Forever Evil #1

Nightfall

Geoff Johns Writer
David Finch Penciller
Richard Friend Inker
Sonia Oback Colorist
Rob Leigh Letterer
David Finch, Richard Friend and Sonia Oback Cover
Ivan Reis, Eber Ferreira, Joe Prado, Rod Reis and Tomeu Morey 3-D Variant
Ivan Reis, Eber Ferreira, Joe Prado and Tomeu Morey Villain Variants
Kate Stewart Assistant Editor
Brian Cunningham Senior Editor

There are a bunch of variant covers for this issue, but we're still in the era of DC stingily not including variants in their digital copies — even for the DC Universe app. Since the Teen Titans only appear in two panels in this issue, I'm not going to track down those variants. The main cover is simple, but effective — just a collection of every villain David Finch can cram onto one cover. The only problem is I can't stand Finch's art. It's quite displeasing. Which I guess is the right choice for a story about the villains taking over ... or forced to team up to stop the worse villains ... whatever.

The story details the arrival of the Crime Syndicate from Earth-3. They somehow convince every single villain in the two-year history of the New 52 to come meet them at the wreckage of the crashed Justice League satellite. The Crime Syndicate claims to have killed the Justice League, but they offer very little proof. One random villain named Monocle believes the Crime Syndicate is really the Justice League in disguise, but he's promptly killed for his doubt. Oh, and all this is happening on live TV.

The Teen Titans are naturally watching, along with the rest of the world, and we see Bunker is still with them. Raven and Beast Boy are nowhere in sight, though, which means that either this story takes place before Trigon's invasion, or Geoff Johns and David Finch didn't care about Titans continuity. Take your pick.

Anyway, the Crime Syndicate does provide something tangible. They've captured Nightwing, and reveal his secret identity to the whole world. Red Robin is naturally shocked by this, but we won't see him and the Titans do anything about it till next issue.




The main conceit of this event is a decent one. The Justice League has disappeared, and in their place is their evil doppelgängers from a parallel Earth. The execution wasn't quite that great, though. Finch's artwork is almost unbearable. And a few plot elements are downright ridiculous (I hope Johns learned how eclipses actually work since this story came out).

Next time, we'll see the Teen Titans' response in Forever Evil #2.