Description:
A
CONVERGENCE tie-in graphic novel!
Once,
there were infinite Earths. Then there came a Crisis…a Zero Hour…a
Flashpoint. Worlds lived. Worlds died. But some worlds must now fight
for their future—in the Convergence!
The
evil alien intelligence known as Brainiac has stolen 50 doomed cities
from places throughout time and space and sealed them behind
impenetrable domes. Now, after a year, the domes will come down—and
the heroes and villains of 50 dead worlds must battle to be the last
one standing!
In
this volume:
WONDER
WOMAN: Diana Prince must defend Gotham City against vampire versions
of Batman’s arch-enemies Poison Ivy, Catwoman and the Joker
himself, from the world of Red Rain!
SWAMP
THING: Sealed away from the power of the Green for a year, Alec
Holland must regain his strength and defeat the Darkest Knight of
all, vampire Batman!
THE
FLASH: Barry Allen, the key to the Crisis itself, must race to defeat
the godlike tyrant of the Tangent Universe—Superman!
NEW
TEEN TITANS: The greatest Titans team in the history of the
Multiverse squares off against the Tangent Universe’s deadly Doom
Patrol!
JUSTICE
LEAGUE OF AMERICA: It’s up to the Elongated Man to lead the
second-string heroes of the Detroit Justice League and repel the
invasion of the Tangent Universe’s Secret Six!
The
most iconic heroes of the CRISIS era fight the twisted heroes of two
of the most popular Elseworlds universes in CONVERGENCE: CRISIS VOL.
2!
Collects: Convergence: Wonder Woman #1-2,
Convergence: Swamp Thing #1-2, Convergence: The Flash #1-2,
Convergence: New Teen Titans #1-2, Convergence: Justice League of
America #1-2
Authors: Various
Artists:
Various
Published By: DC
Comics
Published
When: Oct.
20 2015
Parental
Rating: Teen
Review:
This collection brings together Convergence stories focused on DC
heroes from the era of the classic Crisis on Infinite Earths in the
mid-1980s. There is some great story-telling, the art is striking,
occasionally frightening, and delightful. A strong collection,
deserving of 4 capes out of 5.
Wonder Woman
The first tale in this collection pits Wonder
Woman
against invading vampires,
in particular vampire
versions of Joker
and Poison Ivy,
and a werewolf
Catwoman. Like
many modern vampire stories, this tale by
Larry Hama is a
blend of both the twisted
and the sexy.
The twisted side
comes out in the mix of violence, both
presumed and real. There is the
threat of violence coming from the
neighborhood thugs, who
could cause trouble if and when they feel like it. And there is the
real violence in
Wonder Woman's
grotesque battle against an ever-growing
number of blood-sucking vampires. It is
truly horrific to see the
battle continuing as the
undead keep getting
back up and coming at
her again, bearing increasing amounts of physical
damage from her previous
blows: Joker with his badly
twisted head, Ivy with her protruding eye-ball.
The art is also sexy
throughout. Artists Joshua
Middleton (part 1) and Aaron Lopresti with Matt Banning (part 2)
convey both the
twistedness and the sexiness
cleverly in their renderings.
Poison Ivy is
portrayed as an
alluring temptress along
the lines of modern vamps. And
while there is
never any actual nudity, clearly the
were-cat Catwoman is naked, and
it is only cleverly placed limbs and
shadows that keep
this story in a
Teen rating, and not an Adult one.
Even for our hero Wonder
Woman we see several glimpses of panties,
and her civilian
clothes become very tattered before she rips them off completely, to
don her Wonder Woman garb.
A solid story with well-handled art, this is an excellent opening tale for this collection.
Swamp Thing
Many of these Convergence stories contrive the plot’s setup to
position a visiting hero as a city’s champion. Often for reasons
that are unclear. Why would the authors need to have Superman as
Gotham’s champion, while Batman serves as that of Metropolis? Why
not leave each in their own city?
This Swamp Thing story is at once both the most contrived and yet
the most sensible. As a hero whose home base is far removed from a
major urban center, it makes a great deal of sense that a bizarre
plot explanation is needed for him to be trapped in a domed city.
Cutting off Swamp Thing from the Green does more than mute his
powers – it severs the link which sustains his very life. Much of
this tale is dedicated to his struggle for survival and the lengths
to which Abigail goes to provide enough sustenance for him to
survive.
