Convergence #3

By Jeff King, Stephen Segovia, Jason Paz, John Starr, Peter Steigerwald

Man, Convergence has been a disappointment. It’s so bad that even the tie-ins that everyone was excited for are just the same dull plot being told over and over again. For every positive trait, there are three glaring negative ones. This review will be difficult, so let’s give it a go and see what happens.

For starters, Convergence is extremely convoluted. If you didn’t at least read the Earth 2 World’s End weekly comic that just ended a few weeks ago, you might be lost (unless you read a wiki). Issue 3 goes deeper down the rabbit hole and continues to showcase characters that no new reader will care about. Heck, I have a PhD in DC-ology and I still can’t bring myself to care about a number of these characters.

Well, if the story is decent, then a little convolution can be ignored, right? Sure, but this story is barely competent. Every character gives heavy-handed dialogue and the narration will bore you to tears. There is zero subtlety or nuance to be found, which ends up ruining a shocking ending that might otherwise be considered powerful or even readable. That’s the irritating thing about Convergence: there’s some solid material to work with, but the plot continues to fall flat on its face.

On the art side, there are not many positive things to say. At its best, it’s serviceable. At its worst, the character’s heads look deformed and you can’t tell what’s happening from panel to panel. John Starr and Peter Steigerwald deserve some credit for their work on the colors. Things are often dark and bleak, but that seems like that is what the story demands and they manage to pull things off. Plus, they managed to bring some interesting colors into a particular showdown with Thomas Wayne and some Batman villains.

As a huge DC Comics junkie, this reviewer is going to read the rest of this hot garbage. However, you should not. At this point, the main story doesn’t have enough redeeming qualities. Except for when Doctor Hurt shows up. Maybe this should all be all about Doctor Hurt. That would save Convergence in a hurry.