Forever Evil #4 Review

The Crime Syndicate have taken over Earth but the fight back has begun. Leading the charge is Lex Luthor and his assortment of fellow villains, including Bizarro and Black Adam, who're headed to Wayne Enterprises to arm themselves for the coming conflict, which is also where Batman and Catwoman have gone to activate a transportation device called the Mother Box. Meanwhile, a pregnant Superwoman is playing Ultraman against Owlman, and Power Ring has been dispatched to deal with Captain Cold and the rogues. Forever Evil #4 is a pretty dull comic in a series that hasn't done enough to develop its core concept since the first issue, making it of middling interest at best. This issue is almost entirely table-setting, moving characters about without anything much happening. Lex and his evil posse have gone from being arbitrarily formed in the last issue, to moving to Wayne Enterprises, which is apparently the only place in Gotham that has firepower and is miraculously untouched by the violence sweeping the globe. All they do in this issue is stand around while Lex summarises their identities while waking up Black Adam, walk through a sewer and face - not fight - Power Ring and his new team, which is where the comic ends; in other words, a whole lotta nothing! Batman's taken Catwoman to the Batcave but blindfolded her to keep the location secret. Makes sense, but his mask is still half destroyed so his identity is shot, yet despite clearly looking like world famous billionaire Bruce Wayne, whose ward Dick Grayson was recently revealed to be Nightwing, and their destination in this issue is Wayne Enterprises, we're supposed to believe Selina's too stupid to put two and two together and that she's still in the dark on Batman's secret identity! It's not just intellectually insulting to the character but to the reader as well. While in the Batcave, Batman shows off his collection of vehicles, pulling off the dust-cover on the cool Bat-bike Greg Capullo created in Batman #21 but besides the nod to the superior comic (perhaps hoping for some of its greatness to rub off onto it?) it's a pointless panel because none of Batman's vehicles are used for travel - maybe they took a cab to Wayne Enterprises? Batman does have a plan though, revealing his secret fail-safes to take down the Justice League should he ever need to and in this case use them against the Crime Syndicate. Meanwhile, the Crime Syndicate do what they've done since issue #1 with Ultraman snorting more kryptonite (boy, did that get old fast), Superwoman doing her Lady MacBeth impression, and Power Ring whining about his fears. These characters are just treading water in this issue. The finale is where things start to get mildly interesting as Batman/Catwoman, Lex and co., and Power Ring and his new partners, all meet in the Wayne Enterprises basement for a throw-down - which won't happen until next issue. Like the last issue, the cover image doesn't actually happen with Batman and Lex staring at each other briefly but not actually fighting. Batman does momentarily (and therefore pointlessly) become a Yellow Lantern before going back to Batman and another famous villain makes his big final page appearance.

I'd love it if Geoff Johns realised the story's potential in this comic. There are some interesting characters here and a great premise but he's dragging his heels so we're getting (yet again) a sub-standard comic. It's not that hard to see why though - look at the page after the comic ends and you can see 10 other titles that've been tied into this series! DC is deliberately stretching this out to milk it for all it's worth. Move things along too quickly in the main comic and you miss out on playing out all the minor points in the multiple spin-off comics. It's a really cynical way to tell a story. Forever Evil #4: some characters move from point A to point B. That's pretty much it. It's a disappointingly boring, super-slow moving comic. We'll see what happens now the characters are at point B in the next issue but don't expect too much to happen because of the 10 comics leeching off of this one - Johns won't be allowed to give too much story away. Forever Evil could've been a good series but instead it's shaping up to be a very poor quality one. Published by DC, Forever Evil #4 by Geoff Johns and David Finch is out now