As Issue 5 approaches and the plot thickens, I would like to
take a moment to talk about the success of DC’s Mini-Series: Forever Evil. Now at first I was pleased but not by
any means crazy about the series.
I mean, how many times have we already seen the DC icons battle crazed,
one-dimensional “Evil” versions of themselves? It’s beyond cliché.
But right from the start series scribe Geoff Johns demonstrates that
this Crime Syndicate, the alternate earth counterparts to the Justice League,
will not be your run-of-the-mill talking heads version of the Crime Syndicate.
While much of it takes place in the side series, most particularly tie-in
issues of Justice League, the origins of each represent creative horror show
versions of our expected cast.
Power Ring is a backwards version of Green Lantern where the
Ring takes over a particularly weak-willed version of Hal Jordan and conditions
him to be a vessel of it’s will.
Kind of like the Lord of the Rings and Gollum except with a traitorous
janitor who just wants to be strong and get laid. There is plenty of fun stuff to explore in that universe,
but unfortunately, Green Lantern will likely come out on top before we ever get
too much information on what Power Ring’s day-to-day is like besides errant
whining while the other characters move the plot forward. Hopefully we get an idea of what that
universes’ Sinestro is like before the series ends because, holding that being
a weak-willed Hal Jordan is the opposite of the strong-willed one, the Sinestro
of this universe should be an antithesis to fear and have a ring powered by
faith. Think about it, this Sinestro can be Paul Dano’s Preacher to Daniel Dae
Lewis’ Ring of Power.
The rest of the cast has a lot going for them too, in particular,
Deathstorm is the most interesting incarnation of the Firestorm mythos I have
ever read by virtue of his design alone.
That can of course be accredited the to well-endowed hands of series
artist David Fincher, who is no stranger to epic crossover events as he was the
pencil behind Marvel’s Ultimatum that saw the deaths of more major characters
than you can shake 95% of the X-Men at, including Wolverine. Ultraman is a Superman driven entirely
by self-interest and is endowed with all the powers of a God…yet his
rationalization for taking over the world (essentially destroying it and
remaking it, totally practical) speak to a Darwinian ideology that might make
logical sense if you were the most powerful being on the world. Still kind of a dick though, meanwhile,
Johnny Quick (Flash) and Atomica (hot but evil version of the Atom) were
essentially Bonnie and Clyde before their final heist led to them being bit by
radioactive fast and small things or something so now the world has to deal
with their shit. That one didn’t
interest me and I kind of feel that the Flash plays second fiddle to Atomica’s
waistline but at least they round out the team without the need for Hawkgirl.
The DC think tank made a brilliant decision in making
Nightwing the Crime Syndicate’s lone hostage starting right from issue
one. Of all the characters in the
new 52 I would say that Nightwing is the one who’s mortality being on the line
draws the most interest. Superman,
Batman, Green Lantern, the Flash… all of these names have been killed and come
back in recent years so they wouldn’t have worked as well. New 52 Cyborg is still lingering on the
brink of affirmative action in his front-and-center placement in the universe
so that wouldn’t work as well either, although that doesn’t stop the
powers-that-be from raping him of his mechanical body and leaving him on the
bring of death for much of the series.
No Nightwing, whose mainstream profile has gone up so much since playing
Batman for a year and co-starring in a line of popular animated programs is the
perfect choice. Its no secret he
was on the chopping block during Infinite Crisis and, as a major legacy
character in DC History, his demise would free up a lot of space for other plans. That being said, it would probably
anger fans a lot so DC is wisely utilizing this emotionally-charged concern to
bring about more interest in the series by not revealing the characters fate
until the very last moment. Always
a conflict of interest how in comics someone with no super powers can regularly
engage and disrupt the plans of those with super-powers without ever paying the
price his quick defeat at the hands of Superwoman and Owlman was an
attention-getter. While his role in the series is still largely in tbe dark, I
for one am interested to see where this goes.
