the best issue of the series so far. The art jumped out at me in a way that it hasn’t before and there is some interesting social commentary. Additionally, the subplots actually feel a bit more connected than they normally do. It’s not the most engaging read and I still think the tone is wrong but there are elements of this issue that work quite well. However, I would recommend that you wait for trade to read this story.
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