Forever Evil #7 – Review

By: Geoff Johns (story), David Finch (pencils), Richard Friend (inks), Sonia Oback (colors)

The Story: Nothing lasts forever, and that includes evil.

The Review: I’ve heard people complain about the delays on this series, but relatively speaking, seven issues over ten months aren’t so bad, compared to the ridiculous dry periods between issues of Jupiter’s Legacy or The Sandman: Overture. But maybe it’s easy for me to be blasé about Forever Evil‘s delays since I don’t actively care about all that much. Why complain about not getting something you’re not really looking forward to anyway? I might as well rant about not getting my tuition bill right away.

Part of my general dissatisfaction with Forever Evil is it hasn’t really fulfilled its goals of exploring the nature of villainy, much less the even more abstract idea of evil. If anything, the conflict between evil and really evil reveals just that: some people are evil, and some people are really evil. As for how evil arises, Johns provides no answers through the Syndicate, who mostly seem to be born that way, nor through the various DCU proper villains: Sinestro, Manta, Cold, Deathstroke, etc.

Forever Evil #6 – Review

By: Geoff Johns (story), David Finch (pencils), Richard Friend (inks), Sonia Oback (colors)

The Story: Not only is morality topsy-turvy on Earth-3, the spelling is off, too!

The Review: After I reviewed the first issue of Forever Evil, commenter Invasionforce and I had a slight disagreement about its merits.  Invasionforce was of the mind that the storyline served as a kind of political allegory, with “evil” as a stand-in for social Darwinism, where one’s fitness for survival need not include scruples or any humanist sentiment whatsoever.  I was of the mind that Forever Evil was just another splashy event drenched in mindless superpowered battles.

No offense to Invasionforce, but at this point, I’m convinced that history will validate my perspective on things.  It’s been many months since we’ve seen the Ultraman, Luthor, or anyone else espouse their views on anything; they’ve been too busy fulfilling their intended roles in this melodrama, either killing or getting killed as most befits their stature.  And that’d be hunky-dory with me if only the plotting and character work had a little more going for it.

Justice League #26 – Review

By: Geoff Johns (story), Ivan Reis (pencils), Joe Prado, Eber Ferreira, Rob Hunter, Andy Lanning (inks), Rod Reis, Tomev Morey, Tony Avina (colors)

The Story: Grid tries to learn more about his new friends.

The Review: The past couple issues did a fairly good job splitting time between fleshing out the backstories of the Syndicate and budging the Forever Evil story forward.  This issue is a lot heavier on the backstory, but then again, it’s covering quite a few more Syndicate members.  Even on a parallel Earth, if you aren’t a Batman or Superman analogue, you’re not important enough to merit a whole issue to yourself.

That said, the jumble of characters makes the issue feel even more packed, if anything, and while the origins of Grid, Power Ring, Johnny Quick, Atomica, and Deathstorm don’t really have much of the complexity that Ultraman and Owlman’s did, there are things worth noticing.  Besides, it’s hard not to enjoy seeing the twists on familiar characters play out.

Justice League #24 – Review

By: Geoff Johns (story), Ivan Reis (pencils), Joe Prado, Oclair Albert, Eber Ferreira (inks), Rod Reis (colors)

The Story: Hear now the story of a baby, rocketed from a doomed planet, sent to doom our own.

The Review: With Forever Evil, Johns is wandering into some tricky territory, story-wise.  Our heroes are no longer the pristine models of goodness and nobility they used to be, and it doesn’t make sense for their “evil” counterparts to be entirely depraved bastions of sin either.  Anyway, it would get pretty boring watching the Earth-3 folks do the predictably nasty thing in every scenario.  Where’s the tension if they don’t deal with niceties like ethical considerations?

So far, Johns has done a fairly decent job adding some dimension to the Crime Syndicate, or at least some of them (Johnny Quick and Atomica are beyond any hope of having some depth).  But as he explores the origins of Ultraman, there are times when he paints the characters’ callousness with such broad strokes that it becomes petty, almost comical.  Note “Jor-Il” and Lara-3’s last moments on the doomed Krypton-3:

“This is all your fault, Jor-Il,” Lara-3 mutters sullenly as they watch their son’s rocket depart.

“Shut up and die, Lara,” he says, with what you imagine to be weariness.

Justice League #23.4: Secret Society – Review

By: Geoff Johns & Sterling Gates (story), Szymon Kudranski (art), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: Whether for good or evil, every man can use an excellent butler.

The Review: You know the most disappointing thing about the Secret Society?  The fact that it’s been an incredible misnomer, for despite its brief existence, it hasn’t been much of a secret (as A.R.G.U.S. knew about it when the Society was Signalman and a bunch of robots) nor much of a society.  Ultimately, the Society was rendered moot the moment the Crime Syndicate entered our lives, and we haven’t had much reason to care about the group or its mastermind ever since.

Still, since the Outsider was ostensibly the man responsible for the state of Forever Evil, it made sense for Johns-Gates to at least dot their i’s and cross their t’s on this still largely mysterious figure.  So in a way, naming this issue Secret Society is something of a misnomer, too, since the villainous group features in only the most indirect way for all of a page.  To make up for it, Johns-Gates reveal that the Outsider may have a more crucial, lasting role in this Event than expected, making the issue more worthy of a read.