By Aaron Lightfoot, Comic Columnist
Convergence is a short eight part (not including issue #0) comic series published by DC Comics. It is written by Jeff King, Dan Jurgens and Scott Lobdell and has a total of six artists. This was meant to be a transitional time from the New 52 story into a completely new series.
Coincidentally, DC Comics is also moving their headquarters from New York City to Burbank, California.
Convergence raises the question: what happens when a superhero or world inhabited by superheroes dies? The DC writers have created a world where universes don’t die, but at the moment of its impending doom, become collected by Superman villain Brainiac, who has a special plan for them all. Brainiac entrusts a world that houses all of the dead universes to a new villain, Telos, who is the planet incarnate.
The story begins with Brainiac disappearing, which allows Telos to decide that he will run the planet in a way that he sees fit. He challenges all of the worlds to fight one another to the death stating that the one who survives will become resurrected and will live on. Those who do not fight, Telos destroys on the spot.
In a nutshell, Convergence does its best to reset the DC Multiverse. Mayhem ensues between worlds, and the heroes from Earth 2 trust a stranger named Deimos to help end Telos’ rule. After beating Telos, Deimos draws power from the planet itself and takes control of the planet. He then tells all who inhabit the planet that the new fight will be everyone who is on his side versus everyone else.
After a long confrontation, Hal Jordan, in his Parallax state, ends up killing Deimos. With Deimos having drawn power from the planet itself, the planet begins to become unstable and threatens to kill everyone. Telos finds Brainiac and releases him so that they can try to save the planet. Brainiac sends everyone back to their respective universes except those who inhabited Earth 2, for they had no planet left to go back to.
The planet stabilizes, and with Brainiac and Telos gone, the planet begins to flourish with plants and trees. The last thing the reader sees is those who abandoned Earth 2 in a spaceship above the planet and watches them as they descend to begin colonizing the newly created Earth 2.
Was Convergence really worth it? If someone doesn’t follow multiple story arcs and multiple universes, then they will have a rough time reading this series. Trying to decipher who is who and why they are who they are takes time, and eight issues doesn’t allow for much explanation. A returning fan who understands the role of each universe will most likely enjoy this series. I struggled a bit trying to figure out exactly who was who and what they would potentially contribute to the story, although the heroes of Earth 2 are the primary focus. In issue #3 a character’s death, whose identity I won’t mention, is still unclear to me due to the reset that follows. It is never stated if they were resurrected or if they will no longer be a part of the story. Although not one of the greatest comics I have read, I understand that it was necessary to be done so that DC, as a company, can reset.
What Convergence ended up doing was resurrecting all worlds that had previously been killed off and making everything in the DC Universe now become cannon. This effectively ends the New 52 brand and undoes the Infinite Crisis storyline, although the other storylines developed throughout will continue. The stories that are continuing will finalize around the end of summer with twenty-four new series to begin from issue one. Cyborg and Black Canary are just two of the heroes that are finally going to have their own comics, and others like Dr. Fate and Midnighter will be finally making their return to their own comics. A smooth transition between the end of the series and beginning of the next has yet to be seen, however, what does matter is that because DC and Marvel are resetting, now would be a good time to be a newcomer to comics.
Rating: 6.5