Earth 2 Designs

So recently DC Comics has launched a new title named Earth 2 which chronicles an alternate earth to where their main heroes are, an alternate earth that allows them to do new things, but also use heroes that belonged to the WWII era superheroes of the Justice Society of America.  So far the heroes I've shown are the ones which have appeared.  All of these characters have been re-designed.

First up, Superman.  I do like the a lot.  I wish his New 52 costume was like this. Stylized S, but this is a much more of a slight variation of his classic costume versus the armored version he has now.






Next up, Batman.  We assume this an older Batman, but we know it's one locked in a World War. In the comic, his costume was shades of gray and heavily armored.  I wouldn't want it for his regular series but I loved it in this book.

















Next up is Hawkgirl.  Hawkgirl, classically has been a Caucasian, red haired female, and whose costume often took after Hawkman, usually in red, green and tan colors, hawk symbol mid chest, and a large orange headdress that is much like a hawk in attack mode.  This however, is very, very different and I think it's great.  The blue and black are striking, especially with the white wings.  It seems much more like modern day armor, versus the often ancient warriors in a combination of different cultures classic armor that Hawman and Hawkgirl have often been seen in.  And I love the helmet - the helmet scream Egyptian, but sleek instead of aggressive.  The silver goes so well with the black and blue. Also great that they chose the Kendra Saunders incarnation who gives Earth 2 a little diversity.

Now technically, this was not a design for Earth 2 but for the New 52 reboot, but Mister Terrific has landed on Earth 2 and hopefully will be part of the cast.  I like the color combination of red, white and black, but unsure of tattoos or the no-sleeve look.  I also find chapped pants to be very odd.  However, it's not awful, but could be improved upon.  I do like the red in the face mask.

One of the best redesigns of recent years.  On Earth 2, Bruce Wayne was Batman, and his daughter, a teenage Helena Wayne, was his Robin.  This combines the classic Tim Drake look made famous on the Batman animated show, but modernizes it and makes it looks like a functional armor.  It blends in some of the former outfits shown in the flashbacks of the New 52 of both Dick's and Jason's Robin outfits in DC's new continuity.

 So this Supergirl does a much better job of matching with her Superman's costume than the current one does.  However, the biggest issue I have with this costume is the lack of skirt.  I've always felt that the skirt seems a little more common sense for an indestructible Kryptonian, a little more teenage girlish, and the unitard with bare legs always seems odd to me.

 Ahh...Wonder Woman.  I've show the design sketch that was publicized by DC.  This design got a lot of controversy, but I feel intrtepreted by Scott, it made a lot more sense.  The biggest issue that many had was whether the arm/wrist and foot/leg guards made sense.  As Lee drew them here, some could say that they would impede movement.  Others would argue why would Wonder Woman need those kind of guards, and if she did, why would she let some of her body so exposed. With out the guards, her costume harkens back to the WWII  era skirt but also evokes classic Wonder Woman as well as more Greco-Roman influences.

Now begins that new and heavily critiqued section.  This is the Flash, once an grandpa like figure in the DC Universe, with a classic Hermes/Mercury metal hat, a red shirt with a lightning bolt and blue pants, now we have a modernization of his class blue and reds with the lightning bolt.  I am actually ok with the outfit, though I feel it could be improved upon.  What I and most fans have a problem with is helmet.  Again, its intended to be a modernization of the classic hat, morphing it into a helmet.  However it just doesn't work.  It looks big, bulky, and uncomfortable.  It just doesn't work.  And while face visor makes sense on paper, it doesn't visually.  I hope that since Jay's speed now comes from the Roman god Mercury and he can create his own costume by thought, that it will change for the better in the future.  My last note, that from cover to page, Scott makes the costume look a ton better.

 Next up, and making headlines due to his changed sexual orientation is Alan Scott, the Green Lantern.  Originally Scott's GL costume was an crazy combination of colors that made sense in the 1940's but not really today.  However, this design makes him to fit in more with the Green Lanterns in the new52 universe, which Scott is not, and never really has been.  In the comic itself, the Lantern symbol was changed, and the black parts here have all been shades of green, which actually makes it worse.  I like the design, a modernized knight, but with no contrast it just looks like a blond guy wearing all green.  I'm hoping that in the near, near future, they add some color, maybe even grey or white would be a nice departure from the green and black that most accent most Green Lanterns.

Finally, the Atom.  Not the size changing hero that some may know, but what the comic and the character design has done is combine the original Atom with two related characters, Damage and Atom-Smasher, along with his new origin of being part of the Army.  Therefore, the goggles, camouflage, and helmet make sense.  The colors and seeming energy coming from the hands evokes Damage character (who was the WWII's Atom's biological son) and the size changing ability he demonstrated in #4 harkens to Atom-Smasher (the WWII's Atom's god-son).  I like this a lot, and hope that Booth - who did Atom and Hawkgirl's designs, and Scott do the future designs of characters for Earth 2 in the future.

So that's it for me for about a week or so.  I'm working on a week long retreat with my fellow Campus Ministry teammates and will be unable to blog.  So have a great week!