Written by Jeff King
Pencil by Carlo Pagulayan; Inks by Jason Paz
Colors by Aspen MLT’s John Starr & Peter Steigerwald
Published by DC Comics
DC’s latest event comic reaches its second (technically third) issue and continues the trend of disappointment. Despite a star studded cast of the excellent Earth 2 hero roster, Convergence has had very little to do despite all the publicity hype and the bringing in of countless parts of DC’s history. With so many great stories on the table, it’s a shame that this story ends up so empty.
The plot follows a bundle of the surviving heroes of the weekly series Earth 2: World’s End who are cast adrift on the sentient planet Telos which has been used as a dumping ground by Brainiac of old and forgotten cities. Unfortunately much of this is under cut by the lack of proper scale and for an epic event, which is a killer. New comic scribe Jeff King writes a book weighed down by excessive narration. Dialogue is so sparse there are several pages where no one talks and the only words are in caption boxes, at times seven for only one panel. To put salt on the wound, this all comes from the perspective of Dick Grayson, arguably one of the worst and most superfluous characters from all of Earth 2. The book is ripe with drawn out fight scenes, pages upon pages of backstory, and out of character moments for numerous players.
The best thing that can be said about Convergence so far is the artwork. Carlo Pagulayan and Jason Paz’s respective pencils and inks cast this dreary book in a brighter light. Given the terrible luck the Earth 2 heroes have had in their own books, the two are saviors. They give the book a much crisper look that makes the proceedings somewhat dignified. That being said, their backgrounds tend to blur out along with figures. They’re also to fault for the lack of scale on this book. The distance between cities and more of Telos’ rocky desert surface is abstract at best.
Convergence #2 proves how disappointing some event comics truly are. With such a rich canvas to paint on and plenty of breathing space with eight issues, this series has done very little beyond spinning its wheels in place. With such a high end price for such an empty comic, it’s best to drop any interest in this series.