Line #19 ComicBook/JLAEarth2


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jla_earth_2_review_crime_syndicate_of_america_superman_wonder_woman_batman_flash_green_lantern_martian_manhunter_aquaman_frank_quitely_art.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''Cui Bono''[[labelnote:Translation]]Who Profits?[[/labelnote]]]]
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4	''[[ComicBook/JLA1997 JLA]]: Earth 2'' is a graphic novel written by Creator/GrantMorrison and drawn by Frank Quitely, who would later team up for the critically acclaimed ''ComicBook/AllStarSuperman''.
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6	One night, the Justice League of America rescue a passenger airliner from crashing... only to discover that not only are the passengers within already dead, but their hearts are on the right side of their chests. Going off a black box recording that mentions Lex Luthor, the League confronts Luthor in his office. However, they find that the man is not Lex Luthor, but ''Alexander'' Luthor, a heroic duplicate from a MirrorUniverse who had traversed to the DC Universe to recruit the aid of the League in his battle against their own [[EvilTwin evil counterparts]]: the Crime Syndicate of Amerika.
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8	Despite the self-contained feel of the book, the story reintroduces and reimagines the Earth-3 Crime Syndicate as Anti-Matter universe versions of the then-incarnation of the JLA and establishes their portrayal for the following decade. This version of the Syndicate would last until the events of the ComicBook/New52, where they would be rebooted as Earth 3 duplicates once more and be prominently featured in the CrisisCrossover ''ComicBook/ForeverEvil2013'' as well as ''ComicBook/DarkseidWar''. Later afterwards, both Antimatter and Earth-3 universes would be confirmed to co-exist and both Crime Syndicates plague the main DC Universe from time to time.
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10	Served as the inspiration for ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueCrisisOnTwoEarths''.
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12	Not to be confused with ''ComicBook/Earth2''.
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14	----
15	!!Contains examples of:
16	* AlternateHistory: As a backwards world, the Antimatter universe runs on this. It's not the Americans that declared independence from the British, but rather the ''British'' that tried to separate from the Amerikans.
17	* BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: The Crime Syndicate return with full force to lobotomize [[spoiler:Brainiac]] before he can achieve supreme intellect and destroy both Earths.
18	* TheBadGuyWins: This ultimately needs to happen in the Antimatter universe. As good will always triumph in the DC Universe, evil must equally prevail in the opposite spectrum.
19	* BigBad: [[spoiler:Antimatter Brainiac.]]
20	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Brainiac]] is defeated, the Earths won't collide with each other, but the Justice League is forced to abandon the other universe so as to ensure its survival. The Crime Syndicate return to ruling the world, much to the relief of the CrapsackWorld citizens of the Antimatter Earth.
21	* BlackAndGrayMorality: As "good" is the "bad" of the Antimatter universe, even the supposedly "heroic" characters come off as morally ambiguous. Alexander Luthor's temporary defeat of the Crime Syndicate reads off as being similar to a villain taking over the world. Commissioner Thomas Wayne implies to Batman that now that Gotham City is under his control, his rule will be tyrannical in nature, i.e. anyone who disagrees with him will be executed on the spot.
22	* BlackComedyAnimalCruelty: The comic ends with Ultraman trying to snipe Owlman and Superwoman with his heat vision, only to incinerate a nearby cat stuck up a tree by mistake.
23	* BlueAndOrangeMorality: [[spoiler:It says something when even in the Antimatter universe where everything is morally and physically flipped, Brainiac is still a destructive, logic-based entity intent on increasing his intelligence by any means necessary regardless of how many lives will be lost.]]
24	-->'''[[spoiler:Brainiac]]''': Beyond good + evil. Beyond the morality + conceptual framework which limits 3rd level intellects such as your own. I am free to upgrade + evolve!
25	* BlatantLies: British newsreels of the Justice League's attempts at improving the Antimatter Earth has narration peppered with praise and announcements of celebration. Meanwhile, in the accompanying artwork, the emergency food supply the Flash is bringing is being confiscated by the authorities, who are also holding back a rioting crowd trying to get to the food.
26	* CanonImmigrant: Miss Teschmacher from ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'' & ''Film/SupermanII'' appears as Luthor's secertary.
27	* CardCarryingVillain: The majority of the Antimatter Earth.
28	* ClarkKenting: If Superman's disguise is anything to go by, Lieutenant Clark Kent walks among humans while wearing a fake mustache.
29	* CompositeCharacter: Superwoman is still Franchise/WonderWoman's evil MirrorUniverse counterpart, but Morrison adds the twist that in her secret identity, she's a journalist named ComicBook/LoisLane. Though her secret identity resembles Diana Prince.
