I can't remember when exactly I heard about Earth One, but I remember that it was on a message board, and that it was FAR in advance of the material getting out. At first, I didn't really know what to make of it, but as time wore on, I started to realize that I did find it intriguing, if for no other reason, than these two pieces of art.
But what was Earth One? Well, since D.C. had brought back the multiverse, it seemed odd that they would create a new segment of the multiverse that was called Earth One, but in a sense that's what they did; but let's be clear, that's only true if you imagine all alternate takes on the characters in any given media are a "different Earth."
But some of you probably don't know what I'm talking about, so I'll start at the beginning.
The Worlds we Have Lost.
Originally, Earth One was the home of D.C. Comics' main line of superheroes. This was revealed in an issue of the Flash where the character finds himself on an alternate Earth where the original Flash was living as a retired superhero.
The Flash--whose secret identity was Barry Allen, and who wore a crimson bodysuit with a cowl--deduced that he was an inhabitant of one parallel Earth (Earth-One), who had managed to vibrate his way onto another Earth (Earth-Two), which was the home of the original Flash, which he had read about as a kid because writer Gardner Fox had accidentally tuned in on the second Earth in his dreams.
This concept was expanded to include Golden Age heroes who had been rebooted in a manner similar to the Flash's: that they'd been canceled in the late '40s/early '50s, and that they'd be sort-of reintroduced, but with different costumes, secret identities and origins. Generally speaking. The Green Lantern had received a similar reboot.
Then there was the Atom whose namesake didn't even share the same power, while there were also Hawkman and Hawkgirl (or Hawkwoman) who had basically the same costume and even the same real name, but were aliens rather than Earthlings who were lead to each-other by fate and reincarnation or something.
In any case, DC expanded this concept to include heroes with no Earth-One counterparts, other alternate Earths, characters like Superman and Batman who resembled their earlier versions, and original characters. There were also other alternate Earths, but the whole system came to an end in 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths, though it was revived in 2005's Infinite Crisis.
I'm not here to give you the history of the parallel Earths, though, I plan to in a later entry. I'm just here to say that the idea of calling it Earth One has some interesting precedent, but it's also sort-of misleading, especially in the wake of both Infinite Crisis and The New 52 (seriously, let's just call it the post-Flashpoint DC Universe, New 52 is a dumb title). It's also strange that they call the line of books "Earth One" while also calling the novels themselves... So-and-So: Earth One when the stories don't even touch upon parallel Earths, so it doesn't make sense to the casual reader.
And the casual reader is the one they're after, isn't it?
Man o... uh, I mean... Superman: Earth One
The publicity for the book wasn't selling me on it. I liked the alterations to the costume, but I didn't like some of the things I was hearing. Really? They were gonna modernize it for a hip new generation by having fifty-something J. Michael Straczynski write it? We're supposed to be throttled by the fact that he's calling Jimmy Olsen Jim Olsen? Eeeek, can they doooo that? They also kept pimping it as somehow similar to Twilight, which irritated my LCS to the point where they had the books on the lowest shelf possible saying, "there! That's where Twilight-Superman belongs!"
I think he changed his mind after reading it, and for my money, I did to a bit.
But first, I'd like to air the fact that I, like many Superman fans, were wondering what form the new Superman movie would take. If it was a reboot and an attempt to be hipper, would this book be an indication of what it would be like?
Well, reading it, I felt that if that was the case, I'd be satisfied.
Don't get me wrong, I have some major problems with the book, not the least of which is that it's almost pointless when we see Clark only wearing his glasses and a suit at the end. True, his glasses would never actually fool anyone, but we're still supposed to think of them as part of the illusion. Yet, Lois, Jimmy and Perry have already seen him without them.
Another problem is the scene where Perry's criticizing Lois (who doesn't seem like much of a love-interest here) for including her opinion in what we can assume is a hard-news piece, but White is giving her the ever-esoteric little-known unwritten rule of journalism that you're not supposed to do that in that kind of story. Wow. JMS makes Perry White an author avatar to show off his background in journalism, but all he can really impart upon us is that you're not supposed to put your opinion in a hard-news story.
The story also continues on the tradition of Clark getting his job by turning in an interview with Superman... thereby making him the most unethical journalistic hack since Jayson Blair. Seriously, this was one thing in the Silver Age, but it also happened in Byrne's Man of Steel (not the movie) and it's common for Clark to get stories about Superman in just about every version.
But for all its flaws, Superman: Earth One is a fairly fun graphic novel.
As with Man of Steel, Clark spends most of the time in his street clothes and doesn't actually "become" Superman until about halfway through. Then it's a huge battle from an invading alien presence. Even though the villain looks like a member of Kiss, it still works.
For a while, I thought the OGN might be the future of comics, and if this must be the one to kick everything into gear, so be it. I wasn't exactly digging on the comics of the time, so I really wouldn't have been too sad to see this take over.
But then, of course, D.C. rebooted everything with the New 52.
I'm not here to talk about my opinion regarding D.C.'s current preeminent line of comics, except to say... how can I put this... I like them and I'm not impressed by so-called purists who rant and rave about how horrible it is. I'm also not offended that past events are no longer in canon, because this was always the case when something like Crisis on Infinite Earths, Zero Hour or Infinite Crisis would come about, not to mention that appearances in other media were never in canon, despite the importance of so many things from this...
