New Earth 2 Batman is made grittier than his Earth 1 counterpart
3 Comments Published by Avi Green on Thursday, March 01, 2012 at 5:41 AM.
It looks like the DCnU's version of Earth 2 is being reintroduced only so they can make it darker than what the original Earth 2 was like in the Silver/Bronze Age. This quote says:
“Who will Batman kill to save his own daughter?” asks EARTH 2 editor Pat McCallum. “Right out of the gate that should tell you we’re dealing with a different kind of Dark Knight here. More ruthless, dangerous…the costume is familiar and yeah, there is a Wayne under the mask, but we’re looking at a man desperate to save the only family he has left. EARTH 2 is about to become a very bad place to be a bad guy.”It sounds more like they're trying to ape Marvel's own Ultimate line, even though unlike the since unraveled "experiment" Marvel launched in 2000, this is obviously meant to be part of the DCnU proper. The daughter they speak of is probably the Huntress, since they seem to have reverted back to the original take circa 1977. But knowing what kind of shock tactics could be behind this, that's one more reason why this is only likely to be a waste of time. An Earth 2 that's more about grisly darkness than true escapism is not what people read it for years ago.
As someone posted on another blog comment about this. It really loses a lot of its potential impact since EVERYTHING has been darker and edgier for, what? Almost two, not quite three decades, now?
We’ve got the Joker having his face deliberately cut off in the New52, Black Adam pushing his hand through Psycho Pirate’s head during Infinite Crisis, and now we hear that the New 52’s Earth 2 is going to be darker? Really?
You know what would have actually been a brave new direction? Making it (or keeping it, depending on your point of view) a lighter, airier, happier place more like it was originally. I probably wouldn’t have minded as much if DC hadn’t ALREADY rebooted everything.
Anyone want to take bets on how long it takes for another reboot, potentially courtesy of ‘Pandora’?
Sorry for the negativity, but even Crisis on Infinite Earths back in 1985(?) had some bright moments to offset the dark – in some ways this (the New 52) reminds me of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Six – it was all dark, all depressing, all the time.
Take it and run,
I really get sick of this dark and gritty stuff. What's wrong with light-hearted material, which would better balance it out? The media seems to think that because of the direction Chris Nolan took Batman, everyone has to make their characters dark and gritty.
Carl
Dark and gritty is only dark and gritty if some books aren't dark and gritty. Otherwise it's just the norm.
So Batman's the Punisher now. Dang that's original! I'm just lightheaded from the totally rad superawesome megacool possibilities. Or maybe it's from that bowl of chili earlier today, I don't know.