Convergence: Infinity Inc. #2 Review

The sons and daughters of the Justice Society face off against time-tossed warriors from a future world, including once-and-future wild west gunslinger, Jonah Hex!  Your Major Spoilers review of Convergence: Infinity Inc. #2 awaits!

CONVERGENCE: INFINITY INC. #2
Writer: Len Wein
Penciler: Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez
Inker: Joe Prado
Colorist: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Wes Abbott
Editor: Jim Chadwick
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: $3.99

Previously in Convergence: Infinity Inc.: Blah blah blah, year under the dome, blah blah powers gone, blah blah now they fight!  The forces of Infinity Inc. (Wonder Woman’s daughter Fury, Green Lantern’s twin offspring Jade and Obsidian, Hawkman’s sons Northwind and Silver Scarab, The Atom’s godson Nuklon, Brainwave Jr., the son of JSA villain The Brainwave, and old-school Soldier Of Victory the Star-Spangled Kid) must now deal with the warriors of a post-apocalyptic wasteland…

…whose first action is to blow their ship out of the sky!

FEATHERS NUMBERED FOR EMERGENCY

It’s all a ruse, though, as Star-Spangled Kid has specifically sent in the ship as a decoy, and the heroes attack en masse (save for Brainwave Jr., whose mind is overwhelmed by contact with the alien intelligence that is Telos.)  The powers of the Infinitors give them a distinct tactical advantage, at first, but the heroes quickly find that Hex and his Dogs Of War are more than worthy to kill to protect their city.  Things get difficult, but The Convergence Earthquake strikes, returning Brainwave to the land of the living, and allowing him to use his telekinesis to bring the conflict to a halt.  Both sides agree to a truce, and load the survivors of Hex’s settlement onto a ship, escaping just before a massive explosion caused by damaged atomic powerplants.  The Infinitors return home to Metropolis, where the original JSA members (just back from their own adventure) offer them a permanent place on the JSA, officially replacing their progenitors on the team.  As the issue comes to a close, Star-Spangled Kid, the new leader of Justice Society Infinity, prepares his team for additional conflicts to come, presumably the massive battle sequence seen in Convergence #8…

ALL OVER THE PLACE

Thematically, the biggest issue with this comic is the fact that, while the captions TELL us that 200 people are killed in the conflict, there’s little to nothing seen in the visuals that implies the hows and whys of so many bystander deaths.  Moreover, Infinity Inc. quickly moves past the conflict to deal with their own stuff, brushing away more destruction and death than they would ever have come up against in their career to date.  The art throughout the issue is okay, but with multiple pencilers and inkers in play, the heroes looks change a lot throughout the book (a phenomenon seen most keenly in Nuklon’s signature mohawk.)  As with several of the Convergence books, writer Ordway tries to make it clear that there’s no real villain in the battle between Metropolis and burnt-out-Atomic-Warville, but the treatment of this theme is almost entirely superficial, and is quickly swept away in favor of resolution for the characters.  I’m all for giving us character development, especially since these versions may continue in the future, but the resolution of the plot-related issues is pretty perfunctory…

THE BOTTOM LINE: LET’S CALL IT A WASH

All in all, like so many of the other Convergence crossover books, this one does some things that work really well, some that are entirely there for cool effect, and a few that fall entirely flat, such as the “200 people totally died, you guys” caption, but all in all, it’s a relatively inoffensive reading experience.  As a fan of the original book back in 1983, I found Convergence: Infinity Inc. #2 an okay nostalgia experience, with some wobbles in both story and art, leaving us with a just-about-average 2.5 out of 5 stars overall.  I am hoping that we get to see Justice Society Infinity in action again, though, and, as a fan of ‘Power Of Shazam’, it’s good to see Jerry Ordway’s name on a comic again.