Forever Evil #3
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by David Finch, Richard Friend, and Sonia Oback
The short of it:
Batman and Catwoman recount what happened to the Justice League’s, and how they managed to escape with Victor Stone, as his dad and TO Morrow look over the body. They need to save Vic, but first they need to sort out Morrow’s issues with Catwoman, and Batman’s immediate rage at seeing the news reports…that Dick Grayson is Nightwing. Catwoman questions him about why Dick matters to him…Bruce tells her that he’s a friend, because he can’t admit that the man is a son to him. In Metropolis, meanwhile, Lex Luthor looks out across the decimation and thinks back to his own warnings of the dangers of Superman, and how this outcome was an inevitability of relying on the Man of Steel. He needs to access the LexCorp satellites, but that requires reworking a downed satellite dish. That’s what Bizarro is for, heavy lifting…and flowers. Lex gets his system set up and goes looking for Ultraman via satellite….
And finds him fighting with Black Adam, beating the crap out of each other, and Adam goes for the patented ‘SHAZAM!’, but Ultraman is REALLY powerful and forces the Mighty Adam to job. Thankfully he does a bit of bleeding, realizes that his power is waning, and heads off to go find Metallo. Luthor sees enough to figure out Ultraman has problems with sunlight, because, you know, well written Lex Luthor is BRILLIANT! At the same time, in Central City, the Rogues are taking a stand against the Syndicate and refusing to assist in the razing of their home, which leads to Power Ring freaking out and attacking them. The Rogues try to escape, but Deathstorm uses his powers to depower Cold. Mirror Master tries to evacuate them, but he destroys the mirror. Cold is sent flying out of a window somewhere else, the other Rogues trapped in the Mirror World, but Lex Luthor is apparently not too far away.
Luthor has Bizarro create a signal over the water, though he intended something more subtle than what the half done clone of the Man of Steel did. Black Manta rises, holding the knocked out Black Adam. Cold shows up, and the next thing you know….the birth of the Injustice League. The would be saviors of the world.
What I liked:
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Geoff writes the best Lex, and it needs to be mentioned every issue.
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He also writes a good enough Batman that you wish he’d have extra pages to devote just to writing him.
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Bizarro doesn’t talk, has all of his backwards powers, and won’t do what Lex wants unless Lex takes a flower from him. I’m really interested to see what becomes of this version of the character, and am kinda hoping he doesn’t provide big time cannon fodder for Ultraman.
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Firestorm and Deathstorm both provide awesome moments, both together, and with Deathstorm on his own. Firestorm has an awesome powerset, which is easily forgotten with how scarcely the character was used for years. Brightest Day provided promise and potential for things to come, but this is the first moment in the New 52 that made me say “Oh yeah!”. That’s how bad the Firestorm solo book was.
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Captain Cold loses his powers and rather than bitch about it he notes that he needs an appliance shop and thirty-two minutes. The man can build himself a cold gun MacGyver style. Geoff Johns will ALWAYS put over Captain Cold, and it’s always awesome.
What I didn’t like:
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BLACK ADAM DOES NOT JOB! NOT TO ULTRAMAN! NOT TO ANYBODY!
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Captain Cold losing his powers was a cool moment, but I actually liked the idea of him having them.
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Finch’s art is REALLY inconsistent this issue. Things look just fine for a bit and then all of the sudden there are some awful faces, lifeless expressions, and brutal moments that actually look silly. The blame is shared by his inker and colorist, though, as the issue definitely feels rushed as it goes along.
Final thoughts:
Great use of the Firestorm Matrix!
So Catwoman doesn’t realize that Nightwing is the original Robin?
So if the Rogues are trapped in the Mirror World, and Cold is depowered with Luthor and company, than what’s going to be happening with the rest of the Rogues miniseries?
Poor Mirror Master, by the way, he JUST got out of the Mirror World during the Villains Month issue, and he’s already back. That’s some awful luck.
I cracked up at Power Ring’s ring calling him an idiot.
Cold being depowered is definitely something that spun out of Manapul and Buccellato leaving. Geoff is a big fan of the Rogues, and he brought them back to prominence during his run on Flash, Cold being his favorite amongst them, and it really does not surprise me that he’d take him back to his roots. That said, I liked the powers, they lacked the classic feel of the parka and cold gun, but it definitely seemed far more in line with what I’d expect from a character in modern times. He had the gun, always got his ass kicked, found a way to put the powers inside of him to try and turn the tide in his favor. I dug it. Really, the New 52 Flash run was better than what Geoff did with Barry, but it still doesn’t touch what he did with Wally.
Geoff writing Wally is why I’m a Flash fan.
Luthor’s group of villains is pretty much perfect, especially when Black Adam comes back.
I would love to see some more Nightwing, I mean, his book hasn’t caught up to reflect Forever Evil yet, so he’s just sitting there in the background.
Overall: 7.5/10