30	* CrapsackWorld: As the Antimatter Earth is always ''intended'' to be. Coming in to save everyone and fix people's problems is this world's equivalent of robbing banks and blowing up monuments.
31	* CurbStompBattle: [[https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/84/74/16/84741607548210a4c69b6833d261b98a.jpg Aquaman infamously defeats Power Ring with a single punch]]. The Martian Manhunter also easily defeats Ultraman, who is weakened due to being away from his power source, Anti-Kryptonite. Justified in-story by the fact that these fights take place in the main DC continuity, where good always prevails over evil.
32	* DarkerAndEdgier: In-universe. The Antimatter Universe is the MirrorUniverse concept taken to its logical conclusion, where practically everybody is an awful person and evil is literally ordained to win.
33	* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Owlman's entire career in villainy is a response to the loss of his mother and younger brother, Bruce Wayne.
34	* EvenTheGirlsWantHer: A woman lustfully bites her lower lip when she sees Wonder Woman on a Times Square jumbotron.
35	* EvilTwin: The entire Antimatter universe is this to the main DC Universe.
36	* EvilVersusEvil: Owlman's war with Commissioner Wayne is revealed to be this once the latter finally wins and reveals that his idea of a "good" Gotham is a totalitarian PoliceState.
37	* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Spoken word for word by Batman, who realizes that the Justice League's heroic ways are ordained to fail in the Antimatter Universe.
38	* {{Foreshadowing}}: The Crime Syndicate's motto, "Who Profits?", all but cements that there's a more dangerous foe working behind the scenes of this crossover.
39	* TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin: {{Discussed\|Trope}} and [[InvertedTrope inverted]]. The Antimatter Universe is a reverse of the main universe in every way, right down to the narrative level. Just like how the villains always lose no matter how close they are to victory in the main DCU, the heroes always lose no matter what.
40	* HairTriggerTemper: Ultraman is always angry.
41	* {{Hypocrite}}: Lois Lane, aka Superwoman, is disgusted by Jimmy Olsen's leering at her while she changes costumes. This is coming from the woman who is actively cheating on her husband.
42	* InSpiteOfANail: "BigBrotherIsWatching" is still a well-known quote. Which means in the Antimatter universe, there was an Antimatter Creator/GeorgeOrwell who wrote a version of Literature/NineteenEightyFour that still somehow managed to be a [[FountainOfMemes go-to source]] for quotes about SinisterSurveillance.
43	* InvoluntaryCharityDonation: The heroic antimatter Lex Luthor's second EstablishingCharacterMoment involves replacing and imprisoning regular matter Luthor, he apparently enjoys such donations with Lexcorp funds:
44	-->''"Oh, and divert funding from our armaments division to--let's make it 'Greenpeace' this time. And all of our employees could do with a raise. 200%? Three."''
45	* KickTheDog: A random citizen literally does this in front of the League, just to show off how crappy the Antimatter universe is.
46	* KillSat: Ultraman is a supervillain version of this. When he hears someone on Earth talking trash about him, he leaves the Crime Syndicate's satellite bases and blasts the man from space with EyeBeams.
47	* KryptoniteFactor: Inverted and defied. As a reversal of how Superman will be weakened and eventually killed by his proximity to Kryptonite, Ultraman needs Anti-Kryptonite to remain powerful and as such ends up weakening the longer he stays on Earth-2. Meanwhile, Anti-Kryptonite has no effect on Superman even if it still hurts a bit.
48	* MirrorUniverse: Unlike the pre-Crisis Earth-Three (notice the number is spelled out), basic morality is reversed on the Antimatter Universe, creating an Earth where BadIsGoodAndGoodIsBad. It's worth noting that ''everyone'' on this Earth is villainous in some way: the Crime Syndicate are obvious, the civilians outright reject the Justice League's attempts to do good, and even the "heroic" characters like Lex Luthor and Commissioner Wayne have an evil streak. Even the narrative laws are different in the Crime Syndicate's verse.
49	* MobWar: The conflict between Owlman's forces and Commissioner Wayne's police. This becomes especially clear following the reveal that Wayne fully intends to turn Gotham into a PoliceState, all but confirming that the war is less about bringing law and order to the city but more about taking control away from Owlman.
50	* MonumentalDamage: The Washington Monument is destroyed by Superwoman. It gets better.
51	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Batman's final interaction with Thomas Wayne confirms his fears: that the Justice League is doing more damage to the Antimatter world than the Crime Syndicate are by simply being heroes.
52	* MyNaymeIs: The United States of Ameri'''k'''a.
