What Is "Forever Evil"? Geoff Johns Has The Answer

Crisis on Infinite Earths: The monumental event that essentially collapsed the multiverse of DC into a singular universe.

Infinite Crisis: The sequel to the first Crisis in 1985, Alexander Luthor of Earth-3 looks to restore the multiverse, at the cost of everyone else, as Superboy of Earth-Prime looks to control the new worlds.

Final Crisis: Darkseid aims to control the universe using the long searched for Anti-Life Equation, until a noble Batman and about 30 Supermen from various universes look to spoil his plans.

Flashpoint: The Flash is inadvertently sent to an altered Earth, and in his attempts to repair time and restore things to the way he remembers he creates the “New 52”.

The New 52: A reshaping of the multiverse, starting from square one (or close to it), aspects of all DC characters’ histories are altered and expanded upon in what is now considered the normal DC Universe.

Now, the first New 52 event since, well, the New 52 has arrived (September 4^th, that is). Geoff Johns, writer of such titles as Justice League and Green Lantern (you may have heard of them) recently gave an interview, revealing details about his much anticipated crossover event, Forever Evil. “As far as the world knows, the Justice Leagues are dead. What happened to them and where they are will be revealed within the pages of Forever Evil, which is focused squarely on the greatest villains in comics,” says Johns. The events of Forever Evil will take place right after Trinity War, jumping from League-wide crossover to Universe-wide crossover.

Most of what will happen and why it will happen is a mystery, but who it will happen to was revealed. “The Crime Syndicate will be the ones leading the charge to take the world in Forever Evil.” Ultraman, Superwoman, Power Ring, Johnny Quick, Owlman and newcomer, Deathstorm (alternate version of Firestorm) will make their New 52 debut in the pages of Forever Evil, but according to Johns, fans will perceive them as both antagonists and protagonists of the story. “Evil is relative – and what I mean by that, is that our villains are as complex, as deep and as compelling as any of our heroes. Every antagonist in the DC Universe has a unique darkness, desire and drive. And the reason for being of Forever Evil is to explore that darkness,” explained Johns. “We start literally, in the first issue, when the whole world goes dark; communication and power are gone. And as our Earth is plunged into darkness, the Crime Syndicate begins their plan for conquest.”

Reviews: Earth-2 Vol.1: The Gathering

     One of the hardest things to do when writing a comic book is introducing readers to a new series full of new characters, as well as establishing a good story to go along with them. James Robinson was able to accomplish both in the New 52’s Earth-2. Robinson has been given an entire world to tell stories. Its not just about one hero; not even about one team of heroes, but an entire, alternate universe full of infinitely new characters, and Volume One introduces us to the first alternate universe of the New 52.

     Volume One, titled: “The Gathering” focuses on the joining of the Justice Society of America, by introducing us to revised take on their classic members. The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl and the Atom take center stage and are immediately appealing. While they have the same names as their Golden Age counterparts, they have been updated with relevant and modern characteristics that current readers can associate themselves with. Robinson has taken the, almost forgotten, JSA and updated almost everything about them from their backgrounds to their costumes and applied them to a new world.

      I think that creating this comic series was one of the best things that DC could have done. The idea of reading about stories set in an alternate universe, stories that effect alternate versions of our favorite characters is very cool, making me wonder if they may eventually release more series about more alternate Earths.

Volume One begins with the death of Earth-2’s Superman, Batman and Wonderwoman and the destruction of almost half the planet. While Darkseid attempted to invade Earth in Geoff John’s Justice League, he succeeds in Earth-2, jumping us ahead in the future to see the formation of the new “Wonders”. Solomon Grundy acts as the catalyst to force the heroes to unite, which leads to a very climatic battle between Grundy (the grey) and Green Lantern.

       Not only is the book written well, but Trevor and Nicola Scott’s artwork is one of the best I’ve seen. The color work may be the finest in the New 52, which all accumulates to the overall beauty of the book.

     I look forward to seeing future installments of this alternate Earth, as well as the next alternate characters Robinson will introduce. Overall, based on what I’ve read in Volume One, Earth-2 shows much promise and appears to only get increasingly intriguing by each issue.

I give this volume:

8.8 / 10

Be sure to check out more reviews upon more volumes’ releases.

Reviews: Justice League Vol.2: The Villain's Journey

Innovatively written by Geoff Johns (Green Lantern, Flashpoint) and beautifully illustrated by Jim Lee (Batman: Hush, Uncanny X-Men).

Spoilers follow.

