DC Announces "Convergence" Nine-Week Event

[Nite-Wing]

This is probably the dumbest thing DC has done since they decided to go forward with countdown.
You have one good weekly series with Batman Eternal
Futures end is pretty much all over the place
and World's end is just now starting up and has the potential for going bad as well

I don't think anyone legitimately cares about the old universes for them to have to stop everything for 2 months

[Rakzo]

Mixed thoughts about this.

For one, I don't know anything about the author of the weekly series, Jeff King. Also, I don't really like the idea about some books being on hiatus just for this event especially considering that some series like Supergirl, Gotham Academy, Batgirl and Catwoman are offering new takes on franchises and going to be interrupted.

On the other hand, I really like the idea of having the JSA, Gen13 and the Charlton heroes interacting. Plus, World's End will be over which is always a positive,

[mr_crisp]

Sounds like DC is trying to bring people back who left at the start of New 52.

[Darth Kal-el]

Mixed thoughts about this.

For one, I don't know anything about the author of the weekly series, Jeff King. Also, I don't really like the idea about some books being on hiatus just for this event especially considering that some series like Supergirl, Gotham Academy, Batgirl and Catwoman are offering new takes on franchises and going to be interrupted.

On the other hand, I really like the idea of having the JSA, Gen13 and the Charlton heroes interacting. Plus, World's End will be over which is always a positive,

But they won't be interrupted. Their current arc will end in February and a new one will begin in May. Meanwhile this will lead to the event starting in the Summer

[ggny]

Jeff King is a dam good writer and has created/produced some good TV shows over the years. It is nice to see DC branching out and bringing in writers like him i think he is gonna be a favorite for readers

[a. non]

I have the feeling that this is them saying good-bye to the old characters. I sense that they're saying "We know you love the older characters, but their time is over. So here's one last story with them. After this, they're not coming back."

I love stories like this, with hundreds of characters and sprawling storylines. But Lobdell is involved. I'm not a fan of Lobdell.

Ah what the hell, who needs to pay bills?

[nightrider]

I have the feeling that this is them saying good-bye to the old characters. I sense that they're saying "We know you love the older characters, but their time is over. So here's one last story with them. After this, they're not coming back."

I love stories like this, with hundreds of characters and sprawling storylines. But Lobdell is involved. I'm not a fan of Lobdell.

Ah what the hell, who needs to pay bills?

ah....... i'd love to say goodbye to these characters. I kinda would like also some shake up cos the new 52 have became really stale. this might be the event that brings me back :0

[Crunch C.]

"Yeah, us old timers definitely kept the pre-52 selling really well and made sure the company made solid cash on their comics division...."

You must be a new reader. Your knowledge of the comic industry of the 70's and 80's is very limited. During this time comic series regularly sold hundreds of thousands of copies per month. Innovative story lines such as Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns and Uncanny X-Men are still being copied today. This was definitely the true Golden Age of comics and we would be lucky to catch that lightning in a bottle today!

[MykeHavoc]

Really, flying on a plane should not interfere with making comics, its not 1972 haha, jk...

Ive never moved cross country, but I imagine it would be a rather time consuming task that would take even more than two months to get settled into.

[Brian from Canada]

Look, I am not that interested in Marvel's Secret War either, but having Hickman as a writer and Ribic as the artist can give the whole project a coherence and a quality which Convergence doesn't seem to have. Frankly speaking, the whole operation seems like a two-month, extremely expensive and useless fill-in.

It's not. In fact, it's completely the opposite. Just look at what DC has done over the last few months and you can see the pattern clearly:

1. The revelation in Batman/Superman that Earth-Prime is the one planet who can turn back Darkseid,
2. The Crime Syndicate flees Earth-3 because of an attacker of great power ("Trinity War"/"Forever Evil"),
3. The revelation that the attacker of Earth-3 is the Anti-Monitor (final page of "Forever Evil"),
4. Portions of those universes are being saved by Brainiac from another dimension (Booster Gold: Futures End),
5. Stormwatch was created to protect Earth-Prime from that Brainiac from the Shadow Lords (New 52: Futures End), and
6. Apokolips fears the universe ender — especially with Darkseid still recovering from his wounds (Earth 2: World's End).

Dan Jurgens is involved because the core player here is going to be Booster Gold. DC hinted strongly that Booster has a major role to play still, and the end of Booster Gold: Futures End says the story is continued at the point where both worlds and futures end, a subtle hint that this event is coming.

No. NO! NO!!! Scott Lobell is helping with the plot?

Scott Lobdell is likely involved in plotting out the big event because (a) he's the only writer at DC of any note that was not on a weekly book, even with a hand still in the Batman universe with Red Hood And The Outlaws, (b) his other assignments were coming to an end, and (c) most importantly: Lobdell's history of plotting out events was pretty good at Marvel until the end, when he purposely ruined "Operation: Zero Tolerance" because editorial wouldn't let him do the ending he had originally planned.

As for Lobdell's DC credentials, keep in mind that this is the man who set up "Superman: Doomed" and has shown an ability in Teen Titans to let other writers give him direction as well.

I still think there will be a Crisis event that starts in June...Convergence may be the lead in. I wouldn't think DC would pass up an opportunity to do a Crisis event on the 30th Anniversary.

