Forever Evil has turned into a surprisingly entertaining comic book event. It may have helped that I had very low expectations coming into this story. In any case, Geoff Johns has hit all the right notes to make what the Crime Syndicate and Secret Society’s plans to take over the world. Now what will be interesting to find out is how Johns can make the Justice League’s disappearance make sense in a way that makes sense to readers like me who didn’t read Trinity War. With the last issue revealing that Batman, Catwoman and Cyborg are the only “surviving” members of the Justice League this is something that Johns will have to address with Forever Evil #3.
Creative Team
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: David Finch
Inker: Richard Friend
Colorist: Sonia Oback
Story Rating: 3 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 5 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: At the S.T.A.R. Labs in Detroit Batman explains to Dr. Stone and Dr. Morrow that while Superman was dying of Kryptonite poisoning Deathstorm used his powers to disrupt Firestorm’s matrix. This disruption caused every member of the Justice League except for Batman, Catwoman and what remained of Cyborg. Dr. Morrow hypotheses that Firestorm’s Matrix will detonate soon because of how many individual psyches will tax Firestorm’s body beyond what it can handle.
While they continue to talk Batman notices the repeated news report that Nightwing’s real identity has been revealed to be Dick Grayson. Catwoman thinks that Nightwing is probably already dead but Batman doesn’t and says they are going to go find him. (Does this confirm that in the New 52 Universe that Bruce Wayne did not adopt Dick Grayson?)
In a destroyed part of Metropolis, Lex Luthor thinks about how the world’s reliance on Superman caused people to stop trying to solve their problem, which in turn doomed the world. B-0 tries to cheer Lex up with a flower but Lex yells at B-0 to get the satellite so that they can get an active communication line. Once Lex gets the communication line active he is able to track down Ultraman.
In Kahdaq, Ultraman is fighting Black Adam. Though Black Adam is able to stun Ultraman with his magic it is not enough and Ultraman knocks Black Adam into the ocean. With Black Adam’s body not resurfacing Ultraman asks Grid for Metallo’s location and heads towards Utah.
At a harbor, Lex is still tracking Ultraman’s location and notices that Ultraman is staying out of direct sunlight.
In Central City, Deathstorm and Power Ring asks The Rogues why they haven’t destroyed the city. Captain Cold says that there are still citizens in the city which is what Deathstorm wanted. Power Ring suddenly attacks The Rogues, saying that they are looking at him wrong. Though The Rogues try to defend themselves Deathstorm and Power Ring quickly over power them. Mirror Master grabs all The Rogues and tries to retreat into his Mirror World. Before they can make a full retreat Power Ring shatters the mirror which causes The Rogues to become separated.
Captain Cold ends up landing in the middle of an ally. Mirror Master is able to contact Captain Cold and inform him that he found Lex and it looks like he is with Superman (it’s actually B-0).
Back in Lex’s location B-0 launches a heat breath attack at the ocean which quickly gets Black Manta’s attention, who brings an unconscious Black Adam with him. Captain Cold soon joins Lex and crew to talk. Lex tells B-0, Black Manta, Captain Cold and the unconscious Black Adam that together they may be able to save the world. (Strike a pose!) End of issue.
Commentary
The Good: Forever Evil #3 is one of those issues that mask the lack of character development with a lot of noise. While we do get to learn some new information about what was going on it felt as though Geoff Johns was holding back from telling us or showing us more than he had too.
The one good part of Forever Evil #3 is Lex Luthor. Johns has done a fantastic job finding the right voice for this version of Lex. While Lex is being painted in a more heroic light thanks to the Crime Syndicate’s world take over you can’t consider him a hero. Through the dialogue Johns shows us that Lex is only looking to take down the Crime Syndicate because it benefits his business. This world take over is an opportunity for him to gain even more power which leaves the door open for a bigger storyline with the Justice League after Forever Evil is over.
I also liked the small line-up for this version of the Legion of Doom. Lex, Captain Cold, Black Manta, Black Adam and B-0 are all powerful villains that you don’t want to mess with. I am disappointed that Johns didn’t have a Batman or Wonder Woman villain join this version of the Legion of Doom. But given the circumstances it is a good line-up that could lead to some fun fights later on.
David Finch’s artwork is much stronger this time around. Finch cuts back on how much he relies on inking to make up for his rushed pencils. This let’s Finch’s artwork shine a bit more as everything is much more clear and pops out of the pages. Hopefully this sets the tone for Finch’s artwork for the rest of Forever Evil.
The Bad: With everything that happened involving the Crime Syndicate in Forever Evil #2 it was disappointing that we did not get much from this group in Forever Evil #3. Though we did get to see Ultraman, Power Ring and Deathstorm in action nothing about their scenes furthered their story. Saying that there is still four more parts to this story is not an acceptable excuse for this to happen. Johns has to understand how to properly pace the story so that most of the players in this story are involved. He needs to keep sub-plots such as the conflict between Ultraman, Owlman and Superwoman at the top of a readers mind so that when it blows up it isn’t rushed.
The same goes for Nightwing’s role in this story. With how big of a deal that his identity being revealed is Nightwing should be a bigger part of this story. Right now he is just a casualty that has been tossed aside because he is not a part of the Justice League franchise. It is unfortunate because Johns is usually a good job when writing legacy characters like Nightwing but here it seems like he doesn’t know what to do with him outside of using the reveal to drive Batman to take action. Something more has to come to make this reveal mean more than it has so far.
I also found the whole explanation of the Justice League being “dead” to be rushed. Even though it explains where they are during this story it just seems lame that this is the reason that they are off the table so that the Crime Syndicate can take over. This explanation also leaves out where the Justice League where fighting the Crime Syndicate when they first appeared because in the first issue Johns left us with the impression that they were off-world. Instead they are still somewhere on Earth, from what we could tell from Batman’s story at least, so that means that Firestorm should’ve come with Batman and Catwoman. This lack of attention to detail makes it feel like I have to read Trinity War to understand what is going on which takes me out of the Forever Evil story.
Overall: At the end of the day, Forever Evil #3 was just a lot of noise without any real depth added to the story. There was very little forward progress made to this story outside of Lex Luthor quickly assembling his Legion of Doom in the last three pages. This lack of execution makes it easy to forget that Geoff Johns has a lot of different sub-plots going on within Forever Evil. For a monthly event this is unacceptable and Johns needs to find a way to properly pace the story so that every major character is involved in some way. This is disappointing because up till now I was enjoying the story. Hopefully Johns is able to quickly turn things around with Forever Evil #4.