Convergence week 2

Convergence week 2!  Princeless the Pirate Princess, Danger Club, and Sensation Comics! Spoilers ahead.

Princeless the Pirate Princess 3
This is good.  I'm now convinced Raven is gay.  She has a supremely confident attitude and her body language and style just makes me read her as gay.  I know that's not a very technical or specific description, but I just think she's gay.  I wonder if straight readers also get this vibe off her?  Let me know.

Danger Club 8
This is the alternate ending.  I have lots of thoughts about this, and I shall write them up in a new readers review.

Sensation Comics 9
Mike Maihack draws the main story  and Ben Caldwell does the cover.  I really wish DC would hire these guys properly.  The first story is about sisterhood and sibling rivalry, it's an all ages comic.  the second is Diana and Lois meeting fairly on in their careers.  Lois has been asked to do a fluff piece on Diana, and neither of them are impressed by the questions she's been given, so they rile each other up.  Diana is drawn with really good posture.  Then there's an alien attack and they end up working together.  Standard plot of heros meet, fight then realise they are both on the same side, but done with words, in character and with motivation, and executed really really well.

Convergence 2
Let's see, Dick Grayson has a son and they've lost Barbara outside the dome, and Dick's son gets killed for dramatic effect.  Not cool guys.  The Earth 2 heroes are around and Dick somehow meets with them, there are fights with the guys from a video game based world (Injustice?) and Earth 2 Thomas Wayne Batman meets post Flashpoint Bruce Wayne Batman.  And Alfred proves his worth via his understanding of everyone's favourite types of tea.  I liked this issue but I couldn't remember the details from it.  This might make a reasonable mini series.

I see now that week's 1 tie ins were set in Gotham.  Week 2's are set in Metropolis.  I wonder where week 3 and 4 will be set.

Convergence Aquaman 1
Hook handed Aquaman! My favourite.  If you like Aquaman you should buy this issue.  It's great.

Convergence Supergirl 1
OK, so this was a fun comic, but it is not Matrix Supergirl.  I'm not sure exactly when in her timeline she is meant to be from, but she is with a Lex who is treating her like dirt, and she has no problem with this.  This Lex is rude and belittling and awful.  I know I haven't read many Matrix comics but I don't recall the Lex that Matrix was with ever being this awful to her.
Mae fights Lady Quark and her husband, and the writer, Giffen, tries to tell us that Quark and husband are gay, but in denial.  It doesn't really work, it's quite odd.  The Ambush Bug turns up.  I didn't know they knew each other.
If you read this as an alternate Supergirl it works, but it's not Matrix Supergirl.

I like the art a lot.  The colourist has made everybody shiny like they are plastic, which I usually don't like, but the colours are bright, the pencils are cartoony and the inks provide definition without being harsh.  Having said that, I can't forgive this opening splash page:

Convergence Green Arrow 1
Another one that I can't figure out where is from in the timeline.  Connor Hawke is in Metropolis hunting down his Dad, Oliver Queen.  I don't think the writer had ever read a Connor Hawke comic, because this is not Connor.  He does not dress like that, nor talk like that.  Nonetheless, I like it as an alternate version of the Arrows.  My alternate theory is backed up by the appearance of Dinah and a teenaged blonde Canary who is Ollie;s daughter, apparently.

Convergence Catwoman 1
This was in line with the Catwoman of it's time, right down to the 'sexy' art (my 2010 post about which remains one of my most popular of all time).  Selina is protecting the downtrodden under the dome, which isn't something I recall her doing at this point in her career but nevermind, and is given Kingdom Come Batman to fight.  If KC Bats isn't trying to avoid a fight in the next issue I'll be... not pissed off, but rolling my eyes at editorial incompetence.

Convergence Steel 1
I like Steel and so I quite looked forward to this issue.  I have no idea what he's up to in the New 52 but I think I probably won't like that version of him.

This version is the Steel I know and like, and it has Natasha (hooray!) and a nephew who I'm not familiar with.  There are quite a few plot holes in this issue, see Anj's review here for more detail on that.  But I mostly enjoyed it. The organic spiky metal cat is very much of the era this weeks books are channeling, and that I'm not too keen on, just for aesthetic reasons.  It's a damn ugly cat.  My main problem with this is Natasha and brother seem to think that they are unrecognisable in their armour.  Their armour is moulded to their face, even to their dreadlocks for fucks sake, and we are supposed to believe that people can't recognise them, when in armour their faces are exactly the same but silver?  No.

Convergence Shadow of the Bat 1
I do not like the art in this.  It's very computerised and gritty.  The cover has classic angry Batman on it though, always entertaining.

So the book is about BruceBatman and Jean Paul (Azrael).  They team up undercover to take down criminals, then team up in costume.  Bruce does a shocking job of keeping people safe as folk die while he's involved with these criminals.

Convergence Green Lantern/Parallax 2
This I liked a lot!  The Lanterns are Kyle Rayner and Hal Jordan, but as Hal is depowered he understands what he did as Parallax and has voluntarily put himself in gaol as punishment for his sins.  Then the dome goes down and Kyle and Hal get their powers back, and Hal gets uppity and decides to destroy Electropolis.  There's a panel showing images from this weeks' Supergirl issue and her skirt is coloured blue, not red.  Now that pissed me off.  Apart from that I very much enjoyed this issue.  Get it if you are a 90s GL fan.

Convergence Justice League International 1
Another slightly odd execution.  Ted Kord is the leader of this JLI, which I do not understand, not when J'onn J'onzz and Cap'n Shinypants are around.  The Kord of that era was not leader material and I don't think the dome would have changed that.  I'm also a bit mystified as to how and he and Beatriz got together.

Having said that, it was really nice to see this gang back together and if you ignore those continuity errors it's a fun read, with reasonable art.

They end up ready to fight the Kingdom Come folks.  Ted's declaration of being ready to fight seemed a bit at odds with what he'd just gone through.  I don't really understand why the Kingdom Come lot are so ready to fight and kill alternate universe heroes.  I mean, they are still heroes, and I don't think the KC world changed them *that* much.  At this point I'd like to see more heroes refusing to fight, like last weeks' Superman was refusing to fight.

Convergence Superboy 1
This was the best of them all!  Superboy as he was written in the 90s, as the Metropolis Kid with his fantastic costume:

No content spoilers from me.  If you like the Super family this issue and last week's Superman are the ones to get.

Convergence Suicide Squad 1
If you like the Ostrander Suicide Squad run you should get this.  Waller is the Wall again and it's got the added bonus of Oracle and Carol Ferris.  I don't want to spoil it, so I'll just say you get this.

Now, I was under the impression that each of these issues would be characters from a different universe, but it seems that the Metropolis' are from the same post crisis 90s, universe.  Is that right? Is each week's story set in the same dome but focusing on different characters?  In which case, why aren't the heroes in contact with each other?  A year isn't enough time for them to all give up and drift away. And why are there so many villains being sent to dome?  I thought it was 1 champion per dome.  Help me out here guys.