    While volume one detailed the conventional gathering of DC’s heroes, the second volume jumps ahead five years, giving us our first look at the Justice League of today; a team that can, relatively, work well together. More importantly, the story arc focuses on the development of a new villain named David Graves, whose powers are indefinable as it is not quite expressed what his limits are.

     No matter how powerful Graves appeared to be, following a villain like Darkseid, whose arrival and war on Earth dominated the issues of volume one, was a challenge for Graves to surpass.

    Graves’ “journey” into becoming a villain was a difficult one and I was in a bit of distaste upon reading the first couple issues, but I will admit that the villain was developed quite well over time. I understand what Johns was trying to do by focusing on the villain and his emotional, human-side and back-story, but in today’s comics it’s hard to introduce a new, major adversary and make him as successful as the classics.

    

DC Comics New 52 Volume 2 Previews

A preview of DC’s collected editions of all New 52 series being released throughout 2013. Prepare yourselves, for this year, many DC fans will go broke. Enjoy!

NOW AVAILABLE (2013-)

- Animal Man Vol.2: Animal Vs. Man

Written by Jeff Lemire, Illustrated by Steve Pugh and Timothy Green

- Batgirl Vol.2: Knightfall Descends

Written by Gail Simone, Illustrated by Ed Benes and Ardian Syaf

- Batwoman Vol.2: To Down The World

Written by JH Williams, Illustrated by Amy Reeder

- Green Arrow Vol.2: Triple Threat

Written by Ann Nocenti, Illustrated by Harvey Tolibao

- Green Lantern Vol.2: The Revenge of Black Hand

Written by Geoff Johns, Illustrated by Doug Manke and Ethan Van Sciver

- Justice League Vol.2: The Villain’s Journey

Written by Geoff Johns, Illustrated by Jim Lee and Scott Williams

- Justice League International Vol.2: Breakdown

Written by Dan Jurgens, Illustrated by Aaron Lopresti

- Stormwatch Vol.2: Enemies of Earth

Written by Peter Milligan, Illustrated by Miguel Sepulveda

- Suicide Squad Vol.2: Basilsk Rising

Written by Adam Glass, Illustrated by Fernando Dagnino

- Voodoo Vol.2: The Killer In Me

Written by Josh Williamson, Illustrated by Sami Basril

- Wonderwoman Vol.2: Guts

Written by Brian Azzarello, Illustrated by Cliff Chiang

MARCH 2013

- All-Star Western Vol.2: The War of Lords and Owls

Written by Jimmy Palmiotti, Illustrated by Moritat

- Batman Vol.2: The City of Owls

Written by Scott Snyder, Illustrated by Greg Capullo

- Catwoman Vol.2: Dollhouse

Written by Judd Winnick, Illustrated by Guillem March

- Earth-2 Vol.1: The Gathering

Written by James Robinson, Illustrated by Nicola Scott

- I, Vampire Vol.2: Rise of the Vampires

Written by Hale Fialkov, Illustrated by Andrea Sorrentino

- Red Lanterns Vol.2: The Death of the Red Lanterns

Written by Peter Milligan, Illustrated by Miguel Sepulveda

APRIL 2013

- Batman, Detective Comics Vol.2: Scare Tactics

Written by Tony Daniel, Illustrated by Ed Benes

- Batwing Vol.2: In The Shadow of the Ancients

Written by Judd Winnick, Illustrated by Marcus To

- Birds Of Prey Vol.2: Your Kiss Might Kill

Written by Duane Swerczynski, Illustrated Travel Foreman

- Blue Beetle Vol.2: Blue Diamond

Written by Tony Bedard, Illustrated by Ig Guara

- Dial H Vol.1: Into You

Written by China Mieville, Illustrated by Mateus Santolouco

- Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E Vol.2: Secrets of the Dead

Written by Matt Kindt, Illustrated by Alberto Ponticelli

- Swamp Thing Vol.2: Family Tree

Written by Scott Snyder, Illustrated by Yanick Paquette

- World’s Finest Vol.1: The Lost Daughters of Earth-2

Written by Paul Levitz, Illustrated by George Perez

Wallpaper of the Week: "There's only one Justice League!"

Upon buying my digital copy of Geoff Johns' newest Justice League title, JLA, and after reading it, I've decided to devote this WoW to its greatest image released so far. The book has much promise and looks to be another JL thriller featuring characters we are relatively unfamiliar with. How Johns plans to bring these unlikely heroes together, explore the new Secret Society and eventually have them confront the original Justice League is beyond me, but based on his track record of titles, I have high hopes for this new Justice League of America! Enjoy!

DC Cancels Six Titles: Who Should Be Their Replacements?

