DC Comics’ Convergence Event and the 13 Title Cancellations

This is Kevin Conway, and I am the goddamn Batman.

Oh well, looky what we have here. Welcome to

the Joker Cave. Certainly not any jokes around

here. What with all the seriousness of putting

geeks in a round table about comic books. You're

listening to... The pull bag after dark Hello

and welcome to the pull bag. This is yet again

another after dark. Oh my god an after dark on

New Year's Eve. Yay Um, yes, that's right. I

am your host TF2 and Mike and we're doing something

a little special or again Second second time.

I have to break these guys cherry on podcasting.

I have the guys from weird The guys from weird

science of DC Comics blog with me I have Jim.

Hello, sir and Eric. Hello. Hello And these guys

are wanting to do or start to do a podcast but

they have absolutely no clue So I'm trying to

help them out here inside the pull bag and what

we're gonna be talking about in this after dark

is the death blow that DC Comics is basically

dealing everybody since they are moving from

New York to Los Angeles in April of 2015. That's

so far away from me. Yeah. We are going to be

talking about their 13 cancellations and then

we're going to get into the holy cock crap that

is Convergence. Ah, yes. Yeah, I hope that I

have learned more about that before we do it

because I am right now I am so lost with conversions,

but I do know about the cancellations. So I can

say a lot about that. All right. Let's let me

just run down the list from your all's website.

We're at science at DC Comics blog, blogspot

.com. Wow. You need a better title for that.

Yeah, that'll come eventually like the podcast.

It's a whole long thing. So, the 13 titles that

are being cancelled from DC Comics are Aquaman

and the others, Infinity Man and the Forever

People, Clarion, no surprise there, Secret Origins,

no surprise there, Star -Spangled War Stories

featuring G .I. Zombie, Trinity of Sin, World's

finest awful Arkham Manor why? Batwoman that's

Well, we might talk about that woman a little

later considering that might be a little raunchy

Thank God this podcast is tagged explicit, but

holy crap Green the Green Lantern corpse Green

Lantern or guardians red lanterns and swamp thing

So, where do you want to start, guys? We can

start from the top. We can start with whatever

you want. First off, you said Aquaman and the

others, Infinity Men and the Forever People,

Clarion, Secret Origins, Starspiner, Trinidius.

Half of these, it's not a shock. They are awful.

Trinidius and should have been good. I thought

Trinity of Sin was just something to lead up

to forever evil at the time. Like I thought it

was just supposed to be a miniseries. They're

all given the moniker of Trinity of Sin because

they were the Trinity of Sin, Phantom Stranger,

Pandora and the question. But this was the title

after their series ended to get them all together

and maybe we could find out a little bit more

about the question which were three issues in

and it looks like we're not going to since the

series is already cancelled. I don't think anybody

cared about it. I don't think that people cared

about the three books or actually Phantom Stranger

and Pandora before this Triniacin title and after

they made the title itself. Yeah, but they just

don't sell and most of these I mean right off

the bat most of these books are being cancelled

because of sales. That's you know, that's the

bottom line for most things anyway are sales

and With DC it is because I mean, you know, you

look at any other publisher other than the big

two and they excel. Like I said before the show

right now for me, Image Comics and IDW Publishing

are the two best publishers out there personally

for me because they have such, I mean, the IDW

main TMNT ongoing has been going on for about

three or four or five years at this point and

It's a constant thing of awesome from every bit

of TMNT history with DC they're so worried about

money and they're so worried about things selling

and like Arkham Manor I thought that was huge.

I thought that was going to be huge. I thought

that was going to be amazing. Putting Arkham

Asylum in Wayne Manor. That's one of the best

ideas they've ever come up with. And here it

is. We just had issue three released in December

and it's already getting canceled. Seriously.

Issue two actually sold well too. It actually

is 30 ,000 copies, which isn't bad. And for them,

it usually is about that 15 ,000 copy line where

they start getting rid of books, and I just think

Ark of Manor was a limited series. It's a limited

storyline. Where can it go? That's what I said

during the review for issue two. I haven't read

issue three yet or reviewed it, but I had no

idea where the story could go after Bruce Wayne

finds out who the murderer is and we move on

from there. It's like, okay, what now? No Batman

in the story, and it's just a bunch of nut cases

inside Wayne Manor. So then why not instead of

listed as a new ongoing why not do something

like what IDW does where IDW again I'm gonna

reference their their main turtles ongoing series

they do miniseries within that they have a turtles

and time miniseries they have a new miniseries

coming up next year called mutanimals where it's

one two three or four issues and that's that

so why not If Arkham Manor was going to have

a set beginning, middle, and ending, why not

just call it a miniseries instead of a brand

new ongoing and then get our hopes up and say,

oh, this is going to last to issue 25 or 50,

which obviously, hell, it might not even last

past five issues. Yeah, I think it's going to

be six, right, when it ends. Well, one thing

DC had on the digital side when they had Smallville,

they had miniseries. They had each a little story

arc usually around 12 issues for each story they

had titans uh continuity all these different

ones where so they have done it with just that

but they they don't seem to want to do that sort

of thing i don't know if it's that if they announce

that it's a miniseries people just automatically

wait for the trade Or they just don't like to

do it, but they don't. But Eric told me, I haven't

read Archimander. He reads and reviews it. But

from the get go, he told me that he just had

no idea how this could be a continuing series.

He was right, for once. Yeah, I am constantly

wrong. I am bad at things like life. Don't know

I thought it was gonna be interesting and with

them canceling world's finest. Isn't that their

longest? Isn't that DC's longest ongoing book

at this point as far as the title world's finest

now detective and action are Okay, well world's

finest is for wreck. It's a train wreck They

keep they keep almost soft rebooting it. They

just did they changed it now to a history of

earth, too Lord focusing on the earth to Batman

Superman And again, Eric reads and reviews it

but from what he's told me it just sounds awful

Well, the story started out I got really excited

when it came out because it was like a companion

piece to earth to when that came out and then

it was all about power girl and huntress who

were the supergirl and Robin of Earth to and

then they cropped over to the prime universe

and They took on their own personas while trying

to get back home And then it just became ways

for Power Girl to get naked and Huntress being

an awful, awful superhero. And this went on for

like two years until finally they switched it

off to, okay, this Earth 2 shit's selling pretty

well. Let's talk about their Earth 2 Superman

and Batman before they died. But it's stories

we already know. So it doesn't really work out

unless you want to see like how Wonder Woman

came in and saved them when they were children.

It's not really for anybody. Well, when it first

got announced that they were changing it to that,

it seemed that Paul Levitz, they didn't want

to get rid of them, and they wanted to change

something. So they tried to tie it into a history

of Earth -2 that would bleed into the Earth -2

book, but also they seemed to try to connect

it with World's End, which I don't see how or

why, but he seemed excited when they announced

it. I was really excited. And I, for the life

of me, there's only been one place I've ever

seen that this character is on Justice League

or Justice League Unlimited. How the hell did

Clarion get his own absurde? It's awful. Well,

first off, it's Anno Sentinocenti. Did you read

any of her Green Arrow Catwoman or Katana? Not

yet, no. It's awful. If this book, Clarion, maybe

be... She knows where the bodies are hidden somewhere

if they have a partner. Here's the thing. I think

in reviewing Clarion, I think I average about

a four out of 10 in the couple of issues now.

And I'm telling you, that's her best book she's

done for DC. She is awful. The dialogue is terrible.

It makes no sense. I just, well, I just did Secret

Origins, which we'll talk about in a little bit,

I guess. But this month's Secret Origins was

actually a Grayson origin animal. Again? Well,

it's actually not Dick's origin. It's the origin

of Grayson. It's actually not bad, I'll tell

you about it. Wait a second, wait a second. I'll

tell you what it is. When Secret Origin started,

the very first issue, they said we're going to

have a Secret Origin for Superman. Dick Grayson

is Nightwing and whoever the hell else was the

third person I don't I don't friggin remember

cuz whatever but first off secret origins anytime

anybody says that you have to give it a little

air quotes on the secret because it's far from

secret yeah I mean it's basically retelling stories

with different well here this one had Grayson

which actually is the story of how Helena Bertinelli

gets Spiral to take Dick Grayson into Spiral.

It's not bad. I know you're not a Grayson fan.

It's actually pretty screwed up, but in it has

three pretty cool full -page spreads of Dick's

history from his parents being killed, of course,

to After Forever Evil. It's not bad. It's not

horrible. It's not bad, I promise you. Now, the

other part of that is Animal Man, which is actually

a recap of the entire Jeff Lemire, Lemire book.

The New 52, Animal Man. It's all there. It's

just a recap. So if you've read it, it actually

is kind of nice to see it. But the third one

is Katana. and no senti and it is awful in fact

in it a little girl gets possessed by a demon

who basically makes her do the worst things that

you could possibly imagine like an eight -year

-old doing and then at the end when katana saves

her she actually says that she wishes the demon

was still inside her because she did pretty cool

things and seemed like a cool cool person it's

awful i'm telling you in clarion i read it and

My head just, it spins with what is going on.

There is at one point, just to give you a little

inkling of a sort of dialogue scenario thing,

they're talking about these buddy bots that are

these robotic DNA splice things that you eat

and then they burrow out of your stomach and

become your best friend. And it's so it's basically

like it's basically like the diner scene from

Spaceballs except then it's your best friend

and the one girl in the comic says she she compares

them to a $10 ,000 hamburger that tastes like

cardboard and I'm telling you it's all done straight

It's the funniest thing you've ever it's awful.

