Review: Convergence #0 – It's Like Secret Wars But Different

I'm going to be upfront about this. Aside from Batman, I've read very little of the New 52. More than that, I've read significantly less DC than Marvel. Which is not to say I don't like DC. Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo have been doing career-defining work on Batman. I've praised Jeff Lemire's excellent work on Green Arrow before. Geoff Johns'and Ethan Van Sciver's Green Lantern: Rebirth is the book I cite as the one that got me back into comics in high school. The biggest reason I'm relatively more up-to-date with Marvel is Marvel Unlimited. If DC had something like this, I'd be all over it (and I probably wouldn't get anything done for a month).

So, what did I think of the first part of DC's new multiversal epic, the culmination of years' worth of planning and at least two weekly series that I didn't read? Find out, with spoilers, after the jump.

In this issue, which seems to pick up right after the events of Superman Doomed, Supes finds himself at the mercy of a monstrous, godlike version of Brainiac within some sort of liminal space between universes. The kind of space in which universes might... converge. It seems that Superman's recent exposure to the Doomsday virus, which I'm assuming was the plot of Superman Doomed, was all a scheme to lure Superman into this place and trap him there while Brainiac comes the New 52 universe to do villainous Brainiac stuff.

After he leaves, Superman finds himself on a strange planet watched over by a being who, well, looks a lot like Brainiac, and in fact transforms into many familiar forms of the character throughout their conversation, but insists that he is different from his "master". This creature reveals to Supes that this planet hosts many cities from different universes, supposedly plucked out before the death of all their individual timelines. Then – in a very Satan-esque move – offers Superman his choice of the myriad Metropolises to be found there. You can probably guess that Superman isn't really into this idea.

Sataniac begins to get nervous that his master has not returned with a new city. He gives Superman the boot from this strange place on the grounds that, with no city from his native universe, he does not belong there. The issue ends with this being taking on a new form. If this is a reveal of an established DC character making their New 52 debut, I am sorry to say I didn't recognize him. Honestly, he still just kind of looked like Brainiac. But more important than how he looked is that he said – that all these representative cities must be judged. In order to do that... they must be pitted against one another.

Normally, I try to refrain from summarizing and giving spoilers, but I decided to do so here for the sake of comparison. Pieces of different Earths from around the multiverse forced into conflict on some sort of... battleworld? Why does that sound familiar?

To be fair, this is far from the first time Marvel and DC have done the same thing at the same time. Jason Todd and Bucky Barnes, two long- dead sidekicks, returned as villains around the same time. Captain America and Batman both "died" around the same time, and were each replaced by their former sidekicks, only to return two years later when it was revealed that they weren't really dead but were merely temporally displaced somehow (I don't know, it was complicated).

My point is not that one is ripping the other off. I have no way of knowing that. My point is that it doesn't matter. "Under the Hood" and "The Winter Soldier" are both great stories. And while the basic concept is the same, the execution is very different, as is the context in which these events are playing out. The Marvel Universe is not the same as the DC Universe. Hawkeye is not the same as Green Arrow, Namor is not the same as Aquaman, Wade Wilson is not the same as Slade Wilson (but come on). Likewise, despite featuring multiversal apocalyptic mayhem, Secret Wars is not Convergence.

All that said, I'm officially excited for DC's epic. I was concerned, being so out of the New 52 loop, that I would be utterly lost. But I was in good hands. Dan Jurgens is old school. He understands, as Stan Lee once said, that every comic might be someone's first. Even the famous Superman #75, which begins with and consists mainly of Superman and Doomsday ferociously beating each other literally to death, felt accessible to new readers. In fact, it was one of the first comics I ever read. Jurgens, along with co-writer Jeff King, pulls Superman and the reader into this new mystery, and then promptly kicks us both the hell out to wonder, not what just happened, but what is going to happen next.

The writing duo is helped in this task in no small part by Ethan Van Sciver's art. I've been a fan of his for a long time. I mentioned earlier how influential Green Lantern: Rebirth was for me. As talented as he was then, I found myself amazed by his work here. It's like Greg Capullo's work on Batman. The guy's always had the gift, but over time his talent has been honed to perfection. These guys have truly become masters of their craft. There are two double splash pages in this issue that are just stunning. In the first, Brainiac shows Superman all his deaths across the multiverse, which include some homages to some famous Superman stories. The second is the scene in which not-Brainiac offers Superman his choice of Metropolis. Each city is folding over one another in Inception/M.C. Escher-style madness. The detail in these drawings is phenomenal.

Bottom line: change is coming. This Marvel guy will be there to see it.