Not for nothing, but HOLY GOD, is the DC Universe dark, or what? There is, literally, not one bit of levity, humor, fun, lightness, etc., to be found in this book. At all. It's just darkness, eye-gouging, head-squashing, arm-severing, brain-shooting, stabbing, stomping, and limb-crunching. Geoff Johns really got caught up in the "Grim & gritty" movement of the late '80's/early '90's, and he, clearly, never outgrew it. Unfortunately for DC, I have, and their insistence on doom-and-gloom is making their books really unpalatable to me.
FOREVER EVIL, as I said a few hours ago, when I reviewed JUSTICE LEAGUE, VOLUME 5: FOREVER HEROES, finds the DC heroes "dead", and the Earth subjugated by The Crime Syndicate, bizarro Justice League doppelgangers from a lawless parallel Earth. Our only hope lies in.....Lex Luthor?
Yeah, Lex Luthor.
(Bitch and moan time: When I last saw Lex, in JUSTICE LEAGUE: TRINITY WAR, he was in jail. When FOREVER EVIL starts, he's as free as a bird, and up to his old ways. No explanation given. I'm sure I missed SOMETHING, somewhere, but...a little exposition to explain why he's loose...? Would that kill anybody?)
OK, this is going to get SPOILERY, so be warned......I'll give you some space to run away before you 4ead anything that you don't want to. Ready....?
OK. My main spoilery beef is that writer Geoff Johns pulls THE SAME SHIT HE DID WITH INFINITE CRISIS, which is already a rip-off of Marv Wolfman's CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. The big shocker here is that Alex Luthor is the big bad, which will lead us directly into YET ANOTHER FUCKING CROSSOVER, which I assume will be "The New 52" version of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS.
Yay.
I get it. Johns likes The Anti-Monitor. I do too. I just don't need to see him IN EVERY DC EPIC. It gets old. He was cool in THE SINESTRO CORPS WAR and INFINITE CRISIS, but it's wearing thin. (And why call him 'The ANTI-Monitor" when, as far as we know, there's no MONITOR...? But, whatever. Stop using him so much, please.)
Plus, Johns foolishly reveals the identity of Nightwing. I mean, it's already a stretch that no on can put together Bruce Wayne, who perpetually hangs out with/adopts young boys THE SAME AGE AS ROBIN, but to actually have it out there that Bruce Wayne's ward, Dick Grayson, is Nightwing...? How am I supposed to believe that only Lex Luthor could put this together...?
One more thing: Ultraman PUSHES THE MOON OUT OF ORBIT SO HE CAN BLOCK THE SUN. This is just too ridiculous for words, so I won't say any more about it.
LET THE SPOILERS.......END!!!!!!!
All that aside, this is really just more of what DC has been serving up for the past few years: Violent, gruesome fights, relentless darkness, and little to no plot. The art, by David Finch and Richard Friend, is absolutely hideous. Ugly faces, stunted, gnarled bodies with overlong limbs, scribbled-in backgrounds....to say nothing of Finch's complete lack of storytelling ability. He also delivers one of my biggest DC pet peeves: He depicts massively-powered people punching powerless people as throwaway shots. One of the FOREVER EVIL covers has Ultraman (Or Superwoman...I already blocked out the memory.) punching Lex Luthor in the face. How would he possibly survive that, I ask you? (Yes, I'm a nit-picker, but I'm precisely the type of nit-picker that DC needs to make happy: A 40-something who has been reading comics forever and has a disposable income. Plus, I have kids that I'm getting into the hobby...)
FOREVER EVIL is exactly what you would expect it to be, if you've been reading DC for the past few years: Loud, ugly, and pointless. It is, however, a big hardcover that you'll at least be getting your money's worth out of, content-wise. It collects all seven issues of the mini-series, with all covers and variants, as well as a sketch gallery.
DC Comics provided a review copy.
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