Review: Forever Evil

In the wake of a war that nearly tore the Justice Leagues apart, Earth’s greatest heroes have disappeared and have been replaced by their evil counterparts from another world. With no good guys around to stop this anti-Justice League, it’s up to Lex Luthor and his fellow villains to ensure that Earth does not succumb to the dictatorial reign of the Crime Syndicate.

Forever Evil collects the six issue mini-series of the same name, written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by David Finch.

Forever Evil reads like the antithesis to its predecessor Trinity War. Where the latter was a multi-book crossover involving a large internal conflict between dozens of characters, Forever Evil is a rather intimate self-contained six issue story with a small cast and traditional good vs evil style narrative. The twist here, of course, is that the good guys are actually our Earth’s villains. Though this isn’t the first time we’ve seen a villain-centric mini-series from DC Comics and while this series owes much to Grant Morrison’s JLA: Earth 2, Geoff Johns manages to keep things fresh and exciting by focusing with pinpoint-like precision on his characters and driving the plot forward.

I’ve never been much of a fan of Lex Luthor as a character or even as a villain. Most writers depict him within this caricature-like lens of him being a maniacal and obsessive genius whose entire raison d’être is to destroy Superman. With Lex as the lead protagonist in Forever Evil, I was prepared to find myself glazing over much of the series with vague disinterest. Instead, I was surprised to find that Geoff Johns had made Lex a multi-dimensional character that was likeable and relatable. Much of this obviously had to do with the fact that there was no Superman around for him to obsess over, but it was also due to Johns allowing Lex to embrace his humanity and to show a wider spectrum of emotions. For example, Lex’s parental affection for Bizarro was touching and created an interesting dimension to both characters.

Another standout character from Forever Evil is Catwoman. Johns’ tone for the Feline Fatale is absolutely purrfection. He captures her voice in all of her dialogue, nailing the dynamic chemistry between her and Batman. She’s sassy, funny, but also loyal and smart. In a story where Batman is the only legitimate good guy, Catwoman proves to be an interesting partner for him and is the support system that he’s desperately in need of. As a Catwoman fan, I couldn’t be more pleased with how well she was treated throughout Forever Evil. She was consistently zipped up and was never used as a device to emotionally torture Batman, plus she got all the funny punchlines.

Still, Forever Evil had its share of issues. Besides Catwoman, there aren’t really many women in this story who are all that noteworthy. Atomica and Superwoman come close, but both are tragically overshadowed by their male colleagues in the Crime Syndicate. Similarly, Lex Luthor’s rebellion against the Syndicate lacks any female representation. Surely, Cheetah or Killer Frost could have been added to the roster instead of Captain Cold or even Black Manta (though that would mean sacrificing a few rather badass panels of both inflicting serious damage against Syndicate members). Furthermore, David Finch’s art looks disappointingly unfinished and his baby-faced characters lack expressiveness that’s required in the comic book medium.

Forever Evil is proof as to why DC Comics’ villains are so popular. Johns does an amazing job fleshing out his cast, allowing them to grow in their atypical roles as protagonists here. The focused narrative helps lock the reader into the story and keep them invested in the characters. Though not quite as epic in scale as most of Johns’ other events, this proves to be a nice change of pace.

RATING: B+