By Mark Rodriguez
Forever Evil was one of the most interesting storylines to come from the New 52. The basic plot involves an evil Justice League taking over while the real Justice League was gone. Without the core heroes available to save the world, it was up to the bad guys to step up and defend it because they'll also perish. The story was very interesting, introduced some new characters into the New 52 and had consequences that would carry over to other titles. There was a month where every regular comic had the title crossed out and replaced by the name of their villain and the issue would be an origin story or something regarding them. So Batman # 23.1 would be replaced by the Joker, Wonder Woman # 23.1 would be replaced by Cheetah and so forth. Also each Justice League issue during those months would go into the origins of each member of the evil Justice League. It was a whole thing back in the winter of 2013, let's check it out.
The chopper crashes into the side of a skyscraper. Lex crawls out of the wreckage, barely able to escape. He finds a busted cellphone that read 'This World is Ours' on the screen. Elsewhere, a robot is watching all this and says that Gotham City is the next one to be powered down.
Elsewhere, Nightwing is about to drop off Mr. Zsasz in Arkham as he talks to Babs with a hearing device. Suddenly the device also yells out 'This World is Ours' which catches him off guard. He then sees a red and yellow blur got into Arkham, and someone really powerful just ripped the front door apart with her bare hands. Nightwing calls for back up but is soon beat up by an unseen source and is caught by the Lasso of Truth wrapped around his neck.
Back to the chopper wreckage, Lex ignores the business man in need (he's hanging off the side of the copter, while the chopper itself is hanging off a ledge. Just then Superman arrives and starts looking for something in the wreckage. He finds a safe and opens it, revealing Kryptonite.
Meanwhile in Central City, Captain Cold, Mirror Master, Heat Wave and Weather Wizard prepare to break out Trickster. Mirror Master asks why they should bother since Trickster caused their defeats a few times, but Captain Cold says the Rogues never abandon one of their own. Suddenly a streak of red destroys the prison gates and kills the police. The Rogues wonder if this is the Flash, but Cold isn't too sure.
In another prison, Amanda Waller is trying to recruit the Black Manta in the Suicide Squad. Suddenly the roof is destroyed by two mysterious people, one of them filling the room with green light.
Back to Lex, he watches as 'Superman' crushes the Kyrptonite into dust, heats it up with his heat vision and inhales the fumes. He considers himself the strongest again and flies off. He asks the Grid about the location of more Kryptonite and says not to mention it to the others. Lex notices the U on his chest, rather than an S.
In Arkham's remains, Scarecrow shows Two-Face, Riddler, Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy strange coins with a backwards Earth imprinted on it. They symbolize them being invited to join the Secret Society and they're also communication devices. Some of the villains have doubts, and Riddler asks Two-Face if he's in. Two-Face flips the coin.
In the remains of the Justice League Watch Tower, tons of villains get together to see who summoned them. In a massive 4 page spread, tons of DC villains fill the page, including Black Adam, Killer Frost, Cheetah, Black Manta, Professor Pyg, Deathstroke, Black Mask, Bane and many many others. Despero brags about bringing the Watch Tower to the ground. Penguin is worried that the Joker is around here somewhere, using someone else's face and he will ruin everything. Bane says he will break the Joker if he does that.
Suddenly Aquaman's trident is tossed onto the ground, which Black Manta happily claims. Wonder Woman's lasso is also tossed into the scene and Cheetah catches it. Superman's cape is also thrown down and Parasite and Metallo fight over it. The ones calling the meeting are the Crime Syndicate, composed of Ultraman, Superwoman, Owlman, Deathstorm, Power Ring, Johnny Quick and Atomica. They come from another world and have destroyed it when the inhabitants turned against them. Now they seek to conquer this world and have killed the Justice League. One of the villains doubts them, saying this is a trick, since for example, Ultraman looks exactly like Superman but with a U on his chest. That man is vaporized to dust with Ultraman's heat vision.
The Teen Titans watch this on TV, since their equivalent of Cyborg has sent their message live all over the world. Wonder Girl asks Red Robin if he really thinks the League is dead, he says they'll find out. Ultraman tells Superwoman to bring out their prisoner... and she pulls out Nightwing, bloody and beaten and tied up a barbed-wire version of the lasso of truth. Superwoman unmasks him to the world as Richard Grayson, and his ID and other photo are posted all over live TV, even a newspaper clipping about the death of his parents at the circus (much to the horror of Tim and Barbara). Power Ring is surprised considering Nightwing is similar to Owlman's sidekick, but Deathstorm says it's not the version of Grayson he's used to anyway.
