Monday Memories #47 - JLA: Earth 2

Each Monday this year I'll be taking a look back at a random comic, prestige format issue, graphic novel or collection of reprints from amongst my 3,000 or so comics that date from 1962 to 2003 - I figured anything in the last ten years would be too recent to hark back to.

The comics are chosen completely at random and apart from a four week lead-in period, even I don't know what I'll be looking at in the weeks to come!

JLA: EARTH 2 - 2000

Since the original Crisis on Infinite Earths back in the mid 80's, DC's original multiverse was pretty much off limits; it simply didn't exist, though there was the occasional knowing nod in its direction, particularly in Grant Morrison's Animal Man. The anti-matter universe, however, was still out there - after all, those villainous Qwardians had to come from somewhere, right?

Cue Grant Morrison performing one of his better manoeuvres - can't use Ultraman and the Crime Syndicate from Earth-3? Let's make them come from the anti-matter universe instead, allowing the characters to flourish while not causing any multiversal anomalies.

And it worked a treat. I'm not the biggest Morrison fan but here he's pretty much faultless. It's a nice, tight story that's done in one and manages to pack in both nods to the original and some nice twists along the way, not least of which is the Earth-2 of the title.

Yeah, the main DC Earth is now Earth-2 according to the anti-matter Luthor!

When the Syndicate do invade, Morrison makes brilliant use of J'onn J'onnz:

Why isn't the character written like this more often?

And he also introduces something that's been retained and brought into the latest (Earth-3) versions of the Syndicate currently appearing in Forever Evil - the romance between Owlman and Superwoman:

While some of Frank Quitely's art doesn't do it for me - his female figures are a little too skinny and their legs are waaaaaaaaaaay too long in some shots - on the whole this books looks as good as it reads.

If you haven't read this, you're missing some of Morrison's best work.