Convergence #1 Comic Review/Recap

Convergence #1 Review/Recap On Youtube

 

Convergence #1 Recap/Review: Fight for your city!

Our story begins in Gotham City, with a Superman confronting his old comrades in the Justice League.  But Batman says there is no point in his return.  Something has reduced Gotham to ruins, and it is coming for the heroes next.

They hear an unknown voice, warning the heroes that they have proven themselves unworthy.  They cannot find the source of their tormenter, and suddenly, the ground erupts around the league.  Most of the heroes perish in the attack, but Superman tries to race off to safety.  Clark wonders if he should help the people of Gotham, but decides against it, wanting the citizens to suffer like he did.  As he looks over the ruins, a massive fist appears out of the Earth, and swallows Kent whole.  The voice remarks that this city is yet another failed experiment, and he must begin once again.

[Related: Complete Convergence Reading Order Checklist]

Elsewhere, Thomas Wayne appears on an unknown planet.  One by one, other heroes from Earth-2 begin to appear with him.  They are confused, as the last thing anyone remembers was their final stand against Apokolips.  In his grief over losing his wife Barbara Gordon, Dick Grayson attacks Wayne, and the heroes begin to fight.  They all should be dead, and it seems that Earth-2 has been destroyed.

Before they can get their bearings, metal erupts from the ground and begins to attack the team.  The metal appears to be forming a dome of sorts around them, which this version of Superman manages to slow down with his freezing breath.  A voice then calls out to them, and the planet, a sentient being, appears before them in his avatar, a being created by merging ideas of various forms of Brainiac into one.

This Brianiac demands to know why the intruders are here without a city, and Alan Scott explains that their city was destroyed.  Brainiac says this is unacceptable.  It is strange they arrived here without a host city, and the being wonders if he miscalculated something.  The being explains that he brings cities here at their last possible moment of existence.  An error must have occurred, and he brought the Earth-2 heroes here too late and without a city of their own.

[Related: Complete Convergence Reading Order Checklist]

The being interprets this error as a signal that no more cities are coming.  This was the final collection from the last world that Brainiac will ever try to take a city from them.  It is time to determine what cities will survive, and who will perish.  One world shall fight another until only one remains.

Brainiac then simultaneously contacts all the cities within his vast collection.  These worlds came to the villain at many different times, during Infinite Crisis, the final moments of Zero Hour, a Flashpoint in time, and from Kingdoms that will never come.  Today the competition for survival begins.  The Convergence is here.

Convergence #1 Comic Review

Hello and welcome to Comic Island!  My name is Arden, and this is my recap and review of Convergence #1!

So I was a little disappointed with Convergence #0.  I found that comic to be inaccessible and not what I was hoping for.  And I’m happy to say that issue #1 was much more promising and has even softened my view of #0 a bit.

Overall this was a cool comic.  We got competent artwork, decent action, and a much better set-up for the rest of the event.  In hindsight, these first two issues do a good job at setting up the story of Convergence, and while it is a bit of a rip-off of the original Secret Wars, it still has me pretty excited.

So it could be cool, seeing all these alternate DC universes battle it out for several more issues.  My only complaint is how inaccessible everything is.  Once again I do feel like you’re supposed to know way too much about what’s going on in the DC Universe.  Last issue was dependent on Superman: Doomed, while this one expects you to know what Earth 2 is and the significance it has to current DC cannon. For new and casual readers, I wish that they took the time to explain things a little better than they have, because I feel like people are just going to get completely lost in this.  The event doesn’t feel very polished to me for that reason.  It feels thrown together, without sufficient explanation for what’s going on and why.

[Related: Complete Convergence Reading Order Checklist]

I mean I understand what’s going on, but I follow comics to a degree far greater than the average reader, and even then I found elements of this comic confusing and weird.  That’s a bad sign, because I usually understand even the most confusing comics and story lines out there.  So I’m really not convinced that everyone will be able to enjoy Convergence equally, which is a bit of a problem.

Luckily, even if you don’t understand everything that’s going on here, the story should be fun and straightforward enough.  A bunch of DC worlds are about to have the showdown of all showdowns, and it should be pretty cool if they can deliver as promised.  The details about who is from what world and when are not important if the story is fun, and this issue was a lot of fun.

Joey will be reviewing the next issue with Convergence #2, and I hope that things keep getting better.  I found issue number one was far more promising and has me much more excited for the event, but once again I find it hard to see why this comic is worth $5.  It’s a good comic, but not for the high cover price for a comic practically indistinguishable from the average publication, which you can easily get for a buck or two less.