What are the pros and cons of Tom Taylor's run on Earth 2 so far?

Warning: There are SPOILERS about the current story of Earth 2 ahead.

You know, there are several DC franchises that I hold close to my heart and as you may have noted due to my How can Earth 2 become DC's answer to Marvel's Ultimate imprint? article, Earth 2 is obviously one of them.

And I'm not talking only about the most recent New 52 incarnation of that universe but also everything what came before. From Roy Thomas' All Star-Squadron and Infinity Inc. to James Robinson, David Goyer and most importantly Geoff Johns' Justice Society of America, I have been loving all the different interpretations that have existed about the heroes from that world and they even made me check their original Golden Age adventures and their Silver Age crossovers with the then known Earth 1.

Being either their original young selves or the older and more experienced versions who tried to guide the new generation of superheroes, the characters from Earth 2 always had something important to contribute to the DCU so as you may imagine once that the New 52 Earth 2 was initially announced I was incredibly excited, but also incredibly worried.

Why? Because the author who was going to handle the project was no other than James Robinson.

Yes, Robinson had under his resume some legendary works like The Golden Age and Starman, masterpieces from their respective eras that showed that he was quite competent at writing characters from the Golden Age of comics, he even created the groundwork for other authors like David Goyer and Geoff Johns to develope the now classic title JSA.

However, in recent years his output started to became uneven, especially due to his work in series like Superman and Justice League of America but most importantly, the abysmal miniseries Justice League: Cry for Justice which became one of the most critically panned titles ever. It seemed like Robinson had lost it and fans of the characters were pretty concerned about it.

Nonetheless, he started his work on the property and he did a surprisingly good job at least on the first storyline. The worldbuilding was perfect, the characters were likable and faithful to their original interpretations and it looked like we finally had a world where neither Superman nor Batman were its most important figures.

Sure, things started to go a bit downhill in the second arc due to Robinson's typical flaws like his unnatural and awkward narration as well as his slow pacing so most people, including myself, were not that annoyed when it was announced that a new author was going to replace him on the book.

Enter Tom Taylor.

Now, Taylor might be a new addtion to DC's roster of writers but is one who showed great expertise at portraying their characters due to his acclaimed Injustice: Gods Among Us digital series based on the videogame with the same name. A series that was much better than it deserved to be due to the material in which was inspired, full of both shocking and charming moments that were executed perfectly, Injustice became so popular that it quickly justified a sequel to expand the story of that especific universe, something that not even the original videogame could.

Fans of such series immediately realized that this could turn into a big opportunity for Earth 2 since Taylor's writing skills were quite sharp, his abilities to create intense scenes were great and his characterization was pretty accurate for the most part.

And Taylor certainly delivered on that promise at the beginning, as you may remember my initial thoughts about his first issue were more than positive, I honestly believed that Taylor was going to succeed where Robinson failed.

Then again, the more issues passed, the more I felt that something was wrong, not horrible or anything like that but still wrong.

So this where I'm coming from: What are the pros and cons of Tom Taylor's run on Earth 2 so far?

Let's start with the positives first shall we?

PROS

Execution-wise, is the best the title has been since ever.

As I mentioned before, Taylor's craft is quite good but I need to remark how good is compared to Robinson's.

For one, his narration flows much better, the characters actually express themselves like normal people would, something that was quite rare on Robinson's run, which permits a much more believable story (you know, as far as superhero stories go).

Second, his pacing is superior too. Robinson's second arc was so decompressed that fans started to lose interest on the series. Taylor on the other hand moves the plot faster and he's able to pack each issue with a lot of content which creates a much more satisfying read.

Finally, all the scenes are created with a strong craft. Robinson's scenes were good at times too but his dialogue usually ruined them, Taylor doesn't have such problem which brings me to my next point:

The shocking moments are truly shocking.

You know what I'm talking about, remember that initial scene where it was revealed that Lois Lane's consience was put on Red Tornado's body? That was a quite surprising segment and one that was perfectly introduced.

Other examples come when the story of the new Batman of Earth 2 was revealed, I'm not even talking about the identity since DC pretty much ruined the surprise by letting everyone know months before of the Annual. No, I'm talking about Thomas Wayne's life and how he became what he is know. Plus, what he did to the Joker of course.

Taylor has demonstrated in the past how his technique at constructing these kind of moments in the same vein as authors like Geoff Johns and Mark Millar. It's a pretty good way to make the most important segments of the story even stronger.

They're building with what was already established.

