Justice League 23.1
Special “Villains Month” Title: Darkseid 1
Grek Pak, Paolo Siqueira, Nethro Diaz
Forever Evil Crossover
Spoiler alert! You have been warned!
This Batman/Superman tie-in (arguably a Justice League tie-in, albeit a little late) was one of the main reasons I was for Villains Month to begin with. Who doesn’t want to read an origin story about the greatest and most powerful evil in all of comic books? Especially when it’s a fresh and exciting take on a classic character and by a writer that is relatively new to the mythos and the company? This reader, for one, was completely sold on the idea from the first announcement. And, as is the case with many (most) DC comics of recent years (the last twenty), I was completely impressed and overwhelmed by the amount of awesome within a few small pages after going to the comic shop for my weekly visit.
It was very cool to finally see Darkseid’s (and Highfather’s) origins in the New 52, but it was just an added bonus to see it told alongside that of the trickster, Kaiyo, the Chaos Bringer. She’s been pretty awesome (albeit mysterious) in the pages of Batman/Superman in the first story arc, and it was awesome to see that she is not only connected to Darkseid and the entire new Fourth World mythology, but also the reason behind Darkseid’s near destruction of Earth 2 and subsequent search for a way to destroy the main Earth of the Justice League. (Granted, they’re a little busy right now, what with the whole Earth 3 taking over the planet and all.) It was a genuine delight to see the artwork of Paolo Siqueira and Nethro Diaz complement Greg Pak’s Kirby-esque script of the King’s classic villainous creation, even if it was just an origin story at heart. But when you get right down to it, this was a perfect start to Villains Month. The ultimate villain to end all villains, looming in the shadows and promising that no matter how Forever Evil ends, he’ll always be back. And as Kaiyo says at the conclusion of this story: No one can escape the wrath of a mad God.
This is a great issue. It’s well-written, the artwork is classic yet not jarring for the eyes of the contemporary reader. Definitely worth the extra dollar for the awesome cover, this is going to be one of many excellent entries into the Villains Month gimmicky special cover themed issues tying into Forever Evil. The only two things that I didn’t like about it were the fact that the huge Marvel Infinity event right now is essentially a giant crossover event about what this one issue is and we’re going to have to wait until the next DC event before we even see Darkseid again. But, like him, I can wait.
My Rating: 4.5/5
