Review: Convergence Infinite Earths book 1

 Description:

A CONVERGENCE tie-in graphic novel, starring heroes from CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS—and RED SON!

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 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:

ACTION COMICS: The Superman and Power Girl of Earth-2 must stand together against the Wonder Woman of a different Earth entirely: the totalitarian world of Red Son!

DETECTIVE COMICS: Dick Grayson and Helena Wayne—Robin and the Huntress—battle for the Batman’s legacy against Red Son’s Soviet Superman…and each other!

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA: Earth-2’s original heroes regain their youth to fight the antimatter universe’s Weaponers of Qward—but at what cost?

INFINITY INC.: To save their world, Earth-2’s young heroes must defeat a man who’s already survived the end of his own: the post-apocalyptic Jonah Hex!

WORLD’S FINEST: As the Seven Soldiers of Victory ride to war against the Weaponers of Qward, cartoonist Scribbly Jibbet must tell their tale…or die trying!

The heroes and villains of one of comics’ most beloved worlds—the pre-Crisis Earth-2—take on characters from the acclaimed Elseworlds tale RED SON and more in CONVERGENCE: INFINITE EARTHS BOOK 1!

Collects: Convergence: Action Comics #1-2, Convergence: Detective #1-2, Convergence: Justice Society of America #1-2, Convergence: Infinity Inc. #1-2, Convergence: World's Finest #1-2
Authors: See reviews of individual sections
Artists: See reviews of individual sections
Published By: DC Comics
Published When: Nov. 3 2015
Parental Rating: Teen

Review:

Continuing our series on the DC Comics Convergence cross-over series, this review looks at Infinite Earths Book 1.

Action Comics

It has been fascinating to read this story during the Omicron-variant wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Several characters express their growing frustration at the enforced isolation of the dome that traps their city, and at the powers beyond their control and understanding that have caused a year-long disruption to their life.

As with all super-powered creatures under the domes, Power Girl's powers have disappeared. This loss of power has led her to need to work out to stay fit. She now has to watch her weight, do normal dental care, all the mundane personal-care chores. She must also endure the scars from her fall through a window when her powers were cut off mid-flight.

Superman, for his part, takes it all in stride that, in his powerless state, people are as enamored with his famous wife Lois as with him. Our perfect hero and gentleman bears neither her nor her fans any ill will, though. Of course.

The entire first half of this 2-issue story by Justin Gray revolves around the human relationships, the strain of isolation, the effects on the mental health of our protagonists. And our antagonists, as we also glimpse how Stalin and the Superman, Wonder Woman and Lex Luthor of the totalitarian Red Son world come to grips with their own imprisonment under the dome.

Part two pits them against one another. The key conflicts are between Power Girl and Wonder Woman of Red Son universe, and between Lex Luthor's drive for survival and the conscience of his wife Lois.

But um.. where is Red Son's Superman? He disappears without explanation. With the forced battle between champions, and the lives of their cities hanging in the balance, we are left with this confusing absence, one that none of the other characters feel inclined to explain. After a very strong and compelling first chapter, the second whimpers and falls flat.

Detective

This is perhaps my least favorite of all the Convergence 2-part tales. DC published 40 such stories, ostensibly pitting one dome-imprisoned city's champions against another's, in a promised huge elimination tournament.

This little microcosm of that larger picture suffers from a poor plot filled with large unanswered questions, and unpleasant, over-penciled art. Even the lettering got in the way of this reader's enjoyment.

Let's start with the plot. Len Wein is a giant in the world of superhero comics – creator of Swamp Thing and Wolverine, with popular runs on several other titles. This title is not one of his better efforts. On one side of this battle is the Soviet Superman of Earth-RSR and the Red Son universe. In the previous 2-part tale in this TPB collection, we saw Soviet Superman working with Soviet Wonder Woman, Stalin and Lex Luthor. Soviet Superman mysteriously disappeared from that story, no explanation given. Did he move over to this one? Seems unlikely, the political dynamic here is very different. Superman is the benevolent Soviet dictator, not Stalin. He works with his frenemy Piotr, to calm his populace by claiming credit for the dome and using special-FX trickery to hide his loss of powers.

