It's not all snorting Kryptonite
This is the best part of Forever Evil that has been released so far and I cannot wait for more of Ultraman and Forever evil. This issue was gripping from start to finish and this is probably the best issue of Justice league since the beginning or at least in my opinion and I’m incredibly glad to see this series jump from deeply flawed to a very well executed series with very good character development and although I usually think Johns writes the villains the best (Black Adam), I liked all the extra characters that were put into the issue and how well they were written.
The first few pages and the majority of the book are Ultraman’s origin and while I think it’s not the most original it’s literally like make Jor-el nasty, make the Kent’s nasty, but then it becomes more interesting when we see what Ultraman would do as at first it was pretty weak, but then it becomes much more interesting. It does a really good job of giving you an insight into Ultraman’s motives and what he was brought up on to believe and I particularly like the moment where he becomes Ultraman, or shows his rule of a people in one epic panel that will send a shiver down your spine. It’s pretty funny to see the Kent’s being so dysfunctional anyway, but if you knew it was the origin of Ultraman you’d expect it to be the anti-superman and it is, so it’s a bit unoriginal, but it’s still quite funny, but Ultraman steals the show in that bit. It then goes into show how Ultraman inflicted his rule on everyone and has been manipulated by people and then been manipulated by other people and it’s very interesting to see how he came to be and the origin was handled perfectly being interesting, well-paced, exciting and also pretty frightening at points.
The later part would also have Ultraman attempting to find out how different this world is to his as he tries to find this world’s (spoilers) Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane and it’s definitely an intense scene was we see Jimmy’s reaction to a counterpart of Superman appearing, but then it’s not him obviously and the scene is incredibly well done and executed and you really don’t know what way it’s going to go. I do; however, think some background on the Earth 3 Jimmy Olsen would have been good as he’s only been referenced and it would have made the scene even more impactful, but, poor Jimmy. The ending to this scene is shocking, but also very funny in a way because of how Grid is involved in the scene and how he speaks.
Ivan Reis is an ever improving artist no of his work is bad, but if you look hard enough you will see that in certain areas it’s improved each time and I doubt it will get any worse. Reis draws the issue incredibly well drawing all the emotional and intense scenes very well to the point where you could look at the scene without reading the words and tell it’s a dark scene, it’s very well done indeed. I do wish however that Reis was drawing the main series as David Finch has been at his best although better than some of his stuff and the way he draws Ultraman makes him look very imposing and powerful and I think Reis’s style in general fit the event better.
I really enjoyed this issue and I had no major problems with it, although maybe a few minor ones like little hints dropped (Doom Patrol!) that need a bit of followup, but this is the best part of the event I have read so far and I hope Justice League continues this trend of quality and also adding to the main Forever Evil storyline as this issue won me over a bit on Ultraman and I understand where he’s coming from more now.
5 stars
