Weekly Comic Review for 4/29/15

OK. The movie review is done so time to get on to an overdue review. Lots of books this week. Each of the Convergence mini-series have a “Divergence” sneak peek of one of the books that will be around after this storyline is over.

Afterlife with Archie #8 – The story jumps ahead one month after the last issue. Archie is talking about the events that have occurred since the end of the previous issue. The odd thing is that the person he’s telling it to is Jughead and he’s not a zombie. After a bit of reader confusion, it’s revealed that this Jughead is actually a ghost. The issue is pretty must about personal interactions. They talk about Cherry and if they trust her and if she should stay in the group. Archie’s mom even tells Archie about some town history and how someone from the next 3 generations was supposed to die from one of 3 families that were part of the town core. This was a deal with witches to keep the town safe. For his generation, it was Jughead’s family. The last part of the story is Archie proposing to Betty and her accepting, agreeing to get married in 3 months when she turns 18. Interesting story for a comic titled “Betty: R.I.P.” I’m honestly not sure where this book is going to go from here.

Convergence #5 of 8 – With Brainiac in a bubble, Deimos reveals the truth about Talos and how he used to be “human”. (As human as an alien can be.) This messed up his mind. Then we see a number of people from Skarteris get killed including Warlord whogets aged into dust. After showing how powerful he is, Deimos takes off with Yolanda whom he points out was Wildcat in a former universe. Then he tells all the cities that there is no need to fight any more and that they can all pledge allegiance to him instead. (Ego much?)

Convergence: Atom #2 of 2 – We find out (mid-battlewith Barracuda) what’s been going on with Ryan. It turns out he’s stuck in the area where Ray’s mass goes when he shrinks and he’s the reason that Ray has been able to bring up more mass for the big hand. Ray loses his big hand in battle (purposely?) so that Ryan can use the mass and reconstitute the mass into a human form for himself. (I’m not really sure exactly how that would work but it looks damn creepy nonetheless. After the defeat the Extremists member, Ray goes into the hospital for the missing hand. While in there, Deathstroke attacks Ray for the stuff last issue and gets taken down by the 2 Atoms. Ryan then uses some of Deathstroke’s mass to regrow a hand for Ray. Again, the science in this is really out of whack even for these comics.

Divergence back-up story: Green Lantern

Convergence: Batgirl #2 of 2 – This book is actually pretty confusing as it keeps jumping back and forth between the time of the battle and what happened prior to it. In the part where champions battle, Catman joins the bat team to try to take down Grodd. In the end, Catman lets Cassie knock him down/out to “win”, sending Catman and Grodd back to their city. Afterwards, Cassie and Tim make amends and get back together.

Divergence back-up story: Prez (a female this time, not the Prez from the 70s comic book)

Convergence: Harley Quinn #2 of 2 – It’s Harley vs…. Captain Carrot? Who better to make for an absurd issue. Harley messed with the Captain’s mind while trying to battle him. In the end tho, they end up getting along and sitting and chatting. You see Harley afterward but there’s no actual resolution shown for the battle. All in all, it’s a fun issue, as you’d expect from a Harley Quinn book.

Divergence back-up story: Section Eight (I’m dumbfounded that anyone actually made this comic.)

Convergence: Justice League #2 of 2 – The women attack Flashpoint Atlantis to save Mera but end up getting taken down. In the end, Mera ends up tricking and then killing Aquaman and saves the day. (Yeah, that’s about all there is to it, really.)

Divergence back-up story: Detective Comics

Convergence: Nightwing and Oracle #2 of 2 – Dick and Barbara take on the Hawks. With a little help from Black Canary, they show them the difference between fighting harder and smarter. After finally winning the battle (and allowing the Thangarians to stay in the city), Barbara agrees to marry Dick.

Divergence back-up story: Midnighter

Convergence: Speed Force #2 of 2 – It’s Flash vs. Flashpoint Wonder Woman. This Diana doesn’t play fair as she brought a whole army to use against the city too. One on one, it would have been a tough match and Diana probably would have won, but with a little extra incentive of having his kids there, Barry is able to defeat Wonder Woman as well as assist Fastback in defeating the army.

Divergence back-up story: Green Arrow

Convergence: Titans #2 of 2 – I was close. Roy hit a couple beams to fall down on the villains. Throughout the battle, it’s almost a game of keep away to try to keep Lian there. (It was actually her after all. I thought it was going to be a fake/illusion.) In the end, they do save her but the battle is still going on as we lead into the main mini-series.

Divergence back-up story: Red Hood/Arsenal (Original title there now that Starfire is getting her own title….)

Fox #2 – As villains start to pop up to collect a bounty on the Fox’s head, his son decides to take up the identity of Ghost Fox. (It’s a white costume variant of the Fox’s.) With bad guys like Brontosaurus, Elasto, and the Gadgeteer to contend with, the Fox has nothing to worry about. And we getting to see Mr. Smiley work fast food to humble himself. The first series was goofy/lame in a fun way. I’m not quite sold on this series though.

Secret Wars #1 – It seems every reality except the Ultimate universe and Earth 616 have been destroyed. (I don’t read all the Avengers titles so I think I missed some stuff.) These 2 Earths are getting ready to collide too. the Ultimate Earth considers destroying 616 to save themselves. Reed Richards and crew work to build an arc to save some people who can restart Earth somehow. A group of bad guys have ideas of their own. Heroes are dying right and left. When the Resurrection team that Reed was pulling together gets killed, heroes are teleported to the life raft to save whomever they can. Cyclops calls on the Phoenix Force. We see Rocket Racoon, Groot, Invisible Woman, Thing, Franklin Richards, Manifold, Black Widow, and others die. In the end, the 2 worlds collide and everything is destroyed though other than maybe those on the raft.

Well, if DC can reboot stuff, why not Marvel too? UGH! I’m half not sure what to make of half of this stuff. My top 3 are going to Convergence, Convergence: Harley Quinn, and Convergence: Nightwing and Oracle. As for the speak peeks of the new titles? I really don’t see Prez or Section Eight lasting long at all. Midnighter I could see sticking around though. I’m not sure what to expect once this is all done anyway. I do guess that I’ll have a much smaller reading list though.