But uh In Clarion, Trevor McCarthy does the art.

The art's awesome. The art is so good. The book

is one of the worst books I've ever read in my

life, and it's awful. What I heard was Anna Sentie

has, she's friends with somebody, she used to

be a big Marvel editor, and somebody higher up

in DC is a really good friend of hers, and basically,

from what I've told, promised her she could have

a book. No matter what, no matter what happens,

she'll always have a book, but I think that that

promise has come to an end. The bodies are buried.

Yeah, we said she has to know where the bodies

are buried and has pictures of everybody with

who knows who. It's awful. And in fact, I said

there when the first book came out, I just every

time one of her books comes out, I torture Eric

all day at work. He gets excited. I follow him

around and just. I just read the dialogue to

him and he tries to get away and I just buy so

bad. It's so bad and I think the first issue

as a number one issue I Think sold 19 ,000 somewhere

around there 19 to 21 But I know last month the

number two was down to 11 ,000. So it's that

it's just I'm tell if it's sold. Well, it's still

be there But like you said clarion, why would

he get a book anyway? When there's why there's

the only the only place like I said, I know him

from is that one Justice League unlimited episode

where he was or just yeah, actually Injustice

book he's in that in this see year three pretty

cool. Don't even he's pretty cool that I'm But

that book never should have been released and

I know when it came out everybody including us

or just what? I don't know. Don't want a cyborg,

a Shazam. There's so many other books you can

have and you have Clarion. The only thing I can

think is, again, maybe they just wanted books

to last until this convergence. And then in June,

they'll announce all these books that everybody

wants. But are you a fan of Square games? Probably,

but you'd have to name some games that they do.

I'm talking like Final Fantasy VII. I'm not an

RPG gamer. Again, everybody who loves RPGs from

back in the day have been begging Square to re

-release that. DC now reminds me of them, that

they have things that everybody wants. I'll give

you money, I'll throw money at you to do this,

and instead they release Clarion. It's ridiculous

and infinity man the forever people if you want

to jump to that Yeah, I you'll you'll have to

inform me on that one because for me and most

people that listen to the pullback know this

for me in DC It's it's pretty much. I mean I

can It's pretty much Batman Beyond. Yeah that

girl before it got crappy Nightwing before they

killed him and he man of the Masters universe

And everything else in my in my poll now is any

other publisher except DC On the flip side of

all that awfulness that is the series when I

think they had the future Zen month They had

the futures that teen Titans and I think it might

have been Clarion for mirth to or the regular

clarion I don't know but he was one of the teen

Titans on that with a bunch of other people and

it was really good So I got really excited about

this Clarion. I don't think it might be an offshoot

of this but Well again, like a wise old man told

me once, there's no bad characters, just bad

writers. Yes. And that was Eric who told me that.

Yes. Claire, I'm telling you, and I know you

don't like Injustice. Oh, okay then. But Claring

in that, he was only in for a little bit. The

thing with Injustice was, I thought originally

when Injustice was first announced, again. the

way the way the solicits in the information read

to me was that injustice gods among us five issue

series that's going to lead up to the game and

then that would be it but apparently those five

issues got so goddamn popular and made them so

much money that Oh, hey, let's release six through

12 and we have a full year and now year two and

years. Like, I don't dislike the thing. I'm glad

that Tom Taylor is writing more stories with

injustice and I'm glad they're like carrying

on the game name and all that stuff. But it's

just like, I just felt so cheated out of it.

It's all about money. And are you aware that

he's off the book now? Oh, he is. He actually

left. Brian Bucciolato is starting up in a couple

of weeks. Wow, yeah, that's good. That's right.

Cuz Tom jumped jumped a ship. Yeah, like everybody

else which yeah this yes I'm really looking forward

to and I know you guys are DC, but yeah, actually

we read the first two issues Ironman yeah I'm

really looking forward to reading it reviewing

on the bag. I have to get through access first

though Again, I'm a DC fan, but I am actually

from injustice. I'm a Tom Taylor fan now. I really

like his writing. And so I would never read an

Iron Man comic. And yet I did. So, you know,

but again, there are a couple of instances on

this list of cancellations. One big one is because

writers jumping ship and but. back to infinity

man it's not good all right it's basically dan

de deo your favorite guy and keith giffen and

it's a love letter to jack kirby basically that's

all it is it seems like it was a book that was

made because dan de deo wanted to do it and it

was see i like giffen i liked him when he was

writing masters i liked him i liked his comedy

like if you look at the first Four or five six

issues of the 2013 Masters the universe from

DC when Giffen was writing him I like the comedy

between Adam and Tila the snappy comebacks and

all that and everything else. I like Giffen's

writing So it's not him that I don't like it.

I do well again Yeah, this infinity man It was

it was never gonna last it and i don't want it

why do they okay okay let me ask you is this

because i don't want to ask this to to many people

about many different things in hollywood comic

books aren't exactly well they've become hollywood

but comic companies aren't exactly the same as

movie studios they kind of or but they are but

those things work why if dc things that They're

not going to or they're hoping to but don't make

money on so why do they put money into? Starting

up a new series like infinity man and the forever

people Why do they put the put the time and effort

in doing this and then when it doesn't sell?

Well, they're like, oh, well, we'll just throw

it away I don't know if they think that it's

almost like a their version of an indie comic

which it's not but again, it's tend to do I don't

know how much he's getting paid to to do this

and this comic we could talk about all night

and It'll make no sense that comic should have

never been made. It makes no sense. It was never

gonna sell I don't know I I have no idea why

they would throw money at the infinity man of

the forever people I've never saw an ad for it.

I've never so I don't know but there's no way

that that book would ever worked. It's for people

who are yearning for old school comics of the

Jack Kirby style. And I think it just fell flat

on its face. I liked it. I actually it was pretty

fun. But it it wasn't that fun. It wasn't fun

enough to keep going. I am right zero wishing.

Yeah, they even tried that. It's crazy because

then they tried to tie it in with Godhead with

the Green Lantern story. It's not a good title.

Speaking of lanterns, they're getting rid of

Stuart and Raynor. Seriously? I know. Here's

the deal. They're getting rid of Green Lantern

Core, Green Lantern New Guardians, and Red Lanterns.

we can throw the whole thing in with Swamp Thing

as well, that Charles Soule is leaving. He's

Marvel exclusive now. So he's finishing up his

books. And as time was going on, I kept mentioning

to Eric that... Swamp Thing is getting canceled.

In fact, I wrote an article about a month ago

about books that I knew were going to be canceled,

but I hope they wouldn't. And Swamp Thing was

pretty much right up there. And of all these

titles, besides maybe Green Lantern Corps, Swamp

Thing is the best title on this list, in my opinion.

It's a really good title. It doesn't sell well.

Again, it's a 19 ,000 copy a month book. And

with Charles Soule leaving, with that one, I

really think that it's one of those things where

the whole run of Swamp Thing was Scott Snyder

and then Charles Soule. And it still didn't sell.

So I have a feeling that they just said, listen,

we had two great writers. Nobody's buying Swamp

Thing. It's not worth getting another writer

in. Nobody's going to bump it up past what Charles

Soule would have been able to do. Get Alan Moore

back. Yeah, I said, or you get Alan Moore back

for... six issues, 12 issues, then it's huge.

But that gets cancelled. But the weird thing

is the Red Lantern book, where they announced

a week, week and a half before these cancellations

were announced, they announced a new writer on

Red Lantern, which was Landry Walker. They announced

it. He's actually kind of a friend of the site,

and we sent him a note. That congratulations,

you know on Red Lanterns. Oh, thanks I'm real

excited about it and he all this stuff and he

did an interview with I think comic book resources

about That he's good. He's got big plans for

Guy Gardner. He can't wait. He's that then they

but now that I read it they asked him Specific

questions about the book. Are you gonna get the

Red Lantern Corps back together? No, no, no,

I don't I don't have any immediate plans for

that. Everything was real wishy -washy So I then

a week later, it's canceled And so I sent him

another note and said oh that that sucks It's

you know something either the guy's a great guy

and took it on for three issues or what I really

think I don't think he knew He actually what

he said to us was it was kind of a shock that

he was on the book for about a week I think he's

got three issues in and then it's cancelled So

there if anything were DC or a bunch of assholes.

It's that book. They really yeah, they seem to

really screwed him but That is one of my favorite

Lantern titles. Like you said, Green Lantern

Corps sells well. And Green Lantern New Guardian

is another one, Justin Jordan, who writes it,

basically quit the book about a month ago. And

he went on, I think his Facebook account, and

announced it, basically in kind of a little bit

of a pointed announcement, said, I'm sick of

sitting on this. They won't let me tell anybody.

But I'm going to tell anyway. I'm off New Guardians.

I told my story. I'm done. and then a couple

weeks later it's canceled which I have a feeling

I'm sure that Eric would agree I don't know if

you'll agree Mike but there's something going

on with these titles being canceled that something

is going to come out of convergence into say

a revamped Green Lantern Corps maybe another

new Guardians like it was when it started I don't

know but it seems like they're going to end Red

Lanterns with Guy Gardner still being a Red Lantern

as far as It seems and that's odd to end it that

way. I'm okay with it as long as we see them

in the future. Yeah, well I'm saying it's odd

to just end these books then have Convergence

and then not come back with something in June.

