Convergence: The Question #1 (2015) Review

Face To Face To No Face

Written By: Greg Rucka
Art By: Cully Hamner, Dave McCaig
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: April 8, 2015

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

It's time to get back into the Pre-Flashpoint Dome and see what's going on with some of the ladies of Gotham and what they're doing to keep life under the Dome safe for the citizens of Gotham.  It's time for a return of characters like Two-Face.......... Man, I love Two-Face, Renee Montoya and The Huntress.......... Are you pumped yet?  Well, stop being a Sideline Sally and get into the game as we jump into this issue of Convergence: The Question, where hopefully we finally get some answers from the one person who knows how to ask them.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

As our Convergence story begins, we see that everything under the Dome isn't as nice as characters led us to believe in other Convergence titles we've seen this week.  Yeah, we have Poison Ivy tending a large garden, so everyone can keep eating and yeah, maybe Roy Harper is living a happier life working with kids and displaced families but we see a different side of Domed Gotham when we open the pages to this book and see Two-Face and Renee Montoya searching and fighting for some of the last morphine and medicine in the city, so that some of the people in the hospital can go on living........ and living without constant pain.  Yeah, that's something that I hadn't thought about with the rest of these titles because for the most part we've seen how people seem to be living pretty comfortably under the Dome and for the most part it came across like the Dome might have been the best thing to ever happen to Gotham.............. You know, except for the whole being displaced in time and space thing.

After Renee makes sure that the meds get to the hospital and that her father is comfortable, she heads back home where we see Huntress coming in from a night of patrols and man, does she give Renee a ration of shit when she finds out that Renee was working with Two-Face........... You know, because of him being a monster and his whole infatuation thing with her.  That doesn't stop Renee from No-Facing it up and going back into the city to do her nightly ritual.  What ritual you ask, well apparently The Question pays Two-Face a visit every night to make sure that he doesn't kill himself, which isn't really unwarranted worry because Two-Face puts a gun to his head every night and flips his coin.  I don't know what it is about the Dome but every night for a year the coin falls on the good side and it seems that it does this now for everything.

In the end, the Dome comes down and Two-Face finally sees his salvation.  If chance won't let him kill himself, he'll do the next best thing now that they're living in a world where parallel cities are forced to fight, he's going to find another Harvey Dent and have that version of himself put him down.  Knowing that things have changed, The Question tries to get Two-Face to stop but she doesn't expect to get pistol-whipped for her trouble and as our issue closes, we have Huntress show up just to call Renee an idiot for trusting Harvey and it looks like Batwoman wants to get reacquainted......... Was there a sign out front that said "Question Inside Here"?  

While I expected a little more Convergence-ing going on here from what the solicit presented, I really dig that we got a chance to explore what these characters are doing and who they are now that they've lived a year within The Dome.  For all fans of Renee Montoya from the Pre-Flashpoint Universe, Greg Rucka does a damn fine job to let you know that he's still thinking of you by throwing in as many callbacks to the old continuity as he could but don't worry, even with the callbacks none of it felt forced or over the top.  Cully Hamner does a damn fine job as well as representing these characters again with his awesome style and it was a real joy seeing these two creators working on these characters again.  Now with Batwoman thrown into the mix, I can't wait to see what these two have in store for us with next month's issue.

Bits and Pieces:

Even though it's only one issue, Greg Rucka does a damn fine job in giving us the current status quo of The Question and her associates while giving us plenty of callbacks to the old continuity before everything got all Domed to hell.  Cully Hamner being on art here was a real joy and I'm happy that DC got these two back to work on this character that they made so popular.  Go check out this Convergence title because it's one that really gives you the nostalgia feels.

8/10