Convergence #2

The Good

The Convergence books have been a mixed bag. It's been nice seeing some of the old familiar versions of characters but the repetitive story of version A having to fight version B is getting stretched a little. With this being the main book in the two-month event, there is a little more to the story going on. That's exactly what we would hope for.

Last issue we saw some anomalies to the "ultimate" version of Brainiac in his plan of capturing dying worlds and placing them in domes on a planet outside of space and time. Some survivors from Earth-2 arrived but without a world of their own to reside in. This prompted the planet to form a humanoid being calling itself Telos to take charge. Now it's up to the Earth-2 survivors to try to fight him/it while also figuring out what their next move is.

It seems likely that Jeff King is setting some things up for the EARTH-2: SOCIETY relaunch book for June with these characters. We also get some interesting interactions with the Earth-2 Batman and Dick Grayson.

Carlos Pagulayan and Jason Paz do a great job on the art and John Starr's color makes the characters pop off the page. We do see quite a few different characters and it's always nice to see some consistency.

The Bad

I had some issues with the way the stories in EARTH 2 and EARTH 2: WORLD'S END went. Now this story feels like it's becoming a continuation of those books. That's great for fans of those series. Newer fans or readers that missed out and are looking to see what this event is about, will feel in the dark. For example, even though I was reading both series off and on, I don't know much about Earth 2 Dick Grayson. We still don't have answers to what happened to Brainiac and why exactly Telos dropped all the domes at this moment. And where did Telos go? We know he'll back but it felt as if he suddenly was removed.

Some of the interaction between the characters from different worlds was welcomed but everyone seemed very nonchalant about it.

There are some improvements over the last issue. With this just being the second issue, I can't help but wonder where exactly all this is going and what it's leading up to.

The Verdict

The main story of Convergence continues. Fans of the EARTH 2 characters will rejoice in the follow up with the survivors that found themselves facing Telos right before the domes were dropped. The good and the bad thing is it feels like this event is starting to have a bigger focus on those characters and the upcoming EARTH 2: SOCIETY series. There is some difficulty in figuring out exactly where this story is going but thankfully we are getting more of characters from one world forced to fight another world's heroes. This issue also has some nice art and colors that makes the story's flow move quicker. We might not be sure where things are going but our curiosity is still aroused.

This was a great issue. I cant wait till Earth-0's justice league jumps into the mix

@sodamyat: I went back and forth on this issue. It was close to a 4.

i hear ya. my favorite title was justice league international. these convergence titles have been great so far. lets hope it keeps up.

I thought the dialogue in this issue was terrible. Most of what was entirely exposition, like one character saying "the ground is shaking!" or "I can't use my powers right now!", or spelling out exactly what art shows is happening. And then you had the narration boxes, with one character literally saying "My mind reeled.". It reminded me of a terrible comic from the nineties, where most of the dialogue is the characters just explaining everything that just happened and what's going on as it happens.

3/5 about right. Disappointed with main event title and Telos is a pretty weak (character wise) villian. The only thing kept me interested is fate of E2 heroes.

I didn't like this very much, I may drop it

I actually liked this, but I was a fan of the Earth-2 books.

I knew this whole event would be mediocre.

Secret wars is going to be mediocore too but peopel tend to like everything that Marvel churns out so fans will overrate it. .

Colorist needs to work harder. I quite like the penciler .

I skimmed through this at the LCS. It's still a big mess in my opinion. I'm glad I am sitting out on this event. Now that I'm picking up 0 DC comics, it gives me pause as to why should pick up DC titles in June (I feel like I haven't missed much with my couple of Indy titles and Valiant titles).

really loved this issue especially with Earth 2 Batmans moment,was really cool,and just loved how I got to see some cool characters from different storylines,great issue!

I like that Earth 2 heroes are getting the spotlight. Its so rare in a crossover.

Speaking of,

Is convergence not related to the multiverse event that was going on?? I thought it was.

convergence is canon...if thats what youre asking.

Multiversity is not?? I thought that was a prelude to Convergence....

Only 6 weeks to go.

These books are terrible so far, but I want to know what the **** is going on when DC relaunches in June so I guess DC has me by the balls.

There is way too much exposition. We didn't even get to see Batman of Earth 2 and Pre Flashpoint Batman interact. Dick Grayson's narration is boring and he is a very dry character. We still haven't seen any cool fights in the main book, I guess I have to sell out more bucks and buy the tie ins if I want to see any cool fights huh? Why is DC pushing Earth 2 so hard?

I like characters but the story is slow building. The B plot with batman was forced and mediocre.

I like the Earth 2 characters, but I am waiting for some earth 0 Heroes to actually arrive.

The tie ins are dull. It has been two weeks and nothing has happened in any of them, they still seem to be building up though so I can hope for improvement.

the idea of heroes being forced to fight feels like it has been copied straight from what Monarch did a few years ago, but then again we still don't know motivations yet sooo....

I have no connection to the earth 2 characters because i hated the new 52 reboot so it only makes sense that this book isnt for me. On top of that the dialouge is awful and the character interactions between different earths was handled poorly

There hasn't been one Marvel event in recent history that has gotten rave reviews.

There was a continuity error in this.

Dick Grayson didn't give his son over to Barda in Earth One like he did in this issue. Like, seriously, the writer couldn't have read back issues to figure that out?? Especially since Earth 2 is getting all the focus so far (unfortunately)

Plus, they keep changing his name. Tommy, Johnny, Jonny, etc. I get that mistakes happen, but come on, is there even an editor watching this?

@raggedscarecrow: The art changes too. Like how on one page, Batman has his yellow circle on his suit, and the next page he doesn't

Little things, but editorial should have picked them up.

A really bad issue and event so far. The whole story is nothing that bad but it isn't original and its really predictable. Another thing is that so far it doesn't feel like an event at all.

@tdk_1997: :(

I wish we got more of the interaction between Bruce and Thomas. No Bat-hug :(

And Earth 2 Grayson is such a poon. I was hoping Convergence would be a little better than this. But it could still turn around.

LOLOL you hurt DanDiDio's feelings

@rexwing: It happens. :P

I'll agree. I really don't know what's going on. I keep here "pick your champion" in one issue, then it's team vs. team in another. It's just one clusterf*** of an idea. If Convergence is this bad, I feel that Marvel's Secret War Infinity would be worse.

Well this is two months of DC being lazy during their move.

I hope at least Secret Wars would be better but I doubt it.

@the_stegman: there are multiple spots where the chest logo on Bruce Batman alternates from the yellow emblem and just the black bat.

As someone who doesn't read worlds end or earth 2, I feel a little unprepared for this event. I get that I'm not going to be familiar with all the canon related elements that may be tied in. I feel like these portions of the story may have been better served as a tie-in. I thought for sure the main book would focus primarily on all the crisis elements, maybe slightly referring to some secondary stories but I feel a little lost already. I guess we'll see what happens.

After reading this issue over the weekend, I've come to the opinion this is one hell of a CF that DC created.