Convergence: Superman #2 Review

The heroes of the Flashpoint universe have Superman on the ropes, while Lois Lane goes into labor.  But where does the alternate Kal-El known as Subject One stand?  Your Major Spoilers review of Convergence: Superman #2 awaits!

CONVERGENCE: SUPERMAN #2
Writer: Dan Jurgens
Penciler: Dan Jurgens
Inker: Norm Rapmund
Colorist: Brad Anderson
Letterer: Tom Napolitano
Editor: Marie Javins
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: $3.99

Previously in Convergence: Superman: Fighty-fighty everywhere!  Lois is pregnant!  Two Superman!  JUURRRGEENNNSSS!  What will happen?  Isn’t this all part of a crossover thingy?

CAN THEY JUST STOP TALKING?

While Batman watches from his underground lair, Captain Thunder (the Flashpoint Captain Marvel), Abin Sur (the Flashpoint Green Lantern) and Cyborg (the Flashpoint Jonni Thunder) attack the pre-Flashpoint Superman, using their combined godly, alien energy and technological mojo to crack the last Kryptonian’s skull.  This Batman, an elderly Thomas Wayne who lost his son in a random act of violence years ago, remembers the still-recent-to-him visit of the pre-Flashpoint Barry Allen to his world, and coldly analyzes the ongoing battle.  I’m gonna be honest here: Dan Jurgens is really not a good dialogue writer to my ear, so even though everyone in the battle looks cool and super-supery (Jurgens’ flying Superman is the gold standard of 1990s man of steel depictions), they all suffer from same-sounding dialogue and exposition-speak.  A big plus of the issue is young Jimmy Olsen, piloting a Whiz Wagon and using a BFG of unknown providence to help out his super-pal in the battle, given Supes the edge he needs to batter Cyborg and Thunder into non-lethal oblivion before rocketing away to find Lois Lane.

A GOOD-LOOKING ISSUE

She’s disappeared from her apartment, thanks to Superman’s own double, Subject One, a frail and skeletal Kal-El.  Abin Sur and Superman make the peace, and Batman is annoyed to find yet ANOTHER bulletproof alien invading his home, but Doctor Thomas Wayne is perfectly okay with loaning Superman his cave and medical equipment in order to help Lois birth their baby.  There’s another oblique reference to “an earthquake, of all things”, which I’m starting to suspect is actually “an earthquake OF ALL THINGS”, but the issue fades to black with Thomas Wayne happy to find out about his son’s life in an alternate world, and Clark and Lois naming their son after his dead father Johnathan.  Even that sequence has some super-clunky dialogue (Superman replies to Lois’ suggestion of ‘Jor’ as the boy’s name with “You know I think of myself as human”), but the good feelings of the happy couple with their cute little newborn leave us on a big up-note, much as Nightwing/Oracle did.

THE BOTTOM LINE: FAIR TO MIDDLING

All in all, it’s not a bad issue, and I think that anyone who is still angry about the retconning of the Kent/Lane nuptials might get a kick out of seeing the couple happily married with child.  Still, there’s a feeling of incompleteness to both the issue and the miniseries as a whole, as it feels like a series of anecdotes that lead up to a big, sweet moment that won’t really mean anything in a couple of weeks.  Convergence: Superman #2 is another mostly kinda okay issue, with good art balancing out inexpert dialogue for a respectable 3 out of 5 stars overall.  If Convergence is going to have any long-term consequences for the DCU or not, this is an enjoyable, if inessential, piece of Superman lore…