They're big books. Well, they've got to do something

in July because July is the overall Green Lantern

75th anniversary, right? Yep. They gotta be doing

something with it. What pisses me off is, hey,

let's, I'm not that big a fan of Guy Gardner,

I prefer Stuart and Rainer. Guy's actually my

favorite. As Green Lantern. As my two favorites

because I grew up on Justice League and Justice

League Unlimited. They had the best of four different

worlds for these four guys for Guy Gardner Kyle

John and Jesus Jordan They had you know the main

title with with how they had Corpse with Stewart

they had new Gary like You didn't have to worry

about just picking up one title and worrying

about where your favorite character was going

to show up you could pick up whichever one that

mainly focused on them. Yep. And not having that

is not good. Well the problem about that too,

yeah about there's so many crossover events now

with the Greenland and I think that this is trying

to Get rid of the all this craziness and maybe

bring it back to what you're saying that I think

that more people would like that that if you

like John Stewart you pick up the Green Lantern

Corps you like Kyle Rayner you get new guardians

you like and They've gotten so far away from

that now that I think it's gotten a little out

of control Like I said I the problem with our

site in general it just shows that and when we

first started I did Well, after a little bit,

I did Core and Green Lantern, and Eric did Red

Lanterns and New Guardians, and it started getting

so cross over heavy that it wasn't, it didn't

make sense for two people to do all of them,

so Eric took over all the Green Lantern books.

Then I became the Lantern King. Yeah, he's the

Lantern guy. And again, but they can't, Green

Lantern, Red Lanterns and New Guardians, the

sales aren't great. Eric, the Red Lanterns is

his favorite. So it's not that the quality is

horrible either. It's just, it's odd. The Green

Lantern Corps is the oddest one to be canceled

due to sales. It sells well. I just think that

they're trying to bring it all together and like

I said, I would not be shocked if all of this

comes out to being one Green Lantern Corps title.

in July, June, July, and had all the... And what

about my White Lantern title? I want to see Kyle

Rayner. Oh, he wants a White Lantern. I want

to see the Blue Lantern. I want to see an Alan

Scott or a Blue Lantern. I want to see that.

I saw a lot of crazy people with, oh, they're

going to make a Blue Lantern book. That'd be

awesome. Well, they made larflis, so if they

can friggin' make larflis, I'm sure they can

make a blue... That was garbage. I got into it

towards the end of the series, but for the most

part it was just Giffen trying to be silly and

it got on my damn nerves. I didn't even know

it was Giffen. I just knew Larflees from one

of the DC animated films that they had been doing

over the years and he kind of showed up and plus

he was in the Green Lantern animated series on

Cartoon Network. Any other cancellations we need

to bring up? Well there's, what did we have,

Batwoman. You know, I'm really surprised at that

one. I'm surprised when the original creative

team left because they wouldn't let them get

married. I'm really surprised they didn't just

wrap it up then, honestly. And I have not been

reading it, so that's really the only part of

the story that I know is the original creative

team left because of the whole, oh, well, Batwoman

can't marry Maggie Sawyer. I think in retrospect.

Yeah, I think in retrospect, they probably wish

they would have wrapped it up, though I actually

liked it. It was Mark and Draco and Jeremy Hawn

was on art till a couple issues ago. I liked

it. Now, again, a lot of people complain because

once Draco took over, he pretty much immediately

started to separate Kate and Maggie, which was

everybody liked it for that. Again, Batwoman

was a weird title that throughout that whole

first run and even into Draco's run, it was more

about her dealing with being a superhero than

her going out and fighting this guy and that

guy. It was that combination of personal life

and her work life, her superhero life. It kept

that. I think that the sales weren't good. People

were complaining. Made it to a vampire. It really

it really took a detour. Yeah, she became she

got involved with nocturna I don't know if you're

familiar with her. She's a vampire Awful and

she became a vampire then she isn't right now.

It's finishing with her as a superhero team up

with Etrigan Ragman Alice and clay face And the

it was one of those stories that the first issue

of that arc started at the end So and they were

in space, which is always great. I'd love anything

in space, but they were fighting in space now

we're trying to get towards that point by learning

about the team and How Etrogen and how all this

got together? The only problem is nobody cares.

Yeah Except me, but it really it really took

the wrong turn. I know and I even on the site,

I've talked to people and people have complained

that Mark and Trey go ruined it. But he really

came into a weird situation where the cold controversy

with the lesbian marriage and then he had to

take over and to make it more of the same would

have been just like, oh, he's not doing his own

thing. Then when he tried to do his own thing,

everybody hated it. So like I said, I have a

feeling that in retrospective You put a gun to

somebody's head at DC. They would have said that

the best thing would have been is to end it when

the first team Have them do a little you know

End issue or whatever it was and just end it

now it's ending and I I don't think that that

book That's gonna be a book that I don't see

coming back for a long long time Yeah The only

other title that I wish was on this list at this

point And it's not, sadly. Yeah. I bet girl.

Yeah, I know you're a bad girl. Yeah, we'll have

to do that on another. There's some there's some

weird titles, though, that to me, Constantine

could have been on this list. It doesn't sell.

The only thing if they canceled the comic, the

TV show wouldn't last. The TV show has already

been put on. If the TV show wasn't on, I think

it would have been canceled. But because of that,

you know, there's always, he's a, he's a popular

character. But man, that book doesn't sell at

all. And I just, I don't know. And I even made

a list of some of the others. Batgirl, unfortunately,

is selling good. I know you guys, I irritate.

But it's all the teeny boppers. They've marketed

it to preteen and teenage girls at this point.

And the I heard one thing I've heard and I agree

with totally is that if anything, this book is

going to be so outdated within a year, year and

a half, people are going to look back and just

laugh at all these references to, you know, all

these, you know, selfies and Instagram and. It

is ridiculous. It's sad ridiculous and it'll

be a topic for another day We're gonna take a

quick break and then we're gonna come back and

try to figure out the mess that is Convergence.

We'll be back after this. The epic Convergence

crossover event is set to completely reshape

the post -Futures NDC universe. I sat down with

co -publisher Dan DiDio to prepare for the chaos

to come. So everybody's talking about Convergence.

Who's everybody? Everybody. I go on Twitter.

Everyone's tweeting about Convergence. OK. So

tell me a little bit about what we can expect

from it. Because you've said huge things to me.

Yeah, I have. You know what? I've said huge things

to you. And this is probably one of the first

two. I can tell you that we're probably going

to over deliver. Over the last few weeks, we've

been just announcing pieces of Convergence. You

have Convergence Zero coming out on April 1st.

You have the three weekly series coming to an

end on April 1st. And you also have the final

issue of Multiversity coming out on April 1st.

So this is a really exciting moment because there's

a sense of a lot of stuff coming to an end, but

so much great stuff is about to begin. And let

me tell you the origin of Convergence a little

bit, because it's kind of fun. As a tip of the

hand to Convergence in the very first year of

the new 52. Yeah, I'm not kidding. I was working

on Challenges of the Unknown and it's DC Comics

Presents number seven. There's a reference to

convergence in that book. The actual story wasn't

fully formed. There was pieces floating around.

We knew we wanted to do something big, ultimately.

When we started with the weekly series, both

Futures End and Worlds End, we knew they were

going to ultimately intersect. And we knew there

was going to be something that came out of that

intersection, and that's what was the Berkeley

Granger Origins itself. So there's the main story,

and then there's also two -shot mini -series

that are running alongside of that. Ah, well,

that's the fun stuff. What can we expect from

those? Well, every week is very particular. There

are going to be 40 cities on this world. Those

40 cities come from what we call doomed timelines

and worlds throughout the DC's history and lore.

And one of the things that happened with the

new 52 is when we launched the new 52, when we

had the Flashpoint story that got us there, the

stories that were taking place in the regular

books ended rather abruptly. And I think that's

where some of the concern comes from from the

fans is that they didn't get that sense of closure

they did when they had zero hour or you get that

sense of closure from crisis. It left people

wanting. So. The very first week is really visiting

that pre -Fleshpoint universe. And we have some

great comics in there that really pick up on

some key storylines. We're dealing with the marriage

of Lois and Clark, the Renee Montoya question

story. We get to see the story of Ryan Choi.

We get to see the story of Arsenal's kid. A lot

of things that are all bits and pieces that people

have been discussing and wondering what happened

to, you get a chance to revisit that again. And

with some level of resolution. You know, our

tagline at the start was, where do worlds go

when they die? But it's a lot more than that.

It's examining the essence of heroism. And every

chance that you would have to give up, our heroes

find a reason to rise up and fight that occasion.

