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by Davey Nieves

Today Entertainment Weekly revealed the solicits for the first four issues of the nine part Convergence event from DC Comics. The event will bring together the pre-52 universe with just about every part of the DC Comics multi-verse. Perhaps the most interesting part of the solicit was the inclusion of the popular INJUSTICE universe.  A universe that was created in part with the 2013 award winning fighting game Injustice: Gods Among US. It’s a world where Superman was driven mad by the Joker resulting in the death of his city and family, causing him to take over the world, only for Batman and a team of rebel heroes to rise up against him. The DC Digital series that came with the game is among the publisher’s boldest stories and month in and month out feels like just about anything can happen. It’s looking like every part of the DC Multi-verse could be part of the event. The possibilities could also include the Arkham game universe, Batman 66, maybe even make the daring choice to play with film and television characters.

The Injustice universe will be one of the worlds at stake, along with the likes of Crisis, Zero Hour, Elseworlds, and the pre-New 52 DCU. This nine part mini-series sees the villain Braniac bottle the cities of forgotten worlds and Vince McMahon them into battling each other in his own personal dimensional elimination chamber. Here’s the solicit for issue 1-4

CONVERGENCE #1

Written by JEFF KING and SCOTT LOBDELL
Art by CARLO PAGULAYAN and JASON PAZ
Foldout cover by IVAN REIS and JOE PRADO
Variant cover by TONY S. DANIEL and MARK MORALES
1:25 Variant cover by BRIAN BOLLAND
1:100 BATMAN sketch variant cover by GREG CAPULLO
Blank variant cover
On sale APRIL 8 • 40 pg, FC, 1 of 8, $4.99 US • RATED T
This is it! The entire DC Universe, from the dawn of time through The New 52, must fight to survive against a threat that bends the Multiverse to its will. Your favorite characters from every era and every forgotten series are all here! But are you going to say hello again just to say goodbye forever? The stakes have never been higher as the heroes of Crisis, Zero Hour, Elseworlds, and more are brought together for Convergence!
In the first issue of this weekly series, Brainiac has collected cities of doomed and forgotten worlds, who must battle each other—and the losers will be destroyed! But why is he forcing this conflict? Join the refugees from Earth-2 as they unlock the truth behind this world that exists outside time and space and is very much alive! Is Brainiac really in control—or is this planet named Telos an unparalleled force of evil?
This extra-sized issue is packed with twists and turns and appearances you NEVER thought you’d see—including the heroes from the hit series INJUSTICE!

CONVERGENCE #2
Written by JEFF KING
Art by CARLO PAGULAYAN and JASON PAZ
Cover by IVAN REIS and JOE PRADO
Variant cover by TONY S. DANIEL and MARK MORALES
1:25 Variant cover by JAE LEE
1:100 WONDER WOMAN sketch variant cover by DAVID FINCH
On sale APRIL 15 • 32 pg, FC, 2 of 8, $3.99 US • RATED T
As Telos, the Planet Incarnate, easily defeats the survivors of Earth-2, Thomas Wayne and Dick Grayson set off to find help in the pre-Flashpoint Gotham City. The emotional implication of these worlds colliding comes crashing down when Thomas Wayne confronts this world’s Batman, as father meets son!
Plus, Alan Scott’s attempts to connect with The Green yield unexpected results, setting our team on a quest to escape the planet. And the cyborgs of Futures End engage in a battle to the death against the reimagined heroes of the Just Imagine Universe, while the city of Superman Red and Blue takes on the opposing forces from GENERATIONS!

CONVERGENCE #3
Written by JEFF KING
Art by STEPHEN SEGOVIA and JASON PAZ
Cover by IVAN REIS and JOE PRADO
Variant cover by TONY S. DANIEL and MARK MORALES
1:25 Variant cover by DAVE McKEAN
1:100 AQUAMAN sketch variant cover by JIM LEE
On sale APRIL 22 • 32 pg, FC, 3 of 8, $3.99 US • RATED T
Death comes calling as an injured Telos takes out his rage on the people of Kandor, while the Earth-2 team endures another brutal casualty. And major plans are set in motion as Green Lantern and the others follow Deimos into the lost city of Skartaris to find Rip Hunter and the missing Time Masters, who could be their only hope of escape from this apocalypse for Infinite Earths!

CONVERGENCE #4
Written by JEFF KING
Art by STEPHEN SEGOVIA and JASON PAZ
Cover by IVAN REIS and JOE PRADO
Variant cover by TONY S. DANIEL and MARK MORALES
1:25 Variant cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
1:100 GREEN LANTERN sketch variant cover by JIM LEE
On sale APRIL 29 • 32 pg, FC, 4 of 8, $3.99 US • RATED T
Inside Skartaris, the heroes of Earth-2 must face the only man who can stop them from finding the missing Time Travelers—but why would Travis Morgan, aka The Warlord, want to kill them?
Meanwhile, Telos takes the captive Dick Grayson to several of the battling cities to prove the futility of challenging him. And whatever you do, do not miss the final page, as the surprising return of an unexpected villain could crush all hope for salvation and seal the doom of everyone on the planet!

