Convergence #4 (DC)

writer: Jeff King

artist: Stephen Segovia

Well, I think at this point it seems clear that the great cosmic significance of Convergence is going to result in...Earth 2: Society.  Maybe elsewhere, too, but as it seemed obvious from the conclusion of Earth 2: World's End and even Convergence itself, that's where the story is headed.

Pretty bold move for DC, actually.  Earth 2, without or without James Robinson, was never going to be the company's top book.  It's set in an alternate reality.  The only other time anyone was really paying attention was when this version of DC revealed Alan Scott (Green Lantern) to be gay.  And now it's not only got a weekly under its belt, but its own crossover event.

I say, bravo.  This was always a great idea, in my book.  Fans were pretty annoyed that the Justice Society concept itself was more or less discarded, but I thought that was a pretty good idea, too, finally leaving behind the concept of aging heroes and thereby making the reintroduction of at least some of them more relevant than they've been in years.

All the time travel villains this issues makes obvious (some of them always having had direct Justice Society significance, such as Per Degaton, who was featured in Geoff Johns' JSA; others like Extant who should have, considering what he did to the team during Zero Hour) add an additional layer of new significance that should certainly be interesting to explore, should they factor into the new series launching in June.

Telos identifies the Earth 2 Dick Grayson as the first he's seen who doesn't wear a mask (the current mainstream one doesn't, either, but that's after years of Robin/Nightwing/Batman), and clearly that's another element of what we can expect in the future (see how many Convergence tie-ins feature the original Boy Wonder?), his new prominence.

I'm liking Convergence quite a bit.

Convergence #3 (DC)

writer: Jeff King

artist: Stephen Segovia

The third issue of Convergence isn't as sharp as the second, but it still shows the inherent strengths of allowing a clear new voice into DC's most hallowed grounds.

The included page introduces the old stomping ground of Skartaris into the narrative.  "Old stomping ground" is a phrase here that means a relatively obscure location from Warlord, the main character from which does not appear in this issue, but who is referenced at the bottom of the page in such a way that totally redefines him in much the way Convergence itself, in full Crisis tradition, hopes to redefine DC for a new generation.

Which is to say, yes, Convergence is meant to reassure older fans that everything they loved still exists, but it's also a wonderful opportunity to use that familiar in exciting new ways.  Much as DC has done pretty much throughout its whole history.

Jeff King has a remarkable way of going about it.  The issue includes [SPOILER ALERT] the death of the Thomas Wayne Batman from Earth 2, in a sequence that includes many famous villains from Grant Morrison's "Batman R.I.P.," including of course Dr. Hurt.  It's a scene that works well for those familiar with these faces, but it also leaves Thomas Wayne's reluctant traveling companion, to that point, on his own.  The companion's name?  Dick Grayson.

I mentioned in my review of the previous issue that Dick is an excellent choice for a number of reasons to focus Convergence around.  This particular incarnation also evokes without anyone needing to point it out the star of Grayson, the familiar erstwhile Boy Wonder who is also walking around without a superhero costume these days.  Dick Grayson is best known as Robin and/or Nightwing, but the Dick in Convergence comes from Earth 2, where he was never either one, much as the Dick in Grayson is what resulted from his experiences during Forever Evil, in which he was forced to leave the costumed life behind.

An, ah, convergence...

So yeah, conceptually at least King is absolutely pulling this off.  Probably most readers are still thinking of this as a gimmicky story where heroes are nonsensically pitted against each other.  But it's quickly becoming much more than that.  I for one can't wait to see where King goes with all this.

Convergence #2 (DC)

writer: Jeff King

artist: Carlo Pagulayan

Oh, this is becoming quite good.  And as the first issue to be written solo by Jeff King, it speaks to King's ability to write a good comic book, too, and that's very good to see.

The one thing that seemed to garner universal praise for Flashpoint was when Batman, who was in the altered reality Thomas Wayne, gave the Flash a note to give to the Batman from the reset reality, which is to say Bruce Wayne.  As we all should know, Thomas Wayne is Bruce Wayne's father.  In the Flashpoint altered reality, Bruce is the one who died in Crime Alley, whereas it is much more common for it to have been Thomas.  Which is to say, having either aware of the other's existence creates instant poignancy.