And when you get a chance to work with these

characters, with these interpretations, and put

them side by side in one grand epic, I don't

think you'll ever find a better expression of

heroism than this book. Want to keep up with

the inside dirt on your favorite DC heroes, villains,

and, of course, anti -heroes? Well, then you

should subscribe to DC All Access right now.

okay do it now i'm not gonna tell you again that's

not helping okay and we're back it's den de dildo's

cock virgins ladies and gentlemen i have my i

gotta get my notes Okay, so I am taking this

from CBR .combookresources .com. They published

this November 11th, 2014. The announcement of

DC Comics' nine -week Convergence event series

during its regular superhero lines had sparked

a lot of speculation amongst fans as to which

universes would actually be included. The publisher

has revealed part of the mystery, announcing

ten two -part miniseries that each give two different

looks at pre -Flashpoint DC Universe Heroes,

which means Old favorites like Stephanie Brown

as Batgirl, Cassandra Cain, Donna Troy, Wally

West married to Linda Park with kids, Jesse Quick,

Barbara Gordon as Oracle, Dick Grayson as Nightwing,

Ray Montoya as The Questioner back on the table

in full force. The plot synopsis for the issues

also mention Flashpoint versions of characters

in mysterious structure called The Dome. list

of titles includes a vast array of creators many

of whom have previous association with pre -new

52 versions of characters like greg rucka on

the question i might actually pick that up and

talk about that here in a minute uh... and gail

simone on nightwing oracle uh... and it just

goes on to say that they have exclusive images

and blah blah blah alright so eric what was your

when you first heard the news of this convergence

thing what was your initial reaction well i thought

it would be a clusterfuck and a nightmare to

review I have no idea We all know this is because

of the move and they for some reason need to

do this gigantic thing instead of this You know

having some writers take over walk during the

move and you know do whatever they have to do

to get the regular stories out But I don't understand

the big mind fuck of the convergence It's it

doesn't make sense like we have this futures

end stuff or do on a weekly basis. It should

be over by then but yeah The stuff from that

leads to this and they got a lot of stuff with

the flashpoint characters Which should not be

a different universe at this point. It should

just be a altered time and was erased So I have

no idea on how they're gonna deal with all these

and it might just be like here have a taste of

these characters you love but then they slap

your hand away and Say you can't have anymore.

We're back to new 52 Yeah Jim what was your first

reaction to the news of hey we're moving so guess

what all your regular comics that you somewhat

enjoy are no longer going to be available for

two and a half months. Really the thing that

got me and it's still to this day I'm bright

when you just said that it just it almost makes

me seem like we'll drive by their offices in

New York and we'll see Scott Snyder and Brian

Bucciolato pulling a desk out and loading it

into the U -Haul, and there's Dan DiDio, and

he's bought pizza. And everybody, oh, let's go,

we're moving, boys. And then it's a freaking

road trip to the West Coast. Makes no sense to

me. To me, we are well past a time in this world

where things have to shut down for two months

because offices are moving. To me... Half of

these writers probably have never been to the

offices. They're at home. They're typing up the

things, emails going all over the place. I think

it's ridiculous. I think it's just nonsense that

they're doing this. And also, like Eric said,

I think it's a clusterfuck. I think it's something

where they're trying to please A certain type

of fan that wants that stuff back and all they're

going to do is piss off both sides. They're going

to make everybody mad who wants to see these

characters back when they're taken away. And

the people like myself who were, you know, you're

invested monthly in books that are now not going

to be there. And I mean, do they expect everybody

just to buy every book? Which it's funny when

I looked up to try to see today what it's all

about because even till this morning, I couldn't

really tell you what it was about. I read a couple

things. Everything tells me one thing, a different

thing. But I did read that it's about three hundred

and sixty five dollars worth of books in these

two months to read everything. And that's just

ridiculous. And again, where do you say you're

you're a Batgirl fan? Yes, you're going to want

to read the Oracle. But Maybe these new Batgirl

fans don't want to read about Oracle. They want

this crazy new bat or Batgirl I meant Or if you

know you're gonna you want to get Mike you want

to get the Nightwing Oracle? Oh, yeah, what else

though? Are they are they winning you in with

any of these books? Well, let's let me just give

my reaction to this. I was I was like, wait,

what? We live in an age where technology is everything.

And you just said it, Jim. You just said it.

You know, and I don't know, but half of these

writers are at home writing their stuff. Artists,

the same thing. They're at home. And then they

either email or they get on Dropbox or, you know,

whatever and send them to DC Comics office. Like

I've seen several pictures of Scott Snyder and

Greg, not Greg Rucka. I'm sorry, Greg Capullo.

in the actual dc offices but i mean like seriously

we we live in an age of technology why does dc

other than needing you know why do they need

an office at all other than to have the the president

and the vice president the board whatever else

so um on this first link that we have here which

will be in the show notes um is the I guess first

week are the first initial titles of Convergence.

So I'm going to run down these as we go along

and we can give our opinions as we go. For me

at this point, Nightwing Oracle is the only one

I'll be getting. Okay. I just, possibly the question.

um i don't know the rest i i just i'm so over

dc at this point so anyway uh we've got superman

is going to be written by dan jergens the artist

will be lee weeks and dan jergens along with

norm rapamund superman and lois deal with their

impending birth of their child as he is called

to protect the city okay how With Convergence.

This whole thing with Convergence and bringing

the pre -New 52 and the New 52 together is, how

are they going to explain that Superman is divorced

from Wonder Woman or whatever? How are they going

to explain that Superman and Lois are back together?

And to quote Brody, let's face it, Wonder Woman

is the only one that has the strongest uterus

that carries Superman's baby. I mean, unless

you give him a kryptonite condom, but that would

kill him. I'm going to watch Mallrats now. Exactly

Jim, what is your just based off this little

blurb here? I Don't mind that Again, I think

that's one that I'm gonna end up reviewing now

again. Yeah, the other the other thing about

all this seems to be that Kind of leads from

the booster gold futures end where some version

of brainiac super brainiac is has found the vanishing

point where he can access all of the timelines

and then he's gonna go grab all the timelines

all of all these crazy things put him in domes

and then see what happens when he lets everyone

loose It's ridiculous, but about timelines, which

I don't understand because it's timelines. Oh,

it's it's everything It's timelines multi. It's

supposedly they it's like a catch -all phrase

It's just basically anything that's ever happened

in DC history all thrown together and good But

again, like you said you have Superman and Lois

With their impending birth of their child. Well,

where is the other ten Superman and where I just

I Don't not and we'll go I'm trying to get me

confused It leads me back to actually this all

leads me back to the the futures end event that

just in September where Nothing seems to be Coordinate

it with and I think this is gonna end up being

like this. You're just gonna have these there's

Superman Here's Superman's book. Boom. They're

gonna Superman and Lois are gonna have their

child. It's not gonna mean anything. It's not

gonna have a Story, that's just that so if you

want it to see Superman and Lois together again.

Oh, you'll pick that up and Again, I I will be

reading and reviewing that one, but I couldn't

say that if I wasn't I'd read that I It sounds

okay. I don't know. They better have a designated

earth or timeline to that earth so we know exactly

what's going on. Again, they're probably just

gonna... Well, I thought originally in the solicits

they even had the solicits listed as like these

are the flashpoint ones and I it's just it's

ridiculous. Yeah, I wasn't going to look up all

the solicits for this conference event. The next

title for the first week or the first part of

this thing is The Atom, written by Tom Payer.

Artist is Steve Yewell and Andy Owens. Ray Palmer

finds that Ryan Choi is still alive. Together

they meet and confront Deathstroke, the man responsible

for quote -unquote killing Choi before fighting

the invading extremists. Is he gonna, is Ray

Palmer gonna be drawn like Brandon Routh's Superman?

I really like that character now. Are you guys,

either one of you actually invested in the Adam

and all? No. That's a toss up. Whoever gets it,

gets it. I'm not, I could care less, really.

Whoever has more books that week, the other person

gets it. Alright, we have Batgirl by Alyssa Kittwini

for the writing. Rick Leonardi and Mark Pennington

on art. After a year in the dome, Stephanie Brown

is not sure she wants to be Batgirl again, but

when Flashpoint Catman attacks, Red Robin and

Black Bat call her back into service. Oh, that

sounds awful. Yeah, that just sounds like too

much. And we're we're three one we're three in

and they already sound desperate to Throw as

many names that oh my Stephanie Brown cat man

black bat Oh my goodness. That is one, specifically

in New 52. Tim Drake, Red Robin needs his own

damn series. To hell with Todd and to hell with

Damien. Damien does not need... Anyway, that's

for another time. Hey, we're not all Damien haters

here. Calm down. Alright, Nightwing Oracle written

by surprise surprise Gail Simone. This might

be the best one out of them all. Artist Jan Dersima

and Dan Parsons. Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon

re -evaluate their relationship under the dome.

Wedding in quotes. Yeah, right. Like DC Comics

is going to let any of their characters get married.

yeah but flashpoint hawkman and hawk woman attack

and everything changes i'm interested only because

of it's the fact that we actually have dick grace

and nightwing yeah and barbara gordon batgirl

and it's gail simone writing the characters when

she um when simone had her run on batgirl when

she started her run on new 52 batgirl and and

dick grace had shown up a few times i think it

was like issue four or five maybe Um, might be

issue six of back girl new 52 bad girl. I loved

her writing on, on, on, uh, Grayson and all that

stuff. So that, like I said already in this podcast,

that's probably the only thing out of convergence.

I'll be picking up. Um, we then get to speed

force written by Tony Bedard artist is Tom Grumit

and Sean Parsons. Wally West and his kids are

separated from Lindo, which is bad enough. But

when the dome falls, Flashpoint Wonder Woman

comes for them. I'm getting tired of hearing

about this dome. Again, that's the you know,

oh, everybody wants the old Wally West. Let's

make a let's make a title for him. I don't know.

So is are they going to eventually have the two

Wallies fighting? In this? No, absolutely not.

No, not in this, but in general. Actually, if

you have them fight, what are you going to do?

