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Forever Evil #1
Forever Evil #1
The Justice League is DEAD! And the villains shall INHERIT the Earth! An epic tale centering on the world's greatest super-villains starts here--with the destruction of one of the world's greatest super-heroes!
37 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 4, 2013
4 people are currently reading
99 people want to read
About the author
Geoff Johns
2,718 books2,410 followersGeoff Johns originally hails from Detroit, Michigan. He attended Michigan State University, where he earned a degree in Media Arts and Film. He moved to Los Angeles in the late 1990s in search of work within the film industry. Through perseverance, Geoff ended up as the assistant to Richard Donner, working on Conspiracy Theory and Lethal Weapon 4. During that time, he also began his comics career writing Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. and JSA (co-written with David S. Goyer) for DC Comics. He worked with Richard Donner for four years, leaving the company to pursue writing full-time.
His first comics assignments led to a critically acclaimed five-year run on the The Flash. Since then, he has quickly become one of the most popular and prolific comics writers today, working on such titles including a highly successful re-imagining of Green Lantern, Action Comics (co-written with Richard Donner), Teen Titans, Justice Society of America, Infinite Crisis and the experimental breakout hit series 52 for DC with Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid. Geoff received the Wizard Fan Award for Breakout Talent of 2002 and Writer of the Year for 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 as well as the CBG Writer of the Year 2003 thru 2005, 2007 and CBG Best Comic Book Series for JSA 2001 thru 2005. Geoff also developed BLADE: THE SERIES with David S. Goyer, as well as penned the acclaimed “Legion” episode of SMALLVILLE. He also served as staff writer for the fourth season of ROBOT CHICKEN.
Geoff recently became a New York Times Bestselling author with the graphic novel Superman: Brainiac with art by Gary Frank.
His first comics assignments led to a critically acclaimed five-year run on the The Flash. Since then, he has quickly become one of the most popular and prolific comics writers today, working on such titles including a highly successful re-imagining of Green Lantern, Action Comics (co-written with Richard Donner), Teen Titans, Justice Society of America, Infinite Crisis and the experimental breakout hit series 52 for DC with Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid. Geoff received the Wizard Fan Award for Breakout Talent of 2002 and Writer of the Year for 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 as well as the CBG Writer of the Year 2003 thru 2005, 2007 and CBG Best Comic Book Series for JSA 2001 thru 2005. Geoff also developed BLADE: THE SERIES with David S. Goyer, as well as penned the acclaimed “Legion” episode of SMALLVILLE. He also served as staff writer for the fourth season of ROBOT CHICKEN.
Geoff recently became a New York Times Bestselling author with the graphic novel Superman: Brainiac with art by Gary Frank.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
February 11, 2014
Part of the New 52, this was a great start to an interesting series. The normal villains seem to have all been subdued (for the most part) and now they aren't the only evil. I am looking forward to reading these books to see how it flows.
September 10, 2013
Shiii just got reaaal in the dc universe!!
December 31, 2013
You can read the full review over at The Founding Fields:
http://thefoundingfields.com/2013/09/...
A bold new vision of the New 52 DCU is beginning to unfold here and this is going to be one hell of a ride if this issue is any indication, aside from a few negatives.” ~Shadowhawk, The Founding Fields
Trinity War ended last month, kicking off the “main event” as it were, Forever Evil, which is where the supervillains of DC universe take over now that all the “first generation” heroes such as the Justice League and most of the other affiliates such as the Justice League of America and Justice League Dark have gone missing, presumed dead at large. This is an absolutely hellish time for the DCU since the Crime Syndicate from Earth 3 now calls Earth Prime home and is taking over the world. That ending to Trinity War was certainly unexpected, and it should be really interesting to see how Geoff Johns builds up everything. He’s no stranger to such comics, having written Flashpoint, Blackest Knight, and many others in the past, including significant chapters of Infinite Crisis. I have full trust in his ability to write a great event-series. However, it is largely the art in this issue that threw me for a loop.
Forever Evil #1 begins at an unspecified amount of time after Justice League #23 (also written by Geoff Johns), and it shows how the Crime Syndicate solidifies its hold over Earth Prime, and how they ensure the loyalties and cooperation of Earth Prime’s supervillains, which includes such big names as Deathstroke, Gorilla Grodd, Cheetash, Black Manta, The Penguin, Harley Quinn, and many, many others. This is one part of this entire story that I’m really glad Johns didn’t gloss over. The Crime Syndicate travels all over the globe, going to each and every super-prison and freeing all the inmates, letting humanity’s greatest mistakes run riot throughout the world.
Told from the perspective of Lex Luthor for the most part, the script was intriguing and thought-provoking, especially revealing the source of Ultraman’s powers and his weaknesses. Since several of the week 1 Villain’s Month titles have been written to coincide with this issue, some of the events in those comics now take on a greater meaning. Some obvious ones: Gorilla Grodd being freed from his prison in the Speed-Force and the “solar eclipse” as per Flash #23.1, Gotham gone dark (on the part of Grid) as per The Dark Knight #23.1, Deadshot accepting a mission from Amanda Waller as per Justice League of America #7.1, and so on. I expect that a lot more of the Villain’s Month titles will end up tying into events here, and that’s how it should be, I think, since a lot of these villain’s don’t need for their origins to be told, again, especially not at this point of time in the DCU.
