Forever Evil #4 Review
For some reason I left my local comic book shop a few days ago with a copy of Forever Evil #4, which is supposed to be on shelves on the 25th. Obviously I didn’t stop to ask any questions; I rushed home and read it as quickly as possible. Was I worried that the CBP were going to bust down my door, burn my copy of Forever Evil, and then wipe my mind clean? Yes. And CBP stands for Comic Book Police. Or Comic Book Plebeians. Whatever your fancy is. So after driving from safe house to safe house, I finally felt like I was safe enough to write my review. It goes without saying that every issue of Forever Evil is phenomenal, but this pony is going to use up all of its tricks eventually. Thankfully that was not the case with issue #4. The last time we saw Lex Luthor and his bizarre friends, they were trying to gather enough manpower to stand a chance against the Crime Syndicate. And the last time we saw Batman he was dragging Cyborg’s charred body to an underground lab. Like the cover page implies, these two groups eventually meet. The beginning of the issue has nice continuity to it, as Batman goes to his cave to recover the secret weapons he had stored in case the Justice League ever went rogue. Then both parties go to recover some weapons, and a quick conflict emerges between the two groups. They are interrupted by Power Ring and Deathstroke and his goons, and a much bigger conflict breaks out. Sadly we don’t get to see Bizarro in action, but that must be coming soon. For me, watching Luthor assemble his team is a lot more interesting than most of the story arcs Justice League has had so far in the New 52.
I think a big part of why Forever Evil is so awesome is that we rarely get to see the bad guys be the heroes. Marvel usually gains points for its villains because they are so conflicted, but most DC villains are usually just purely evil or greedy. But now DC is catching up in that regard, as we see five of DC’s most dastardly villains work together to save the world. In this issue we get to see another aspect of Lex’s softer and more heroic side, as he tries to convince Bizarro that he (it?) should not be afraid of the dark, which is adorable. Not to mention it’s hilarious how whenever Black Adam tries to speak it’s just a bunch of gibberish because Ultraman smashed his jaw in a previous issue. The big draw of this issue is on its last page, as a surprise villain arrives to aid Lex and Batman’s teams against Power Ring. It’s awesome. Trust me; Lex’s team only gets cooler and cooler every issue. Hopefully when Forever Evil wraps up we get to see some kind of Injustice League still operating in the New 52, because this has to be the highlight of the New 52 so far, with Death of the Family being a distant second. Trinity War was confusing and boring in places, but I’m thankful it lead to this amazing arc. Kudos, Geoff Johns, kudos.