Unless Bella was backed by her army of bloodsuckers, the answer is clearly Katniss.

That's why I found it amusing when this week's EW posed the question, "Is This the Next TWILIGHT?" (The "this" being THE HUNGER GAMES trilogy, of course.) There's a cute blue call out that says "A Trilogy Takes Off!" in some kind of font leftover from the late '70s. EW bases their valuation on the number of copies MOCKINGJAY, the third installment in Suzanne Collins's bestselling trilogy, moved its first week. They quote the incomparable David Levithan as saying, "Book 3 was the breakthrough book for HARRY POTTER and TWILIGHT, too. We're hitting right on schedule."

And okay, I get that EW is really making a comparison based on book sales, Hollywood adaptations, and fan reaction to both series. But as someone who absolutely loved THE HUNGER GAMES and positively loathed TWILIGHT, I still take offense.

In response, I decided to offer three major reasons why THE HUNGER GAMES trilogy is nothing like the TWILIGHT one:

1. Suzanne Collins can actually write. I read an interview with Stephanie Meyer (in, EW, actually), where the author says something like, "I'm a storyteller, not a writer," and then went on to say how she was trying to learn to be a better writer. And for about thirteen seconds, I felt bad for her. There has been a ton of ink spilled about just how bad a writer Meyer truly is, and even I can admit that the premise for the TWILIGHT books is sexy and appealing to teens. But then I remembered that she's a gajillionaire, and my empathy went out the window.

I often quote TWILIGHT in my creative writing classes as examples of what not to do. My favorite is using it to illustrate that concept that adverbs are not your friends. I say, "If two people are having a conversation, you really don't need to use the word 'conversationally' in the speech tag. 'Blah blah blah,' she said, conversationally. Really? They're having a conversation and she said it conversationally? Oh, well, that totally changes my perception."

2. Katniss Everdeen doesn't need a boyfriend to feel good about herself. I could probably tolerate the bad writing in TWILIGHT if the story itself was good enough. But I'm someone who's very attracted to character-driven novels, and I. Hate. Bella. Swan. From the very first installment, Bella is portrayed as kind of a sad-sack beyotch who gets annoyed because there's a girl at her new school that really wants to be her friend (Jessica) and a boy who really wants to date her (Mike). And then, of course, she falls for Edward, and it's EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD until the book is over. Then I made the mistake of reading NEW MOON, in which Bella spends most of the novel in a deep, deep depression because she can't be with Edward. And when I say most of the book, I'm talking hundreds of pages of moping, not wanting to leave the house, not wanting to do ANYTHING except weep over WHY, EDWARD, WHY?

Katniss Everdeen would rather shoot an arrow into her own head than engage in that kind of behavior. While there was a lot of debate amongst fans over Team Gale or Team Peeta, Katniss herself cared more about the boys' friendship than whether or not they were going to take her to the prom. She was more concerned about making sure their families were safe than whether or not she would age faster than her BF. And granted, THE HUNGER GAMES is set in a postapocalyptic world instead of a rainy one infested with evil vampires, less-evil vamps, and nice Native Americans who turn into werewolves, but still. Katniss doesn't define herself by any boy, and that is a heroine worthy of admiration.

3. Katniss Everdeen can kick some serious ass. One of the things I like best about Katniss is that she's strong - not just physically but mentally and emotionally. Yes, her stubbornness often causes unnecessary grief and drama. But hi, at least she stands up for what she believes in. She's got conviction. She's got char

I didn't even know who Megan Fox was until recently - and this was after I'd seen TRANSFORMERS. Mostly I'd heard her name knocked around as the "ultimate" male fantasy (or some such). Usually I'm up on who the latest starlets are, so every time someone would reference Megan Fox, I'd be like, "Who?" And then a few months ago I saw something which referred to her as "TRANSFORMERS' hottie" (or some such) as went,

"Oh... her? Really? She's the knew 'it' thing?"

But then I read this article in the latest issue of EW. (I know what you're thinking: blueberries and Entertainment Weekly - can the girl blog about anything else? It's temporary, I promise.) Anyway, I love her brash brand of honesty, highlighted with a slim streak of bitchiness. And, barring her over-use of the word "uber," she comes across as pretty smart in this piece. So, yeah. She can be all hot and stuff, but how many pieces of Hollywood eye candy actually admit that's what they're getting paid for? Or that their tentpole summer movie isn't meant to be anything more than a "popcorn flick"?

[On a slightly unrelated note, even though I'd been picturing a younger Maggie Gyllenhaal as Marissa in TRUE CONFESSIONS OF A HOLLYWOOD STARLET, after reading this piece on Megan Fox, I think she might be more the Marissa I'd envisioned.]