For the last year, DC Comics has been releasing weekly series, leading up to the CONVERGENCE event in one way or another. Yesterday’s DC Entertainment All Access: Weeklies Converge at the Emerald City Comic-Con celebrated the successes of The New 52: Futures End, Batman Eternal and Earth 2: World’s End.
Panellists included Dan Jurgens, James Tynion IV, Marguerite Bennett, Jeff King, Stuart Moore and a surprise appearance from Gail Simone. Moderated by Hank Kanalz, SVP Editorial Strategy & Administration for DC Entertainment, the panel began with a promotion for the CONVERGENCE event. Referencing the last major Crisis, he promised we would “Follow the worlds that died to the edge of the Multiverse.” It will also follow the things that The Multiversity has been doing, answering what the “?” on the map of the Multiverse is, something Dan DiDio has virtually let the cat out of the bag on already.
In CONVERGENCE, Brainiac – who was revealed to be a kind of über-Brainiac in Futures End, disappears and is replaced with the planet incarnate Telos. As explained by Kanalz, Telos puts all the worlds back together at once, instantly putting every world in conflict simultaneously. This will result, as seen in previous solicitations, in interesting combinations like Wonder Woman versus a vampire Joker, or Harley Quinn up against Captain Carrot.
Dan Jurgens initial comment was simply “Buy it”, followed by explaining that CONVERGENCE would transition immediately out of Futures End. Jeff King King referenced the teaser images that have been appearing in March comics of the deaths of Superman down the ages, citing the grand line that the two characters of Superman and Brainiac have had down the ages. Enticing people further to buy physical copies of the comic, Jurgens revealed that there were 3 double-page spreads that required 3 copies to get the full scale of the massive scene.
King, who is relatively new to comics, compared the work to the massive world-building of his television productions. However, with CONVERGENCE, he added that the challenge was to “compress it through the lens of character stories that you care about.” King elaborated that it would strongly feature the six characters that come out of Earth 2: World’s End, with a character who “will surprise you when you discover who she is.”
Stuart Moore talked a little about his Convergence: Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes book, saying it will be set in a pre-Crisis 1980s, something he felt was a high point for the team. Describing it as a “clash between the futures”, it will be “a story about Superboy at heart.” It deals with the “Clark Kent” Superboy, who was “killed off” during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. It will deal with a Superboy who is on the cusp of of becoming Superman, and at a “point of despair.” Including “a little Legion romance,” it also promises the Atomic Knights who ride around on giant dalmatians.
James Tynion IV, speaking on the last year of Batman: Eternal, said he “wanted to build the best damn book possible.” He said it will feed into what’s coming for Gotham in June, adding “these are some of the craziest ideas we [with Scott Snyder] had.”
Marguerite Bennett referred to her run on Earth 2: World’s End as “one of the most daunting projects of my entire career,” but learned how much characters can be put through and still remain true to their central core. King commented that “It’s rare you tell a story where you don’t win.” Bennett simply replied: “But it had to happen.”
CONVERGENCE #0 is out on 1 April 2015 from DC Comics.
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