Convergence

“Where am I? How did I get here?”

Those are Superman’s first thoughts from the beginning of Convergence #0. Those thoughts pretty much echo my own regarding the post-Flashpoint DCU. I’ve been left cold by crossovers before, but never have I been so completely turned off by a direction than I have by DC’s “New 52” (or “DCnU” if you prefer). At the end of the “zero” issue I was mildly surprised to discover there are a few universes I’m wholly unfamiliar. But I’ve been reading the advance solicitations, and while I find myself interested in a few of the “Pre-Flashpoint” and “Zero Hour” crossovers, I am interested in virtually all of the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossovers. (Of course, at least some effort (doomed as it may be) will have to be made to make them look like 1980s-era comics.)

Convergence proper starts today.

Let’s use this thread to discuss the main series and all the crossovers, shall we?

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  • I have to say, I was underwhelmed by Convergence #0. Alos, there's no way my comics budget will stretch for all of the tie-in issues. At most, I will pick and  choose a few of the more interesitng ones.  The JSA one, for example.

  • “Where am I? How did I get here?”

    That reminds me of the SNL parody of the Vice Presidential debate with James Stockdale, back in 1992. Because I am old.

    Back on-topic, I'll be picking and choosing among the tie-ins, too -- this week I hope to pick up Nightwing/Oracle,Speed Force, Atom, Question, and maybe Superman or Justice League. I know some weeks will have more for me than others -- I think week 2 stands out as being pretty dry for me. 

  • Great idea, Jeff!

    I'm of two minds about Convergence just from the advance PR. I'll be glad to see some old "friends" again, even though they'll look and act a little different (a pre-Crisis Superman NOT drawn by Curt Swan isn't a pre-Crisis Superman). And I'm really glad that this seems to imply a Hypertime sort of thing, that all of the various iterations of the DC Universe exist somewhere, if only in Brainiac's bottles.

    On the other hand, isn't it a little early in The New 52 to take a vacation from it? And like the Baron, I was a bit underwhelmed by Convergence #0. As I said in another thread somewhere, all I got out of that issue was 1) Superman's involved, and B) Brainiac's involved. To quote a reporter in an old Doonesbury strip complaining about a politician's response: "We need a noun, senator."

    But it's too early for either response. I'll just have to wait and see.

  • Yeah, Convergence 0 didn't do much for me -- though I loved the Metropolis spread. I'm hoping the first issue will start supplying some plot, not just setup. 

  • It's almost funny how disciplined Marvel and DC have gotten at using a lot of words but not telling us anything. Even the comics avoid Spoilers about what that issue is about!

    photo tongue.gif

  • Politician speak?

    Captain Comics said:

    It's almost funny how disciplined Marvel and DC have gotten at using a lot of words but not telling us anything. Even the comics avoid Spoilers about what that issue is about!

    photo tongue.gif

  • I didn’t buy any of the crossovers or spin-offs or whatever you want to call them. I thought I’d read issue #1 first, and that drive me (or not) to the ancillary titles. (Not, as it turns out.) I was tempted to buy two or three of them, but although I miss reading DC comics, I’m still not all that nostalgic for the “pre-Flashback” universe yet. As I said, I did read issue one, thought.

    CONVERGENCE #1: I’m going to have to slip into full curmudgeon mode for this section of my post. What ever happened to telling stories with a beginning, a middle and an end? Specifically, a beginning. I was already lost on page one! There’s something to be said for writing each individual issue of a comic book to stand on its own. If that’s taking it a bit too far, each mini-series at least. This story apparently spins directly out of… something. (The Earth-2 series?) Don’t know. There’s nary a footnote or an explanatory caption in sight. (“STOP! Before reading this, you may want to read [insert relevant series/issue here]!”) DC just assumes we’ve all read whatever comics lead into this. And this is not the first time DC has done this. (Final Crisis, anyone?) I can remember the days when DC used to strive to assure that a crossover mini-series was comprehensible without have to read all (or any) of the crossovers.

    Okay, end of soapbox.

    Seriously, though, there was nothing in this first issue to indicate that my reading experience (such as it was) would be enhanced in any way by buying a cross over. (“Follow [this character/aspect of the story] into [insert relevant series/issue here], then join use back here next week for issue #2.”)

    Anyone else have any thoughts to share on issue #1?

    What about the ancillary spin-offs?

  • I picked up the Question book on a whim. I liked it OK - it gave a little background on what it would be like to be trapped in a "bottle city" with dwindling resources, and set up a conflict between the titular character and Harvey Dent.  I'm interested to see how this (sub)story turns out.

  • Jeff, I agree about Convergence #1. I didn't care for it much at all -- even knowing a little bit of the context of the Earth-2 characters (up till around 6 or 8 months ago, when I stopped reading). It was all anger and posturing, really one-note stuff. It's making me regret that I added the series to my pull list and will be buying the next 7 issues.

    The tie-in issues I've read are a lot better. I bought the Superman issue, The Question, Nightwing/Oracle, Speed Force, and The Atom (though I haven't read that one yet). Each one of them gives us glimpses into what's been happening with the pre-Flashpoint heroes, and all of those were appreciated. Convergence sets up fights between cities, and the most annoying city by far is the Flashpoint city, in which every superhero is pretty much awful. (The other cities involved in this week's books are apparently the New York of the world where The Extremists were from (I haven't seen them show up, although they could be in the Atom book), the western JLA world, and Furrywood, California, from Earth C. (Fastback shows up in Speed Force! So that'll be, like, my favorite team up of all time.)

    The good thing about the tie-ins is that they're not all immediately jumping right to combat for supremacy -- heroes are still acting like heroes. (Fastback actually calls Wally out on this, when Wally assumes that he's there to fight: "What part of 'I'm a superhero' didn't you catch?") Meanwhile, the Flashpoint heroes are much more ruthless, so they'll make appropriate villains for all this. 

    In short, I think buying tie-in issues you're interested in, without the main series, is a much better strategy for this crossover. The tie-in first issues really gave you everything you needed to know, without all the teeth-gritting crossover angst.

  • So each of the tie-ins is set in one or another of the bottle cities? Hmm... There's something I don't like about that concept.

    The ones that interested me this week were Superman, Nightwing/Oracle and Speed Force (although, as I indicated earlier, I didn't buy any of them).

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