Because no matter who wins, someone's going to

have a problem with race winning over the other

race. Some asshole out there in interwebs land

is going to take that. The white guy beat up

the black guy. So that's a problem. Everybody

in Ferguson is going to riot again. It's going

to be all hard. Oh, god. Oh, wow. All right.

So are you guys? Is this another coin toss, Eric?

No, I'll be doing that one. Yeah, I do the flash

book, so that's mine. Again, I'm one of the few,

it seems, that could care less about Wally West.

I like Barry. So I'm going to review it, Maria.

It's not going to be with rose -colored glasses

at all. I will be reading it and probably shaking

my head. Like Eric said, this whole dome thing.

It's just ridiculous. But again, this is all

for everybody who wants Wally and but again Mike

you like Wally West Yeah, are you gonna buy my

flash growing up? So I like them. Are you gonna

buy this book? Probably not as I don't is I I

haven't read any flash before or You know, I

mean I when I get into comics it was solely for

at the time two years ago almost three years

ago now it was for the Joker coming back for

death of the family and that was sadly anti -climactic

at the end of it, but I mean like for me, it's

It's it's the bad family. I mean, I yes I do

love Wally West, but I love him in that context

of Justice League Justice League unlimited because

it is Michael Rosenbaum. I don't want it I don't

think this book maybe people will buy it, but

I don't why would they buy this and then carry

over to the regular flash now I They won't so

this whole event Each one of these that we really

is just getting on more and more Upset about

it pissed off. It just doesn't make sense. I

don't know who they're trying to win over with

these books I don't know either next one up is

Titans just titled Titans writer is Fabian is

Zia this is the uh... uh... or uh... artist is

ron wagner and jose marzan or jose marzan it

doesn't have one of those little sick as a we

uh... starfire and donna troy come to get roy

hopper who has gone into seclusion since the

death of his child and loss of his arm but then

arsenal has to choose between his team and resurrecting

his dead daughter wait a second are they seriously

gonna pull Rachel ghoul thing from Batman and

Robin It kind of sounds like continuation of

the young justice cartoon show it's all cooler

I can get behind that I'll be reviewing that

book and I'll be loving it Titans are all grown

up now, baby. Let's get into it Like I said already

soon as they take Drake out of the Titans and

give him his own book. I'll be happy Justice

League written by Frank Thierry artist is Vincent

a Cifuentes When Supergirl Zatanna and Jade went

to Jesse Quick's baby shower They didn't expect

to be taken to another planet for a year or to

be attacked by Flashpoint Aquaman We are all

hitting our heads on the desk. I actually just

had my head down I'm really I I can say it every

time though. I'm confused about What this is

gonna be? Again designation of birth. I need

a time one. I need to know what I'm dealing with

here. It's just It just doesn't make sense. I

like seeing Jade back. That might be fun. Yeah,

but a baby shower. Come on baby shower It's like

they didn't want to have any birth or weddings

and now this is they have to just everyone has

to have one There's a dead daughter. There's

a baby shower. There's a wedding there You know,

I know the Batman and Robin. I think they Bruce

takes Damien to a bachelor party, doesn't he?

Question written by Greg Rucka. The artist is

Cully Hammer. Two -Face is fighting another World's

Harvey Dent. So we have a four -face fight. And

it's up to Renee Montoya as the question to help

him beat the odds. What? Again, we also have

been mentioned that almost every solicit I've

ever read from DC is nothing to do with the actual

issue. I'm hoping these have something to do

with it. They're pretty specific, but you never

know. But I like Cully Ham. All right, who's

uh, that's mine. That's okay. I figured since

it was two -faced it would be a flip of the coin

Question but I guess I'm gonna have to dive in

wholeheartedly into this thing and see how it

all works out It's kind of hard to be a fan of

anyone other than The real question because of

because honestly because of Jeffrey Combs as

the voice in Justice League Justice League unlimited,

but whatever. All right, Batman and Robin written

by Ron Mars artist is Denny's Cowan and Klaus

Jansen Bruce Wayne and Damien go to a baby shower.

I'm sorry with friction with red hood before

the extremists attack you know all these words

of extremists and extremists i'm half waiting

for superior iron man to show up and just destroy

this whole event again without knowing who the

extremists are and there you have damian with

bruce which would have been a big deal if he

wasn't back in the regular comics now so basically

that's just damian and bruce And of course Red

Hood thrown in there. I do love me some Red Hood.

Yeah, I will be reviewing that book. That'll

be Eric. Eric will be reviewing that. I can get

behind that. Next one's my one of my ones I'm

looking forward to. Alright, finally for week

one of Convergence, it's Harley Quinn, written

by Steve Pug, or Puh, I don't know how you say

it, whatever. Artist is Phil Winslade and John

Dell. Harley Quinn is enjoying her normal life

under the dome until Catwoman and Poison Ivy

draft her to fight Captain Carrot. Amazing. You

know, all I can think of is they need to get...

somebody... these artists, Winslate and Dell

need to draw Captain Carrot as Captain Carrot

Top. There was one good thing about the new 52.

I like Captain Carrot. I'm saying in that really

short -lived threshold series that Keith Giffin

did. It was kind of like a Lantern title, but

it was a Lantern in outer space doing his own

thing on a running man game show type of bit.

They introduced a reimagined Captain Carrot and

his name was Captain K -Rot. And he was like

a rocket raccoon sort of like a rabbit. And he

had like a robotic leg. He was searching for

the guy that cut it off for Lucky Charm. That

bit was fun. I did like that. That's crazy. I'm

looking forward to this book mainly. Again, this

seems like fun. And hopefully it is. I do like

fun. But again, all the like, really, the Batman

and Robin, we just talked about Bruce Wayne and

Damien have friction with Red Hood before the

extremist attacks. I even I don't know. I want

to have if you're going to have all of these

different dimensions and timelines and this and

that and the whole multiverse, you have fun with

it. And a lot of these don't seem like they're

much fun. This seems like fun. Harley is always

fun to me. And throwing her with Poison Ivy is

a cat woman. And then they fight Captain Carrot.

To me, that that is what I want to see. And the

rest of these just seem like, well, people like

Renee Montoya, let's do a question book and,

oh, we'll have, you know, Wally West and his

wife, like, there, you have Wally West and his

kids are separated from Linda, which, why? Why

have that? That doesn't sound like something

I want to, I'm going to read a book about a guy

with his kids getting separated from his wife.

You know, actually, sometimes around here that

sounds like a good thing. Come on now. All right,

so going into week two I'm actually getting this

one from DC Comics is fan news section on their

website and it is the The next the week to all

the week two titles for convergence Superman

Man of Steel the writer will be Louise Simonson

the artists will be June Brightman and Roy Richardson

with color by John Roush Metropolis was taken

when Superman was missing, so it's up to Steel

to guard the city from the heroes of Gen 13 in

his absence. Oh, I'm so glad I'm not doing that.

Super Steel, okay then. That'll be me. Yeah,

I'm not looking forward to that either. Super

Steel, oh my God. This image, again, I will have

all these links in the show notes, but this image,

it... It looks like he's a cross between Thor,

Spawn, and War Machine. Yeah, yeah, he's not

looking good. Actually, I'm looking at that picture

now, and that's the steel that I love. Uh -oh.

Yeah? It's all right after Superman died in the

90s, and I fell in love with that character from

that gig deal right there. Superman cape, iron

suit, big old hammer, that's for me. Alright,

up next we have... With Gen 13 I know nothing

about. Yeah, I don't think anybody knows anything

about Gen 13 at this point. Up next we have Batman,

Shadow of the Bat. Written by G .I. Joe writer

Larry Hama. Artists are Philip Tan and Jason

Pez with color by Elmer Santos. I like the art

so far. It looks really good. Yeah, I like the

way that looks. A year ago, Batman got trapped

in Metropolis when hunting down Azrael. Now he

must team with the man that replaced him and

see how differently they operate as...Batmans?

It's Batman! and a I have my issues with Scott

Snyder, too. Actually, I've been saying to Eric

is one of the problems I have with reviewing

his Batman is Technically, I do think he is a

really good writer and but I have no fun at all.

It's almost like work Reading Batman each month

though. I still find it good. It's just starting

to be not for me. And I don't know if what you

hate or don't like or like about him, but it's

just, he try, it seems to me that every issue

he's trying to show how smart he is and how much

he knows about Batman and how much more he knows

than me, which he does, I'm an idiot, but it

still ends up, it seems like a lot of work to

me each month. You know, we've been doing the

pullback almost three years now and I was really

stoked when Death of the Family started. It got

me into the Nightwing title, it got me into the

Batgirl title, it got me into several other things.

And when Death of the Family ended on such an

anti -climactic note, because for me personally,

it really did, because it was real, I mean, it

was just your usual, oh, well, the Joker's out

there somewhere, question mark, or ha, ha, ha,

ha, ha, you know. After that we went to you know,

we had a couple of fallouts with Damien and whatever

else and we had all this and all that and we

had the zero -year Is your year? No, no, no,

we had that didn't like no 25 the the the tie

-in issue you know and then 21 we started with

zero year and it's like hey the new 52 origin

of batman wasn't that uh supposed to be batman

number zero wasn't the new 52 origin of batman

supposed to be in batman number zero when you

started the damn series i mean quarter vowels

to this day is the best thing snider has ever

done the rest of it is just quarter the else

uh you haven't been reading recently that and

with joker back i can't and end game Like I know

well like everything they don't plan out anything

Catwoman right now The main book is taking her

solo book takes place after eternal. So that's

all screwed up as well Yes, I cannot read other

than the teeny -bopper batgirl I cannot read

any current DC ongoing that has to do with the

weeklies at this point because it's specifically

eternal because until I know what eternal's ending

is I Personally don't think I can go into the

new jib. I don't think I can go into endgame,

you know, just cold I need to know what the hell

happens in eternal. Do you know anything about

what has happened? Have you kept away from spoil?