The Crime Syndicate will go out and kill all of Dick's friends and family, as well as any that oppose them. The Secret Society will be their personal army. The Crime Society watch as the villains wreak havoc wherever they go. As the sun comes up, Ultraman feels its sting. Luthor is alone in his thoughts remembering the cat from early on. He watches as Ultraman pushes the moon to cover up the sun. He thinks to himself that 'this is a job for Superman....so where the hell is he?'
My Opinions-
This was a hell of a way to start the story with a bit of mystery that didn't reveal itself til the end. Even then, did they really kill the Justice League and if not, where are they? Plus right off the bat we have something that will affect Nightwing's own series, namely, the villains revealing his secret identity on live TV. Will Dick Grayson's identity lead to Batman's secret identity?
We've seen this evil Justice League before in other versions. The Injustice Lords were seen in the Justice League animated series by Bruce Timm. The Crime Syndicate appeared in the animated movie Crisis on Two Earths. Of course, Injustice Gods Among Us sets the stage for an evil Superman and his movement. To top it off, the evil version of Cyborg, Grid, actually appears as a character in Injustice 2.
The two main comments I'd like to say are the fact that the evil Superman actually snorted Kryponite as if it were meth.... and the fact that they snuck the White Rabbit from the Batman The Dark Knight series on the cover. It seemed the New 52 really liked her, and even though she never got a proper story arc to focus more on her and her whole deal (she mostly cameos in her own introductory story), they sure love to make her appear in the background a lot. The odd part is that Bizzaro will later get introduced in this story (as in for the first time with a New 52 origin), so I guess the cover is kind of a spoiler.
Forever Evil was one of the most interesting storylines to come from the New 52. The basic plot involves an evil Justice League taking over while the real Justice League was gone. Without the core heroes available to save the world, it was up to the bad guys to step up and defend it because they'll also perish. The story was very interesting, introduced some new characters into the New 52 and had consequences that would carry over to other titles. There was a month where every regular comic had the title crossed out and replaced by the name of their villain and the issue would be an origin story or something regarding them. So Batman # 23.1 would be replaced by the Joker, Wonder Woman # 23.1 would be replaced by Cheetah and so forth. Also each Justice League issue during those months would go into the origins of each member of the evil Justice League. It was a whole thing back in the winter of 2013, let's check it out.
'Nightfall'
opens with Lex Luthor remembering how he once tried to save a cat stuck
in a tree, only to have it scratch him. Lex then threw into a river.
Memories aside, Lex is currently in a helicopter with a fellow business
man he wishes to work with. The man refuses to do business with someone
like Lex, and the villain threatens to have him 'accidentaly fall out of
the helicopter' and tells him the horrible things that await his family
and his business upon his death. Suddenly the chopper is having
problems. The city has gone dark and the chopper has lost power as well.
The chopper crashes into the side of a skyscraper. Lex crawls out of the wreckage, barely able to escape. He finds a busted cellphone that read 'This World is Ours' on the screen. Elsewhere, a robot is watching all this and says that Gotham City is the next one to be powered down.
Elsewhere, Nightwing is about to drop off Mr. Zsasz in Arkham as he talks to Babs with a hearing device. Suddenly the device also yells out 'This World is Ours' which catches him off guard. He then sees a red and yellow blur got into Arkham, and someone really powerful just ripped the front door apart with her bare hands. Nightwing calls for back up but is soon beat up by an unseen source and is caught by the Lasso of Truth wrapped around his neck.
Back to the chopper wreckage, Lex ignores the business man in need (he's hanging off the side of the copter, while the chopper itself is hanging off a ledge. Just then Superman arrives and starts looking for something in the wreckage. He finds a safe and opens it, revealing Kryptonite.
Meanwhile in Central City, Captain Cold, Mirror Master, Heat Wave and Weather Wizard prepare to break out Trickster. Mirror Master asks why they should bother since Trickster caused their defeats a few times, but Captain Cold says the Rogues never abandon one of their own. Suddenly a streak of red destroys the prison gates and kills the police. The Rogues wonder if this is the Flash, but Cold isn't too sure.
