In support of Forever Evil

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.