Justice League of America (Vol.3) #1

   DC Comics recently announced the cancellations of six of their titles, three of them featuring fairly well known characters. The Savage Hawkman, Firestorm, Deathstroke, The Ravagers, Team 7 and Sword of Sorcery all got the boot, making way for new titles to take their place come spring/summer of this year. When I first saw the lineup of New 52 titles I was skeptical of the lesser known titles, worried that they wouldn’t be anywhere as successful as mainstream heroes like Batman or Superman, which would lead to their cancellation. This has happened to a lot of those ‘underdog’ series. The biggest problem with trying to make these series successful is that their popularity will never match the already established series, which still begs the question as to why Hawkman or Deathstroke were cancelled, but then again, maybe upper management wasn’t happy with their recent profits, or maybe the creative teams weren’t happy with where the stories were going, I’m not sure.

     What I am sure of is the replacement titles coming later this year, which include: Threshold, Constantine, Katana, JLA’s Vibe, Justice League of America, and Superman: Man of Steel. The two that strike the most intrigue would be Geoff Johns and David Finch’s JLA, which will focus on a new team of heroes, separate from the original Justice League, featuring Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow and the return of Hawkman, right after his cancellation, and Scott Snyder and Jim Lee’s new Superman series, which will again examine his outsider role in Metropolis. As excited as I am for these new series, the same old problem still remains with half of them. Will they be able to sell as much as the “regulars” or be as popular? Maybe not, which is why I’ve compiled a short list of ‘could-be’ titles that DC could use come the next cancellations.

The Future of DC Animated Films

     A total of 16 DC Animated Movies have been released, beginning in 2007 with Superman: Doomsday. Compared to some of the DC animated series currently or recently airing, I would take any one of these movies over those shows, aside from GL and Young Justice. In saying that, creating feature length animated films based on famous comic book titles was a great corporate decision. The only thing I would argue is some of the stories chosen for the films. Why Public Enemies and not Knightfall? Why Superman versus The Elite and not Batman Hush? I’d like to examine the upcoming DC movies, why their chosen stories are perfect for animated recreation and which stories DC should recreate next.

      Up until DC’s latest film release, I had two favorites from the earlier films: Superman: Doomsday and Justice League: The New Frontier. The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 surpassed the greatness of those earlier films, in both animation and story. The film’s creators stayed truest to the source material and ended up with a great result, which was again surpassed by its sequel, The Dark Knight Returns Part 2. Any fan of these movies has been wishing for an animated interpretation of Frank Millar’s original book since Doomsday’s release, and with the story being split into two parts, the writers and directors were able to fully capture all the details, and even exact frames, from the original books. Whether it was the dramatic scene of Batman, sitting next to the dying Joker, or the climatic battle between the world’s finest superheroes, the movie was truly a comic book come to life.

The New 52: Justice League

      It had to happen eventually. Over a year of released issues and I’m finally devoting an article to DC’s The New 52, and what better comic series to begin with then Justice League. Written by the legendary Geoff Johns (Green Lantern, Flashpoint) and illustrated by the equally legendary Jim Lee (Batman: Hush), Justice League kicked off the New 52 with a bang! (Minor spoilers follow).

      So basically, The New 52 is set in a universe that is made up of three separate universes, which were accidentally fused together during the Flashpoint mini-series. The New 52 has replaced all other previous series, starting all the DC comics back at #1 and changing some elements of the characters themselves. I can go on and on about the specific changes made throughout the relaunch, but ill just stick with Justice League for now. The first story arc called “Origin” takes place “five years ago”, where only heroes like Batman and Flash have been operating as “heroes” for some time. The story revolves around the meeting of these characters. Superman, Wonderwoman and Green Lantern have only just started out as crime fighters and Cyborg’s origin is revealed in this arc. After getting into disputes amongst each other, they soon have to put aside their differences to stop an alien invasion from Darkseid and his minions from Apokolpis (told you it started out with a bang).

      Each of the League’s characters have their own titles in the relaunch, except for Cyborg, where their full origins are displayed in further detail. JL kept it simple, fast-paced, and easy on the eyes thanks to terrific artwork by Mr. Lee. Lee was also responsible for the many character design changes such as Cyborg resembling “a walking tank”, or Superman no longer in red tights, to Batman and pretty much every other characters wearing more detailed costumes, almost resembling armor. I must say that I was very impressed with the look of the heroes and the series in general. After a year of publishing it is clear that JL is one of the more popular and dominant of the New 52, thanks to Lee and Johns.

      Justice League Vol.1: Origin is now available in hardcover, collecting the first six issues of the series, and JL # 13 will hit the stands on October 17th. I know you’re all just as excited as I am.