To this...
So don't tell me they're disrespecting D.C. history by not making older comics a part of the canon.
In a way, the New 52 kind-of derailed Earth One, but in 2012, they finally got off their butts and put out the long-awaited Batman entry and guess what...
...it wasn't that great.
Batman: Ye... uh, I mean, Earth One
I picked this up at SDCC 2012 and didn't really know what to expect. When I got back to my hotel room, and popped it open, I found a scene where Batman was chasing a bad guy, took out one of his grappling devices and fell into some bags of trash after it malfunctioned.
This sort-of sets the tone for the book. This isn't the neigh-on infallible Batman we've been following as of late, but a kid learning the ropes. That is somewhat interesting, but taking it as far as this opening sequence does, it's a little impotent. No, Batman's not supposed to be infallible as some writers seem to think, but when he's downright clumsy, it's just kind-of pitying. And everyone who gives us Superman fans attitude about the character being so indestructible (something I'll lay into in a future blog), had better think this was a great character moment, because if they're saying, "no, Batman wouldn't go down like that," it just shows how full of crap they are.
We're also introduced to the supporting cast, including Alfred, who's more like his mentor than his butler. As in other versions, he's a veteran, but he uses it to train Bruce. He's like a character played by an aging Sean Connery. And if you think that's a departure, if anyone remembers Harvey Bullock, well, they completely change everything about him. Here, he's a cop who's turned into this pompous, blow-dried TV personality who does his job for the glory. At the end, we see him start to hit the bottle, but I don't know if that's really gonna make things right.
Oh, and who's the villain in all this? The Penguin. The Penguin is the mayor in this incarnation and this was something that's been hinted at in past incarnations, but here... when he's finally in office... it's just another corrupt man-about-town who's secretly a mob-boss.
The less said about the other villain--the Birthday Boy--the better.
All-in-all, Batman: Earth One is just kind-of there. Coming, as it did, after three huge films (yeah, yeah, Dark Knight Rises was on the eve of being released, but you know what I mean) it just didn't have as much resonance as Superman: Earth One, which came about as the world was eagerly anticipating Man of Steel and wanted some insight into what it would be like. There had been a Batman reboot on the horizon at the time, but I don't think too many fans were that excited. As Trentuss Magnuss alluded to in his podcast, I don't know who the target audience for this book is.
Like I said, I picked it up at SDCC. The previous year, the hype was about the New 52. Earth One may have once seemed like such a vibrant idea, but despite the predictable hate N52 has been getting, it is a much more dynamic and fleshed-out attempt at revitalizing the D.C. superhero stable.
Finally, check out this concept illustration from when Wizard speculated what would happen if D.C. did something similar to Ultimate Marvel. Look familiar?
Spider-Man 2... uh, I mean... Superman: Earth One
Seriously, Parasite as the main villain. Yeah, he's good for an episode or something, but as the main villain in their big follow-up? He's just so... street bound.
But then, that's the direction JMS was going in with this one. I was starting to lose faith that this would be the Superman book I could pitch my flagpole in and proclaim as a crowning-moment-of-awesome, and so this book did not disappoint on that level. It wasn't a crowning-moment-of-awesome. It was a crowning-moment-of-decent but derivative.
This isn't a bad book, but it's so pedestrian. There's a sub-plot about Clark befriending a hooker, and he also abandons his costume and gives up. This is a cliché that's been taken all the way to the big screen in one of the greatest superhero films of all time. It's like they were aiming for Spider-Man 2 but ended up with Star Trek Into Darkness.
While I like the design of this Superman, I kind-of feel like he should be a little older looking. Ididn't seem like much time had gone by, but I think sooner-or-later, he's gonna have to get big... unless, of course, they're not doing anymore.
By this point, the New 52 had been on the market for about a year. The media had ballyhooed it as having breathed new life into D.C. and comics in general, though a subsequent Nielsen study suggested that it hadn't gotten too many people to start reading comics all together. While the consensus among many fans is negative toward New 52, it raised sales for D.C., and invigorated the line with an energy unseen in quite some time.
The Bottom Line
Ultimately, I think Earth One was an experiment that just never went anywhere. I can't call it a failure because sales seem to have been pretty good. It's just not a raving success either. This seemed to be D.C.'s long-awaited answer to Ultimate Marvel (as All-Star had already been labelled) but just as Ultimate Marvel eventually just became this alternate universe within the Marvel multiverse, Earth One has become just another "modernization" at a time when D.C.'s been pumping out "modernizations' all over the landscape of TV, movies and yes, the regular monthly comics.
In other words, why do you need this...
...when you've got this?
Basically, Earth One was an ill-timed attempt at something similar to Marvel's "Ultimate" line in a format that may work better for the overall concept, but where it took Marvel a whole decade to realize how pointless that line was, it's only been three years, and it already seems dead in its tracks. It's not something to follow regularly like a comic book or TV series, nor is it the event that a movie or even as interesting as a high-concept "Elseworlds" graphic novel is. Tellingly, a planned Wonder Woman: Earth One is being renamed Wonder Woman: the Trial of Diana Prince, almost as if to distance it from the books discussed in this writing.
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