Comic Info
Comic Name: Forever Evil
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: David Finch
# of Issues: 7
Release Date: 2014
Forever Evil #1 Variant
Reprints Forever Evil #1-7 (November 2013-July 2014). The Justice League has been proclaimed dead by the Crime Syndicate which has declared Earth their own. Lex Luthor has found an unlikely ally in Batman and Catwoman and assembled a team of villains to help take down the Crime Syndicate. The Crime Syndicate fled their planet because of a bigger threat, and the threat has found Earth. While Luthor, Batman, and their team hope to resurrect the Justice League to save Earth, the Crime Syndicate worries that the danger has found them…and a prisoner being held by the Crime Syndicate could even cause more problems.
Written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by David Finch, Forever Evil was a seven issue limited series by DC Comics. The events of the series spun-out of the “Trinity War” storyline. The series also spawned “Villains Month” which featured villain focused storylines in virtually all of DC’s New 52 titles for September 2013. The series also had spin-off titles Forever Evil: Arkham War, Forever Evil: Rogues Rebellion, and Forever Evil: A.R.G.U.S.
I’m not a big “event series” guy. I think that some like Crisis on Infinite Earths and Secret Wars have worked because they are truly limited series that stand alone, but recent titles force readers to buy multiple books outside of the limited series to even understand what is going on. Forever Evil is a bit of a throwback in that it stands alone, but it also feels like it is simply a prelude to more.
Forever Evil #3 Variant
Forever Evil started out really strong like a lot of big event series. The first issue was shocking with the “death” of the Justice League and the revealing of Dick Grayson’s identity. It was a “can’t put the cat back in the bag” type of moment for the Nightwing character. The rest of the series progressed (though not as shocking) and did deliver, but the final throwdown didn’t quite live up to the first issue.
The series also feels like a big lead-up for things that never happened. When Forever Evil concluded, there was a lot of speculation on where the New 52 would go. The storylines set-up by Forever Evil were concluded in Justice League and other titles, but it feels like they should have been the bigger story. The Anti-Monitor was the death of the original DCU…and here it is almost a footnote to the New 52 storyline which ended up collapsing in “Rebirth”…I wish that it had been more of a continuing storyline from this title to reach Rebirth (like dropping some hints about the origins of the New 52 universe which were revealed).
Forever Evil was good but not great. Events of the story did have some lasting effects, but I wish that it had an even bigger effect since the threat was to the entire Earth and the universe. In this sense, DC has burned me before with series like Brightest Day (which turned out to be worthless due to Flashpoint). Though I didn’t feel Forever Evil was as big of disappointment as many event titles, I would say that it (like others) never quite live up to the hype.
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