So, this isn’t necessarily a question that’s been asked of me specifically but rather one I see popping up more and more as we get closer to April: just what the hell is Convergence?
“What is it?” “When’s it happening?” “What comics are involved?” “Do I need to duck and cover?!” Never fear! I’ve got all the info you could want, and more, and all you have to do is keep reading!
To make it easier, I’ve split this into the following sections:
I love writing this blog but I also love reading other people being brilliant. Eventually I’d like to see this site expand to include multiple writers (multiple Historians!) but for now I’m glad to introduce our first ever guest post! It come to us via The Qing (/u/The-Qing on Reddit) and you can find their Tumblr here and the original post here.
Richard Wagner
Less my usual style of ranting about comic history this is a instead really great breakdown and analysis of imagery and themes used by Grant Morrison in his latest maxi-series, The Multiversity, especially focusing on the the connections between Wagner’s epic opera cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) and the seventh issue The Multiversity: Mastermen #1. He even broke up the analysis into sections named after the four operas that make up Wagner’s ring cycle: Das Rheingold (The Rhine Gold), Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), Siegfried and Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods)
It goes without saying that you should not read the following without having read The Multiversity: Mastermen #1 first – it will spoil the whole joy of the book. Also, don’t forget you can click any image in this post to see the large version.
So, without further ado, here’s The Qing’s post. Enjoy!
Now, normally this blog is only concerned with history and the official Word of God of the DC writers and editors. Sometimes though I like to have a little fun, and for that we have an episode of the DC soap opera…
The Brave and the Beautiful, a soap opera where the ‘bold’ is implied! The basics premise is I take the pages or panels from DC comics and change only one thing: the dialogue in the word balloons. I’ve been doing these for awhile in my head, so I figured “why not share?”
On January 5th, 2015, /u/IrateGinger asked the following on /r/DCcomics:
Can someone give me an explanation of Hawkman and Hawkgirl?
Normally when I write these I get to talk a bunch about what characters have done, what makes them tick, highlights from their careers etc. This time? Well sure, I’ll be covering a bunch of that but I’m also going to be mainly focusing on the main, many, many (many!) continuity changes and crazy updates DC has subjected the characters to in their nearly 75 years of publication. I’m going to basically focus on Hawkman but I’ll be covering Hawkgirl (and Hawkwoman, when she calls herself that) too at each point.
One other thing that’s a bit different with this post is that I have a contributor! Reddit user /u/dmull387 has written a great coverage of Hawkman’s history and I’ll be including his commentary throughout! You can check out his Tumblr here. When I’m quoting him you’ll see the speech bubble to the right and the text will appear in this rather charming blue.
On February 10th, 2015, /u/dispenserhere asked the following on /r/DCcomics:
Hi, I’ve just started reading JLA. I’m up to around no 15 but I’m still completely clueless what’s going on with Superman. Why is all different and blue? No-one else seems to be mentioning it.
I’m guessing it’s something going on in his comics, but I can’t find anything on it.
Yo listen up here’s a story about a Superman that lives in a blue world… ahem sorry. Anyway, here are the events that lead Superman to saying “I’m blue!” (DA BA DE DA BA DI… sorry again! That song’s just too darn catchy). Here we go:
So, normally on this blog I respond to question posed directly to me or posted around the web. Today’s post is a little different as I’ll be covering, on a point-by-point basis, all the arguments for why changing Wally West’s ethnicity in the New 52. Also, why most of them are ridiculous at best and racist at worst.
I think it’s important to note: I’m not a DC apologist, nor am I, by pointing out why some arguments are wrong, saying that everything DC does is right. Twisting the argument to this, as people often seem to do, is ridiculous and it’s perfectly possible to admit that a company like DC has a long way to go and that people opposing them starting to make those changes are wrong.
Furthermore, Wally West is my Flash. Yes, I’m a Golden Age nerd and love Jay Garrick, along with Barry Allen, Bart Allen and all the rest in the Flash Family Tree. However, I was born in the same year Crisis on Infinite Earths hit the stands and Wally will always be the true scarlet speedster – so this is not coming from a place of someone who doesn’t care, deeply, about the character.
Ask the DC Multiverse Historian 