Earth 2 #25 (DC)

writer: Tom Taylor
artist: Nicola Scott

via Comic Obsessed

Earth 2 began as a series that relaunched the classic Justice Society characters in a New 52 context, set in an alternate reality that spun off the events of the Justice League opening arc of Darkseid's first appearance.  Big dramatic developments became a matter of course.

The latest big dramatic development is the debut of the new Superman.  Likely this is a character that will remain (mostly) unique to Earth 2 canon, even though he's another Krypton survivor (who teases "...another," and is not referring to Supergirl).

Tom Taylor took over writing chores from the departing James Robinson last year, and seems to have dramatically ramped up the big dramatic development machine.  He's the one who explored the new Batman (I'd still love to read Earth 2 Annual #2, where the full story of how Thomas Wayne adopted the cowl unfolds), and unleashed the returned original Superman, now apparently a force for evil and soldier of Apokolips.

So now Evil Superman has some competition.  Since this is a series that has a story that has continued nonstop since its first issue, it's maybe not an ideal one to randomly sample.  Which is not to say it can't be, but I think the impact of any given issue drops when you're no longer connected to the arcs of given characters, like the revamped Jay Garrick Flash or Alan Scott Green Lantern, both of whom were original stars of the series but are supporting characters these days.  Batman doesn't have a huge role in this issue, either, and even the new Superman only shows up for a few pages.  The most dramatic development actually involves Evil Superman.  Suffice to say, but if Evil Superman asks you to dinner, find a way to refuse.  If you can.

I'm not familiar enough with Taylor's run on the series to know if this is typical for him.  Nicola Scott has been the artist on the series since the start.  She's one of the few female artists working on an extended high profile project in comics.  Perhaps it's a good thing that even she seems to have keyed in most passionately with Evil Superman's moment.

With the upcoming Earth 2: World's End weekly series, more attention is going to be drawn to this corner of the New 52.  I'd suggest at the very least to begin with that second annual, then the issue previous to this one, so you know how the new Superman's existence is first exposed, and then continue reading, so you know how Evil Superman and New Superman measure up against each other...And then maybe you'll see how any of this relates to the rest of DC continuity, probably by next spring.  Nobody knows what's coming up.  There's speculation.  But I'm saying, maybe this is important.