I’m not a big fan of DC’s New 52 and I’ve largely given up on the line since the relaunch. Consequently, I haven’t paid much attention to the Forever Evil storyline and issue 7 is the first time that I’ve picked up the book.
Despite coming in cold, I enjoyed this issue. Sure, most of my favorite characters still have their shitty New 52 redesigns and the continuity is a mess. But as the closing chapter of a story, this worked for me. Of course. nothing ever really ends in superhero comics and the conclusion is just a teaser for the next big event. But that’s the comic world we live in now.
Full spoilers ahead!
DC blew the biggest twist of this issue months ago when Lex Luthor was revealed to be a new member of the Justice League. In Forever Evil # 7, we see Lex achieve his greatest victory and how that sets him on his new “heroic” path. However, he’s still Lex Luthor and he murders a few people along the way. Writer Geoff Johns creates an odd father-son relationship parallel between Batman and Nightwing and the strange dynamic of Lex and Bizarro. Lex is momentarily stunned by the open affection that Batman shows for Dick Grayson… and it’s a moment of emotional weakness that Bruce Wayne may come to regret. Because Lex Luthor is smart enough to connect the dots about what he just saw.
Hilariously, Bizarro sees that hug as an excuse to embrace his father, Lex. That affection isn’t entirely one-sided. When Bizarro is fatally wounded, Lex actually cares because “he was my monster!” It’s not love as any normal human would understand it, but Lex is so wounded by Bizarro’s demise that he demands that his creature be reproduced exactly as he was.
Artist David Finch holds up his end of the bargain with some exciting action sequences between Lex’s group of villains and the Alexander Luthor from the Crime Syndicate’s Earth. It’s just a fun sequence, and Lex emerges victorious over his duplicate and Ultraman. Lex even gets a moment of triumph to lord over Superman. But it’s worth noting that Lex didn’t have to save his greatest enemies. It just twists the knife a little more that he did it.
The biggest spoiler for the issue is coming up, so this is your last chance to skip it…
The Anti-Monitor is back… and it’s ugliest God-damn redesign that I’ve seen since the beginning of the New 52. It barely looks like the classic George Perez design and he is only identifiable as the Anti-Monitor because someone addresses him by name. It’s not only a spectacularly awful visual, it robs the conclusion of any drama that it might have.
I thought that the point of The New 52 was to revitalize these characters and tell new stories. So then, why is DC already lining up a remake of Crisis on Infinite Earths? That did slightly diminish my enjoyment of this issue. The rest of it was fairly solid. This isn’t enough to get me back into the New 52, but it’s a start.
