DC Comics Forever Evil is the first major event of its universe after its “New 52” reboot. With each new issue of the seven issue mini-series, we’ve been doing a brief review of events as they’ve happened and how things are developing in the DCU during the event. Issue #4 hit stands during the holiday rush so before you crack it open (although it’s quite possible you already have), let’s review where we are.
To review, the Justice League and most of the heroes of the earth are not in play, and in issue #3 we discovered why and where most of them are. The world has been enslaved by the Crime Syndicate who are, essentially, Evil Justice League. In issue one, they cowed all the other villains into submission and then pulled this shocker on Nightwing, one of the few heroes left, changing his life and the Bat books forever.
That was a huge bang to end a first issue on and second issues are always a little more decompressed as we get into the story and Forever Evil was no exception. The second issue spent time inside the Crime Syndicate where not all is happy Kryptonite snorting (which is something that happens in dens of evil and I think it was high time we dealt with it in a straightforward manner). Evil Superman thinks he’s with Evil Wonder Woman, but Evil Batman is her baby daddy and they need to get rid of Evil Superman before he finds out.
As far as the resistance goes, with Nightwing still very unconscious, the Teen Titans tried to step up and play in the big leagues and that didn’t end so well.
Plucky resolve TT, but Evil Flash and Evil Atom pretty much carve them like a turkey. The fight rolls into Teen Titans Annual #2 where we Superboy looks like he’s fairly dead. The majority of the other Titans MAY be dead also.
So who is the world’s hope? Well after years of growling at Superman, Lex Luthor immediately asks….WHERE THE HELL IS SUPERMAN, THIS IS NUTS!?! Geoff Johns then pulls a neat continuity trick and introduces Otis from the Superman movies into DC continuity.
Don’t get attached. Luthor shoots him to jump-start what he’s been baking in his lab: his very own Superman! Unfortunately, that Superman needed five more years of baking and he’s…special. And so Bizarro enters the New 52 world of continuity as does Lex’s power suit as the bald genius and his half-cooked Superman head off to rally the villains against the Syndicate.
This brings us to issue #3 which was really focused on the villains of earth deciding that life under the Crime Syndicate is not better than coping with the Justice League. Evil Superman (Ultraman) beats Black Adam into paste and then pulverizes his jaw so as to prevent him from “Shazamming” anyone any time soon. The Central City Rogues (Flash’s villains) refuse an order to level their city and get in a brawl with Evil Firestorm and Evil Green Lantern (I know none of them are actually called Evil Blah Blah, but I’m trying to make this accessible to those people who spent time outdoors in high school) that ends with Captain Cold having his cold powers stripped from his DNA, something I can only imagine as feeling exceedingly odd.
The protagonist of the issue and increasingly the entire story arc is Lex Luthor and his new personal Bizarro Superman. The Lex/Bizarro buddy road trip is the highlight of the issue. Bizarro was never really a favorite of mine in the old DCU and Bizarro speak was migraine inducing. I really like that he’s now this literally half-baked Superman/Luthor hybrid.
Batman and Catwoman emerged at the end of issue #2 with the remains of Cyborg and explain that during the events of the Trinity War (totally different event, get your own guide) a conflict engineered by the Crime Syndicate ended with Firestorm being cracked open which created something of a singularity that sucked all of the rest of the league inside of him (Firestorm is essentially a star in human form) and this is bad times because having 27 people inside Firestorm is going to make him super unstable and then…boom. No more Justice League. Batman also in this issue discovers that Nightwing has been unmasked and while Bruce doesn’t really emote well, you can tell he’s playing out all the scenarios under which this goes very badly for Bat-land. He leaves Cyborg in the care of his father and goes in search of Nightwing.
The issue ends with Black Manta hauling the pulpy remains of Black Adam out of the ocean and meeting Luthor, Bizarro and Captain Cold to form the beginnings of a resistance. The cover to issue #4 (which I did not read prior to writing this) indicates that Batman and Luthor are going to have a smackdown. I’m just guessing but I think it probably involves “methods”. After Nightwing unmasked in #1 and the debut of Bizarro in #2, issue #3 felt very much like a bridge and hopefully we’ll get back to crazy Crime Syndicate reality show shenanigans and universe changing events in issue #4.
Killing Time 