The Wrong Earth

The Wrong Earth, Vol. 1 by Tom Peyer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When Dragonflyman chases his arch-nemesis Number One through a magic mirror, he winds up in a much bleaker world and that world's Dragonflyman and Number One end up in his...

The basic premise of The Wrong Earth is a simple one: What if the Batman of the '60s TV show ended up in Frank Miller's Batman's world. Combine that with a cover that is somewhat of an homage to Flash of Two Worlds and it's not something I could pass up.

So Dragonflyman leaves his campy, retrofuture world behind and winds up in a world of corrupt cops, psychopathic villains, and dead sidekicks. His counterpart, Dragonfly, ends up in a world where his sidekick is still alive and the criminals waste their time on ridiculously elaborate death traps. And there's a secret binding the two worlds together that will be explored in future volumes.

The writing is great. Not only can the story be viewed as how Batman has changed over time, it could be interpreted as a commentary on comics as a whole changing over the past 80 years. Plus Dragonflyman is every bit as fun as Adam West. The art does a great job contrasting the two Dragonflymen and their worlds, making Earth Omega seem like a crime-ridden hellhole and Earth Alpha like a paradise by comparison. Unlike most comics these days, I didn't feel the bite of decompression. Each issue was self contained but part of a greater whole.

Most modern comics don't exactly make the grade for me but this one checked all the boxes. I'm ready for volume two, same Dragonflyman time, same Dragonflyman channel! Five out of five stars.



View all my reviews