Forever Evil - Arkham War #1

Writer - Peter J. Tomasi

Art - Scot Eaton, Jamie Medoza, Norm Rapmund, Mick Gray, Amdrew Dalhouse

 

Get Caught Up…

 

The Crime Syndicate has abandoned Earth-3 and claimed the New 52 universe as their own.  The Justice League is seemingly dead and the world has gone to Hell.

 

What’s Good?

 

The speed at which the world has gone to Hell is breathtaking.  We’ve begun the second month of Forever Evil and the picture painted here is one of a world gone completely off of the deep end.  Life is no longer normal for the residents of Gotham, and the team here isn’t pulling any punches.  With the aftermath of the release of the prisoners from Arkham Asylum Gotham has been divided into districts where the Batman rogues gallery have free reign to do whatever it is that they do.  There’s some pretty dark stuff going on here.  Moreover, everything that is going on here is what one would expect from the fallout of the ending of Trinity War and beginning chapters of the Forever Evil saga.  

 

With the power vacuum resulting from the loss of the Justice League, it makes sense that there would be friction amongst the darker side of the DCU.  No honor amongst thieves and whatnot.   That person taking control in this instance is longtime Batman nemesis Bane.  This is the furthering of his story that began in his Villains Month spotlight.  There are some great moments here showcasing just how bad things have become, as well as the players moving into place for the impending strife over control of Gotham.  I’m looking forward to seeing how things develop.  Bane has made some intriguing moves here regarding the gathering of his army and I’m anxious to see how they play out.  There are some larger questions at play here, especially focusing on how dark things can get before they have to get better. Those questions are probably best serviced in the core Forever Evil title.  Here is a book about bad people doing bad things to each other.  War is brewing, and the one thing that remains truest of all is the villains have won, but they’re still fighitng.  

 

The art fits the tone of the story here.  The pencils are intricate and show a great deal of detail without overpowering the frames.  The colors here really shine as well.  Arkham War is inherently a dark story.  Both literally and figuratively.  The varying shades of darkness bring a  great life to the pages, and we feel the gravity of the situations at hand.  Something about the dark really makes everything all the more serious.  We have a team of GCPD heroes struggling against that darkness and the art makes their task at hand seem that much greater.   Bane may come across a little ridiculous in some panels, but he’s fueled by body-altering venom, so I suppose that’s par for the course.

 

The Verdict…

This is a solid piece of work.  Nothing groundbreaking, but entertaining for now.  I’m hoping for more insight into why the villains constantly are at war even after they’ve won, but I’m fine with them just fighting as well.  I’ll stick around.