It is not unusual for stores to try to recoup some of the money they lost on FCBD by selling the left-overs. (Generally, it is safe to assume that a comic shop has paid 50c for the books they give away. That is why some stores have a more narrow selection of comics than others. (Diamond "strongly encourages" participation though. And, I have heard they also set minimal orders for those who do choose to participate.) Books with pre-existing fan bases may actually be sellabobble.
On the other hand, some stores will actually pull FCBD for regular customers as needed, to make sure that established readers do not miss issues of books they are reading.
but for a buck for like Convergence Crime Syndicate (a book that's not supposed to be on shelves for 3 more weeks)
"Crime Syndicate" shipped last week. (Got my copy yesterday. Ain't read it yet.) FCBD books have a "Free Comic Book Day" banner along the top of the cover. Some stores just add over-stock to the FCBD pile.
Secret Wars #1:
It is not every day that somebody gets to destroy two pre-existing universes in comics. But, Hickman got to do that this week. As with any event, there are things that I might have done differently. But, nothing I would have done better. The only real lost opportunity in this case is that it would have been nice to see Spider-Man falling to his knees and screaming as his spider-sense warned him about the impending end of the universe.
"Secret Wars" #1 reads more like the end than the beginning of an event. In terms of theme and tone, it is consistent with "New Avengers" and "Avengers". Things are going badly, but the heroes have not given up. Hickman dangles threads of hope....and then cuts them. Then, (pretty much) everybody dies.
andersonh1 wrote:Do your comic shops charge you for leftover FCBD books? Mine has them all on a shelf and gives them away whether you make it on Saturday (I didn't this year) or come in during the week. To top that off, they always have one every year with a 25% off coupon on the cover.
My old shop didn't, this new shop seems to charge newcomers but if you're a regular they're free. Since they actually cost the shop money, I kinda get it, but they say "free" right on the cover. Mine also has the 25% off on the cover, but only ONE of the FCBD titles had it.
See, that one's a camcorder, that one's a camera, that one's a phone, and they're doing "Speak no evil, See no evil, Hear no evil", get it?
Week six of Convergence wraps up the 90s titles. I skipped Shadow of the Bat this time since I found the first issue disappointing, but otherwise I got the concluding chapters of everything I bought last month: Green Lantern/Parallax #2, Green Arrow #2, Justice League International #2, Aquaman #2 and Convergence #6.
Convergence Green Lantern/Parallax #2
This title continues to feel very authentic to the time period it's revisiting. Kyle is down to earth and likeable, and spends most of the book as the sole voice of reason. He tries to make a deal with the inhabitants of Electropolis that will benefit both sides, but they stab him in the back. He tries to talk Hal down, but Hal isn't going to delay and take the chance that Telos will declare Electropolis the winner. He considers Kyle a friend because he supported him for the past year, and when Kyle can't go along with Hal's methods, Hal sends him back to Metropolis, safely out of the way. There Kyle finds Princess Fern attacking the city and is forced to defend it, only for Telos to announce that Electropolis has been destroyed by Parallax, and with that Fern and her people vanish, with Kyle sorry to see it happen, but reflecting that they brought it on themselves. He tried and tried to do the right thing, but he was the only one. When he gets his ring to scan for Parallax it tells him that "Lantern Jordan" is no longer on the planet.
So far, this title and last week's Superman have been my favorites. Like any event, or any month of comics for that matter, some books are poor, some are middle of the road, and some stand out. Green Lantern/Parallax is one of the better Convergence titles, and as I said before, I'm surprised to enjoy it so much since I hated Hal as Parallax, and didn't think much of Kyle at the time either.
Convergence #6
I've been skipping the main series up until now because it featured the New 52 Earth 2 cast, who I could care less about. This issue features pre-52 characters as part of the plot, including Superman, and it turns out that it's not difficult to jump in mid-story and figure out what's going on. Telos, who has been forcing the different realities to fight each other, is as much a victim of Brainiac as anyone else. Why that would compel him to pit one reality against another isn't explained, though that may be one thing I've missed by skipping #1-#5. It doesn't really matter. The villain of the story is no longer Telos, but Deimos, an old adversary of Travis Morgan, the Warlord.
Deimos intends to essentially do what Parallax was trying to do in Zero Hour: destroy the universe so it can be remade to his liking. He knows full well that all the different versions of Superman, the Flash, etc. cannot be controlled, so his plan is to pit them against each other and have them fight to the death. He wants a universe governed by magic, one that he can rule. A lot of the darker versions of characters, such as the ones from Flashpoint, are more than willing to fight for him.
Along the way, we finally get that collision of characters from different realities that it probably shouldn't have taken six issues to arrive at. Post-Crisis Superman meets Earth 2 Superman. Wally West meets Earth 2 Jay Garrick, and so does a version of Barry Allen pulled from right before he died during the Crisis (and thus he's not the same one from the 2 part Flash series coming up next week... unless this is some of DC's newly adopted loose continuity). Meanwhile, the planet all the cities are on is moving into the New 52 universe, observed by Guy Gardner and the Red Lanterns, New 52 Superman, and others, so the first few pages feature all the current main universe characters.
How will it end? I can't imagine that DC will leave all of those iterations of their characters on a planet in the New 52 universe where they can freely interact with the main line characters, though it's possible. I'd be surprised if DC went to all the trouble of bringing them back for this event only to kill them off. I suspect they'll be tucked out of the way somewhere, available for use and still "out there" but not in a way that they're relevant to the day to day events of the New 52. I still think the undefined Earths from Multiversity are likely places for the pre-52 characters to end up. But depending on how all of this ends, I'd say Convergence is positive proof that DC realizes they burned too many bridges with older fans, so now they're trying to make that up by declaring everything canon. There was always going to be a filler event for the move to California, and it was originally going to be Flashpoint. DC could have gone any direction for the event, but they chose to do something that appealed to long-time fans, and to wrap up storylines that got cut short when Flashpoint hit.
