Review: FCBD Divergence

In advance of DC’s June publishing initiative, DC released original 8-page stories highlighting what they have in store for readers. Among those stories was this year’s Free Comic Book Day offering, Divergence. Divergence contains stories from the creative teams of Batman, Superman, and Justice League.  So what follows is not only a review but also whether the 8-page story fulfilled its intended purpose to convince to read/buy that title. Note: I currently do not read Batman, Superman, and Justice League.

I have not read a single issue of the acclaimed run of Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, and Danny Miki on Batman. So the story ‘The Rookie’ was a pleasant treat. The art was detailed and told the story well while bringing back memories of the pair’s work on Spawn years ago. The Rookie debuts the new Batman and the set-up reminds me of the original Robocop in tone except instead of a cyborg the new Batman wears a suit of armor reminiscent of Iron Man. While I enjoyed the story, I am still on the fence on whether or not I would add Batman to my list of titles. I am weary of what seems to be a recent trend of replacing Bruce in the cowl. Furthermore, the new Batman goes beyond Azrael’s version in my eyes. Maybe I’ll pick up the trades.

Meanwhile, I loved the new direction and creative team of Superman. John Romita Jr’s art shines. While I have never read Gene Luan Yang’s work before there’s promise. The story itself, Exposed,  does a great job of exploring in mere eight pages Superman’s new status quo. I’m a big fan of Golden Age Superman so Supes operating at that power level will be a treat.  A depowered Superman whose identity is public knowledge and is on the run in the world of social media, which Exposed illustrates wonderfully, makes for exciting comics.  That said, solicitations state that Superman titles will kick off with the ‘Truth’ arc. I don’t want to follow every Superman title so whether or not I buy the title Superman depends on how independent the individual titles are. The trades are a definite.

Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok’s Justice League story, The Darkseid War Prologue Two: The Other Amazon is an origin story full of myth and prophecy while building towards the comics equivalent of summer blockbuster in the Darkseid War. While I felt the art was a tad muddled at times, The Other Amazon serves as an example of how to do an eight-pager right.  Yep, eight-page stories do not get better than this! The Darkseid War should be an epic for the ages. When John’s Justice League came out I decided that I would read it in trade paperback form.  Whether or not I change my mind depends on whether any copies of the single issue are available at my local comics shop.