Convergence #6. Jeff King & Scott Lobdell- Writers, Ed Benes & Eduardo Pansica- Pencils, Ed Benes, Trevor Scott, Scott Hanna & Wayne Faucher- Inks, Peter Steigerwald- Colors.
Very often comics play on the reader’s sense of nostalgia. This element is particularly true for some older readers. It allows the writer to get an immediate investment and connection into a new story or take on a character. Convergence #6 is this type of book. From the beginning of comics and popular adventure fiction, the notion of the team-up has been a selling point. This book for the first time in the DC’s New 52 provides a reader with the mother of all team-ups. Just imagine: New 52, pre-Flashpoint and pre-Crisis characters all teaming up to fight a world destroying villain. Or just go buy Convergence #6.
The issue opens as we see for the first time in Convergence the New 52 Justice League and Justice League United teams. Apparently, all the shenanigans we’ve been following in Convergence are causing the planet Telos to encroach on the universe of the New 52. Nix Uotan, Darkseid and the Guardians of the Universe are all shown watching. Uotan’s response is perhaps the most intriguing. “This is an aberration of the Multiverse. It exists outside of it.” Well, now if that doesn’t get your mind going considering that Darkseid’s panel is a direct allusion to the forthcoming “Darkseid War” slated for post-Convergence Justice League, I’m not sure what will.
On the planet, the sides have lined up with the good guys finding each other pretty quickly without any gratuitous hero vs hero matchups. As one might expect, the pre-Flashpoint Superman takes the lead, giving a mission to the others who might be on the planet and want to stop Deimos. However, Superman pulls the Earth 2 Dick Grayson aside and shares with him his knowledge of Dick’s conversation with Telos where Telos revealed his own personal history. He leaves it to Dick to get Telos to come around to the side of the angels and help. It certainly appears at this point that this will not be a final goodbye to the pre- New 52 characters of DC’s storied past. There certainly seems to be more going on at this point.
The Positives
Deimos insists on calling Yolanda Montez Wildcat- “It’s your true name, who you were and will be.” Flash meeting Flash and then meeting Flash. The image even homages Barry Allen and Jay Garrick’s first meeting from the splash page of The Flash #123 (Vol.1)Kory recognizing Earth 2 Dick Grayson and calling him Nightwing. The epic feeling of the heroes of the Multiverse gathering ala Crisis on Infinite Earths to fight a battle to save all of existence. And behind it all the sense of hope that it’s not over for the pre-New 52 characters. If you have a friend who refused to read this even because of the fear that all the characters they loved were just being brought back to die, I don’t think that’s what’s in store.
The Negatives
Issue was too short. So many cool things packed in that I wanted more immediately. The weekly series giveth and the weekly series taketh away. If you’re a big fan of the Flashpoint Universe or the Kingdom Come Universe, you may feel a little torn with this issue.
The Verdict
Just when it seemed like Convergence was going to go one way, King and Co. have managed to push it in a different direction. Its similarity to Crisis is more along the lines of nostalgia rather than retelling. Bringing in the current New 52 characters to the narrative adds an element that may have been missing for some. With only 2 issues left, Convergence has brought us along with character and nostalgia to the doormat of the finale. The post-Convergence DCU is just around the corner.
