Forever Evil Event: Justice League of America 14

Justice League of America 14

Matt Kindt, Eddy Barrows, Tom Derenick, Diogenes Neves

Forever Evil Epilogue

Spoiler alert!  You have been warned!

The finale came out this week, so it’s only fitting that we get an epilogue (or, in this case, another finale of sorts) to the books most affected by the events of Forever Evil.  Matt Kindt does a nice job getting us from point A (the beginning of this fairly weak crossover storyline) to point B (the events of the main event itself) to point C (the end of this series as a whole) to point D (the beginning of a new series, which has already had two issues come out due to scheduling flubs on the part of DC Comics).  So though Justice League of America started out strong, got very tiresome, and ended relatively moderate, it’s not exactly winning me over in terms of getting me on board with another title: Justice League Canada…  I mean, Justice League in Space…  I mean, Justice League Lemire…  I mean, Justice League United.

The story wastes no time giving a recap of the main event, telling us how Forever Evil ended in the opening pages.  With an awesome cover by Eddy Barrows (strangely not featuring either Amanda Waller or Green Arrow, the two characters on the “team” I actually care about), Matt Kindt is off to a good start by framing the story with Martian Manhunter looking for Stargirl and Steve Trevor doing his interrogation thing to move it all along at a brisk pace.  We learn that Catwoman has no desire to be a team player anymore and is all about giving herself a clean slate with her government hacking skills, Green Lantern Simon Baz still has some rage issues and has no interest in teaming up with Green Arrow, who is uncharacteristically wildly optimistic about getting the gang back together, Katana is an Outsider now, period, Vibe and Element Woman are missing, Hawkman is off-planet, by choice, and Amanda Waller is going to take the fall for the whole shebang.  So when it turns out that Stargirl is actually interrogating Trevor, the tables are turned and he gives her some final advice: her and J’onn are good together and need to form another League, but not with the help of A. R. G. U. S.  And certainly not on American soil.  So the remaining hopefuls team up yet again, on Canadian soil this time, and start fresh.

All in all, a pretty good finale.  It wrapped up plenty of loose ends, acknowledged the entire run, and even planted the seeds for future stories.  Or, rather, future series.  I won’t be picking that book up, but I was glad that Kindt used the three artists (Eddy Barrows, Tom Derenick, and Diogenes Neves) to his advantage this go-around.  It felt like a complete story.  It was a good wrap-up with the necessary story being driven by Stargirl and Martain Manhunter, the two “unofficial” leaders of the new League.  I would have liked to have seen more about Amanda Waller and Congress, but I’m sure that will play out in the pages of New Suicide Squad and the rest of the DC Universe.  And as for Steve Trevor, the guy needs to catch a break.  Maybe not being on a Justice League for a while will help him salvage what little remains of his pride.

My Rating: 3.5/5