Convergence #8 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Jeff King, Scott Lobdell
Art By: Stephen Segovia, Carlo Pagulayan, Eduardo Pansica, Ethan Van Sciver, Jason Paz, Scott Hanna, Trevor Scott, John Starr
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: May 27, 2015

Brainiac's A Fickle Mush Head

(Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom)

Well, it's finally here.  After highs and lows....... and some more lows, we've finally made it to the end of Convergence and even though I love me a good event....... I'm seriously burned out and can't wait to get back to our regularly scheduled titles.  In the last issue, we had Deimos go up against Telos in a big battle royal to end all battle royals.......... only to have Parallax come in and kill Deimos.  It's not all pinatas and RC Cola though, since Deimos absorbed the power of the Time Masters, the energy had nothing to contain it once it's vessel was destroyed and it shot out into the New 52 Universe.......... Looking like it killed everyone who came to see the planet Telos force itself into their reality.  Let's see if our Universe survived as we head into this final story and hope that when this is all over, we'll be able to wrap our heads around everything that went down.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Now I don't know if this is just because I'm a Negative Nancy, but I got immediately pissed off when I opened this book because even though we saw the energy of the Time Masters shoot out into the New 52 Universe at the end of the last issue, here we learn that the power of the Time Masters has "returned" to the planet's core and will eventually ignite the out of space and time planet............destroying the Multiverse.  Oh and let me tell you right away, if you want this issue to make a little more sense, you should probably read Convergence: Booster Gold #2 first and then dive into this issue.  So yeah, the Multiverse is ending and everyone spends their time giving Parallax shit for destroying Deimos and putting them all in this predicament.  Back in the New 52 Universe we get another moment where I rip my hair out because instead of telling us or showing us what happened after the last issue's cliffhanger, we simply have Superman tell Supergirl that everyone went home to say their goodbyes to their friends and family............ So yeah, no explanation about how everyone survived and no explanation about how or why characters that have died, showed up there in the first place......... Yeah, that's a big letdown.

Eventually, after all the heroes who are lost in space and time get tired of ragging on Parallax, Booster Gold, Gold Star and the future Booster Gold, who was remade into Waverider show up and to save all of existence, Waverider just frees Brainiac from his T-Sphere prison from Futures End and before anyone can scream "ALL IS LOST!", we find out that prison has changed Brainiac........... Yeah, apparently the system actually works and Brainiac is reformed.  Instead of collecting and being all Brainiac about things, he wants to bury the hatchet with all the people he's kidnapped and send them all home, while making sure that the Multiverse survives.  I guess his motivations aren't entirely selfless because he wants to absorb and filter the power of the Time Masters so he can return to his original form........... because apparently traveling throughout space and time makes you a giant ugly monster.......... I don't know, I'm really just thrown off by Brainiac's flip floppy attitude.  At least we have a plan right?  It's just too bad that the original Crisis is too powerful to allow Brainiac to fix things...... or some such nonsense.  So get this, Pre-Crisis Barry is sent to make sure the Crisis doesn't destroy the Multiverse and he's accompanied by Pre-Flashpoint Superman, Lois and their baby, Pre-Crisis Supergirl and Zero Hour Parallax and I'm just lost at how all of this is supposed to work.  Let me run this down and see if it makes sense to any of you.  Let's start by going over the history of the DCU...........Everything from the Crisis leads to what's going on now............ So wouldn't you want everything to stay the same?......... You know except for Convergence.  Now we have the Crisis changed so that the Multiverse was never destroyed.......... but what about the characters that participated in the Crisis that shouldn't have been there?  Were they transported back to their time and place like the rest of the cities on the planet Telos?  I have no idea and even though changing that event should have rippled throughout time and created something that we wouldn't be able to recognize as the current DC continuity, somehow it actually worked and saved the Multiverse and everything that we've come to know from the New 52 and The Multiversity............. somehow.

In the end, with the Multiverse saved, Brainiac says "Fuck You" to the Earth 2 Wonders and leaves saying that he's going to purge everything on the planet.  Alan Scott saves everyone with a protective barrier and after the purging is complete and Brainiac is gone, we find out that Telos somehow transported the planet to the Earth 2 Universe..........even though Brainiac already severed Telos' connection to it......... Oh and Telos remembers his name.......... but we don't get to know it, so I'm going with Chuck.  So we end this series with Alan Scott unlocking the Green of the planet and making it lush and beautiful before he goes and gets the survivors of World's End and brings them to their new home.............. Oh and Dick Grayson's son Tommy John can't wait to be reunited with his father........which he tells some random redheaded woman, even though Big Barda and War took the child when they left Earth 2 originally............ Yeah, they wouldn't be the best babysitters and I can totally see them shirking their responsibilities and dropping the kid off with the first dope that would take him, but I would have liked to see at least one callback to World's End that made sense in this event.

And............. That's it for Convergence!  Holy shit it seems like we've been dealing with this event a long time now, even though it's only been eight issues and do you know what I get from this ending?  The idea that I would have loved to see Crisis of Infinite Earths played out with the characters that left this issue to go there and change the events because that was the most interesting part of this book....... even if it didn't make much sense to me and we never got to actually see it.  This whole finale can be explained with, "bad shit is happening, Brainiac grew out of collecting and insert nonsensical resolution here."  That's it.  If it wasn't for the art, I'd have to say that there was nothing to take away from this event and it's possible that some people would even call me on that front.  It's over though and at least we can take solace in that.  In conclusion, I just hope that after all we've gone through with World's End and this, that Dick Grayson can get his son's name right from now on.......... and hopefully we find out how he takes a piss now that's he's encompassed in a Telos shell.

Bits and Pieces:

Well, it's an ending.  How is it possible that I have more questions about the way that things were fixed to get us out of this event than I do with the entire event itself?  While this resolution gets us back on track with what we know and what we're used to with DC Comics, it's not a satisfying ending at all and makes me glad that we're done with all this nonsense and I hope we'll never have to deal with anything from it again.  The only plus side to this book is that the art continues to be great, but man I'm disappointed.

4/10