REVIEW: EARTH #15.2
Born on a Monday but out this Wednesday, Solomon Grundy gets his dues in Earth 2 #15.2. After making his debut in the early issues of Earth 2, Grundy has been quite for a while. This one issue makes up for his absence entirely telling us why Solomon Grundy is truly one of DC’s most evil villains.
Issue #15.2 focuses on the origins of the gray monster. His beginnings on Earth come from a meteor that crash-landed. Emerging from the fiery crash site is a tall dark figure, far different from the Grundy most fans are used to. Immediately upon unearthing himself, he goes on a ferocious tour through the closest town, leaving a trail of blood, death, destruction, and fear.
It’s hard to really characterize a figure with such a short vocabulary, other than the utilization of his actions but Matt Kind paints a chilling picture of fear of all those that cross Solomon Grundy’s path, characterizing his true wickedness. Screams of victims and hopeless defenders of their small town fill the issue.
Everything comes together with Aaron Lopresti’s pencils giving Solomon Grundy a dark malicious look that has a familiar appearance to our good old friend Allec Holland, the Swamp thing. If you can get past that oddly similar appearance out, everything else is done great. Lopresti’ really illustrates the viciousness of Solomon Grundy as he destroys cities and reduces everything to death.
This issue of Earth 2 was definitely a step away from the usual route of Earth 2 and it was a good thing. We also got one of the more freighting perspective’s on an old character. The issue was a good introduction to this new Solomon Grundy but it didn’t really go anywhere, it characterized him well, but didn’t move him in any particular direction.
Final Score: 3.45/5
J.R. Johnson