Comic events have become a dime a dozen. Every year, Marvel and DC forcefully stop the storylines of their most popular books to insert some random event that overwhelms their characters and universe. Usually used as a soft reset to attract new readers, events are rarely looked upon with much love from veteran comic readers. Even though there have been a few well liked event comics like Marvel’s Secret Wars and DC’s Blackest Night, there always seems to be a general animosity towards these types of storylines.
Well, in a move that is being viewed as incredibly bold and controversial, DC is putting many of its on-going titles on hiatus for two months for there next big universe-wide event, Convergence. The nine-issue storyline, which is being advertised with such words as “epic” and “sweeping,” will be published alongside 40 two-part mini-series. Various artists and writers including Jim Lee, Dan Jurgens, and Scott Lobdell will be involved with the series. Jeff King (White Collar, Continuum), a newcomer to the comics industry, will write Convergence.
After the finales of DC’s Earth 2: World’s End and The New 52: Futures End in April, the Convergence series will cover the fallout of those events while introducing the return of a familiar threat to the DC universe. Brainiac, one of Superman’s most iconic enemies, has gone back to his obsessive collecting ways, and has started trapping cities from various timelines across the DC multiverse. With much malice, Brainiac wishes to bring together these various peoples in a malevolent experiment to see the inevitable destruction they will bring upon one another.
So, there’s a lot to unbox here. First of all, DC putting all of their titles, including Vertigo’s, on hiatus is such a huge risk. Abruptly halting stories in readers’ favorite comics for a big event tie-in is hard to swallow, but completely stopping the publication of a book for two months for the sake of one supposedly “epic” event is absolute madness. Yeah, DC is trying to bill this as an event like no other, but going to such lengths as preventing the publication of someone’s favorite comic book is an overwhelmingly terrible business plan.
Like most events, Convergence will attempt to attract new readers. The confusing thing about it is the overall design and structure of the story. Sure, I don’t know the specifics, but I would think brining together various universes with alternate takes on different characters doesn’t exactly provide an easy to understand narrative for new initiates into the world of comics.
On the more positive side of things, it could be fun to see alternate versions of characters interacting with one another. Although not officially announced, a number of promotional images show characters from such books as Superman: Red Son, Kingdom Come, Flashpoint, Batman/Dracula: Red Rain and The Legion of Superheroes. I don’t know about you, but seeing Mark Millar’s communism-loving Superman fighting against a warlord Aquaman and a mentally unstable Bruce Wayne afflicted with vampirism could be one hell of a ride. Could it be ridiculous to the point of stupidity? Sure, but just think about how cool it will be seeing armies of bloodthirsty Amazons battling the Golden Age Justice Society!
What do you think reader? Is DC’s strategy with Convergence a smart one? Are you interested in the upcoming event? Let us know in the comments below!