I You know what Joker was doing all this year

he was gone? No. I won't tell you. When you find

out you're going to just shake it. Come on, spoilers

are awesome. No, I'm not going to spoil it. I

do eventually want to get to this new Joker story

because like I said, I liked Snyder writing the

Joker. I just didn't like the outcome of Death

of the Family. Moving on to Justice League International

written by Ron Mars. You what? I think that looks

pretty cool. Yeah, it's a giant bug and Red Tornado

and John Jones and Fire and Ice. Yep. And Steve

Trevor? I don't know. I don't know. Justice League

International written by Ron Mars. Artist is

Mike Manley with color by Soto Color. The levity

of the JLI team collides with the severity of

the world of Kingdom Come. Eric will be doing

this one. But I actually have but there's beetle

there we got that it's pretty cool looking to

me Deal with the funniness of jail. I know that's

all right Supergirl has crossed over to IDW and

stolen the Autobot Matrix of Leadership in Supergirl

Matrix. Eric's favorite writer, Keith Giffen,

is writing this one. Ramon Bax with color by

Hi -Fi is artists on this one. What do Supergirl

Lady Quark and Ambush Bug have in common? Well,

nothing really, but that didn't stop us from

sticking them in a story together. That is a

typical Keith Giffen solicit right there. Okay,

but let me ask you guys this because I don't

know. Do the writers actually write the solicits

or is it some copy boy? I've actually heard that

a couple demand to do their own and then the

rest start done pretty generically by just a

You know, in turn, I don't know. But I've heard

that Keith Giffin does his solicit. I know he

does. What I heard, the main reason I heard this

was because of the Justice League 3000 solicits

that I heard that he does. Very, very similar

to those. Which basically, in the Justice League

3000 ones, he basically begs people to read the

book every month. Three month is another like

we're adding blue beetle and booster gold through

you guys. So you better read it Which actually

a side I love Justice League 3000, but and this

so seem What's that? I don't know like we have

a giant fight on this cover, but there really

isn't like What kind of matrix it's like give

me something the one Supergirl used to be known

as matrix. She wasn't actually Supergirl She

was an alien being that took on the guys of her.

Oh All right up next is Green Lantern parallax,

oh god the goddamn yellow fear monster Jesus

Christ Green Lantern Parallax. Writer is Tony

Bedard. Artist is Ron Wagner and Bill Reinhold

with color by Paul Mounts. Rookie Green Lantern

Kyle Rayner gears up to battle invaders, but

is he ready to fight Hal Jordan, also known as

Parallax? Huh making Hal a villain. No, they

did this in the 90s. It was so good This is when

Kyle Rayner became a Green Lantern is when how

Jordan went evil and became parallax and I actually

can't wait to read this because it were my favorite

things in the 90s hmm, I Can't believe Johns

is allowing them to do this because as we all

know Jeff Johns, you know loves his Jesus Jordan

His story as well that he continued from okay,

I might actually If Kyle's in the suit, if Kyle

or John are in the suit, I might pick it up,

you know. All right, Catwoman, written by Justin

Gray. The artist is going to be Ron Randall with

color by Gabe L. Tab, or Tabe. Yeah, here we

go again. A year under the dome can change anyone,

even Catwoman. She's set aside her life of crime

to become the protector of the suicide slum.

But when the dome falls, she will face her greatest

challenge, Kingdom Come, Batman! So is this Kingdom

Come going on at the same time with J .L .I.?

The same dome? I don't know. I assume. I think

the dome is encompassing every part of Convergence

at this point. All we need now is Polyshore.

The funny thing that I keep hearing, every time

they say when the dome falls, I just imagine

pieces falling on people. Now in this one, actually,

I see it looks kind of like a... Kind of just

looks like an energy dome So I don't know I I

kept thinking of pieces falling from the sky

and people running when it doesn't look like

that's gonna be I think Yes, that is true So,

I don't know. I'm look I actually like Justin

Grey as a writer So I'm looking forward to this

and as cat woman in her old suit Strong for cat

woman though. Yeah That's it doesn't leave much

to the imagination. I'm looking at that. Holy

moly That might be just paint doesn't look like

a snow. That's Yeah, it looks crazy All right,

let's um Let's go on to Superboy, written by

Fabian Nizia or whatever his name is. Artist

is Carl Moline and Jose Marzan Jr. with color

by Hi -Fi. Has Connell earned the right to be

the Man of Steel? Con will have to prove his

metal in battle against the Superman of Kingdom

Come, but what if the only way to save Metropolis

is to lose the fight? am so be I just if it's

not I don't know I have such closed mindedness

when it comes to the Superman universe I really

really do like if it's not Dean Cain and Terry

Hatcher I don't care like like seriously on that

well you know okay how about this if it's not

since Clark Kent was the original Superboy when

he was younger. If it's not the voice of Jason

Marsden as Superboy, then I don't care. I'm looking

forward to this book just because I want to get

Superboy back to the basics and where it's just

not an infinite Superboy clone army that he's

fighting over and over again and changing his

story up over and over again. I am happy as hell

if he just got to fight an evil Super - well,

not an evil Superman, but not a very nice Superman.

What about you Jim? I could care less. I really

I could care less about Superboy He's been so

screwed up in the new 52 that it just again.

This is a book for Eric He can have his fun with

it. I really care less Yeah, I could care less

about Superboy. I really and again, it's the

new 52 Superboy is all over the place and I I'm

reading and reviewing the Supergirl now and he's

gonna show up soon enough in there and again,

it's all over the place. They have done so many

different things with him and screwed him up

and pissed people off and so he can have this

and enjoy it for what it is. And I will. Yeah,

which is also the next book too. It's all yours.

Let's see this is gonna this is gonna be good

on several levels only because I actually as

of this recording we're recording this December

28th 2014 it will air New Year's Eve 2014 I actually

have a interview with Christy March for our gem

review podcast that will be premiering next year

here in the gate cast radio network So I'm gonna

have to ask her about this now Can you? Send

her a message for me and tell her to stop writing

any book that I read She that's she did birds

of prey and It was awful. It was awful So I don't

want you to be okay to her. All right written

by Kristy marks green arrow Artist is rags Morales

and Claude st. Alvin with color by Neil Rufino

See that last name and all as I can think of

is Rufio God that movie will be 20 years old

next year Oliver Queen meets Connor Hawk for

the first time but is he ready to hand over the

green arrow mantle to his son? I Remember when

this happened in the comics and it was really

cool. So I'm looking forward to this again Isn't

there a comic when Connors in the watchtower

and he finds one of Oliver's old punching, what's

it called? Boxing glove arrows. Boxing glove

arrows and it shakes his head. Yeah. Never make

fun of the boxing glove arrows. If that's in

there, I'm in. All right. That would be something

I could ask her if they're going to be boxing

glove arrows. Don't tell her. No, no, no, no,

no. All right. Up next is Aquaman. Aquaman written

by Tony Bedard. Artist is Cliff Richards with

color by John Roush. Trapped in the Dome City,

Aquaman struggles with the loss of his hand as

he confronts his deadly adversary, Deathblow.

OK, first of all, I got to talk about the loss

of his hand. because the first time i ever knew

about this is when they did it in justice league

in the enemy below when he had to fight his brother

i forget what his name is orm orm thank you um

i remember when they did this in that cartoon

series and i remember bruce tim on the commentary

for the justice league complete series dvd set

said that um WB, CW, whatever that, well it wasn't

CW, whatever the hell it was at one point said

that... Cartoon Network. Yeah. Was League on

Network by this point? No, that's the only place

it aired. Oh, that's true, okay. Cartoon Network

had said, yeah, you're gonna have to redo the

blood scene with his hand because it's a little

too... So then he just obviously just wraps the

red blanket around it. around his hand I'm not

an Aquaman fan really I just don't I don't know

it's not that I dislike the guy or anything like

that but it's just like it's just not for me

I guess so who's excited about the Aquaman book

I'm not excited about it, but I do like Aquaman.

I read and review it. So I was doing this, I

don't know, looking at the picture there with

this, he's got his hook. He's in a shower. He

looks pretty crazy and yet there's another, I

don't know. I don't know what's going on. But

again, a book about... The loss of his hand and

he confronts blood death blow. I have no idea

Yeah, hi, we'll see. I again I really do like

Aquaman I think that Jeff Johns really did a

lot for him leading up to now and when he left

and But again, this this just looks ridiculous

so far though. It just seems like convergence

is hey guys remember the 90s that happens Everything

looks like oh look Aquaman has a hook again and

here he is. He's not Again, we'll see how it

is my question with this art is My question with

this art is is this supposed to be in Atlantis

or is this supposed to be like? him in the lake

above of you know on the house because it because

of a terminal in atlantis what kind of uh general

contractor would fit would actually get a rain

shower rain shower into atlanta it is ridiculous

so i'm guessing that they're above but uh we'll

see but even that the you look and there's there's

the sexy looking aquaman and the left and he's

kind of looking at you kind of shower he's looking

into the shower with what appears to be i don't

know steel aquaman with that who is that it looks

like dr manhattan Yeah, he does. Yeah, he kinda

does, yeah. That looks weird. What happened to

his hair? And then you add the little panel below

that with what appears to be some sort of detective

and the army. What the hell is that behind them?

