Where to start with Convergence

[Tim13530]

I mostly read Marvel and Image comics.I have read few DC Comics, (Swamp Thing, Snyder's New 52 Batman, Constantine Hellblazer) but I would like to dive more into the DCU. With convergence coming up, I will freely admit I am beyond confused. I have been reading comics for just over a year, and am much more familiar with the Marvel U than the DCU. My question for everybody is this: Where the heck should I start with convergence?? Is there something I need to read before starting anything Convergence related? I don't even recognize many of the names and am struggling to grasp the concept of it all. I really want to start reading more DC books but it can be quite overwhelming. When I started reading comics, DC had just started the New 52. Any suggestions welcome, I am not ruling anything out. I will say this, Swamp Thing is probably the DC comic I have enjoyed the most. I've also read classic Batman such as Year one and The Killing Joke which were both amazing. Bring on the suggestions people! And thank you in advance for helping a new guy out.

[K. Jones]

Well, it seems like you're confused but also curious about it, so you could certainly read Convergence itself. It's written by a veteran writer, but new to comic writing, so he's promised he's just trying to tell a good story and also do credit by making the characters he uses have quick but helpful introductions so it's supposed to be, ideally, pretty new reader friendly. And if it proves to be new reader friendly, it'll be a great introduction to a new DC reader for the insane cosmic/multiverse stuff that only DC can pull off. Convergence starts on April 1st with a #0 and is weekly until June (seven or eight issues, I forget). Many, MANY of us got into DC Comics reading these kind of big "tons of characters" crisis-level events and were just as lost and jumping into the deep end as you, and every page we'd be like "WHO THE HECK IS THIS GUY?" and then want to know more about this character we've never heard of and go and look them up.

Within Convergence there's a TON of 2-part minis that feature "lost timelines" - that is characters as they existed in like, the 80s, the 90s, right before some of DC's big cosmic crises altered the timeline or universe to make way for the new. I won't get too into the details because there's a ton of minis featuring a ton of characters, essentially that fans miss a lot, in a lot of cases written and drawn by artists and writers associated with the classic runs. But Week 1 in both months features characters from right before the most recent timeline-crunch (Pre-Flashpoint), Week 2 features the characters as they were right before the mid-90s timeline-crunch (Pre-Zero Hour) and Weeks 3 and 4 each month feature the characters as they were before the mid-80s crunch (Pre-Crisis).

That being said, if you liked Swamp Thing, there is a 2-part Convergence: Swamp Thing story by Len Wein (the inventor of Swamp Thing) and legendary 90s Batman and horror artist Kelley Jones. If you like Snyder's New 52 Batman, technically his Batman, while in Snyder-style stories, is using the same framework and stories from immediately pre-Flashpoint in the last few years (the Grant Morrison stuff), so the Convergence: Batman & Robin issues would feature a guy you'd find familiar, with Damian as Robin.

The rest you'll have to gamble your money and interest on. There's a lot coming out that's by quality writers and artists and we have high expectations for, because they'll act like codas or epilogues for some legendary runs of comics, but some of them might be a bit "inside baseball" if you're going into Convergence cold. Also important, the familiar characters will in most cases be facing off against characters from Elseworlds or parallel universes, which could get a bit confusing, but not if you just treat it as "oh, the threats in all these stories are just survivors of parallel universes" and ignore or put into perspective the fact that all those parallel universe characters have comic book backstory and history, too.

In June, after Convergence, the DC line does a soft relaunch, or reset. The ongoing stories continue, but a bunch of titles have been canceled in the wake of a lot of brand new fresh interesting stuff. That's a grab bag, and could be the ideal place to jump onto anything that looks interesting. (Snyder's Batman continues with wild all-new stuff.)

[Buried Alien]

Is next week the week we can start buying CONVERGENCE-related stuff?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[cranger]

Is next week the week we can start buying CONVERGENCE-related stuff?

The #0 issue.

As for Convergence, well I was new to DC a few years ago and I found with Flashpoint it was just fun to pick up anything and everything that looked interesting and give it a shot. You probably do not need to know anything going into the book other than what I am sure the first issue (#0) is going to explain.

[GlennSimpson]

I mostly read Marvel and Image comics.I have read few DC Comics, (Swamp Thing, Snyder's New 52 Batman, Constantine Hellblazer) but I would like to dive more into the DCU. With convergence coming up, I will freely admit I am beyond confused. I have been reading comics for just over a year, and am much more familiar with the Marvel U than the DCU. My question for everybody is this: Where the heck should I start with convergence?? Is there something I need to read before starting anything Convergence related? I don't even recognize many of the names and am struggling to grasp the concept of it all. I really want to start reading more DC books but it can be quite overwhelming. When I started reading comics, DC had just started the New 52. Any suggestions welcome, I am not ruling anything out. I will say this, Swamp Thing is probably the DC comic I have enjoyed the most. I've also read classic Batman such as Year one and The Killing Joke which were both amazing. Bring on the suggestions people! And thank you in advance for helping a new guy out.

Just to add to what others are saying, it may make more sense, if you're a Marvel fan, to point out that Convergence is a lot like what Marvel is apparently doing with the upcoming Secret Wars event - taking versions of the characters that are not necessarily the *current* versions and mixing them all up. Whereas Marvel tends to establish that just about everything they publish exists on some world in their multiverse, DC has at times modified their universe in a way that can't be returned to (normally). So like you had a universe where Superman ran around as Superboy when he was a kid, but then the universe changed and that never happened. And you could generally never get to any universe where that was the case. What we are learning in Convergence is Brainiac managed to "capture" some of those old universes, and we're going to see them battle it out and/or join forces.

That said, if you are interested in DC in general, maybe coming in during a two-month event where the books will all be mostly starring versions of characters that won't ever be seen again isn't the best time. Maybe do some sampling of the Swamp Thing and Batman stuff, but then really dig in in June when the regular books start back up.

[Tim13530]

Thanks for taking the time to explain this to me. Definitely helped a lot. I like the idea of having the veteran writer but new to comics. I'm 100% going to be picking up #0. Thanks again K. Jones for helping. It doesn't seem so overwhelming anymore and the anticipation is building up!

[Tim13530]

Just to add to what others are saying, it may make more sense, if you're a Marvel fan, to point out that Convergence is a lot like what Marvel is apparently doing with the upcoming Secret Wars event - taking versions of the characters that are not necessarily the *current* versions and mixing them all up. Whereas Marvel tends to establish that just about everything they publish exists on some world in their multiverse, DC has at times modified their universe in a way that can't be returned to (normally). So like you had a universe where Superman ran around as Superboy when he was a kid, but then the universe changed and that never happened. And you could generally never get to any universe where that was the case. What we are learning in Convergence is Brainiac managed to "capture" some of those old universes, and we're going to see them battle it out and/or join forces.

That said, if you are interested in DC in general, maybe coming in during a two-month event where the books will all be mostly starring versions of characters that won't ever be seen again isn't the best time. Maybe do some sampling of the Swamp Thing and Batman stuff, but then really dig in in June when the regular books start back up.

Your right, it may not be the best time to start with DC, but i've been hearing its supposed to be very new reader friendly. I am least going to give it a shot and we will see where it goes from there.