In another prison, Amanda Waller is trying to recruit the Black Manta in the Suicide Squad. Suddenly the roof is destroyed by two mysterious people, one of them filling the room with green light.
Back to Lex, he watches as 'Superman' crushes the Kyrptonite into dust, heats it up with his heat vision and inhales the fumes. He considers himself the strongest again and flies off. He asks the Grid about the location of more Kryptonite and says not to mention it to the others. Lex notices the U on his chest, rather than an S.
In Arkham's remains, Scarecrow shows Two-Face, Riddler, Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy strange coins with a backwards Earth imprinted on it. They symbolize them being invited to join the Secret Society and they're also communication devices. Some of the villains have doubts, and Riddler asks Two-Face if he's in. Two-Face flips the coin.
In the remains of the Justice League Watch Tower, tons of villains get together to see who summoned them. In a massive 4 page spread, tons of DC villains fill the page, including Black Adam, Killer Frost, Cheetah, Black Manta, Professor Pyg, Deathstroke, Black Mask, Bane and many many others. Despero brags about bringing the Watch Tower to the ground. Penguin is worried that the Joker is around here somewhere, using someone else's face and he will ruin everything. Bane says he will break the Joker if he does that.
Suddenly Aquaman's trident is tossed onto the ground, which Black Manta happily claims. Wonder Woman's lasso is also tossed into the scene and Cheetah catches it. Superman's cape is also thrown down and Parasite and Metallo fight over it. The ones calling the meeting are the Crime Syndicate, composed of Ultraman, Superwoman, Owlman, Deathstorm, Power Ring, Johnny Quick and Atomica. They come from another world and have destroyed it when the inhabitants turned against them. Now they seek to conquer this world and have killed the Justice League. One of the villains doubts them, saying this is a trick, since for example, Ultraman looks exactly like Superman but with a U on his chest. That man is vaporized to dust with Ultraman's heat vision.
The Teen Titans watch this on TV, since their equivalent of Cyborg has sent their message live all over the world. Wonder Girl asks Red Robin if he really thinks the League is dead, he says they'll find out. Ultraman tells Superwoman to bring out their prisoner... and she pulls out Nightwing, bloody and beaten and tied up a barbed-wire version of the lasso of truth. Superwoman unmasks him to the world as Richard Grayson, and his ID and other photo are posted all over live TV, even a newspaper clipping about the death of his parents at the circus (much to the horror of Tim and Barbara). Power Ring is surprised considering Nightwing is similar to Owlman's sidekick, but Deathstorm says it's not the version of Grayson he's used to anyway.
The Crime Syndicate will go out and kill all of Dick's friends and family, as well as any that oppose them. The Secret Society will be their personal army. The Crime Society watch as the villains wreak havoc wherever they go. As the sun comes up, Ultraman feels its sting. Luthor is alone in his thoughts remembering the cat from early on. He watches as Ultraman pushes the moon to cover up the sun. He thinks to himself that 'this is a job for Superman....so where the hell is he?'
My Opinions-
This was a hell of a way to start the story with a bit of mystery that didn't reveal itself til the end. Even then, did they really kill the Justice League and if not, where are they? Plus right off the bat we have something that will affect Nightwing's own series, namely, the villains revealing his secret identity on live TV. Will Dick Grayson's identity lead to Batman's secret identity?
We've seen this evil Justice League before in other versions. The Injustice Lords were seen in the Justice League animated series by Bruce Timm. The Crime Syndicate appeared in the animated movie Crisis on Two Earths. Of course, Injustice Gods Among Us sets the stage for an evil Superman and his movement. To top it off, the evil version of Cyborg, Grid, actually appears as a character in Injustice 2.
The two main comments I'd like to say are the fact that the evil Superman actually snorted Kryponite as if it were meth.... and the fact that they snuck the White Rabbit from the Batman The Dark Knight series on the cover. It seemed the New 52 really liked her, and even though she never got a proper story arc to focus more on her and her whole deal (she mostly cameos in her own introductory story), they sure love to make her appear in the background a lot. The odd part is that Bizzaro will later get introduced in this story (as in for the first time with a New 52 origin), so I guess the cover is kind of a spoiler.
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