Description:
A CONVERGENCE
tie-in graphic novel, starring the heroes of the 1990s!
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:
SUPERMAN: THE MAN
OF STEEL: John Henry Irons suits up as Steel to defend Metropolis
against the tempestuous teens of Gen13!
BATMAN: SHADOW OF
THE BAT: The Dark Knight and his even darker replacement, Azrael,
must join forces against the team of black-ops assassins known as
Wetworks!
AQUAMAN: The
one-time—and one-handed—King of Atlantis must go hand-to-hand and
toe-to-toe against the WildStorm Universe’s deadliest warrior:
Deathblow!
SUPERGIRL: MATRIX:
To survive a madcap trip through the Multiverse, the shape-shifting
Girl of Tomorrow must forge an uneasy alliance with Ambush Bug and
L.E.G.I.O.N.’s Lady Quark!
GREEN
LANTERN/PARALLAX: To repel an invasion from Earth-6, Kyle Rayner must
turn to disgraced Green Lantern Hal Jordan—but will he save their
city, or destroy it?
The unforgettable
ZERO HOUR–era versions of your favorite DC heroes square off
against the WildStorm Universe—and even wilder places—in
CONVERGENCE: ZERO HOUR VOL. 2!
Collects:
Convergence Aquaman
#1-2, Convergence Batman: Shadow of the Bat
#1-2, Convergence Green
Lantern / Parallax #1-2, Convergence
Supergirl: Matrix
#1-2, Convergence Superman: the Man of
Steel #1-2
Authors:
Various
Artists:
Various
Published By:
DC Comics
Published When:
Oct. 13 2015
Parental Rating:
Teen
Review:
Several dark and violent stories are collected here, and put in
contrast with a humorous Ambush Bug appearance. As usual, I will
briefly examine each separately. Overall I give this collection 3
capes out of 5.
Batman: Shadow of the Bat
The art team changes between parts one and two
of this story, which is appropriate given the overall narrative
structure.
Part one has Batman seeking to work his way, as
Bruce Wayne, into the inner circle of a Metropolis crime boss. I
could complain about why, with so many Gotham stories in the Convergence canon, we need to
once again see the recurring plot motif of a visiting hero becoming
the Champion of another city. Ridiculous, no need for that at all. But setting that
aside, his work to foil their plans is entirely contained in
the first half.
The art in this opening part is too dark.
Philip Tan’s
pencils set out the flow, then excessively
heavy inking by Jason Paz and Rob
Hunter take
away from much of the enjoyment of the layouts. It befits the mood and subject, but is excessive to the point of at times unintelligible.
The art team for part two changes to Rick
Leonardi and Dan
Green, as the story switches to Batman and
Azrael looking to conquer, or survive, the assassins of Wetworks. As
assassins, they have no concerns with the challenge to kill an
opposing Champion, and Azrael is willing to give as much as he takes.
It is only Batman who seeks to subdue rather than kill, and thereby strike a truce of
cooperation.
Artistically this second part is
much lighter and
brighter, even as it happens in the depths
of an aircraft carrier. I’m not sure that the writing gives proper
due to the imbalance in abilities between these two sides, and is
rather facile in Batman’s ability to trap and persuade his
opponents.
Aquaman
The gruesomeness of Cliff Richards’ art raises this collection’s
rating to Teen. Stabbings, slashing with fish hooks, blood spurts,
there is a lot of violence and gore throughout this two-part tale.
And it is reflected in the narrative. Tony Bedard’s script gives us an ever-weakening Aquaman, losing strength and bulk by the page. The turning point in the battle comes
(spoiler alert) when Aquaman draws strength from the blood spilling
from Deathblow’s open wound. It's a narrative that calls for shocking art.
Beyond the violence, though, Richards is able to visually show the
progressively weakened state of Aquaman. He diminishes to a gaunt
shell of his usually muscular self, as his access to water becomes
limited.
Green Lantern / Parallax
Another dark-themed Convergence story from Tony Bedard, not quite
as directly violent as the Aquaman one earlier in the collection but
with plenty of off-camera death and destruction.
This tale focuses on the Kyle Rayner Green
Lantern, and his efforts to rehabilitate Hal Jordan after the
massacres he committed as Parallax. In a clever twist, the dome’s
superpower dampening effect has suppressed the madness of Parallax
and allowed Hal Jordan to reemerge. But the guilt over his actions
drives him to surrender himself to imprisonment.
