Monday, May 26, 2014

Bullet Review: Forever Evil #7


Forever Evil #7 came out last week ... finally ... ending a company-wide crossover that plodded along, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

There were many reasons why I didn't enjoy this book or feel invested in it.

Maybe it was the chronically delayed nature of the book. Maybe it was the overwhelmingly violent tone of the book. Maybe it was that it really felt like Geoff Johns fan fiction, a DC company wide crossover where the majority of the hero characters were stuffed into Firestorm. Maybe it is because there seemed to be no ramifications in any of the ongoing monthlies that for a period of time villains devastated the Earth. Maybe it is because ....AGAIN .... Batman seems to be invulnerable, having slipped through the grasp of the Crime Syndicate while immensely powerful heroes with planet-shaking skills are trapped.

But most of all, it is because this whole book was done to make villains and evil seem necessary, desired, or hip. The tagline was that 'Evil is Relative' and maybe that is true. But I don't think I want to cheer for Black Manta as we get a whole page of watching him stab someone to death.

And, the big player in this idea was Lex Luthor, a character that Geoff Johns early on described as a good man trying to help humanity. At the time it reminded me of Al Pacino's speech at the end of The Devil's Advocate. Playing Satan himself, Pacino gives a rambling speech that he is the ultimate humanist, only giving mankind what they deserve.

Lex Luthor ... the humanist?

Let's see what our new super-hero does in this last issue.


Amongst all the death and destruction he has wrought throughout the series, here was the final chapter.

Lex kills his evil doppelganger Alex Luthor by stabbing him in the chest with a mystic lightning rod and then literally rips out Alex's heart.

Oooohhhh .... soooooo cool.


And then a couple of pages later, he crushes Atomica, killing her.

This is the person that Geoff Johns and DC are promoting as their latest hero.


Perhaps recognizing that it would be hard to portray this cold-blooded murderer as a hero, Johns tries to soften Lex at the end. He performs life saving surgery on Superman. And he doesn't buy out and take over Kord Industries.

Wow ... isn't he grand?


And then he calls his estranged sister Lena. She isn't dead after all, just paralyzed from Lex's attempts to cure her.

And now look as he stares at his computer screen ...
Her want to grow and learn.

Sigh.

I don't know if I need to read a redemption story about Luthor. I don't think I am going to cheer for a guy who I have seen kill people, viciously, for the last year - throwing assistants of skyscraper roofs, ripping out hearts, blasting people, etc.

So not taking over a business and finally calling your ill sister isn't exactly going to erase all that. I just have to realize this isn't a DCU that I am going to be comfortable with.

It's funny. I didn't have this problem when Lex was named President way back when. Back then we knew he was still a villain, just one a position of power. And, of course, the heroes were brighter back then. By making the heroes darker and then painting the villains as heroes, all DC has done is made this whole place gray.

Hopefully this won't last too long or encompass the whole universe.

8 comments:

  1. Anj, I know you've said you wanted Supergirl to be the Masked Superman in the "Five Years Later" event. I'm afraid I have some bad news. Check the updated picture for "Supergirl: Futures End"

    http://insidepulse.com/2014/05/24/all-41-september-2014-dc-comics-new-52-futures-end-solicitations-with-wally-west-flash-val-zods-sister-superman-batman-dick-grayson-more/

    Also, thanks for replying to my comment in "Supergirl 31"

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  2. Saw this and posting about it tomorrow. Thanks.

    And love discussion here. So always glad to comment/talk.

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  3. "The tagline was that 'Evil is Relative' and maybe that is true. But I don't think I want to cheer for Black Manta as we get a whole page of watching him stab someone to death."

    Psychology 101: Evil is relative doesn't mean what you think it means, DC Comics.

    If the goal here was to demonstrate that situations make a person evil, this story didn't do a good job at illustrating that point of the "heroes" still did villainous acts. :/

    Aside from the Digital First Sensations Comic that's coming out, it looks like I'll be done with DC Comics after September. :/

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  4. Well, good things first Anj, at least Lena is alive. That he's actually calling her hurts my theory though that Lena=Dr. Veritas. Though, Shay does have a cane...

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  5. I've been avoiding this book (and actually everything else DC is publishing these days.) After seeing this, I'm glad I made that decision.

    I want my heroes to be heroic...is that too much to ask for? And villains are not heroes. Ugh. I'm tired of this moral grayness. It's wearying.

    Well, that's what the Silver Age is for, I guess.

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  6. DC wants us to believe that heroes are passe and that antiheroes are to be commended. That makes DC: Definitely Creepy!

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  7. I expected pretty quickly Lex will find out that he can't feel himself, he is no good guy. I actually find it quite disturbing how much Geoff Johns loves the likes of Black Adam and Sinestro. It's hard to believe this is the same writer who gave us the lovely Stars and STRIPE, he just loves a world of darkness.

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  8. I enjoyed Forever Evil as a story. I've always liked the Earth-3 characters and I liked that others were introduced. I was pissed off at the delay of the last issue but realize that was primarily because I looked forward to the story- and the back stories of the characters as they seemed appropriate- for the most part.

    The only major issue I had is with the back story of Earth-3 Wayne and young Richard's life together- or at least what I interpreted in a few frames. I found it disturbing. I suppose in a horrible universe, where Lara and Jor-El despise each other, only the worst is to be expected.

    The cruelty of Atomica and Johnny Quick throughout was really unsettling so I thought their undoing by 'villians' seemed appropriate.

    Although I enjoyed the series, I suppose it's sad that the new DC has to heighten the cruelty and darkness of the old cruel and dark Earth-3 to show some contrast to the other universes.

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