An occasional tip of the hat to the story-telling is deserved: one of this tale’s strengths is the time it spends reflecting on the human reaction to the year-long imprisonment by an impenetrable alien dome. Compared to the Utopian reaction of the populace in some others, this one is more believable in describing shortages, growing desperation, and lying leaders covering their helplessness with false reassurances and misdirection. It feels much truer to our reality and the worldwide reactions to the Covid pandemic.

But back to those plot holes. Adult Robin and Huntress of Earth-2 are the defenders of that reality's Metropolis. Say what? They were summoned there (not New York as one might expect) for an emergency meeting by the JSA, yet no other superheroes of that Earth appear at any point in the 2 parts of this story.

Yet they must be the anointed heroes of this city because some magical, unexplained teleportation takes them, and no others. to Moscow to battle Soviet Superman. Something that does not happen in other city pairings (or very rarely), and gives one side a "home field advantage" not seen in other such tales. This plot device is never explained, it must just be something Telos does, for some unknown reason.

Once there, why are these two athletic, skilled combatants without "super" powers so intent on directly confronting Soviet Superman? Why are they so out of character that they are bent on killing to save their city, that is not actually theirs?

Another minor saving grace of this frustrating tale is the pressure Huntress places on Adult Robin to man up and don the cowl of the Batman to replace the deceased Bruce Wayne of that world. The great interplay and character development deserves another tip of the hat.

Sometimes the art can save a bad story. Not this time. I've enjoyed Bill Sienkiewicz's unique and moody art in the past, most notably in his 1990 Classics Illustrated rendition of Herman Melville's Moby Dick. But here the grittiness becomes an over-clutter of unnecessary lines and shadings.

Even the lettering contributes to the unpleasantness of this tale. Clever use of bolding helps the reader to hear the inflections and emphases in the dialog. Here, unfortunately, there are TOO many places where BOLD is used, ultimately INTERFERING with the otherwise straightforward TASK of reading THIS tale.

Justice Society of America

and

Infinity Inc.

These two stories go together, mostly. There's the usual Convergence super-heroic battles, with the aged JSA facing a mildly sentient war-bot from the Weaponers of Qward, while Infinity Inc. confronts the grotesque Jonah Hex and his band of powerful warriors.

What weaves these two tales together, though, is the generational conflict and fraying relationships between the two teams. In the JSA tale, artists Tom Derenick and Trevor Scott spend as much time drawing wrinkles and male-pattern bald spots as muscles and capes. The year of enforced powerlessness has not been kind to the aging stalwarts of the JSA. But Dr. Fate magics them back to their youthful vigor for one last time, one last battle to save the innocent people of their city.

The story Jerry Ordway tells of Infinity Inc, on the other hand, is replete with youthful angst, mounting frustrations at the intransigence of the older generation, and several layers of daddy issues.

These two tales converge at the end into a passing of the torch, an acknowledgment from their JSA elders that Infinity Inc. is, indeed, all grown up.

World's Finest

This is an odd outlier of a story. Paul Levitz and artists Jim Fern and Joe Rubinstein put a newspaper’s editorial cartoonist / reporter at the center of the action, helping to defend the city or die trying.

As unusual as the non-heroic choice for story focus is, the plot developments are even more outside the boundaries of the other Convergence tales. Here, Telos intervenes multiple times in the middle of the battle of the champions, in ways that other Convergence tales give no hints of. And while in others the heroes often work together in the hopes of sparing both cities, here apparently both cities and their rather forgettable champions are wiped out in the end.

As with a couple other tales in this collection, this tale also offers a slightly more realistic glimpse into what life would look like if a major urban center were suddenly severed from ties to places beyond its boundaries. Shortages, loneliness and despair, contradictory religious interpretations, only partially successful attempts at normalcy. I suspect the shortages in particular would be much worse than presented here – see how quickly store shelves emptied of bathroom tissue and fresh produce in Covid lockdowns, and the strains on social fabric they produced – but this tale's first half at least gives serious consideration to such realities.

I score this collection two and a half capes out of five.

ISBN-10: 1401258379
ISBN-13: 978-1401258375
Language: English
Pages: 272 pages