Cover & Pencils by David Finch
Written by Geoff Johns
Inks by Richard Friend
Colours by Sonia Obak
Purchase your copy @ Comixology now.
BEWARE OF SPOILERS!
Each September since the launch of ‘The New 52’ DC Comics have pulled something big out of their bag, last year it was ‘Zero Month’ which gave us glimpses of the world of the 52 prior to its launch and this year it’s ‘Villains Month’.
Many of the flagship titles in the DC catalogue are releasing up to four issues this month, chronicling some of the most prestigious villains to ever grace the pages of comics.
Alongside these special #23.1 issues DC is launching it’s first crossover event to cover all titles under the DC banner entitled ‘Forever Evil’.
What’s the concept of this huge event I hear you ask… well in the wake of the ‘Trinity War’ arc the three Justice League teams (original, America and Dark) are ‘dead’ leaving the Earth unprotected and at the mercy of an attack. That attack comes from the Crime Syndicate who hail from Earth-3.
As always with crossover events there’s a whole mess of special issues that tie in together to give the full story. But it all starts here in ‘Forever Evil’ #1 which acts as a brilliant setup to the event.
Written by Geoff Johns – so you know it’s going to be good – the story is instantly global. Starting out in Metropolis and moving through several of the major DC Universe cities it’s easy to tell that this is going to be the kind of epic story that we’ve been waiting for since the inception of ‘the New 52’.
Not only is there an epic scope to this story but pretty quickly there’s also a level of suspense and anticipation to this story which gives the feeling that all bets are off as to how this is going to play out.
With the Justice League’s out of action the only true heroes appearing this book are Nightwing, Batgirl and the Titans. Until the re-emergence of the Justice League I’m hoping that ‘Forever Evil’ will shine a spotlight on some of the lesser known characters with the various franchises.
It’s not just the A-game of Geoff Johns that is championing this book but also artwork by David Finch. You know when you’re getting a Finch story that it’s going to pack some serious punch. I was a fan of his work on the initial run of ‘The Dark Knight’ so it is good to see DC putting him to work on a title that’s going to get massive exposure.
There’s a lot of characters in play here (I mean A LOT!) and so it’s massively important that DC have an artist who can visually identify all the different villains from all the franchises and bring them together in a way that keeps them all looking at their best and this book does it in spades.
There’s a humongous scene featuring Nightwing in this issue which has to have massive implications on the story going forwards and I cannot wait to see how it is going to develop from here.
My only complaint? That Nightwing is back in Gotham for the flimsiest of reasons and Barbara doesn’t seem to be at all bothered about the events of ‘Batgirl: Wanted’ but then this is a world ending event so I can forgive a couple of tiny sins.
A complete must read!
9/10