As soon as the dome disappears, however,
Parallax comes roaring back and embraces the role of Champion. He
takes the battle first to Princess Fern and her army, then directly
to her city Electropolis. He uses his 3600-to-1 advantage in Ring-power to sent
Kyle Rayner back to Metropolis, then destroys the enemy’s
defenseless city rather than their champion. The power and madness of
Parallax is truly frightening.
The art team of Ron
Wagner and Bill
Reinhold shows nice restraint in
illustrating anything generated by the power rings. Historically
their renditions have tended toward the cartoonish, but in this story
the elements are either more realistically drawn, or are represented
just as blasts of green power and energy.
The story ends with Hal Jordan / Parallax disappearing from the
narrative, no one knows why. It would have been a great chance for a
cross-marketing message pointing the reader back to the main
Convergence storyline, where Parallax plays a key role in the climax
of that story.
Supergirl: Matrix
From the very first page, this story telegraphs that it will be a
light, humorous entry in the Convergence canon. Supergirl vs Lady
Quark and Lord Volt in a tale entitled “Who the Hell is Lord
Volt?!” With no less than four asterisked editor’s notes at the
bottom. And the final tip-off: in the masthead, “Keith Giffen – Writer”.
I first met Giffen through his artwork on Legion of Superheroes in
the early 1990s. His written tales were often loaded with humor, with
an occasional dark streak. As creator of Ambush Bug, Giffen is a
natural choice for this tale – if one concedes that Ambush Bug
belongs in Convergence at all.
Any tale with Ambush Bug is going to be off-the-wall, and this one
is no exception. Having him meet the Matrix-form Supergirl,
itself an odd outlier in her long and storied history, just adds to the bizarre and the possibilities for gags. Two outlier characters from the larger DC Universe
colliding in a shared state of oddness.
Lex Luthor wants teleportation technology, in order to escape
Telos. Ambush Bug can teleport. So Luthor sends Supergirl Matrix
after him. Except Lady Quark and Lord Volt won’t leave her alone
because Telos has ordered them to fight her as Champions. Hilarity
ensues.
Timothy Green II’s art and Joseph Silver’s pencils move the
story along, and they successfully shift gears and styles as needed,
especially whenever Ambush Bug pops into a new city, domain or era.
Two recurring art choices left me scratching my head, but given that
this is an Ambush Bug story, they are easily forgiven and forgotten.
First, the hair! Everyone’s hair is in need
of a brushing. Either their heads are caught in a perpetual wind
storm, or they have an abundance of gel and hair spray under the dome
to hold those styles. And second, nearly every panel with a flying
super-powered woman shows them with one leg bent to the point of
kicking themselves in the backside. Seriously. Again
and again and again, airborne women
are drawn in this
identical one-leg-folded-double posture.
Overall this is an amusing contrast and respite
from the more intense Batman, Aquaman and Green Lantern tales in this
collection.
Superman: the Man of Steel
The Parasite saves the day. It’s not a sentence I ever thought
I’d write in reviewing graphic novels, but Louise Simonson has
written a tale where the John Henry Irons hero named Steel , and his niece
Natasha and nephew Jemahl clearly benefit from the non-altruistic
intervention of the Parasite.
Their first confrontation with the hero team of Gen-13 does not go
well, and Steel is badly wounded, burnt and potentially paralyzed.
The Parasite does not care about that, he just sees a delicious
buffet of powers to steal!
Some comic-book magic happens to save Steel, and even enhance his
powers, and the city is saved. Possibly with the side-effect that
Steel’s armor is now permanently bonded to his body? That’s for
post-Convergence tales to explore.
June Brigman and
Roy Richardson’s art is a mixed-bag. I
enjoyed the flowing metallic hairdo on each of the kids’ armor
suits. They also used a layout with big, bold action in one panel
overlapping and turning into background for other panels on the same
page. It was striking the first few times, but they reused that
technique so often that it felt repetitive before the end of the
second part. And they love to show the
Gen-13 leader, Caitlin Fairchild, from behind, showing her bare legs
and barely covered butt. At least a half-dozen times in this
two-parter, we get such a view, most strongly on the cover of issue
#2 and as she faces Steel near the very end of the story. Is it her
role as team leader, showing us the “following” view? Or that she
has the sexiest outfit?
ISBN-10: 1401258409
ISBN-13:
978-1401258405
Language: English
Pages:
272 pages
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