We’re off to Hub City from Earth-Four in Convergence Blue Beetle #1 written by Scott Lobdell, art by Yishan Li, colors by Dave McCraig and lettering by Saida Temofonte.
Lobdell dips into Watchmen styled world of Charlton Comics heroes with muckraker Vic Sage opening the issue reporting on a riot between residents and the military. Life under the dome is tough and Vic is obviously not here for the injustice being dolled out upon civilians. He relays a 
message to Captain Nathaniel Adam; Ted Kord needs help. Meanwhile Tracey, Ted’s assistant tries to convince him to stop working so much, having locked himself up in his lab for over a week. Nathaniel arrives and they start to argue, and Ted activates what he’s been aiming to do; a strike onto the dome with a laser. It doesn’t seem to work but Captain Atom’s powers are reinvigorated (along with his disastrous costume). Captain Atom goes after a repowered Spectro and wants to and demands to know what’s going on. Booster Gold appears out of thin air and asks where he is, only to start fading again. He disappears and everyone’s powers fade again to everyone’s ire. But a building turns into Telos and announcing his Convergence and the dome starts to fade.
POSITIVES
For a Lobdell written comic this is not bad. It’s not anything to bark about either like many of these issues but it’s not. Ted Kord is extremely competent and treated well. Booster’s short appearance was funny and everyone’s reaction to him (a resounding who are you?). Lobdell lampshades a slur used by Specro by Captain Atom that now considered offensive which I am unsure what the point was aside from denouncing it which is not half bad. Lobdell is more or less on his best behavior here writing wise and it’s not half bad. Art is simple and while not outstanding has appealing faces and character builds. Coloring is bright and appealing. I’d like to see more from the penciler, I feel like they’d be really good for a certain type of series though I’m not sure what.
NEGATIVES
This, like many of the Convergence books, is not terribly bombastic stuff but it’s entertaining. This Ted doesn’t even know Booster so we’ll see where that goes. It’s great that the Multiverse is now being used though and I’m all for exploring other worlds and iterations of characters. So not so much a negative here as it is a “Hmm” let’s see what they do with this. I’m not sold on the entire event though diplomatic takes like th
VERDICT
Generally fun, pretty inoffensive with some topical commentary from The Question which is pretty resonant given our current news, people vs authority. They could have gone for the really heavy Watchmen feel but they didn’t really, which is good. Worth a read.
