The beauty of this series is how remarkably layered that it is. Over the last few years, comics have become obsessed with chasing new readers, pushing authors to tell stories that required no knowledge of a character or its history. Thankfully, both Robinson and Taylor reject this school of thought. "Earth 2" is telling a story that started all the way in issue #1, and each successive issue has built on the previous one, leading to this moment. It's a joy to read.
In the issue at hand, a lot happens at once. Jonathan ruins Clark's attempt to have a family meal by no longer staying silent on his son returning as a "mass-murdering zealot with a dead robot wife." Clark kills him, leading Lois to conclude that it's not really Clark. Taylor makes you really wonder what Lois is going to do now that she's decided that she's no longer dealing with her husband. To complicate matters, though, Clark's emotional profession of love to Lois certainly feels real. Relationships, man. Meanwhile, GL's gambit worked, and Atlantis manages to take out the parademons. Moreover, Flash is pushed to his limits, enabling him to run to infinity and push Beguiler into it. I liked this moment the best, I have to say. Jay has been underused in recent issues, and I'm glad to see him in the game again. He had been replaced by Jimmy Olsen for a while, but Taylor makes sure that his return is unique, accomplishing something that only he can do and allowing him to grow in the process.
But, as usual, every success that the team manages to achieve is met with a challenge. Sloan figures out the way to activate the portal to bring Earth into Apokolips' orbit. So, congratulations on winning the battle against the parademons and the Beguiler, folks; unfortunately, you may have just lost the war. GL tries to hold Earth in place, but Clark arrives to stop him. Once again, another hero is forced to test himself in this issue, as Val finally confronts Kal. It's pretty clear that he's going to be the last Superman standing at the end of next issue, but it'll be interesting to see how we get there.
Looking at this issue as a whole, Taylor is just really a marvel at the scripting. It was always Robinson's weakness, but Taylor finally gives us a combination of excellent dialogue and ambitious plotting that this series needed. You can almost hear Lois growl, "You're not Clark," like the heroine in a horror movie, and Jay's diatribe at Beguiler feels organic and not expository. They turn these moments from convenient plot development into real emotional conclusions. When you add in hints of future plots -- like the mysterious fourth Kryptonian that Clark's parents sent to Earth and Dr. Fate's comment about "worlds end" alluding to the upcoming "Earth 2: World's End" series -- it's just great stuff from start to finish.
***** (five of five stars)
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