53	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Alexander Luthor's successful transport into the Matter universe paves the way for [[spoiler:Brainiac]] to send both Earths crashing into each other. There's also bringing the Justice League, the Crime Syndicate's Matter counterparts to his Earth, resulting in the Syndicate being transported to the other Earth in a form of "cosmic rebalance", and basically stranding both teams on Earths where their ideals are not allowed to achieve victory.
54	* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: The natural order in the Antimatter Universe, where "good" is that reality's "bad".
55	* NoodleIncident: Ultraman mentions a White Martian rival while fighting with Martian Manhunter.
56	* NoSell: Everything [[spoiler:Brainiac]] throws at Superman, even the Anti-Kryptonite Vision of an Antimatter Titano.
57	* NotDistractedByTheSexy: Superwoman attempts to seduce Martian Manhunter after he defeats Ultraman. Unfortunately for her, Martian romance is based around the psychological contents of a person's mind and J'onn frankly finds her mind unappealing, to put it kindly.
58	* OffingTheOffspring: Doesn't actually happen, but dialogue from Commissioner Thomas Wayne implies that he plans on offing Thomas Wayne Jr., aka Owlman. Keep in mind, this is '''his own son''', and he's already lost both his wife and the younger of his two sons.
59	* OutlivingOnesOffspring: In "Earth-1", Commissioner Thomas Wayne loses his son Bruce along with his wife Martha. This event is what causes Thomas Jr. to become Owlman.
60	* PoliceState: Commissioner Wayne declares that he will turn Gotham into one following the arrest of Boss Gordon.
61	* RaceLift: Miss Teschmacher is African-American, while she was white in the movies.
62	* ShoutOut: Flash asks if anyone hears ''Series/TheXFiles'' theme when he noticed the dead passengers' dollar bills has Benedict Arnold's face.
63	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: An interesting spin on this. The main DCU, while having many different writers who are varying shades of optimistic and cynical that put it all over the scale, is overall idealistic by premise, which is mostly selfless heroes defending the innocent people of Earth, and the message is that there will be struggling and it'll take time, but hope and justice will win out in the end. The Antimatter Universe, as a complete moral inverse, down to the narrative level, is on the absolute Cynicism end: evil is all this world knows and all it ''can'' know. Heroism is rejected by both the inhabitants and the cosmos itself, and so the book ends with the Justice League giving up on this world (for now) and the status quo of injustice and corruption restored.
64	* StopTheHeroTwist: The Justice League tries to fix the problems on the Antimatter universe, only to find out that said world's natural order is for evil to triumph over good, so in fact, they're doing a ''disservice'' to the people they want to save ''simply by being heroes''. This is demonstrated at its strongest when Batman saves Police Commissioner Thomas Wayne - father of his Owlman, his EvilCounterpart [[note]]in this world, Bruce is the younger of Thomas' two sons, and was killed along with Martha, thus sparking Owlman's career in villainy[[/note]] - from a man who was attempting to assassinate him, only for Commissioner Wayne to announce his intention of making Gotham into a PoliceState. The League then desperately tells one another of the problem, and that the two worlds will collide.
65	* SuperStrength: Alexander Luthor has natural super strength, much to Superman's shock.
66	* TheoryOfNarrativeCausality: {{Discussed}} trope. The key twist of the story was that even narrative causality was inverted on "Earth-1", so that all good deeds were doomed to failure in the mirror universe (just as evil was doomed to ultimate failure in the regular DCU). And particularly, the characters themselves realizing this, and acting accordingly.
67	** In many cases it came down to character motivations. In Earth-1, humans would toady up to any power that came along, whether it was good or evil, and would continue to be corrupt and self-serving regardless. In the good universe, Owlman discovered his alternate counterpart's father was dead and found he couldn't keep fighting because there was no one left to hurt.
68	* TitleDrop: Luthor decides that the Matter universe will be referred to as "Earth 2".
69	* {{Troll}}: Ultraman regularly lets fake money rain from his flying fortress to screw with Amerika's economy.
70	* TheUnreveal: It's never explained what kind of dirt Owlman exactly have on Ultraman to blackmail him into not harming him. It's implied to be photographic but their contents are apparently critical enough for the all-powerful demigod to begrudgingly agree to any of his terms.
71	* UnwantedSpouse: It's implied that Ultraman forced Superwoman to marry him.
72	* UnusualEuphemism: Combined with BadIsGoodAndGoodIsBad. For example:
73	** God below.
74	** Antichristing.
75	** Unholy.
76	* UpTheRealRabbitHole: The heroic version of Lex Luthor is insistent on refering to the main DC universe as "[[TitleDrop Earth 2]]."
77	* VillainousBSOD: Owlman is literally brought to his knees when he discovers that the Matter Thomas Wayne is long dead.
78	-->'''Owlman''': There's no one left to hurt.

Context ComicBook / JLAEarth2