That just looks great. I don't know, it looks

like... It might be the dome. Yeah, either that

or it's... It looks like a termite, like avalanche.

Yeah. A phone, maybe? I don't know. So the final

book for the second week of Convergence is Suicide

Squad written by Frank Thierry. The artist is

going to be Tom Mandrake with color by And of

course the big big thing there is the we're back

to the old Amanda Waller. I got my big lady back.

She's she's large and in charge right there.

Yeah, that's that's a big thing and I guess the

only person that should ever Play Amanda Waller

the only person whether it's voice acting whether

it's live -action. They need to give a wind free

I Will kick you off No, they need to give CCH

Pounder more work didn't you guys while or in

something? She played her in Justice League.

She's played her in several of the of the DC

animated original movies live -action No, no,

she was in 2002's Sean Ryan's the shield as clad

at whims. Yeah, I never watched that They haven't

announced who's gonna play her in the movie yet,

right? No, it's just that stupid ass Oprah rumor

going around Tyler Perry. Oh God oh god i cannot

believe it okay so week three from convergence

this one is coming from superhero hype um they're

pretty much uh oh well they put all the images

at the bottom nice great um so basically uh we're

just gonna read through these and then talk about

the images afterwards since i'm not scrolling

up and back up and back up and back so we have

batman and the outsiders written by mark and

draco The artist is going to be Carlos Danda.

The colorist is going to be Gabe Etab again.

A year under the dome, the outsiders have gone

their separate ways, but when OMAC attacks, Batman

must find out if they have what it takes to still

be a team. Thoughts? I like Mark and Draco, so

I'm hoping that that will do okay. I don't know

anything about Carlos Danda. As the artist I

don't know if that one actually seems okay. I

have a feeling Not a feeling I've heard a couple

people on certain podcasts and read some things

that people are actually looking forward to this

book because they like the outsiders and all

this business Yeah, again it's it's more of the

same of all these solicits. Most of this stuff,

the bad part about it is it looks like everything

to me is a wait and see type of book, but how

do you make an event that everything is a make

and see type of book? If I'm just a regular person

and a fan, maybe if I'm a Batman fan, yes, I'll

buy this, but... as just a person who's, oh,

I want to check out this convergence. None of

these titles really hit me as a must read title.

It's like you said, we've gone through all these

and what? There's maybe two or three that you're

interested in. Yep. And thankfully these titles,

as far as I can tell, they're just going to be

single issues. No, actually, I think they're

both two partners. I heard that each each one

is a two -part each month again And then there's

it's well, right, but I mean these aren't all

new ongoing series. It's just part of the convert

Yeah, so at least it's only you know with the

titles that I'm interested in at least it would

only be Like ten books tops out of the yeah Yeah,

yeah, no, but again the problem is is we're talking

about this and Oh, me and Eric are huge fans

of DC. You're not a huge fan of DC, but you're

a comic book fan. And yet I used to be each of

us has a different idea, but each of us has a

different idea of what this is, how many titles,

what the they are not. By now, you would think

they would have had a full checklist. This is

the title. This is this. If you're that, this,

that. They have nothing. Everything is a guess

and a hearsay. I don't understand if this is

such a big event for them that has been years

in the making as they claim. Why don't they let

anybody know about it? that by February at least,

2015, that they release all of it. And somehow,

because what I've noticed is, and again, I have

to cite this website, because honestly, they

are the best when it comes to compiling stuff.

Every time I look for solicits, sometimes it'll

pop up, Come Book Resources has all of your publishing

company, you know, January solicits, March solicits,

you just go to that link and it's all the companies,

you know, whatever, you can click through them.

I'm hoping that one of the websites out there

does this by January or February and just puts,

you know, the first month, you know, in one post.

All right, up next we have Adventures of Superman

written by Marv Wolfman. Hmm, interesting. uh

the artists are going to be i almost said roberto

orsi holy crap um roberto via cava and andy owens

the colorist is going to be soda color superman

and supergirl try to escape the city through

the phantom zone but they enter a portion they've

never seen before and learn that supergirl is

destined to die if they return to their proper

time in dimension true story Um, I can tell that

Wolfman wrote that Just that is something that

he would say after yeah Like I said you when

when they do have the actual writer write the

solicit. It seems like you can always tell But

yeah that one I if you like super minutes girl

sounds okay But again, it's nothing that's grabbing

me that I'm going to have to run out and grab

that. So it's just everything seems to just kind

of run together now. Oh, yes. But think of the

fun. So The Flash written by Dan Abnett. Oh,

boy. Artist by artist is the Federico de Luchio.

Colorist is Veronica Guardini or Guadian or whatever

it is. trapped in Gotham Barry Allen has nowhere

to run he fights on seeking justice as well as

a way to save the city but he faces a Tangent

universe foe that thinks faster than the flash

could ever move huh Barry and Gotham that sounds

interesting and the tangent you they throw in

there so that's okay and again though you have

your Wally West flash before now we have the

Barry Allen flash and again it seems like it's

so much of Trying to please everybody, but not

pleasing anyone. It just comes off with that.

But that one actually I'm looking forward to.

I've had a love -hate relationship with Dan Abnett,

so hopefully this will be something that I enjoy.

I like everything he's done in He -Man so far.

There's a few things in the what lies within

arc that I did there's a few Ways that he does

dialogue with the Masters characters that I just

don't agree with it's that old timey like ren

fair kind of talking I It just doesn't sound

like yeah, it's funny you say that it's funny

you say that because in the digital title He

has the worst dialogue for Batman, it's awful.

And the book itself is ridiculous. It doesn't

need to exist. But again, I don't like him. Everything

he's done in that book he seems to be mailing

in and I'm hoping, I'm sure this is big enough

that he wouldn't do that, but I'll, you know,

I'll hope that it's good. Up next for the third

week of Convergence we have Wonder Woman written

again by G .I. Joe writer Larry Hama. It's a

weird choice for a Wonder Woman title. Art and

color by Josh Middleton. White jumpsuit clad

Diana Prince is in the grips of a doomsday cult

when her lover Steve Trevor leaps into the fray

to save Etta Candy from vampires of red rain.

Nope. I'll be doing this. And again, it's right

away. You see, it's it's Diana Trevor. So all

the people want to see that. there you go you

have that thrown in there yeah a doomsday cult

yeah um it's it's interesting because i didn't

know i knew i know now i didn't know at the time

when i first saw it but when steve first shows

up in i believe it's the savage time triple three

-parter from justice league unlimited or justice

league season two It's friggin Bobby Ewing is

it's Patrick Duffy is the voice of Steve Trevor

in Justice League and I'm like, oh hell yeah

Wonder Woman I I don't know probably not for

me. Yeah any thoughts Eric none at all. This

is nothing I'm interested in in the slightest

Okay, we got vampires. We got her in a white

jumpsuit. Don't say I'm out Green Lantern Corps.

Written by David Galler. Artist are Steve Ellis

and Andy Parks. Colorist is Hi -Fi. Save the

world if only being the Green Lantern Corps was

that easy. Hal has resigned. John is busy and

Guy is pissed. Together for the first time they'll

save Gotham or die trying. What's the deal with

putting Flash and Green Lanterns in Gotham? Everybody

loves Gotham. I guess so. Throwing everyone.

and seeing what goes. Yep. How John and Guy working

together, I guess they had to do something with

the other three Earth Green Lanterns considering

Kyle's in his own thing at this point. Could

be interesting. I want a timeline. I know. Again,

it won't do that. I want to think that that's

going to lead into something later after convergence,

but it probably won't. What do you say Jim now

I just was gonna say it's you have John you know

guy I I don't know it just Seems like three Green

Lanterns put him in Gotham. It's like they they

who names no hats boom -boom -boom whatever came

out. That's what they go with I was really hoping

for a Wally West Flash and Killawog team up,

but anyway. That could work. Justice League of

America. Go on. The next book has probably the

greatest colorist name I've ever seen, but that's

just a preview. Justice League of America written

by Fabian Nizia again. The artist is... Yeah,

jump jump, crisscross, yeah. And the colorist

is Snakebite Cortez. Oh yeah. I think he might

be the most badass dude in the universe. Chase

sounds like it. I don't know, colorists to me

seem like the stepchild of everything. I'm not

telling Snakebite Cortez anything. That guy means

business. I need to meet him and drink with him

and have stories. I bet he has a hell of a belt

buckle. With their heavy hitters sidelined, Elongated

Man must lead the much maligned Detroit Justice

League against the overwhelming power of the

heroes from the Tangent Universe. Where the hell's

Robocop when you need him, and I don't mean that

wimpy new version in the new film. I can't get

over that. All right, we only got a few more

titles here, ladies and gentlemen. I know we've

been talking for a while, but we got a few more

here. We got Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes.

Writer is Stuart Moore. Artists are Gus Storms

and Mark Farmer. The colorist is John Rausch.

While Brainiac Five struggles to break through

the dome, Superboy tries to keep the Legion of

Superheroes spirits up, but then the Atomic Knights

ride into town. Not the Atomic Knights. Yes,

the Atomic Knights. Is there any chance that

they're not motorcyclists? You can give me one

here, Mike, because this is the young Superman

with the Legion here. That's true. I like both

Superboy and Elite. I'm gonna be happy as hell

to review those. So up next, we have Swamp Thing

written by Mr. Len Wein. Artist is Kelly Jones.

