My Rating
Convergence – Part 01 of 04
All That Glitters…
Alan Scott, known on Earth as the Sentinel, hovers silently over a devastated battlefield. His name means nothing here in the Secondary Realm, but that matters little considering the carnage spread out beneath him. Someone—or something—has manipulated the P’rdath and S’danth into a genocidal war of mutual destruction. Now both races lie dead upon the battlefield. Alan has seen enough. It is time to report his grim findings to the Conclave.
Back on Earth, in Boston, Massachusetts, Jared Stevens has problems of a considerably smaller variety. Hunched over inside his slum apartment, Fate is fighting a war of his own against an infestation of hungry rats. The refrigerator appears to be their primary target, so Jared reluctantly slides an old-fashioned rat trap alongside the outdated appliance. There. Problem solved. Or maybe not. Without warning, a squad of heavily armed, high-tech troopers smashes through his front door!
Splinters fly as strange energy weapons point in every direction. Fate barely has time to react before one of the tall, ugly-looking invaders demands an answer to a very important question: “Where is Topaz?” Who the hell is Topaz, and why are these guys so interested in gems? What is Gemworld, and why does it want Jared “the Fate”? Why is some weird-looking blond guy suddenly springing out from inside his refrigerator? More importantly, who the hell is going to pay for all the damage to Jared’s apartment? Collect the series to find out!
Review
First things first: no rats were harmed in the making of this comic book. At least I don’t think they were. The Book of Fate #6 is also part one of the four-part “Convergence” crossover event, and thankfully the story doesn’t forget to have a little fun along the way. In fact, the humor might be my favorite part of this issue. One minute we are witnessing the aftermath of a genocidal war in another realm, and the next Jared Stevens is setting a rat trap beside his refrigerator. Welcome to the glamorous life of a superhero.
Jared continues to grow on me as a character. He is a no-nonsense kinda guy who seems perpetually irritated that all this supernatural nonsense keeps invading his already complicated life. There are no fancy superhero headquarters or billionaire-funded gadgets here. Fate lives in a crappy Boston apartment with outdated appliances and apparently a thriving rodent population. Then a bunch of heavily armed weirdos smash through his front door looking for Topaz. Jared’s reaction to all this madness is exactly what makes the character work for me.
After giving the previous issue three stars, I enjoyed this one considerably more. The introduction of Gemworld and the larger “Convergence” storyline gives the series somewhere interesting to go, while Jared’s personality keeps all the cosmic mumbo jumbo grounded. I still don’t completely understand where this series is taking me, but for once I don’t really care. I’m having fun getting there. I give The Book of Fate #6 four out of five stars.