Convergence marches on with Ted Kord in tow in Convergence Justice League International #1 written by Ron Marz, Mike Manley on art and ink, Sotocolor on color, and Tom Napolitano on lettering.
Pre Zero-Hour Justice League International with all the classic members (minus Guy, Booster and Rocket Red, though the latter get shout outs and a costume nod) are stuck in Metropolis fighting Metallo when the dome comes down. One year later Ted is trying his hardest to keep the depowered team together and in good spirits.
POSITIVES
Ted Kord in all his steadfast, tinkering goodness is back. It’s a shame Booster isn’t around in this (let’s hope he shows up?) to join him but it’s good to see the “old” Ted Kord back. I know there’s 
apparently a young Ted Kord somewhere in the current continuity but it’s not quite the same. Ted takes Metallo down himself it’s a great moment considering Ted has been sort of treated as a joke for a long time.
Otherwise this issue is pretty slow and focused on character and how everyone is dealing with continuing to be superheroes, without their powers, and still have good favor with people. It’s a vaguely Watchman esque quandry though much lighter overall. Convergence runs on nostalgia and this is entirely what it it’s doing here.
NEGATIVES
Likewise, it is also nostalgia that keeps this from being nothing but mildly interesting. We’ve seen this before. The art is decent, but “classic” in the most general, mainstream, 90’sesque sense. There’s been more than 20 years of this kind of art. Are we going to watch all of these favorites plucked from their timeline butcher each other? Will the Nu52 Universe be patched over? (as if they forgot about Pandora and her involvement, unless have they forgotten her built-in fail safe? Did anything come of that?) That’s more or less me
I like the look back and enjoy this for what this is, as this issue is better thus far than 
both Superman and Batgirl (which was very disappointing) but I really need comics and comic art to experiment with more stylization in order to survive so all of this looks like intense naval gazing which the comics industry already does, especially DC with it’s 90s style focused content they’re only just started to slowly realize isn’t really working. I’m not saying this to be mean or unappreciative that DC is bringing back all these different continuities and characters but it’s just more of the same old Zero-Hour shenanigans. Rather use your characters well and make them likable the way they built their fan bases once upon a time, or change the medium.
VERDICT
While a quiet issue overall, ending with Kingdom Come heroes appearing en masse, we only have jut gotten a taste of what our old Justice League International pals can do. While I do think some bolder fresher art across the entire medium (bring all these cool alt-cover artists onto interiors?) I’m willing to give this one a shot since it features Ted and highlights him lovingly so. I’d say bring it on please!