The colorist is Michelle Madsen. Swamp Thing

struggles to survive when the dome cuts off his

contact with the green. Yeah, that's about as

generic as... You're gonna get a volleys and

I'm sure Eric has stuff to say about that because

it's recently happened Where yeah, he just likes

to scream out on her. Oh, no the green and shrivels

up and dies immediately That happened in just

like dark the other month. Oh My god, no, I don't

know. It's kind of it's kind of like moss man

in the desert. Yes I'm looking at these pictures

here. Well, we got like the human torch screaming

Swamping look at that I have no idea what they

plan on doing with this because I obviously see

green grass growing Yeah, I was just gonna say

you talked about that He is lost contact with

the green while he's in what appears to be a

switch Again, if you're gonna have anything where

swamp thing is gonna be comfortable with you

would think it's a swamp. There's a frog very

Nice, I just saw a gym bar Yeah, that'll that'll

scare anyone I do like the art on this though,

and I do trust Len Wein to write a decent swam

thing. I remember when we, as a little side note,

and this has nothing to do with comics, when

we interviewed Robert Skier way back when for

our Beast Wars Beast Machines podcast, he actually

was the one that brought Len in to write the

storyline in Beast Machines for Megatron. being

noble, being savage noble, and he didn't tell

Len that he was actually writing Megatron. Oh

boy. Alright, new Teen Titans. Yay! Marv Wolfman

is at it again with the artists of Nicola Scott

and Mark Dering. Colorist Jeremy Cox. Titans

together fighting against the might or the tangent

universe. Doom Patrol, we are reminded why this

is the greatest Titans team of all. This sounds

amazing. Really, I'm not even playing. Everything

about this sounds great. The funny thing to me

is it's Marv Wolfman back on Teen Titans, and

they kind of rip everyone else who's done it

by claiming this is the greatest Titan. So anything

else, forget about it. This is what everybody

wants. I know it's... And we got Nicholas Scott

on art, which is the greatest artist in DC history.

Yeah, that's right. I said it. It's a fact. She's

good. She's good. okay you're entitled to your

opinion no one's denying you that jack uh -huh

all right it's all gonna be the final title for

the third wave of titles here we have hawkman

written by jeff parker hey the batman 66 guy

uh artists are tim truman and enrique Alcantia,

Cadia, whatever. Colorist is John Callas. Hawkman

and Hot Girl put their shadow war on hold as

they face the anthropomorphic might of Ratmen

and Batmen in the deadly land of Kamandi? Kamandi.

Ah, yes. Actually, Jeff Parker does Aquaman now.

He took over from Jeff Johns. And he's done a

really good job. And for some reason to me, Jeff

Parker on Hawkman makes complete, I actually,

Eric will be doing this huge Hawkman. I love

me some Hawkman. Yeah, but again, I think this

sounds okay. It sounds ridiculous, but Jeff Parker

on Hawkman, like I said, just sounds right to

me. Alright guys, so we've gone, we've spent,

I don't know, about almost two and a half hours

here on Convergence and the cancellations and

everything else. Since you guys are, you know,

and I do still, I am still interested in some

DC stuff, I just, I'm not, like, I don't like

what some of the writers have done with my characters,

the characters that I like, so. What are your

roles? overall impressions of the first three

weeks of the event, Jim? I think that it's a

bunch of nonsense. I really do. Again, it all

goes back to the beginning that we talked about,

why you would even need an event like this, and

to use this moving as an excuse to it. It just,

again, they had to plan this months ahead of

time. You see where, like, what is, what's Scott

Snyder doing for these two months? He's not on

any of these books. He's and in fact the only

people I see on any of these that are normal

writers would be Gail Simone Jeff Parker and

Mark and Draco a lot of the other guys are people

who haven't been on books, which is neat I I

actually it's a cool idea to have other people

doing some of these title, but really what is

What's? Brian Buchalano friend and a pool doing

in this two months while they're moving. I made

a joke at the beginning, but are they moving

desks and things like that? Those guys. This

is ridiculous. It seems that it's thrown together

because someone higher up decided that they need

an event because they're getting beat by by with

all their events and everyone else. And they

are just trying desperately to get somebody.

or get more people involved in this event to

me doesn't seem like it would be it seems to

me like it's an event that's going to be stuck

between the new uh fans and old fans and going

to with either of them there's the people who

are fans of these old characters the old continuity

is going to look at this and say oh great they're

throwing me a bone and they already ruined my

character so why do i want to get involved and

the people who are fans now are just gonna say

well i guess i'm gonna take a two -month break

and get back to my books when they they get back

to them and that's what i want to do and again

i mean the yeah and the other the other thing

is is this going to lead to because after two

months if it's just white clean and nothing comes

about then it people are going to be pissed off

that for two months they bought books that don't

mean you know if they change things up and other

people in can't win with something well and so

big like again, how about this instead of these

events instead of the September big events with

your 3d covers and this garbage how about treat

the writers good and Get bigger bigger writers

that Marvel just took Charles soul a Tom Taylor,

where is DC grabbing? Marvel's big guys or and

not even Marvel how about somebody big in like

you said IDW or but somebody else get somebody

they got John Romero jr. Which was a big story

to go on Superman with Jeff Johns and while I

haven't been that impressed with it It still

was them doing something instead of this get

your books back to being good You know get right

fans like you who bailed because the DC is treated

there Your heroes awfully and get them back the

old -fashioned way of writing good books Not

these big splash events that end up meaning nothing

So let me get this straight. They're gonna have

convergence for two months starting April 1st

2015 So that's gonna last April and May. Yep

And then they're still going to do another September

new 52 anniversary event month seriously in 2050?

As far as we know, they're going to do, yep.

And again, what would be your, and they should

get rid of the 3D covers. That's played out.

They need something new. And what are they going

to do for next September's event? Are they going

to have another crisis like this is supposed

to be? Is this going to, it just, it's all a

bunch of. It's all what they don't need to do

they seem to really be trying to catch up instead

of Pulling ahead the you know like I said with

quality getting some big writers making a splash

that way You know we mentioned Batman eternal

earlier, we're talking about the whole endgame

thing and everything else and when i'm reading

eternal because we're at the point now or at

least i am that kyle higgins has supposedly joined

the team his name is on the book or whatever

and it's one of those things where Where's his

name? Why isn't he on any of this stuff? Why

isn't it? No, don't get me wrong. I cannot wait

for Nightmare Oracle and Simone writing that,

but why isn't it him and Simone teaming up? Like

right now, the only book I know that Kyle is

writing just from looking at it is his creator

own book, Cowl, over at Image. And that book

is amazing. So I mean, you know, I don't know

what DC is going to do. I just don't know. So,

I think that's gonna do it for us, folks. We

have taken up enough of your time. Eric, where

can the good folks find you on social media and

all that good stuff? Oh, really? Oh, shit. You

can find us on Twitter at WeirdScienceDC, Facebook,

forward slash WeirdScienceDC, and a bunch of

other stuff. You just look up on your Google

devices and whatnot. Don't know how that shit

that works You sound like you're older than Jim

and I know you're not yes, no he is That's what

convergence will do to you Seems like a lot of

work and then I just want to get back to my own

stories that we're dealing with now But type

Weird Science DC Comics on any of your search

engines and you'll find us everywhere. Awesome,

awesome. Alright, well I think that's going to

do it for this episode of After Dark here inside

the pull bag. Wish everyone a Happy New Year.

We will be doing more After Darks in 2015. We

may end up doing some sort of... Think I think

we're gonna have you guys back cuz I think at

the end of a I think at the end of April and

at the end of May we're gonna do two after darks

where one is recap of April and the other is

recap of May to see if Convergence actually did

anything. Yeah, I can tell you now. Here's a

spoiler. Oh You said I said it's spoiler it won't

and it'll be even more pissed off then All right,

folks Coming up next. I will have my my number

ones back issue classics number ones my buddy

Jeremy fine, and I did a back issue classics

number ones for image comic series we did bitch

planet the fadeout and Rasputin number one so

that'll be coming up next in the pull bag and

then in January We're gonna be doing IDW's Crap,

what do you call it? Their conversion. Their

conversion from television to comic. We're going

to be reviewing Angel's Smile Time for IDW. And

then Steve Megatron and I are gonna get back

to some good old stuff with Batman Beyond 10

,000 clowns and Batgirl Beyond in episode 99

We'll have a whole bunch of other stuff this

year when we do Marvelous March We're gonna be

doing all of kind of I'm gonna pick and choose

like the current Marvel stuff last year when

we first did Marvelous March. We did a lot of

classic stories like Crap Punisher war we actually

covered all of ruckus run and that kind of stuff

in marvelous March last year. We covered uh...

wolverine origins and old man logan and all that

kind of cool stuff we covered uh... man of man

out of time for captain america's so will be

doing all kinds of different things marvelous

march this year uh... so we got a whole bunch

of things coming up over on the pullback as as

eric said search out dc com are weird science

dc and you'll find them go over and read a lot

of their views For now, I am TF2 and Mike with

Jim and Eric and make your great escape into

comics and we will catch you next time. Later.

See ya. Ooh, technical difficulties. Let's move

on, shall we? You've just heard the latest episode

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