Today I reflect aesthetically, ethically and theologically on Earth 2 #20. We continue the apocalyptic storyline in which Darkseid's forces are revisiting Earth 2 with a corrupted Superman at the helm of his forces. Meanwhile, the themes of hope that dominated in the last monthly issue continue to shine a light in the darkness, though both themes: hope and damnation, are equally present.
As a comic book, this issue worked very well, though not as well as the last monthly or annual issues (it would be hard to measure up to Earth 2 Annual #2, though). There were some awesome individual scenes, though the shift between scenes was a little disjointed, leading to some bad pacing. There was this one incredible scene with Aquawoman towards the beginning that was just dynamite: the scene was absolutely riveting, speaking to the top notch artwork one finds in this book.
Two scenes in particular warranted a more theological reflection. There is this one series of panels where the Dark Superman sends out the parademons to destroy all houses of worship on the planet. He stands there, crying out over and over that only Darkseid is god. This is something right out of the Book of Revelation, this scene is brought to life here:
[Revelation 13:1-4: The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. 2 The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. 3 One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast. 4 People
worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and
they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?”]
Superman clearly is playing the role of the beast and Darkseid the dragon. The devil is always a tyrant. He can allow no diversity of thought or worship. If I'm honest, I fear those who would destroy religion as a whole. The first step to getting people to worship a political leader is to get them to become materialists. Robbed of their gods, people will not seek worshiping. Worship is a matter of course, it is like breathing, it is like an animal hunting, worshiping is what humans DO. Worship directed towards elements of this world is destructive. Immanentizing the eschaton, making a kingdom of man equivalent with the Kingdom of God, is the cause of all corruption of religion, and will be worse if done under the guise of irreligion. A religion that presents itself as a secular philosophy, grounded in 'science' will be that much harder to fight because it will not be clear that the uncertainties of religion have been corrupted into idolatrous certainties. Any 'scientific' ethics will be dangerous to us all, because any ethical position given the air of scientific certainty is going to be the worst kind of idolatry.
The devil comes in the form of something that you can worship in the world. God became incarnate one, satan becomes incarnate many times. Darkseid makes a pretense to godhood and that makes him that much more of a frightening evil. Darkseid represents everything we are inclined to worship in ourselves: power, control, wealth... to see a version of Superman attacking the weak and innocent and suggesting worship of the powerful, it is a frightening thing. That is a major theme of this issue.
Yet alongside it we have Batman trying to prepare his 'secret weapon', a kryptonian boy who may be able to challenge Superman, for battle. This boy, it turns out, spent so much time in his kryptonian pod on the way to Earth he suffers from agoraphobia. The young man will not go out into the sunlight to claim his birthright. Lois Lane, the Earth-2 Red Tornado in this world, confides in the young boy her own fears, and also expresses her faith in her former husband Superman. She claims bluntly that the Superman that is attacking their world is not the real Superman, for she knows who he is and what he can and cannot do. This statement of faith in Superman is reminiscent, too, of the faithful keeping faith in the true Christ as the false christ points worship towards the dragon in the Book of Revelation. The book ends with this beautiful moment where the young boy goes outside into the sunlight, and is assured that the light is his destiny. Here the lamb takes his place in the apocalyptic allegory. This scene mirrors the last scene of the January monthly issue, where we saw Green Lantern stirring. This also brings forth a passage from the Bible, in my mind: "the light shines in the darkness."
Where will all this lead? I don't know. What I do know is that whether intentional or not, what we have here is a hard-core exploration of themes from the Book of Revelation almost on the scale of the incredible comic book Kingdom Come. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Earth 2 is DC's crown jewel, a book doing things no other monthly title I know of is doing. Every issue explores some new territory and I for one am riveted, and inspired.
My overall rating for this issue is 4 Stars.
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