First: see point #3 above.
Second: follow the pattern further. Booster Gold causes a breach in Brainiac's contained universes, visiting each one... for which we get a two-parter reintroducing them to the readers who are unfamiliar with DC history and/or need a refresher in those areas. Then, when the next "Crisis" occurs in June, we have Brainiac involved against the Anti-Monitor as well as Darkseid, merging the New 52 Earth-Prime, New 52 Earth-2 and some other universe figures together for the biggest battle of them all... leaving some of those classic characters potentially coming back.

I'll stick with Multiversity for my Multiverse fix, thanks.

Everyone's welcome to their own choices.

For me, Multiversity is NOT the DC Universe, but rather an appeasement of Grant Morrison to keep in the DC fold. If you look at the way that basic plot is going, its only abutment to the DC New 52 worlds is the weekly comic that set it up, and those universes aren't really part of the Multiversity plan at the moment — especially with the promise that Multiversity will do its best to stay away from white, male heroes.

Expect Multiversity to be the one DC title that not only keeps going through those two months (since it's one-shots anyway) and not involved with the next "Crisis." (That's my guess, anyway.)

[GlennSimpson]

I don't think anyone legitimately cares about the old universes for them to have to stop everything for 2 months

You do realize they are going to stop everything for two months no matter what, right? They can't produce the regular comics during those two months, so SOMETHING has to get made and sold. Bringing out some old characters they don't plan to use anywhere else is a reasonable plan.

[Brian from Canada]

Why does Marvel/DC events always seem like the same thing, just with different characters?

Two reasons.

One: Because both publishers have realized that the market is locked into a cycle of mega, high-ante events that need to crossover with as many titles as possible to classify them as "relevant."

The irony of it all being that 2015 is referencing both "Crisis On Infinite Earths" and "Secret Wars," the two year-long maxi-series that introduced that standard — albeit in different ways: "Secret Wars" had an immediate impact that had to be explained in the maxi-series, while "Crisis" was the maxi-series that changed the universe at the end. But every key corner of the core universe was touched in each.

Now, it becomes even more blatant as DC has not only presented these alternate universes already in story, but Marvel is advertising something similar in teasers.

And, two: because, if you haven't realized it yet, there are writers/artists employed by both on those key books, from which ideas can certainly migrate.

Especially, from DC to Marvel, as Marvel's recent history over the last few years has been to put down what DC does before copying it itself.

[AlexanderLuthor]

I'm the furthest thing from a fan of Scott Lobdell....BUT, if you are going to use him then this suits his strengths. His problem has never been about the big ideas and plotting, it's been about the execution of the ideas. That's why many have said he might be better as an editor, but him outlining the ideas here doesn't scare me at all. And I do like that DC keeps branching out their writing group - Tom King, Genevieve Valentine and now this guy. Lot's of great writers oout there from other media who are probably eyeballing comic books right now

[Myskin]

It's not. In fact, it's completely the opposite. Just look at what DC has done over the last few months and you can see the pattern clearly:

1. The revelation in Batman/Superman that Earth-Prime is the one planet who can turn back Darkseid,
2. The Crime Syndicate flees Earth-3 because of an attacker of great power ("Trinity War"/"Forever Evil"),
3. The revelation that the attacker of Earth-3 is the Anti-Monitor (final page of "Forever Evil"),
4. Portions of those universes are being saved by Brainiac from another dimension (Booster Gold: Futures End),
5. Stormwatch was created to protect Earth-Prime from that Brainiac from the Shadow Lords (New 52: Futures End), and
6. Apokolips fears the universe ender — especially with Darkseid still recovering from his wounds (Earth 2: World's End).

Dan Jurgens is involved because the core player here is going to be Booster Gold. DC hinted strongly that Booster has a major role to play still, and the end of Booster Gold: Futures End says the story is continued at the point where both worlds and futures end, a subtle hint that this event is coming.

I don't necessarily think that all these hints point to THIS particular event (someone speculated that Convergence is just a prologue for a second, Crisis-like event in June), and I don't think that all the hints you have mentioned are pointing to the very same event, either. For example, I don't think that all the hints involving Darkseid are about Convergence, since the Darkseid/Anti-Monitor War will apprentely be a storyline limited to the Justice League series only. It doesn't have much to do with Convergence, apparently. The fact that thay are using a Brainiac rip-off instead than the real villain IMHO could be another confirmation that the Big B will be used later in another storyline.

Anyway, no matter what the case is, there is literally nothing about Convergence which makes me vaguely interested about this storyline. Nor the writers, nor the premise, nor, well, anything. Secret Wars, at least, has Hickman and Ribic.

[JasonTodd428]

Sounds interesting and fun to me. I'll be getting whatever ones sound appealing at the time.

I'm the furthest thing from a fan of Scott Lobdell....BUT, if you are going to use him then this suits his strengths. His problem has never been about the big ideas and plotting, it's been about the execution of the ideas. That's why many have said he might be better as an editor, but him outlining the ideas here doesn't scare me at all.

Exactly, Lobdell is very good with ideas it's his execution of those ideas that sometimes falters so I'm not worried about him being involved with this at all.