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At the ComicsPRO meeting DC announced they would be launching three weekly comics this year. Batman Eternal just debuted last week, and The New 52 Future’s End is coming on Free Comic Book Day. And now Nerdist has revealed that as expected, the third weekly will be set on Earth 2. Creators include writers Daniel H. Wilson, Tom Taylor, Paul Levitz, Marguerite Bennet, and Mike Johnson; among the artists: Eddy Barrows, Jorge Jimenez, Stephen Segovia, Paulo Siqeira, and Tyler Kirkham. DC released a promo (above) by Ben Oliver which indicated this will be another feel good, upbeat story.

Apparently Wilson, author of How to Survive a Robot Uprising and other robot bestsellers, will be the “Showrunnrer” for this particular weekly, stating “This has been a charmed opportunity to jump straight into the deep end of a gritty, complex DC Comics series. I feel incredibly lucky to work with Mike Cotton and the rest of the legendary DC team, figuring out the ultimate fates (and sometimes origins) of so many compelling Earth 2 characters in crisis. I’m having the time of my life.”

Earth-2 is a long running alternate Earth featured prominently in DC comics and as you can see from the above, it has a black Superman who is on good terms with Power Girl and a Batman with a funny looking logo that has not impeded his ability to mourn. Although many attempts have been made over the years to simplify DC continuity by nuking variant earths, the truth is, you can’t keep a good alternate world down.

The book comes out in October.

18 COMMENTS

  1. You know, DC doesn’t have a lot to offer me anymore but I really dig Earth 2. It’s a really nice, controlled bit of world-building with some solid development and diversity. It rarely feels like a character is introduced just because there was a pre-N52 version of them (unlike the main DCU titles).

    This will kill my interest in it.

  2. Anything but more death. So, so so so so so so so tired of death. Or at least the endless promotion of death. Come on DC… turn Power Girl into a statue like hairless gorillla with eyes possesed by demonic and opposing warring 5th demensional kingdoms but please stop the rampant death. PLEASE DC! LET THE SUNSHINE IN!!!

    Multiversity can’t here fast enough!!

  3. A world with a black Superman!?!
    It’s about time.

    Now lets hope he survives the series, and we have him prominently featured in the ongoing Earth2. Many might find fault, by they have 3 writers on this doing stand-up work: Paul Levitz, Marguerite Bennet, and Mike Johnson. I think this will be worth reading.

    And maybe it’ll force Tom Taylor to stop aping his Injustice story beats on Earth2. That would be quite helpful.

  4. Mark, Grant Morrison has been using a black Superman once in a while (Sunshine Superman and President Superman come to mind). I think both were in Final Crisis and the latter may be in Multiversity.

  5. And to think that DC forever gave up working with James Robinson to publish this thing.

    Probably for the best. Besides Starman, Robinson’s talents were wasted on DC books. I hope more creators take Rucka and Waid and Robinson’s example, and realized it is dishonorable to work with the anti-creator folks at DC. I hope that after Sandman Overture is completed, Gaiman will have the sense to never waste his talents on those retarded half-wits ever again. DC does not like it when a creator shines through and becomes more of a topic than their “brand.”

  6. @Big Roth Dong-King:

    “retarded half-wits” is completely unnecessary, uncalled for, and compeltely offensive. I’m sure you’re perfectly capable of being critical of DC without unfounded personal attacks.

  7. The nice thing about Earth 2 (the last DC series I read) has been that it’s free to be imaginative and self-contained. You could (imagine this!) just buy that one series and read it by itself. But now you’ll have to buy it weekly. Sigh.

    P.S. I am sick to fucking death of “gritty”, which is why I no longer read DC. Mental health screening programs should start including “reads DC comics” on their Warning Signs of Suicide checklists.

  8. @Jason A. Quest – I read at least 10 of their titles regularly right now and have never felt or been diagnosed as suicidal. I appreciate hyperbole like anyone else, but the “grittiness” people complain about in DC comics, at least the one’s I read, is no more or less gritty than books I read from other publishers like Saga, Lazarus and Thief of Thieves.

    And I don’t understand the aversion to them putting out another book in a line that seems to have been both a critical and financial success for them. If people enjoy reading Earth 2, why wouldn’t you want to read another book that takes place in that world being co-written by the people currently writing that book. The hate for hate’s sake simply baffles me.

  9. i’m assuming Big roth thinks he’s at another site. That stuff isn’t called for.

    As for this, I’m not into weekly titles that are more than a month or two. It’s just too much eating up my monthly budget for comics. I prefer the solo titles Marvel is putting out to this concept. I’m sure it’ll be a seller, though.

  10. Oh yeah… lots of gritty in the Futures End, at least in the prologue, where Brother Ultron has taken over most of the heroes, and Terry Batman has to go back in time.

    Earth 2 started with the Trinity dying to beat Darkseid, and Robin and Supergirl being exiled to Earth 1.

    Currently, in Earth 2, Darkseid has cloned Superman, and blackhole Superman is destroying most of the world’s armed forces. (What remains is hiding out in the Batcave and on Paradise Island.) The black Superman you see is from DC-2, kept in seclusion.

    Don’t be surprised if DC spins off a Superman-2 series.

  11. So, does this mean the current Earth-2 and Worlds’ Finest will be shelved for this? That’s not clear from the article…

  12. @ chris:

    Well pardon me for the chardonnay spillage that resulted from reading my uncouth comments. This is why no self-respecting creator with talent is willing to work for DC. They and their fans have no problem completely screwing over people like James Robinson and Kevin Maguire, but if someone calls them “half-wits,” then they turn into moralistic prudes that think decency is only required when it comes their way. Not paying artists for finished pages because of storyline changes? A-OK! Referring to them as half-wits for doing so? You sir, should be brought before the Hague.

    DC and its fans have huge persecution complexes. They remind me of those billionaires who enjoy comparing themselves to prisoners at Belsen-Bergen. DC should not expect to receive courtesies that they refuse to provide others, and the same applies to you, chris. You should stop coming to this site. You don’t belong here. Or are you the only one who gets to say that to other posters?

    We should also keep in mind this story is about a weekly spin-off to a title that sells about 30K copies. The industry is truly on life-support. Sonic Disrupters had better numbers than anything being published today.

  13. @Erik Scott – Sounds to me like maybe you’re just wallowing in so much stuff that focuses on death and sin and war and doom (all words appearing prominently in DC’s current marketing) that you consider it normal. Which doesn’t make it healthy.

    And I realize that it may be difficult for someone who buys so much of it to understand, but just because someone might spend $36 a year on something, that doesn’t mean they’re eager to spend $156 a year on it … especially since the weekly format encourages greater quantity of material, not greater quality. As a creator, if I know I had 80-100 pages to play with each month instead of 20, I’d probably go for bigger panels, more pages per scene, and so on. It’s less work. And not necessarily 4-5 times better to read.

  14. DC haters are the best.

    ” As a creator, if I know I had 80-100 pages to play with each month instead of 20, I’d probably go for bigger panels, more pages per scene, and so on. ”

    I hope you are aware that weekly is not going to be written by one writer or drawn by one artist.

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