Convergence: Justice League of America #1 (2015) Review

Stretching Their Legs

Written By: Fabian Nicieza
Art By: ChrisCross and Snakebite
Nameless "Grunt" Who Worked on the Color: Paideia Productions Media Design
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: April 22, 2015

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Any of you remember the Justice League Detroit team?  Well, I hope that some of you at least do because that's what we have here and while I might not have been the biggest reader of this team.  I sure had a whole lot of fun at the comic book shop, pulling out old back issues of it and laughing about Aquaman leading a team and Paco Ramone.  Well, just laughing at Paco Ramone.  So it's been a year under the dome, let's see how our Detroit team who are in Gotham for some reason, get re-acclimated to having powers and getting back into super-heroics.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our story begins after the dome has disappeared and our JLA team begins stretching their legs with their newly acquired powers.  We see this right from the start with a scene that tugs at my heartstrings. That's right, I'm talking about Ralph and Sue Dibny and knowing what will go down in Identity Crisis just makes this such a beautiful scene.  I'm not sure that any comic has affected me the way that Identity Crisis has..... but I guess that doesn't matter here, what matters is Ralph assembles the Justice League Detroit team to a warehouse to train them so they get used to their powers again, while Aquaman, Martian Manhunter and Zatanna scour the city and the magical realms for the threat that the booming voice that dissolved the dome promised.  This is kind of funny to me because it comes off like the dome has been gone for a few days and unlike any other city I've seen or more accurately, any Convergence title that I've seen, this Pre-Crisis Gotham gets to have themselves a little breathing time before all the death and destruction...at least that's the way it seems to me.

All the scouting by our heroes and narration by Sue Dibny about what these heroes have been up to for a year without powers is put on hold though when our three heavy hitters, you know, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter and Zatanna spot an explosion in the distance. Even though the background narrative is put on hold, I want to take a minute to talk about it.  For the most part, our heroes just went on with their lives and did what they could while the dome was around, but Martian Manhunter was trapped as a human because he happened to be in that form when the dome went down.......... and that seems like powers going on to me because it's not his normal state.  So I have a problem with that and we find out that Commander Steel was living off of machines during that time because of most of his body being cybernetic and I'm all for him pulling Metallica's "One" but this is another example of the rules of Convergence not jiving with other books and that bugs the hell out of me.  For example, Roy Harper's cybernetic arm wouldn't function under the dome and that correlates to what's going on here but Red Tornado still functioning and having powers and Steel's suit still working is just odd to me. Is it because of the need of these robotics to work with organic tissue that it's not allowed?  I don't know and I guess I can go with that. It's just odd and I'd like it spelled out a little more just so I can wrap my head around it.

In the end, our trio of heroes finds that the explosion they saw was from the building that Elongated Man was training the rest of the team and that it was caused by the Tangent Universe's Secret Six and unlike other Convergence titles, we get a nice description about who these characters are and what they're like and I really appreciated this bonus to the story because I really have no clue about the Tangent stuff.  It just happened to come out when I wasn't reading comics and I've yet to dive into their stories.  As the issue closes, our remaining heroes are having a hard time dealing with this Tangent team but it looks like they won't have to struggle much longer because we see that the rest of our heroes survived the explosion and it looks like they're gunning for a little payback.

That's it for this issue of Convergence: Justice League of America and there were a lot of nice touches to this book that made it a pleasure to read, besides for it actually being about the Justice League Detroit that is.  What I'm saying is, we get to see what all the characters were up to during the dome and we got to see a whole lot more about the people our heroes are going up against than we have in other Convergence titles, not to mention some kick-ass art to guide us through the story.  While yes, the middle of this book got a little slow and Zatanna did piss me off by pressing a shiny red button that said "Don't Press" that started their troubles with the Tangent Secret Six, this issue is still a really good read and I can't wait until next month to see what the conclusion will be.

Bits and Pieces:

Right off the bat you know you're going to have a good time because this book features the ragtag team of Justice League Detroit and that idea alone just tickles me. Oh yeah, it tickles me.  Not only that but the art team's names are ChrisCross and Snakebite. Yeah, that's a badass art team right there!  Seriously though, this issue lets you know what's been going down with all the characters of the team and even gives you a little insight on the characters they'll be fighting and that might not sound like much, but it's more than we get from a lot of other Convergence titles.  This is definitely a book you should be picking up and I don't think anyone will regret it.

8/10