Sure, Let's Talk About Convergence, Why Not

I'll get to my usual solicitation/pull list here sometime, either at the end of the week if new books don't show up, or after the Year in Review stuff. Still, since DC is benching their new 52 line for two months in favor of all these Convergence mini-series, I thought we'd focus specifically on them for a minute. I'm going to list all the ones I'm considering picking up, and weigh the pros and cons. What I did when DC announced their original new 52 back in the summer of 2011, though that's hardly a strong argument in favor of my judgment. I picked Suicide Squad, Grifter, and Resurrection Man. Swing and a miss times three.

Convergence: The Question - The pro side is quality of the creative team, Rucka and Cully Hamner. Rucka clearly has a lot of fondness for Renee Montoya, and he and Hamner have worked on stories centered on her as the Question previously. The con, for me, is that I don't really have a particular fondness for Montoya or Harvey Dent. Don't dislike the characters, but they don't move the needle much. So buying this would basically be trying to convince DC to continue with their recent trend of getting talented people to work on their books, then letting those people's talents and styles show through.

Convergence: Batgirl - I'm not at all familiar with Alisa Kwitney's work, and this is going to involve the Flashpoint universe. Those are the red flags. On the other hand, I generally like Rick Leonardi's work, and this has Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain. So there's no real question. This is the one sure thing buy in here.

Convergence: Justice League International - Ron Marz and Mike Manley. I will admit I don't understand the thinking behind some of these creative teams. I'm sure in some cases there was bad blood between DC and particular creators, or exclusive contracts, or the creator in question was too busy or not interested. But Giffen and Dematteis are already working for DC, on a book where they are gradually bringing in the old JLI bunch. So why not get one of them to write this? I don't have any objection to Ron Marz specifically, and I liked Manley's art on Darkhawk eons ago, though I haven't seen anything of his in a while, it's just a bit curious. Anyway, in this case the pro is the characters, and the con is I'm not sure how well the creative team will mesh with each other and the characters. Also, what the heck is Red Tornado doing there? He's Satellite Era!

Convergence: Suicide Squad - Pro, stout, old school Amanda Waller. Con, fucking Deathstroke in the Squad, again. Getting so sick of that guy. Pro, Tom Mandrake on art. Con, not sure about Frank Tieri. I've never seen him write Amanda Waller, and she's easy to write badly. And since when are Poison Ivy, Deadshot, and Bane some of 'Metropolis' most dangerous villains'? If the cover is misleading, maybe I'll at least be spared more Deathstroke.

Convergence: Justice League of America - Pro, I'm a pretty big fan of Nicieza's work, and the Detroit League is the sort of oft-maligned group of misfits I find interesting. Con, well, Chriscross is kind of vocal about being anti-gay marriage, so I'm questioning whether I ought to support a project he's working on. I've bought stuff he drew in the past (before I knew that) during various back issue hunts (Slingers most notably). I like his work, and I'm sure he's hardly the only person working in comics with such views. Still, I feel I should draw some sort of line. I'm never sure about refusing to buy a collaborative project because of one person's views, but I can't exactly claim ignorance in this case, can I? I'm probably going to have to skip this just so I don't feel like the other comics bloggers are judging me.

Convergence: Booster Gold - I liked Booster's time-traveling adventures, though Jurgens' run on that volume didn't do much for me. But a prison break story with two Boosters sounds intriguing. Alvaro Martinez' art looks pretty solid, based on the samples of it I found from a quick online search.

So those are the ones I'm seriously considering. 6 total, one a certainty. I imagine someone who was a bigger fan of Wally West and his family than me will be excited about the Speed Force book (don't let the Brett Booth cover put you off, Tom Grummett's drawing the interiors, though again, why not put him on Superboy, which he drew for so long?) If Amanda Conner was drawing the interiors for Action Comics I'd probably go for it, but while I'm fine with Claude St-Aubin's art, it's not a selling point. Neither is Red Son Superman's inclusion. That's one of the bigger problems for me with this. They mixed in all this stuff I don't care about, with the stuff I do. I just have to hope it's more "peanut butter and chocolate", and less "horse shit and my shoes". If they'd gotten someone other than Scott Lobdell to write it, I probably would have gone for the Blue Beetle book with the Charlton heroes, but oh well.

Is it ass backwards to find it easy to not buy something because I don't like the style of the writers or artists involved, but hard not to buy something because I do like their talents, but think one of the people involved holds some lousy views?

Anyway, which books caught your eye, good or bad? Is this going to be a month for you to save some cash, or one you better start saving up for now? Like me, are you looking at this simply as a chance to see some old favorites again, to heck with the overarching story? Or are you interested in what Brainiac is up to?