This issue is enjoyable more for what it seems to promise for the future rather than for the bare bones "this version of character x meets that version of the same character x" storyline. And it also picks up where Parallax went after he destroyed Electropolis. If he's not a significant part of resolving this plot, it'll be a missed opportunity. And it's nice to see all the assembled heroes just naturally defer to pre-Crisis Superman as leader.
"Convergence" was meant to be a throwaway event. But, DC would be foolish to ignore the good buzz it has gotten them. We will probably know more in a few weeks, when the event ends and/or after they wrap up (the already confirmed sequel) "Divergence".
Why that would compel him to pit one reality against another isn't explained, though that may be one thing I've missed by skipping #1-#5. It doesn't really matter. The villain of the story is no longer Telos, but Deimos, an old adversary of Travis Morgan, the Warlord
I think that Braniac's plan was to keep the cities in a "collection" and use Telos to maintain them. Then, something went awry with Telos. (Braniac might end up being the one who stops Telos.) But, I have only read one issue of the main book all the way through.
And, when you say "Earth 2", which Earth 2 are you referencing, modern or golden age? (The fact that question even needs to be asked shows how badly managed DC has been in recent years.)
Dominic wrote:"Convergence" was meant to be a throwaway event.
Jesus Christ! Now they're just flat out telling you "this doesn't matter" even before you read it? Why do you guys keep putting up with this shit?! That's it, right now, even the worst parts of IDW's TF is WAY better than this. You're definately not going to have IDW telling you flat out up front that the story you're about to read doesn't and isn't going to matter. Seriously, the big two should just find that hole that had all those Atari 2600 ET games in it and bury their current line of crap in it. At least until the can pull their heads out of their asses and actually put out stories worth reading and having them actually stick. Permanently. I am SO glad I dropped the big two before this.
Dominic wrote:"Convergence" was meant to be a throwaway event.
I don't know that I'd call it "throwaway". That implies that it has no value at all, and if nothing else, it's been an enjoyable revisiting of old characters in the modern day.
Calling it filler to cover the publishing schedule while DC moves offices is accurate. In either case, what it was meant to be clearly changed over time. We were told early on that the New 52 Characters would not be involved, but the New 52 Earth 2 characters are integral to the plot, and plenty of New 52 characters appear in issue 6. Either DC was lying then (unlikely if they want the New 52 fans to stick around for a relevant event) or plans changed along the way. Considering how DC has made it up as they went along a lot in recent years, I'm betting plans changed, and that Future's End and World's End had to alter their endings to accommodate the change. Both lead directly into and affect the plot of Convergence. For awhile Scott Lobdell was going to be writing the weekly series, and at one point it was supposed to be called Blood Moon. Things have clearly evolved as the project has progressed towards publication.
I think that Braniac's plan was to keep the cities in a "collection" and use Telos to maintain them. Then, something went awry with Telos. (Braniac might end up being the one who stops Telos.) But, I have only read one issue of the main book all the way through.
Brainiac is captured at the end of Future's End, so he's no longer around to control Telos, who starts to get ideas of his own. I think he believes he has accelerated Brainiac's project with the captured cities.
And, when you say "Earth 2", which Earth 2 are you referencing, modern or golden age? (The fact that question even needs to be asked shows how badly managed DC has been in recent years.)
Sorry, it's the New 52 Earth 2 and those characters.
Shockwave wrote:
Dominic wrote:"Convergence" was meant to be a throwaway event.
Jesus Christ! Now they're just flat out telling you "this doesn't matter" even before you read it? Why do you guys keep putting up with this shit?! That's it, right now, even the worst parts of IDW's TF is WAY better than this. You're definately not going to have IDW telling you flat out up front that the story you're about to read doesn't and isn't going to matter. Seriously, the big two should just find that hole that had all those Atari 2600 ET games in it and bury their current line of crap in it. At least until the can pull their heads out of their asses and actually put out stories worth reading and having them actually stick. Permanently. I am SO glad I dropped the big two before this.
I've really enjoyed Convergence. For me, the return of DC characters I actually like in a pretty decent story makes it worthwhile. It's been well worth buying and reading to me.
Dominic wrote:"Convergence" was meant to be a throwaway event.
I don't know that I'd call it "throwaway". That implies that it has no value at all, and if nothing else, it's been an enjoyable revisiting of old characters in the modern day.
Calling it filler to cover the publishing schedule while DC moves offices is accurate.
Yeah, I'd have to agree. It was an event DC came up with so that they could move their offices, but that doesn't mean it doesn't matter. There's been indications it'll have some impact when the ongoings return next month. Particularly "Earth 2: Society", given they'll be on a new world and have a(nother) new Batman which is a development in Convergence.
You are missing some good stuff from Marvel at the moment.
None of which will matter a year from now.
andersonh1 wrote:I've really enjoyed Convergence. For me, the return of DC characters I actually like in a pretty decent story makes it worthwhile. It's been well worth buying and reading to me.
I can see that and it's great that you've found it enjoyable and found value in it. For me, the fact that we know it's going to get undone just completely takes me out of the narrative. When I was getting books from the big two, it just started to lose any value to me at all. It wasn't even entertaining anymore because I was so taken out of the story that I didn't care what was happening or about the characters or even what the larger "message" or point was because.. why bother? It's not going to matter later anyway so what's the point? I guess this is why I hardly every post in this thread and also why I might be so cool to comics as a medium and a hobby as well.
Actually, now that I think about I do technically read one book from DC, which is MOTU. But, that's in it's own separate universe and isn't actually part of the DCU. There's been some crossover but fortunately that was minimal.
