Reading Comics 158 "Convergence Week 5"

I've decided to condense my Convergence coverage this week, on account of feeling as if, at least with this week's second issues from the spin-off mini-series, there's...less to write about than when they debuted.

We'll start with Convergence #5.  There's plenty going on with this won, including Warlord's biggest outing in years.  But above and beyond that, his nemesis Deimos has hijacked the whole darn story, supplanting Telos and even Brainiac in every possible way.  Not a bad bit of work, and this is exactly how you keep things interesting, folks, not only using a character few remember, but finding all sorts of unexpected things for him to do.  The nearest comparable figure I can think of at the moment is Extant in Zero Hour, but previously he'd been Monarch, who was the Big Bad from Armageddon: 2001.  But the villain everyone came to see in Zero Hour wasn't Monarch, but rather Parallax (you know, Hal Jordan Gone Wild!), and so to see this other guy play such a prominent, crucial role (at least for a while) added whole dimensions to the story.  And so we get to see something like that again.

By the end of the issue he's even undone the central gimmick of Convergence, telling everyone that they don't have to fight each other.  But that isn't reflected in any of the spin-offs, alas.  In Batman and Robin #2, which only have something worth saying once Batman goes full paternal.  The Extremists are generic and dull as opponents.  Nightwing and Oracle #2 dances around its plot so much, by the time the lovebirds reconcile, it just seems as if the whole story was just wasting time.  The Question #2 says more about Two-Face than any of the trio of gals.  That was the biggest disappointment.  Speed Force #2 is more or less the opposite case of the pack, in which Wally (and hopefully the reader) maybe sees his kids as less a detriment and more an asset than ever before.  Lee Weeks doesn't draw Superman #2, but Dan Jurgens does some of his modest best work in recent years, so that's good to see, even though by the time the historic birth of Lois and Clark's baby finally happens, it's mostly an afterthought.

Perhaps more revealing are the previews for June comics included in the backs of these issues.  Batman and Robin has Omega Men, which evokes the Islamic State in its execution (*gasp!*) of Kyle Rayner.  Very dramatic.  Very bold.  Nightwing and Oracle has Midnighter (which is most appropriate, because the character technically spins out of Grayson), and hopefully the whole series is this sharp.  The Question has Starfire, which features the orange-hued heroine trying to figure out how to be normal in a world where someone like her is anything but.  Should be interesting in a Power Girl kind of way.  Speed Force has yet another Green Arrow creative reboot.  Superman has Doomed, which features Alpha Centurion!  As a supporting character.  Who looks like he gets somewhat mortally injured.  It's like someone is trying to trick me into reading the series just to find out for sure...