Forever Evil #2 – Review

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

The Story: So we have to turn to Lex Luthor for salvation?  Well, beggars can’t be choosers.

The Review: A commenter on my review of last issue pointed out the premise and tone of Forever Evil represents a more sophisticated style of writing than we typically associate with Johns.  I confess that I didn’t give the observation much credit at the time.  A few quotes of evolutionary theory does not a high-concept comic make.  But after reading through this issue, I’m starting to believe that Johns may be at least aiming beyond his usual literalism after all.

Mostly, I see this in his more nuanced approach to the characters.  For my part, I’ve always felt that with few notable exceptions, Johns tended to struggle with antagonists.  Their powers and goals varied, but they didn’t have much of an identity.  Quite often, the more powerful the villain, the less dimensional they became (e.g. Nekron, Krona, Volthoom).  Their characters are subjugated to their roles in providing the heroes something to fight against.  Forever Evil’s absence of heroes thus forces Johns to find more specific motivations for the featured villains.