One of the main reasons that I loved seeing Lex Luthor’s perspective here is because of how things fare with him in the pages of Superman Unchained and the Trinity War issues of three Justice League books. It adds so much more to his story, especially the final panel in the comic where he… well, to know that you have to read the issue! Anyway, there was also a great example of subtle world-building here since in these scenes we see Luthor talking with, presumably, Ted Kord, who was the second Blue Beetle in the pre-New 52 continuity. His status, as far as I know, within the New 52 continuity is uncertain and unknown, so it was great to finally see an appearance from the character. Given how his arc ends in this issue though, I’m not hopeful that we’ll be seeing any more of him. Should be interesting really.
Another highlight of this issue was the treatment of Nightwing aka Dick Grayson at the hands of one of the members of the Crime Syndicate. DC has been extremely unsubtle in that Nightwing is presumably going to be the hero that suffers most during the events of Forever Evil and given the way that Johns writes his narrative here, things for him are going to be absolutely down in the dumps. I actually cringed in his final scenes within this issue, and I’m not really looking forward to seeing what’s going to happen to him next. All I know is that it will be undoubtedly heart-breaking, if Ultraman’s words are any indication.
Again and again, Geoff Johns hammers home the fact there really is a new world order taking affect here, as advertised on the cover art by artists Richard Friend, Sonia Oback and David Finch. The status quo has changed completely, and this what the story is going to be like, make no mistake. This is DC’s first major universe-wide event since the launch of New 52, and coming in at the heels of the mostly spectacular Trinity War, I’m expecting great things here.
Forever Evil 01
However, that’s not going to matter as much unless David Finch really ups his game. His pencils were really inconsistent throughout this issue and he draws some really weird faces for Ultraman and Super Woman. Not to mention that a lot of the character-work, especially for Flash villains The Rogues was just plain weird as well. His Lex Luthor was pretty much perfect, and Nightwing as well, but it was Ultraman who was the worst, with some out-of-proportioned heads in various panels and a completely inconsistent look. In general, Finch’s characters aren’t very expressive and seem to be rather wooden, which really takes away from the story. The issue was also heavy on the inking, especially for the character faces and that is an approach I just don’t like. So that is problematic for me as well, although I’m not certain how Richard Friend can improve in that regard, except to maybe do less heavy inking? Not sure. The colours however, by Sonia Oback, were spot-on and gave the issue a really distinctive feel that works rather well with Finch’s pencils and actually help raise the quality of his work. So that’s something!
All in all, I did enjoy this issue from a story point, but not so much from the art point. That’s really the only big point in which this book needs to improve for the next six issues.
Rating: 8.5/10
http://thefoundingfields.com/2013/09/...
A bold new vision of the New 52 DCU is beginning to unfold here and this is going to be one hell of a ride if this issue is any indication, aside from a few negatives.” ~Shadowhawk, The Founding Fields
Trinity War ended last month, kicking off the “main event” as it were, Forever Evil, which is where the supervillains of DC universe take over now that all the “first generation” heroes such as the Justice League and most of the other affiliates such as the Justice League of America and Justice League Dark have gone missing, presumed dead at large. This is an absolutely hellish time for the DCU since the Crime Syndicate from Earth 3 now calls Earth Prime home and is taking over the world. That ending to Trinity War was certainly unexpected, and it should be really interesting to see how Geoff Johns builds up everything. He’s no stranger to such comics, having written Flashpoint, Blackest Knight, and many others in the past, including significant chapters of Infinite Crisis. I have full trust in his ability to write a great event-series. However, it is largely the art in this issue that threw me for a loop.
Forever Evil #1 begins at an unspecified amount of time after Justice League #23 (also written by Geoff Johns), and it shows how the Crime Syndicate solidifies its hold over Earth Prime, and how they ensure the loyalties and cooperation of Earth Prime’s supervillains, which includes such big names as Deathstroke, Gorilla Grodd, Cheetash, Black Manta, The Penguin, Harley Quinn, and many, many others. This is one part of this entire story that I’m really glad Johns didn’t gloss over. The Crime Syndicate travels all over the globe, going to each and every super-prison and freeing all the inmates, letting humanity’s greatest mistakes run riot throughout the world.
Told from the perspective of Lex Luthor for the most part, the script was intriguing and thought-provoking, especially revealing the source of Ultraman’s powers and his weaknesses. Since several of the week 1 Villain’s Month titles have been written to coincide with this issue, some of the events in those comics now take on a greater meaning. Some obvious ones: Gorilla Grodd being freed from his prison in the Speed-Force and the “solar eclipse” as per Flash #23.1, Gotham gone dark (on the part of Grid) as per The Dark Knight #23.1, Deadshot accepting a mission from Amanda Waller as per Justice League of America #7.1, and so on. I expect that a lot more of the Villain’s Month titles will end up tying into events here, and that’s how it should be, I think, since a lot of these villain’s don’t need for their origins to be told, again, especially not at this point of time in the DCU.
