Angst? What Angst?: Despite the Tragic Keepsake, Alan Scott didn't seem to show that much sadness over Sam's death. This is then subverted in issue 7, where, when all the action has died down, and he is no longer needed to save the world, Alan can mourn. He breaks into a Heroic BSoD, and wrecks their apartment.
Broken Base: Batman and Superman stealing the show. Instead of focusing on Earth 2's unique heroes, which made the book successful, the Dark Age arc is pretty much Injustice: Gods Among Us set in Earth 2. Evil Superman wants to take over the world by force, Batman gathers and leads a Resistance to fight him. Everything revolves around Superman and Batman. While part of the fans enjoys the Dark Age arc, the other part feels that it hurts the book's uniqueness and turns it into just another Batman/Superman title. This focus continued into the following arc, which was named "The Kryptonian" after someone who was not involved in the aforementioned feud.
Ho Yay: A bit between Jay and Khalid in issue 11; Jay was Khalid's inspiration to endure the insanity to become Doctor Fate, despite only formally meeting Jay a few hours ago.
Some fans don't like the return of Batman and Superman and blame new writer Tom Taylor because he took over writing duties after The Reveal. However, both characters were reintroduced by James Robinson, the original writer.
Given that Robinson has cited differences he had with editorial over the direction of the book as the reason he left DC, there's some question as to whether both of those characters were actually Robinson's ideas or something that was mandated by higher-ups to make the book more appealing to a broader audience.
In issue 25, Kal-El's murder of Jonathan Kent in the name of Darkseid cemented that there is no turning back for him, and was intended as that point by the writers, who see it as when "Clark Kent" ceased to exist in favor of Kal-El only. However, it turns out that it wasn't Kal-El that crossed the line. It was a clone created by Darkseid that had Superman's memories.
While Highfather was already causing trouble over on the main Earth in the Green Lantern "Godhead" event, we learn in World's End #11 that he handed over Earth-2 to Darkseid "for the sake of peace". Earth-2 is being ravaged by Apokolips, and it is all because of Highfather.
Only the Creator Does It Right: Pretty much everyone agrees James Robinson was the only one who really got the book. Quality went up and down afterward, but it never hit its old heights again.
Seasonal Rot: There's some disagreement on when it set in, but general consensus is that, by the time it ended, it was a mercy killing. In more detail:
Some say the series had an immediate drop in quality once James Robinson left, with the original premise, that it was the place where the Justice Society and other discarded characters could flourish, was scrapped in favour of more Superman and Batman.
Others feel it was Worlds End that did it, with the writer blatantly not doing his research and telling drawn out, grimdark stories that just went nowhere.
And yet others feel that Society is what finally killed it, with the distrust of heroes being pushed to an unbearable extreme, Conflict Ball being the default trope, and obvious Executive Meddling at play as stories were retreaded time and again. And then the Justice Society was announced as returning, and it seemed like the series just existed to waste time by that point.
The origins of the Furies of Apokolips. Unlike the traditional Female Furies, who were born and bred on Apokolips, the four Furies were drafted into Darkseid's service and are also the the last surviving members of their race (with War, Pestilence and Death respectively being the last Tamaranean, Czarnian and Martian in this continuity). Pestilence and Death had the most heartbreaking stories of all:
Pestilence had to endure the death of her parents due to the negligence of the upper classes on her home world, who then pumped her full of diseases and dumped her on Apokolips, all so that they wouldn't have to dirty their hands keeping their planet safe.
Death had to witness her daughter's murder. Her grief was so crushing that she was willing to copulate with Darkseid so that she could be a mother again.
Solomon Grundy's origin revealed in his Villains Month issue, where he committed a murder-suicide after his wife killed herself from being raped by his boss, apparently leaving his infant son all alone.
For the longest time this series was the only place fans could turn to for characters related to the Justice Society of America after DC retconned them out of existence, but longtime readers were driven off by how many of the characters like Alan Scott and Jay Garrick were essentially gutted and made unrecognizable to the point they were the character In Name Only. Things only got worse after focus shifted away from the JSA-related characters to new versions of Batman and Superman, as well as an extended storyline about Apokolips and Darkseid. After all that, some fans view the Earth-2 cast as a bunch of Replacement Scrappy characters to the old timers of the JSA.
The JSA's costume redesigns were criticized by many for being too different from the classic looks and trying too hard for a modern/sleek aesthetic. Among these detractors was James Robinson himself, who had a special dislike for Jay's second costume◊.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: There's no mention or allusion towards Dian Belmont existing in this universe, connected to Wesley Dodds or not. Given the strong presence she had in Sandman Mystery Theatre alongside Wesley as the Sandman, her absence on this Earth was yet another example of wasted potential in updating the Golden Age and Justice Society related characters in a new setting. Even if Sandman Mystery Theatre didn't take place on the original Earth-Two, the contribution it made to both Wesley and Dian's characters is hard to ignore when talking about the perception modern readers have of them.
The Un-Twist: Batman II's identity? Thomas Wayne, of course. It's pretty much got to be, since a black-and-red, lethal force-employing, stubbly, non-Bruce Batman already appeared in Flashpoint, where he was also Thomas Wayne. It didn't help that DC spoiled his identity in a tweet previewing several Earth 2 action figures months ahead of the actual reveal, also confirmed by Robinson after he jumped ship from DC.
The Series
Ensemble Dark Horse: Baines and Walman have few lines across the series but are fairly popular for being competent soldiers who avoid the Red Shirt treatment.
Special Effects Failure: Most of the alien costumes inspire more derision than entertainment.
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