Convergence: Superboy and The Legion of Super-Heroes #1 (2015) Review

Future World Problems

Written By: Stuart Moore
Art By: Gus Storms, Mark Farmer, John Rauch
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: April 22, 2015

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

You know what's cool about this story right from the get-go?  The fact that it takes place in the Thirtieth Century.  Yeah, it's a Pre-Crisis story but instead of just having our character stuck in Gotham, we're actually in the future and I dig that aspect to this.......... Yeah, maybe it's expected because it's a Legion story but it's a bit different than the norm and at this point a bit different is good.  So yeah, we've got Superboy and a bunch of Legionnaires all stuck in future Metropolis when the dome came down, so let's see how they're coping and if Brainiac 5 has lost his mind after a year of not knowing what's going on.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our future story begins with Superboy addressing the people of Metropolis by telling them to keep hope alive because even though they've been under the dome for a year. Well, he pretty much lies to them and said how everything will get better eventually.  This is a weird issue because wherein other titles we get a little background on the characters and sometimes who they're going to fight, here we see Brainiac 5's attempts at solving this whole dome problem, which leads to him getting a strange voice from the dome itself or possibly the planet?  It's weird but it's very different from anything that we've seen in other Convergence tie-ins.  I guess that everyone is worried about old Brainy because a bunch of the Legionnaires gets Superboy to help them find out what Brainiac 5's been up to by having Colossal Boy break down a wall. I don't get it.  Yeah, we've seen in other titles like JLA where Martian Manhunter was stuck in human form for a year, but having Colossal Boy being stuck in an enlarged state which gives him the strength to break down walls, seems like a glaring oversight in the whole de-powered thing.  

With the team somewhat assembled, Brainiac 5 tells them about this strange message that told him "Where Are We?  We Are Here, But Soon We'll Be There".  Yeah, all that is certainly weird but not as weird as Superboy being all mopey in the beginning of this issue about missing his parents and Lana, then having one of those unexpected "we have feelings for one another" moments with Lightning Lass before they're interrupted by the dome disappearing.  So everyone's powers have returned and the Legion gets together to figure what they're next move will be, especially since the ominous voice told them that they'd have to fight another city to survive.  

In the end, after an overly long discussion about the pros and cons of attacking the other city, we finally get a decision from the Legion that they're going to go in stealth-like and get some intel before they act hastily which would be a good plan if it wasn't immediately made useless by the Atomic Knights invading Metropolis........... What the hell just happened?  Did we really spend all that time discussing what should be done just to have it become a moot point?  Nonsense.

That's it for this issue of Convergence: Superboy and The Legion of Super-Heroes and while I began this issue having a good time, about halfway through I started noticing a lot of things....like it seems that the majority of this issue didn't move the story along at all.  Hell, the ending was pure filler and I became really disappointed.  Yeah, I don't have a huge relationship with the Legion of Super-Heroes so it may come off to some that I don't have any right to knock a Legion story but I should be expected to have some fun while reading it right?  What I can say is that I really liked the beginning where we saw a vulnerable Superboy and the voice that came through to Brainiac 5 was really interesting because we haven't seen that before and I really dug the art in this issue.  Besides that though, this issue seemed to just be filler to get us to the end.

Bits and Pieces:

While I had a good time with the art in this book, I found the story lacking in anything that could grab someone's attention and keep it.  By the end, I was just bored with the useless conversations that were used just to get us to the end of the issue.  Nothing much going on here.

5.5/10