The Good
Aquaman is trapped in Metropolis and when the walls come down, Deathblow enters the area and is on the hunt.
The book really picks up in the final 6 pages of the issue. Deathblow enters Metropolis and goes gun crazy on everyone. His dialogue is fantastic and really fits that 90s mentality of writing where he's just taunting everyone as he kills him and has some great one-liners, but he doesn't really feel dated at the same time.
Tony Bedard, overall, does do a great job with the dialogue, even though the story flounders a little. While there are some problems here and there, the dialogue gives every character their own, specific voice, and cranky-Aquaman is one of my favorites here.
Deathblow has been redesigned and slimmed down quite a bit. The super-musculared, steroid-using version of the brick wall that once was Deathblow is a bit more believable here. That 90s look just doesn't work and while the guy still obviously works out and has a lot of muscular definition, he looks like someone that could actually exist in the real world.
The art here from Cliff Richards and colorist John Rauch is fantastic. Rauch's colors are smooth and almost give off the effect of all of this being an unreal situation almost like it's all blurred just a little bit. Richards's character designs, especially Deathblow really work for the issue to. These characters all feel as they could exist in the real world, even if one of them has a hook hand.
The Bad
The story doesn't really pick up until the last couple of pages, when Deathblow enters the picture. The vast majority of the issue is an info dump told through television news stories and other characters as to why Aquaman is trapped in Metropolis.
It feels like Tony Bedard was put in a situation where he had to explain way too much in a small amount of time. The actual writing and dialogue are fine. The problem is with the set-up. Everyone is telling Aquaman why he is here, right to his face. It feels a bit forced and things don't get interesting until the final couple of pages.
The issue comes off as a bit disappointing, overall because of all of this. It's a bit more of a bummer because this was something I was really looking forward to this week.
The Verdict
CONVERGENCE AQUAMAN isn't bad, but it is a disappointment. The issue spends so much time explaining what happened to Aquaman and why he's in Metropolis, but the problem is more with the situation that he's in rather than the writing. The final pages of this issue are where this book really kicks off and it leads the reader to believe that the second part of this book is going to be awesome, so while this issue gets a mild recommendation, it leads to what can be an awesome conclusion.