Written by Jeff King
Pencils by Andy Kubert; inks by Sandra Hope
Colors by Brad Anderson
Published by DC Comics
DC’s big event comic of the spring continues. Sad to say that there is not much to be excited about as most of its problems remain. The major change up this week is the takeover of art duties by Andy Kubert and Sandra Hope.
Despite all of the major hang-ups, one genuine improvement is the overall plot. Deimos, infamous sorcerer of Skartaris, has used his captive time travelers to summon the defeated Brainiac. Now able to glimpse into past, present, and future, Deimos reveals the true origins of Telos and mocks the heroes of Earth 2 as he knows what fate has in store for them. Telos’ vicious Battle Royale rip off finally ends but the captives of Convergence are far from safe. That redirection is honestly the best thing this event has going for it as it continues to use Earth 2’s Dick Grayson as its perspective character. Out of the primary hero roster, he’s the least interesting and such narration would better serve the likes of Alan Scott, Jay Garrick, or Val Zod. It’s all the more insulting to these characters as they stand around being useless while Deimos spouts out evil plans. The setting is also underutilized as Skartaris’ heroes Warlord and Tara finally receive more than a few scant panels and are wasted for the sake of a body count. The story remains an all-around mess though some good can come with finally ditching the junky kill-or-be-killed narrative.
As said before, the artwork is handled by Andy Kubert and Sandra Hope in this issue along with colors by Brad Anderson. While Kubert is a good artist, for some reason the work by the likes of Stephen Jorge Segovia or Carlos Pagulayan stands up better. A lot of it comes down to the faces which by Kubert look considerably more malformed, expressions come off much more malicious, and grim, something similar from the previous Flashpoint event. There’s not much change for the team to explore epic scenery or inventive magical spells, although some decent looking dinosaurs are featured. The best art of the issue comes in the form of a two-page splash image explaining Telos’ secret backstory which ends up being a nigh carbon copy of the Silver Surfer’s origin. This installment does everyone a favor by cutting back on such spreads until they’re called for.
Convergence still fails to impress. Despite all the clout, the space filling nature of the story is very apparent and that’s a shame. The few improvements are the series getting a somewhat more compelling main antagonist and plot line but it comes at the cost of lesser art and embarrassing character portrayals.
