Weekly Comic Review for 5/20/15

We move on to the last week of Convergence before it ends. We’re also into the 3rd week of Secret Wars. There were a bunch of mini-series for that but I only got one of them. This week’s DC Comics have an addition section in the middle talking about the “new direction” for DC Comics. Yes, there are some new titles announced like Bizarro, Robin: Son of Batman, Batman Beyond, and the Omega Men. Some weird things are going on in Batman and Superman but most of the stuff seems pretty much the same. I guess we’ll see what really happens next week. One with the review though…

A-Force #1 – This is probably the most advertised mini-series of Secret Wars. Actually, a lot of people thought it was just a new series. It was advertised from the start as an all female team. She-Hulk is the leader and Dazzler is back in the shiny disco outfit she first started in. Somehow, she is also able to fly. A good number of the current female characters from across the universe (Medusa, Niko, Miss America, Loki, Captain Marvel, Spider-Woman, and more. Even Jean Grey as Phoenix.) appear throughout the issue as they patrol and protect the island they are on. Yes, there are men on the island (Luke Cage being one of them) but the heroes seem to just be female. The one really tacky thing in the episode is that the headquarters is called the Hall of Justice. Did they really have to steal the name of the Super Friends’ headquarters? Lately, the more Marvel I read, the less I wish I had.

Convergence #7 of 8 – While the champions on the planet battle, the New 52 heroes continue to try to figure things out from space. Then Telos shows up and attacks Deimos. During the battle, the charges of temporal energy blasts into space and shows different versions of Superman (including Superman Blue), Supergirl and Martian Manhunter. After that, Parallax ends up taking out Deimos but then reality starts getting all messed up. Next issue, this all concludes. I’d like to think that we’ll have all sorts of changes related to the old timelines but I think not much will change. I think it was just a chance to show a bunch of old characters that hadn’t been used in a long time which is still a lot of fun.

Convergence: Batman and the Outsiders #2 of 2 – OMAC shows up to take on the Outsiders, but he’s not connected to Brother Eye as he usually is. This time, someone named Godmother is in control. The Outsiders are able to overpower OMAC though and the other creatures all run off.

Divergence back-up story: Batman Beyond

Convergence: Flash #2 of 2 – This is a really interesting issue with the Tangent universe Superman and the Flash. He can read Barry’s mind and keeps telling Barry that he doesn’t have a chance against him. (Heck, he even refers to his planet as Earth 9 which gives him points in my book.) Barry tries anyway but Superman ends up stopping him mentally. He ends up finding pieces of information that Barry can’t remember in Barry’s mind. They are about the Anti-Monitor and Flash dying during the Crisis. He says Barry is part of a “hypertime crisis” and that his loss would mean the lost of the multiverse and not just one world so Superman concedes. This is an ending I never saw coming. I wonder if bringing this up will tie in to the storyline or is just a way to end the battle.

Divergence back-up story: New Suicide Squad

Convergence: Green Lantern Corps #2 of 2 – Hal and John fight the Anti-God from Durvalle (Where the Atomic Knights come from), but do so not very successfully. Guys in coming in on a motorcycle and kicking ass (except when having PTSD flashbacks) until he get captured by Hercules and his friends. I’m not sure what world they are from but this is just a side story and not an actual battle. Hercules ends up getting him to the other Green Lanterns. He gets his ring back and they send the Anti-God into the anti-matter (only appropriate) where he explodes. It’s interesting seeing Guy back in the original GL outfit again.

Divergence back-up story: Gotham Academy

Convergence: Hawkman #2 of 2 – It turns out that Hawkman and Hawkgirl are fighting the humanoid animals of Kamandi’s world. They are pretty much severely outnumbered. They eventually get taken down and get tied to a rocket that just makes me think of the scene where Bucky “dies” and Captain America gets frozen. They end up escaping and eventually win with the Help of the Thangarians. It’s all pretty predictable really. The only thing that threw me was trying to figure out who the enemy was when the flying creatures (I thought they were vampires but they were bat men.) attacked the Hawks.

Divergence back-up story: Grayson

Convergence: Justice League of America #2 of 2 – With their big 3 (Zatanna, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter) trapped, the reast of JLA Detroit takes on the Secret Six but were a little overpowered and unprepared. They get away and hold their own until Sue Dibney saves the day by freeing the others who then just overpower them on their own. Yes, those three definitely had most of the power just to themselves. Pretty much why the team was about as respected as the JLI. There was some good to them though. The battles were still pretty cool as expected.

Divergence back-up story: Batman/Superman

Convergence: New Teen Titans #2 of 2 – This issue is pretty much straight out as expected. Nightwing meets up with Firehawk. The rest of the Doom Patrol attack the other Titans because they only care about themselves. Firehawk get blamed and Cyborg is kidnapped. More blaming. Rampage disagrees too about killing Cyborg after a while. The mother doesn’t really care what anyone else says or if they survive as long as what she wants happens. Major bitch! But then when Cyborg threatens to kill them all if they didn’t work together, her tune changes real quick. Yeah, overall pretty boring and formulaic.

Divergence back-up story: Robin: Son of Batman

Convergence: Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #2 of 2 – This one’s almost a joke. The Atomic Knights kick everyone’s asses until Wildstar shows up. Then the knights pull out a major bio-weapon. It then becomes the standard “You shouldn’t do that.” and “You’re right. I shouldn’t. Let’s be friends.” At least the battle and issue are over even though no on won.

Divergence back-up story: Teen Titans

A lot of the second issues really had very pat endings and weren’t all that exciting this week. I do have a top 3 though. They are Convergence, Convergence: Flash, and Convergence: Justice League of America. I’ll definitely be looking forward to Wednesday when this is all over though.