Swamp Thing stories are always a mix of love
and horror, with a strong dash of the tragic, and this one is no exception. In the hands of Len Wein, the
co-creator of these characters, this story exudes much of the best of
Swamp Thing’s tales. The speech cadence, as slow as watching plants
grow, brings a different experience than the typical super-powered
hyper-kinetic action thriller. And we feel, throughout, the bonds of
affection helping our protagonists through their challenges and
threats.
The horror side comes to dominate the second
half of this tale, as Swamp Thing confronts the vampire Batman of
Earth-43. But when Batman sees Swamp Thing’s ability to slay the
vampire hordes, they team up, working together to purge Gotham of the
vampiric scourge and its queen. With that mission accomplished,
vampire Batman sacrifices himself to drive the final nail into his
possessed city.
Kelley Jones does great work in portraying the
increasing gauntness brought on by Swamp Thing’s suffering, and of
the gore-soaked cruelty and ferociousness of the vampires in the
city.
Overall, a surprising and strong entry in the Convergence canon.
Justice League of America
What’s it like to be the backup, the second-stringer, the
junior-varsity? That B-list status is the lived reality of most of
the JLA team members highlighted in this story.
Narrated by Sue Dibney, wife of the Elongated
Man, this tale sees the Secret Six from the Tangent universe quickly
and successfully take the strongest and most powerful members of the
JLA – Aquaman, Zatanna and Martian Manhunter – out of the fight
almost immediately. That forces Elongated Man, Vibe, Vixen, Steel and
Gypsy to step up, despite being outnumbered and out-gunned. Can
they hold their own, at least long enough for Sue Dibney to create
and execute the plan to save them all?
Fabian Nicieza and Chriscross bring us this fun
Detroit-based story – and it’s a relief to get another city
besides the omnipresent Gotham and Metropolis involved. The colors
are mostly dark and shadowy, an unusual choice given that the story itself is light and
entertaining.
New Teen Titans
Super-teams often have many more men than
women. Think of the classic Justice League or Avengers rosters, with
just one or maybe two women among the men, almost a token presence. Not so
the New Teen Titans, which have always tended to be much more evenly
balanced.
So balanced, in fact, that in their year of
captivity under the dome, they start hooking up, “all paired off”
as Wonder Girl puts it in the opening splash-page. Nightwing and
Starfire have married. It does nothing to curb her righteous fury, as
she threatens to kill multiple times in this tale, and even comes to
regret one time when she does not kill her opponent. Jericho and Kole
maybe sort-of get together; Changeling and Cyborg double-down on
their bromance.
But this pairing off also creates intra-team tensions, which
weakens them when Telos forces them to battle the Doom Patrol from
the Tangent Universe, and their singular focus on Cyborg in particular due to
his power source.
Marv Wolfman, who
brought the New Teen Titans to such heights in the 1980s, slips
easily into telling their stories again. Art
team Nicola Scott and
Marc Deering inject
the proceedings with passion and emotion, with bursts of saturated
colors and hues making this as visually appealing as it was to read.
The Flash
This tale is a delight on so many levels.
First, the visuals are stunning. Federico
Dallocchio uses unusually large and
especially wide panels, often just three or four per page. More often
than not, they are “widescreen”, a stack of page-wide panels that
bring the action off the page in panorama. With
panel interstices black instead of white, an ominous green sky, and
pops of the Flash’s red and yellow, this is a visual explosion, beautifully done.
Next, this is classic Barry Allen, one of the
most memorable heroes of the pre-Crisis era, whose legacy of heroism
and bravery was forever cemented by his sacrifice during the original
Crisis on Infinite Earths series. And author Dan Abnett is
unapologetic in setting this now powerless and even slow Barry Allen
into that pre-Speed-force mythology.
Then there is the confrontation with the
Superman of the Tangent universe, an all-powerful being, both
physically and mentally. A Zen-like character, with wisdom, insight,
and godlike powers. His perception of the uniqueness of this Barry
Allen is the pivot on which this whole tale turns, and once he has
discerned the truth, his moral choice is clear. And he makes his own self-sacrifice, to enable Barry Allen's in his future Crisis moment, with only
the barest of self-regard, all done for the greater good.
A complex story, beautifully told and rendered,
a delight for the eyes and touching to the heart. One of my favorite
Convergence tales.
ISBN-10: 1401258344
ISBN-13:
978-1401258344
Language:
English
Pages:
272
pages
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