WARNING! SPOILERS IN EXCELSIS DEO! HALLELUJAH!
Title: JLA: Earth 2
Release Date: January 2000
Writer: Grant MorrisonPenciller: Frank QuitelyInker: Frank QuitelyJLA Members: Superman,
Batman,
Wonder Woman,
Green Lantern,
the Flash,
Aquaman, and
the Martian Manhunter.
Guest Stars: Lex Luthor.
Bad Guys: The
Crime Syndicate of Amerika (
Ultraman,
Owlman,
Superwoman,
Power Ring, and
Johnny Quick) and
Brainiac.
Cameos: Commissioner Thomas Wayne,
Boss Gordon,
Jimmy Olsen,
Cat Grant, and
a certain American President eagerly anticipating getting degraded by Superwoman.
Special Features: First Appearance of the
Crime Syndicate in DC's
Post-Crisis continuity; first
hardcover JLA
graphic novel.
So what happens?The JLA tries to rescue a crashing plane, but it looks like everyone on board died long before they hit the ground. And something
weird's going on, too: the victims' money has pictures of
Benedict Arnold on the dollar bill, the corporate logo on the plane reads "
KKK Southern", and the victims' hearts are on the
right side of their bodies instead of the
left. The airplane's
flight recorder includes a reference to Lex Luthor, and when the JLA pay him a visit, they find him giving his employees huge
raises and donating money to
charity. Curiouser and curiouser...
Luthor reveals that he's actually a
renegade from an
antimatter universe. There,
good is
evil,
left is right, and Luthor is the last surviving
superhero in a world ruled by
supervillains. He has temporarily replaced the usual evil Lex Luthor to ask the JLA to help him get his universe back on the right track; Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Flash agree to travel to the
mirror universe in Luthor's cross-dimensional ship to help out, while Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter stay behind to guard against any emergencies.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the
mirror, an emergency meeting of the Crime Syndicate of Amerika is held. And who is the Crime Syndicate? There's Ultraman, a former
astronaut named
Clark Kent who gets his powers by eating a substance called anti-
Kryptonite; Owlman, the little brother that
Bruce Wayne never had, who blames his father, Gotham police commissioner
Thomas Wayne, for the deaths of his mother and brother; Superwoman, whose real name is
Lois Lane and who should've been named Superslut--she's stringing along both Owlman and the insanely
jealous Ultraman; Power Ring, a very
nervous punk with a power ring on his finger and a
Tibetan spirit called
Vulthoom in his brain; and Johnny Quick, a
junkie who relies on a
drug to get his superspeed. Along with their Brainiac
robot slaves, they have the whole world under their control, and they're glad Luthor is gone. With him out of the way, there's
no one around to mess up their schemes.
Once the JLA get to the mirror universe, Batman tries with limited success to clean up
Gotham City. Superman disguises himself as the mirror Clark Kent (he wears a
cheesy fake mustache) to lure out Superwoman, who gets slugged by Wonder Woman and then transported to the Syndicate's
Panopticon on the
moon. Once all of the Crime Syndicate is on the moon, Green Lantern uses his ring to trap all of them there.
The JLA quickly start doing
good deeds, like rebuilding
slums, distributing food to the
hungry in Amerika and third world nations like Britain, and cleaning up
corruption in Gotham. But the Crime Syndicate is able to escape to the JLA's Earth--it appears that once someone crosses over to the mirror universe, they have to leave within 24 hours, or their counterparts get bounced back across the
dimensional barrier to keep the balance between the two universes. So the Crime Syndicate gets to pound the hell out of
Washington, DC...
But things aren't working out for either the
good guys or the
bad guys. The people of the Crime Syndicate's Earth don't want to live in a world of
freedom and
justice, and Commissioner Wayne enforces the peace in Gotham by instituting a brutal law-and-order
dictatorship. On the JLA's Earth, Aquaman stabs Power Ring through the arm with his
harpoon, the Martian Manhunter easily beats a
weakened Ultraman, and Owlman loses his
faith when he discovers that his father is no longer alive to be tortured. In the JLA's universe,
evil always loses, and in the Crime Syndicate's universe,
good always loses--both teams have been made completely
ineffective...
And then Luthor and the JLA discover that Brainiac has become
sentient and has been using the
cross-dimensional technology to weaken the barriers between the matter and antimatter universes--he plans to
crash the two universes together, providing enough spare
energy to allow him to
upgrade himself into a
super-intelligent, pan-dimensional being. The only solution? The JLA has to lose. So they
desert the Crime Syndicate's world. The Crime Syndicate gets back home in the
nick of time, pounds the
stuffing out of Brainiac, and saves the day. So the JLA rebuild Washington, the Crime Syndicate goes back to
looting and pillaging, and all is right with both universes...
Cool Moments!Well, first of all, there weren't nearly as many as you might expect. The only JLA/CSA
counterparts who meet each other are Wonder Woman and Superwoman, and then it's one
punch and the fight's over. Bleah. A major
disappointment that way.
Other than that, the Crime Syndicate is very cool, as are many of the details of the mirror universe, like the male
Venus de Milo and the female
David, and the bit about the
British colonies rebelling against the
Amerikan monarchy); Martian Manhunter turning into a
monster to beat Ultraman was neat; Ultraman picking Brainiac's brain apart was
brutally nifty; the numerous interrupted
trysts between Owlman and Superwoman, Ultraman's
jealousy, and Power Ring's
terror of his teammates were all well-done, too; there were also a number of neat
Silver Age touches, like the antimatter Luthor's costume.
Cool Quotes!Green Lantern, casting his vote for traveling to the mirror universe: "I mean every superhero's got to make at least one trip to the
antimatter universe, right?"
Ultraman, making
threats: "One of these days you'll go too far, Owlman, and you won't come back."
Owlman: "Sure. Until then I have the
negatives, remember?"
Owlman, threatening Johnny Quick: "And call me '
smartass' again, I'll cut your speed powder with
horse laxative. You'll be the fastest
skid mark alive."
Superwoman, bargaining with Martian Manhunter: "We could rule this world together, I could
teach you things..."
Martian Manhunter: "We are from different
species."
Superwoman: "
I'll try anything once. Ask anyone."
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