Review: Earth 2 Vol. 2- The Tower of Fate

Quick Summary

Pros: The characters themselves are the main draw to the book, their growth and progress is great to watch. Additional worldbuilding helps generate excitement for the future and gives additional depth to actions taken in the first volume. The artwork is good throughout the book.

Cons: The volume’s main conflict is pretty generic and not that exciting.

Overall: Taking a break from the world-ending stakes of the first volume, this comic focuses more on who these new heroes are and why they are doing what they are doing. This proves to be an interesting premise and is great to watch all on its own. Add in some wonderful teases for future story arcs, and the entire collection is worthwhile. If you don’t mind somewhat of a lack of exciting conflict, this is a volume for anyone with an interest in a new world of heroes.

Story

While Earth 2 Vol. 1: The Gathering (Review) introduced us to the world in which this series is set, Earth 2 Vol. 2: The Tower of Fate, by James Robinson, takes some time out to build this world. Here readers meet new characters, see new locations, and begin to learn secrets that will undoubtedly effect the series as it progresses. Though this is all great to see, the amount of exposition accomplished here takes away from the excitement, which may not please everyone. However, the interest raised through worldbuilding and character development was more than enough to keep me interested. Overall, this volume is definitely less exciting than some other comics but it aces characters and further develops an already interesting world.

(spoilers start here)

The volume begins with what is essentially a brief origin story for Mr. Terrific and Terry Sloan. Both of these characters appeared in the previous volume but remained an enigma throughout the read. Now, we learn that Terry has committed significant crimes in the past and has some sort of goal in mind for Mr. Terrific. Establishing these characters and giving them additional motivation builds some drama for the future and also gives additional depth to the first volume.

From there, the book mostly follows the heroes’ journey to retrieve the helmet of Fate and fight off an evil witch. This battle is the bulk of the book’s conflict. Though there are some fun moments here, the entire battle is pretty predictable and does not do much to impress. It ends up feeling a bit generic and is not nearly as exciting as The Gathering‘s (Review) battle against Grundy.

However, this negative does not do significant damage to the book because, as mentioned earlier, the character development is the real star in this story. Watching the Flash come into his role as a hero, while inspiring Doctor Fate to do the same, is a great sight to see. Meanwhile, Green Lantern’s growth as a team player ends up being nearly as fun to watch. These character focused storylines provide significant distraction from the less than exciting conflict and end up being one of the book’s major draws.

Alongside this, the Robinson does a terrific job in setting up a bigger and more significant conflict to be held in a later volume. Multiple story elements tease future storylines, including the mystery behind Mr. Terrific’s significance, Terry Sloan’s mechanisms, the return of Steppenwolf, and the general potential generated by Hawkwoman, Flash, Dr. Fate, and Green Lantern working together. Each of these story elements is introduced in a way that feels completely organic and works well with the story already being told. Together, all this potential left me incredibly excited to see the payout in a future volume.

(spoilers end here)

Art

The artwork throughout The Tower of Fate proves to be almost as good as it was in The Gathering (Review). Specifically, the return of Nicola Scott means that about half of the collection looks absolutely beautiful. Scott’s clean designs and abundance of detail make every character look great and makes locations like the Tower of Fate look fantastic. Yildiray Cinar’s work is not quite at this level but still manages to look good and maintains a solid level of consistency, which is also helped by the consistency of Alex Sinclair’s colors. Overall, this is a great looking book that presents a fresh looking take on a fresh looking group of heroes.

Continuity

Earth 2 Vol. 2: The Tower of Fate continues the story started in Earth 2 Vol. 1: The Gathering (Review).

The story here continues in Earth 2 Vol. 3: Battle Cry (Review).

This volume also makes a references to another comic book, detailed below:

• Mr. Terrific’s role at the beginning of this collection seems to be a prelude to the events in Mr. Terrific Vol. 1: Mind Games (Review).