Robinson created a pretty unique and diverse cast of characters in a quite different Earth 2 from what most people used to know and it could be due that the series still conserves the same artist in Nicola Scott but thankfully most of the original intention is still maintained.

The new characters from the series are already really interesting despite of appearing for just a few issues. As I said before, Lois as Red Tornado is an intriguing addition to the roster as well as the new Jimmy Olsen from Earth 2 who has an special set of powers but even better than all of them is the new Aquawoman who quickly is becoming a new fan-favorite.

Plus, the old characters still receive a decent share in the spotlight. The Flash, Hawkgirl and Doctor Fate have gotten interesting scenes in the series but unfortunately not as much as they used to and that is where the next part of this article is going.

Let's start with the negatives now.

CONS

There's way too much focus on the big guns.

What do I mean when I say that there's too much emphasis on the big guns? Well, I mean that there's a lot of scenes concentrating on DC's most popular characters and I'm not even talking about Batman since that was the biggest worry that most people had when he appeared on the scene, he's receiving a fair share of attention.

I'm talking about Superman, there's too much focus on him and his mythos.

I should have seen that coming when Lois Lane was reintroduced as the Red Tornado, at first it was a greatly executed and impressive move but then I realized that it made the future appearance of Ma Hunkel, the original Golden Age Red Tornado, impossible. Later, Jimmy Olsen appeared as part of the cast which was also okay but not that necessary but then a new character named Val was created as a Kryptonian which made pretty obvious where Taylor was going.

Why does this bothers me? Well, for one, James Robinson intended Alan Scott, the Green Lantern, to

be the Superman of Earth 2 which was a quite unique direction for the character as well as the world where he lives on. Putting another Kryptonian on this earth means that, and I could be wrong on this, that he's going to eventually replace the old Superman and that's just unfair for the initial idea.

I understand that Superman is Tom Taylor's favorite superhero since he has mentioned it several times but I believe that there are better ways to use him in a way that doesn't makes other characters irrelevant.

Sure, one could argue that this was going to be the direction that James Robinson was going to take anyway probably due to some heavy editorial mandates but even with all the flaws that his work on this series had, I had no doubts that his plans for this franchise were pretty much the ideal.

The old characters are not receiving as much attention as before.

Sure Aquawoman and the new Jimmy Olsen are nice enough but whatever happened to Sandman, The Atom or Mister Terrific? They just received a few lines of dialogue and they were some of the prominent figures of Earth 2 in the past.

Even The Flash, who received a good moment to be fair, was quickly dispached by Superman which actually doesn't make that much sense now that I think about it since he's supposed to be faster than him.

More importantly, what happened to the immensily dangerous Terry Sloan formerly known as Mister Terrific? He was created to be one of the most threatening beings of this universe who was prepared for every problem and was immediately defeated by Superman's forces.

I don't know, I just wish that these characters weren't ignored so much.

The direction is not as on-point as it used to be.

Yeah, this is the big one and again, I'm not talking about how much attention they give to either Batman or Superman.

I'm talking about how Taylor is using some ideas that seem to forbid the potential of future appearances from classic Earth 2 characters, I have already mentioned Ma Hunkel so let's concentrate in another one.

For example there's a mention that the new Batman is using Miraclo which is a drug to that grants superstrenght, the problem is that that was the classic M.O. of Hourman and making Batman using that sustance transforms Hourman into a redundant hero, if he even appears here.

Plus, I know that in my thoughts about issue 20 I mentioned that it was good to see Red Arrow's identity being revealed as Connor Hawke but the more I thought about it, the less it made sense and therefore the less I liked it.

For those who don't know, James Robinson originally conceived Red Arrow's identity as Roy McQueen, an amalgam of both the Golden Age versions of Oliver Queen and Roy Harper since they had the same origin. That's not the only thing that bothers me though since this Red Arrow talks like Roy, acts like Roy and even appears like Roy with the red hair and the prosthetic arm which is a hint to his time as Arsenal pre-Flashpoint.

Don't get me wrong, I love Connor Hawke, he's one of my favorite members of the Arrow family but he's supposed to be a introspective and almost naive guy, not this fast-talking man who just screams "Roy".

Well guys, those are my current thoughts about TomTaylor's run so far and I could be wrong about these assumptions, in fact I hope that I'm wrong, I want to be proved wrong. Earth 2 is one of my favorite DC franchises these days and I only wish the best for it, is just that the actual direction gives me mixed opinions.

I sincerely hope that this creative team surprise me positively and I'm willing to continue give them chances, is just that there are aspects that are not currently working for me.