King doesn't go for poignancy when he has Thomas and Bruce meet.  He deliberately avoids the exchange between them.  But the impact is still there.  It's there when Dick Grayson of one reality realizes the wife he has lost in his own is still alive in another.  This is common alternate reality material, but it's the first time a mainstream alternate reality story in DC, famously home to many alternate realities, has sanctioned such a possibility.  Thomas Wayne as Batman is walking around in Convergence, too, but the one from Earth 2, not Flashpoint.  That's where Dick Grayson comes from, and he's the lead character in the issue.  Without King having to point it out, there will be plenty of fans who find this to be ironic, because ever since Infinite Crisis this is a character who has been walking around on borrowed time.  DC had toyed with the idea of killing him off.  This was the subtext of his fate in Forever Evil.  And now in Convergence there's at least one issue where Dick is directly aware of the transience of fate.

King masterfully navigates such storytelling, with the kind of finesse not seen in a big event comic book since Identity Crisis.  If Convergence never receives a similar reputation, it will be because Convergence is far more linked to the more outlandish things comic books can do.  But the quality, certainly in this issue as we follow Dick Grayson and two Waynes, is the same.  In some ways, by allowing the reader inside the veil, which is what makes narrative captioning so powerful, perhaps even better.  On the page depicted in this review, it speaks for itself.

Convergence # 0 & 1 (DC)

writer: Jeff King, Dan Jurgens (#0), Scott Lobdell (#1)

artist: Ethan Van Sciver (#0), Carlo Pagulayan (#1)

Here it is!  The big DC event that finally brings back the pre-New 52 landscape.  All of them!

And yeah, Marvel is doing something remarkably similar in its new Secret Wars, and yeah, it's another multiverse story, which DC has done many, many times, even yeah, Marvel has made a considerable splash, too, with the whole Spider-Verse concept.

But this is pretty awesome.  And yeah, there are shades of DC vs. Marvel, too, pitting different realities against each other, but none of that particularly matters.  What matters is DC doing what it always does and usually getting little to no recognition for it: paying homage to its own past.  Not in the way Marvel does.  For Marvel, the past is directly connected to the present, even though Marvel finds creative ways around how that past is usually ignored or subverted without being outright replaced.  For DC, it's a matter of history being built on, usually at the expense of that history (so fans like to complain), but constantly acknowledging it.

Which is to say, Convergence owes Crisis On Infinite Earths a huge debt, just as Crisis owes "The Flash of Two Worlds."  And without Infinite Crisis there would be no Convergence.  And you need Final Crisis in that sequence.  And you need Zero Hour.  And so on.

What does Convergence do differently?  Well, for one, it's not really part of that sequence.  It is, in that DC has finally stopped worrying about competing realities.  That's what Crisis was all about, trying to end any such debates.  And then Infinite Crisis said it wasn't such a problem after all.  And then Final Crisis opened the doors for finding out how much fun it really can be.

But it starts a new narrative.  This one involves an existing concept, being Brainiac, the Collector of Worlds, who has long gone about the business of creating bottle cities to preserve specimens.  Now we have Telos, who is kind of like the keeper of those specimens, an intermediary in the tradition of the Monitors and Watchers, only this time condensed and not held back by a stance of noninterference.

What he comes equipped with is threats.  He states at the outset that if anyone attempts to subvert the rules, he will put an immediate end.  He wants fights.  He wants a sole survivor.  Of course, the individual spin-offs will flirt with subverting the rules all over the place.  How Telos deals with that will likely play out in the pages of Convergence itself.

In a way, Convergence mainlines the idea of comic book limbo first introduced by Grant Morrison in Animal Man.  Where DC is saying that old ideas don't really go away (which technically was done long ago with the Justice Society, who began as contemporaries of Superman but beginning with "Flash of Two Worlds" became something else), this isn't just a multiverse story, it's dealing with the direct consequences of having all this in-house competition and dramatizing it in the most direct way possible.

Lead writer Jeff King is new to comics, and so DC has paired him with a couple of veterans to pull this off.  In the preview issue, this means Dan Jurgens, and it has a true Jurgens flavor as a result, very straightforward storytelling, Superman confronting Brainiac and not being a happy camper and whatnot.  The first issue is with Scott Lobdell, meanwhile, and regardless of what fans tend to think about Lobdell, this means more intricate storytelling, flowing directly from the events of Earth 2: World's End (neither King nor Lobdell, mind you, had anything to do with that one).

Likewise on art there's a tale of two styles.  The Ethan Van Sciver who shows up in #0 actually is not a particularly ideal Superman artist.  The rest of the issue shows excellent work, though.  Carlo Pagulayan, meanwhile, is an ideal selection for #1.  He has a nice, clean, all-encompassing approach.

Also well-worth reading are the references to relevant comics at the back of each issue.