Wednesday, March 1, 2017

CRISIS OF CONVERGENCE, PART TWO: Angor/Earth-8

Angor. AKA Earth-8. Home of Lord Havok and the Extremists (Gordon, Dreamslayer, Dr. Diehard, Tracer, Brute, Carny, Death Angel, Barracuda, and Meanstreak), They were so villainous that, at one point, they turned their world into a nuclear wasteland.



CONVERGENCE: THE TITANS #1-2: Like everyone else trapped within their respective cities on Telos, the Extremists were commanded to fight the champions of another city in order to survive. In the case of the Extremists, they were transported to the city of pre-Flashpoint Gotham. They separated in order to do the most damage and began attacking the city. Dreamslayer, Lord Havok, Tracer, Gorgon, and Dr. Diehard attacked the docks, until the arrival of the Titans, Arsenal, Starfire, and Donna Troy. Dreamslayer of the Extremists decides that it would be amusing if the Titans fought each other instead of them. So, he offered Arsenal his heart's desire: The return of his deceased daughter, Lian. But only if he killed Starfire and Donna Troy. But, Arsenal instead grabbed Lian and took off, heading for his bunker. Dreamslayer followed him and placed Lian back into the timestream from which he had plucked her. Arsenal gives in and attacked the Titans via remote controlled cannons he had bulit throughout Gotham. However, Arsenal changed his mind and started attacking Dreamslayer, who promptly brought Lian back as a ploy to make the hero surrender. He didn't and used an EMP device to displace Dreamslayer's teleportation field, causing him to vanish, leaving Lian still present. Dreamslayer rejoined his compatriots and continued their rampage through Gotham City. The Titans, of course, went after them, but the battle was inconclusive.



CONVERGENCE: BATMAN & ROBIN #1-2: Elsewhere, Carny led Brute, Death Angel and Meanstreak in an attack against the heroes Batman, Robin, and the Red Hood. Carny used an army of creepy killer dolls to take down the champions, who weren't exactly fighting together as a unit. Batman let Brute grab him and nearly kill him, hoping this action would inspire his comrades. It did, and the heroes defeated the four Extremists, who were promptly sent back into the timestream to the moment from which they had been taken prior to their initial capture where they died during the events of Flashpoint.



CONVERGENCE: THE ATOM #1-2: Barracuda of the Extremists was transported to some sort of cave where he took on Ray Palmer, the hero also known as the Atom. The battle was quite vicious, with Palmer losing his hand. The battle ended when Ryan Choi, also known as the Atom, shrunk himself down inside Barracuda's body and rendered him paralyzed. Because he lost, Barracuda was promptly sent back to the time period of his capture.

CONVERGENCE #6-7: Lord Havok, Dreamslayer, Dr. Diehard, Tracer, and Gorgon were summoned by Deimos to the villain's final battle with various champions of the cities, as well as the Wonders from Earth-2.

COMMENTS: I am one of the few people who probably enjoyed all of CONVERGENCE. It was great to me to see all these characters from various different worlds and timelines, most for the first time in a decade or more. However, only one mini-series from this batch did I consider to be extremely bad, and that was CONVERGENCE: THE ATOM. And it was more than bad; it was horrendous. I don't know what writer Tom Peyer was smoking when he wrote this. The only thing I'll say about it is that, at the time period in which Ray was taken, Ryan Choi was dead. In this story, like all other champions trapped within their domed cities, Ray lost his powers...except for his giant hand. Yes, a giant hand. And after his hand gets sliced off by Barracuda, it morphed into Ryan Choi and...trust me. You don't want to know. It was all just plain stupid.CONVERGENCE: THE ATOM should be avoided at all costs.

And I can't tell you how great it was that Lian Harper was brought back, even though it was just for CONVERGENCE: THE TITANS. Her death was so wrong.


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