Forever Crossovers

The information for this is all over the internet, but I pride myself on making sure you don't have to leave this place to get relevant information on an article of mine (and if you do I at least link you), so let's go over it:

Spinning out of July and August's Trinity War (a crossover between Justice League, Justice League of America, and Justice League Dark) is an seven-issue event called Forever Evil by writer Geoff Johns and artist David Finch.  Based on what little we know, Forever Evil is an event in which the bad guys have won.  The heroes seem to be nowhere to be found, and to represent that for the first month of Forever Evil we will have Villains Month.  In Villains Month we'll have 56 issues of comics in which the villains have replaced the heroes, complete with fancy 3D covers that have the normal hero name crossed out with the focal villain's name stamped over it all evil-like.

There will also be three five issue spin-off mini-series to support Forever Evil.  Forever Evil: Rogues written by writer Brian Bucellato and drawn by Patrick Zircher, which will focus on what the Rogues will be doing while the heroes are missing.  Forever Evil: Arkham War by Peter Tomasi and Scot Eaton, a mini-series featuring Batman's villains...and that's pretty much all we know.  And finally Forever Evil: A.R.G.U.S. by Matt Kindt, which is about DC's SHIELD-like organization and whether it becomes SHIELD (a government organization that works alongside the heroes) or whether it becomes HAMMER (a fascist organization that rules with an iron fist).  

 

So here's the thing: as a base concept, I hate Forever Evil.  Obviously I don't think a month where the villains are running shit is going to be my favorite.  But on top of that, I hate the absolute lack of confidence displayed by DC with these one-shots.  Rather than letting each currently published comic have a one-shot, we're getting these weird one-shots that go from .1 to in some cases .4, all under the banners of the most popular comics.  I understand it, but it displays a lack of faith in a number of their brands that I can't get behind.  Ventriloquist is a Batgirl villain right now, but she's getting a one-shot under a Batman comic.  If YOU don't have faith in these characters, why should I buy their comics?

So yeah, I do disapprove. But I think its needed.  Like I mentioned in my last post, DC needs SOMETHING to keep people interested in their comics.  Now to be honest, they would be much better off if they'd stop strangling the creativity out of their writers with editors asking for stupid shit like make sure Batman doesn't sit, and allow them to come up with fun, character-driven runs like Daredevil, Young Avengers, or Hawkeye.

Why doesn't DC have something like this?!?!

But if we can't get that, at least get some event-driven stories that will build up the continuity some.  Because right now, you have none.  And if you don't have character-driven stories to get people intellectually interested, and you don't have event-driven stories that get people emotionally invested...then what do you have?   And Zero Month was cute, but that was more like a gimmick than anything else.  It was done apropos of nothing; it wasn't like the original zero issues which were done as a tie-in to Zero Hour, someone just said "Hey this is nostalgia based!", and you all started poking writers to think up some origin shit.

This?  This is a great deal better.  You've got a fantastic artist in David Finch, a name-brand writer like Geoff Johns, and the story is coming out of something that you've been hyping for over a year now (Trinity War).   It's the most basic Modern Age superhero storytelling, but we're at least back to basics.  For the past 20 months its just been amateur hour.