Convergence #0-8 Review

 

Where do worlds go when they die?

The Earthquakes felt round the Multiverse, Superman’s lost days after “Doomed,” the World’s End – all these points will converge as the history of the DCU is spun from a new perspective, the perspective of a mad god and his arrogant child. The biggest story in DC history ties into literally every DC story ever told – and it all begins here.

Kingdom Come, Red Son, Wild West Justice League, Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew – all the worlds you remember can still be found on Telos. Everything matters. Every story matters.

Don’t miss the start of DC’s April/May 2015 event with this special issue!

 

This is it! The entire DC Universe, from the dawn of time through The New 52, must fight to survive against a threat that bends the Multiverse to its will. Your favorite characters from every era and every forgotten series are all here! But are you going to say hello again just to say goodbye forever? The stakes have never been higher as the heroes of Crisis, Zero Hour, Elseworlds, and more are brought together for Convergence!

 

As Telos, the Planet Incarnate, easily defeats the survivors of Earth 2, Thomas Wayne and Dick Grayson set off to find help in the pre-Flashpoint Gotham City. The emotional implication of these worlds colliding comes crashing down when Thomas Wayne confronts this world’s Batman, as father meets son!

Plus, Alan Scott’s attempts to connect with The Green yield unexpected results, setting our team on a quest to escape the planet. And the cyborgs of Futures End engage in a battle to the death against the reimagined heroes of the Just Imagine Universe, while the city of Superman Red and Blue takes on the opposing forces from GENERATIONS!

 

Death comes calling as an injured Telos takes out his rage on the people of Kandor, while the Earth-2 team endures another brutal casualty. And major plans are set in motion as Green Lantern and the others follow Deimos into the lost city of Skartaris to find Rip Hunter and the missing Time Masters, who could be their only hope of escape from this apocalypse for Infinite Earths!

 

Inside Skartaris, the heroes of Earth-2 must face the only man who can stop them from finding the missing Time Travelers – but why would Travis Morgan, aka The Warlord, want to kill them?

Meanwhile, Telos takes the captive Dick Grayson to several of the battling cities to prove the futility of challenging him. And whatever you do, do not miss the final page, as the surprising return of an unexpected villain could crush all hope for salvation and seal the doom of everyone on the planet!

 

The threat to the Multiverse grows as Brainiac confronts his creation Telos, and the surviving heroes of Earth-2 are stuck in the middle! Plus: A specific moment in time signals a call to all the cities that have been battling each other! Witness the final fates of the winners and losers of Convergence!

 

Free of the reign of Telos, a pantheon of heroes unite at last in an effort to defend their collective cities – but they did not count on the threat of Deimos, who suddenly seems to possess the power to tear the Multiverse apart at the seams!

 

The largest battle in the history of the Multiverse is here! Who will win and who will lose when Deimos battles the combined might of the Earth 2 survivors, the heroes from Kingdom Come, the Titans and Parallax? All this and more, as the heroes of The New 52 join the fight!

 

All the heroes of the DC Universe unite to face a crisis of infinite proportions – but when all is done, there can be only one reality. But will even that survive the battle?

 

What I thought

Convergence #0 was a good opening salvo easily tricking all that this was going to be some epic comparable to Secret Wars. That did not pan out as things continued though. Things only get good when the wonders of Earth-2 arrive on Telos. They were, like superman in the first issue on the planet without a city and as such signal to Telos that the end is near as he sets about the business of convergence where all the gathered cities must fight each other in Mortal Kombat to determine which will survive. The heroes of Earth-2 are my favorite of the new 52 batch and I must say when they arrived I became more interested in what took place. As Telos spoke to all the cities it was a veritable smorgasbord of my childhood. I saw Tangent Superman, DC one million heroes, Wildstorm, the crime syndicate of America, Superboy and the legion, Spoiler as Batgirl, Parallax Hal Jordan, Aquaman with the beard and hook etc. These are the worlds I care about not this new 52 B***. There was also a very Shang Tsung vibe circa 1995 when Telos shouted “it has begun”. As things went on Diemos was thrown into things just to provide us with a mid way villain but he was so uninteresting he detracted instead of added to the story.

It was a very action heavy series but for the most part it was entertaining if for no other reason than pure nostalgia. We also got a healthy dose of bonding between Batman/Thomas Wayne and Earth-2 Dick Grayson which lead to a climatic death scene for Thomas.

I enjoyed seeing classic Donna Troy the Troia version and classic Parallax. What gave me a fanboy broner however was the arrival of Earth-Prime heroes including Red Arrow with his cyber arm, Wally Freaking West, Stephanie Brown as Batgirl and was that my Superman? Married to Louis Lane with a kid? Classic Starfire, Cyborg and Beast boy from and Cassandra Cain as “Black Bat”! Yes, yes and a thousand yeses I needed that in my life!

The last issue was emotional on a multitude of levels.  It also restored my faith in DC Comics (a lil bit). What this series does is restore the notion that series that were cancelled untimely like Cassandra Cain’s run as Batgirl, the awesome Grant Morrison JSA, the Justice league which had Donna Troy/Cyborg and Dick Grayson filling the ranks, Black Lightning under Tony Isabella’s pen, Red Robin under Chris Yost, Kyle Rayner as lone green lantern of the universe etc. These are the stories I give a damn about! Convergence will in theory allow those stories to continue in their respective continuities. Having those stories exist in their own continuity is a great idea much the way that most image comic series exist in their own pocket dimension. Here’s hoping things pan out. DC Comics has my attention but it does every time it does a “reboot” soft or otherwise. Can DC Comics keep my attention? It will take a damn near miracle but we will see how that unfolds.

It’s telling that the heroes of Earth-2 served as the emotional center of this tale when they are a “side” universe. The new 52 while a fresh idea failed to cultivate this type of emotional tether with myself or other readers. Earth-2 was far better written and executed than the new 52 primary earth. It is perhaps for this reason that the series conclusion was so satisfying.

Overall though it was a good read simply because Earth-2 was involved and the conclusion fixed the mess that was the Flashpoint reboot. I give the series a 3/5 stars