The Good
Convergenceis becoming a strange beast unto itself, and it’s one that clearly requires a deft touch. It’s a massive event dealing with well-known players, but it’s dealing with them at various times in their existence, and that means a lot of alternate dimensional stuff that calls up DC’s most ingrained, esoteric roots. Which is why it requires a very, very specific kind of story to resonate both with longtime fans and newly minted ones, and this issue is a fantastic example of how to do that. Marc Andreyko had the unenviable position of taking up the mantle of BATWOMAN after one of the most spectacular runs in the character’s history, and he did the best with what he had. Given the opportunity to be more unrestrained here, he does some truly great work. Every character manages to get their moment, and not just the big guy who’s name is at the top of the title, we get to see someone who has actually BENEFITTTED from the bizarre dome that has cut off Gotham from the rest of the world(s), and that is, far and away, the most interesting thing in this issue. Through all the hardship, there’s someone who’s benefitting and doesn’t even feel guilty about it. Andreyko gives us a bunch of truly great character moments, though, ranging across the entire roster and culminating with a Batman who, perhaps for the first time in his career, is truly at a loss of what to do next. Painting Batman as vulnerable without painting him as weak is another tricky thing to accomplish, but this issue threads the needle very, very well.
Carlos D’Anda helps give this issue an ironclad emotional core, and does it in an unexpected way: through highly cartoonish character designs. The characters and backgrounds in this issue have a wonderfully over-the-top look that still has its grounding in realistic proportions and allows for some great melodrama to be communicated across characters’ faces. Since many readers may be meeting these characters for the first time, the exaggerated appearances can help bring a core of more raw emotion and invest the reader in their struggles more readily. Gabe Eltaeb’s colors do a fantastic job evoking the Pre-Crisis DCU that these characters are drawn from, starkly contrasting the dark themes with bold, sharp colors.
The Bad
There’s definitely a feeling of missing out if these characters don’t already have an emotional connection to the reader. While the creative team does a great job of establishing one very quickly, there’s a slight sense of hollowness that comes from not knowing who the major players are to one another, or to their loved ones, that unfortunately resonates through the issue.
The Verdict
This is a great example of very quickly investing the reader in characters they might not be entirely familiar with, and while it doesn’t fully work, it works enough to make this issue incredibly compelling. This is an issue where what happens next has a measure of suspense and stakes because these characters don’t NEED to survive this event, so the emotion that’s already been invested in them can be ripped away at a moment’s notice. And that is the definition of anxiety.
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