One of the main reasons that I loved seeing Lex Luthor’s perspective here is because of how things fare with him in the pages of Superman Unchained and the Trinity War issues of three Justice League books. It adds so much more to his story, especially the final panel in the comic where he… well, to know that you have to read the issue! Anyway, there was also a great example of subtle world-building here since in these scenes we see Luthor talking with, presumably, Ted Kord, who was the second Blue Beetle in the pre-New 52 continuity. His status, as far as I know, within the New 52 continuity is uncertain and unknown, so it was great to finally see an appearance from the character. Given how his arc ends in this issue though, I’m not hopeful that we’ll be seeing any more of him. Should be interesting really.
Another highlight of this issue was the treatment of Nightwing aka Dick Grayson at the hands of one of the members of the Crime Syndicate. DC has been extremely unsubtle in that Nightwing is presumably going to be the hero that suffers most during the events of Forever Evil and given the way that Johns writes his narrative here, things for him are going to be absolutely down in the dumps. I actually cringed in his final scenes within this issue, and I’m not really looking forward to seeing what’s going to happen to him next. All I know is that it will be undoubtedly heart-breaking, if Ultraman’s words are any indication.
Again and again, Geoff Johns hammers home the fact there really is a new world order taking affect here, as advertised on the cover art by artists Richard Friend, Sonia Oback and David Finch. The status quo has changed completely, and this what the story is going to be like, make no mistake. This is DC’s first major universe-wide event since the launch of New 52, and coming in at the heels of the mostly spectacular Trinity War, I’m expecting great things here.
Forever Evil 01
However, that’s not going to matter as much unless David Finch really ups his game. His pencils were really inconsistent throughout this issue and he draws some really weird faces for Ultraman and Super Woman. Not to mention that a lot of the character-work, especially for Flash villains The Rogues was just plain weird as well. His Lex Luthor was pretty much perfect, and Nightwing as well, but it was Ultraman who was the worst, with some out-of-proportioned heads in various panels and a completely inconsistent look. In general, Finch’s characters aren’t very expressive and seem to be rather wooden, which really takes away from the story. The issue was also heavy on the inking, especially for the character faces and that is an approach I just don’t like. So that is problematic for me as well, although I’m not certain how Richard Friend can improve in that regard, except to maybe do less heavy inking? Not sure. The colours however, by Sonia Oback, were spot-on and gave the issue a really distinctive feel that works rather well with Finch’s pencils and actually help raise the quality of his work. So that’s something!
All in all, I did enjoy this issue from a story point, but not so much from the art point. That’s really the only big point in which this book needs to improve for the next six issues.
Rating: 8.5/10
November 4, 2013
The Crime Syndicate has taken over the world and has united the villains of the world to subjugate the entire Earth! This issue is a good start but it could have been better in terms of art, David Finch steps in once again as Ivan Reis takes a break and unfortunately some of the panels aren't very detailed compared to Finch's work on other big events. Nevertheless this story serves as a great start to this 6 issue arc; we don't get many details about the syndicate itself but this issue ends with a great super-villian moment which I won't spoil. I can't wait to see what happens next.
April 14, 2020
The idea of villains inheriting the Earth is somewhat interesting. So then why do I get this feeling that I may end up hating this storyline?
As far as tie-ins go, I'm only gonna read the ones that are part of the other series I'm already reading. And I'll see if the other titles with Forever Evil at the front are worthwhile.
As far as tie-ins go, I'm only gonna read the ones that are part of the other series I'm already reading. And I'll see if the other titles with Forever Evil at the front are worthwhile.
January 26, 2022
Got a bunch of older single issues from a friend over Christmas and was super excited to check this one out! I’ve been meaning to read this series for a while and WOW that was an awesome introduction! I already love the crime syndicate from previous stories I’ve read and this just made me fall further down the hole! Definitely going to have to pick up the trade!
September 24, 2017
The Crime Syndicate is on Earth. The Justice League is dead. Who can save us.
May 31, 2022
#1
Strong start to the story. Great plot and movement in the story. I am looking forward to reading the whole series
Strong start to the story. Great plot and movement in the story. I am looking forward to reading the whole series
July 30, 2025
doing all this just to read the agent 37 comics…
October 14, 2013
ill admit, it was better than expected. This is just the first issue so it was kind of boring, but im expecting the next 3 to be better. I think theres 4 issues in all. Good art with a cool intro to how it starts, its pretty good.
February 2, 2016
OMG IT"S SO GOOD SO FAR!
June 23, 2014
A great opening for a major crossover. Loving the new 52 crossovers so much!
March 16, 2016
A-ma-zing!.. I have a feeling this will be a great story arc... :)
September 23, 2013
Lo de Ultraman poniéndose clenchas de kryptonita me ha matao.
June 13, 2014
An amazing serie of DC Comics about redencion and hope. I'd like it.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews