Forever Evil #1: DC massive month long event kicks off with the first issue of the Forever Evil mini series and tons of individual villain books. If you’ve seen the DC Animated movie Crisis on Two Earths, the same sort of thing is happening in this story, as a group of villains from an alternate universe, who are evil versions of the DC universe’s heroes, arrive on Earth and seemingly kill or capture all the major heroes and invite almost all the major villains of the DC universe to join them. The book seems to be setting up Lex Luthor as the unlikley hero who will help oppose the newly appointed overlords.
Chew #36: Chew’s sister Toni, who was killed a few issues back, gets the spotlight in an issue that fits in between two of the most recent story arcs. She helps her younger sister, Sage, who’s food based power is she gets psychic impressions of people who eat the same food nearby to her. She accidentally sees the memories of a ruthless crime boss and Toni has to use NASA’s tech to force him to turn himself in.
Two Face #1: With Batman seemingly dead, Two-Face flips a coin and decides to take the law into his own hand, killing and capturing the villains running amok in Gotham and setting up his own court where a coin flip either gives the accused life in prison or death. Scarecrow delivers the message to Two Face about the new evil leaders but he only agrees to work with them if they don’t interfere with his decisions, which some of their lackeys do, putting Two Face possibly in the ranks of those who might fight the invading super villains.
Poison Ivy #1: The New 52’s Pamela Isley gets her origin told has she unleashes plants across Gotham. Her father was abusive and killed her mother after years of beatings but then buying flowers to make peace. Ivy attends college and uses her pheromone research to graduate with the highest honors. She gets an internship at a Wayne Enterprises subsidiary but Bruce is unwilling to fund research he believes amounts to brainwashing, putting Ivy at war with Wayne Enterprises. Her plan in the chaos of the death of the heroes is to turn Gotham into a plant covered jungle she will rule.
Darkseid #1: The origins of Darkseid are revealed in kind of a condensed version of Marvel’s recent Thanos Rising mini-series. Darkseid was just a mild mannered farmer on a distant planet when massive gods arrived and rampaged across the planet with little regard for the mortals who were living there. Darkseid was somehow granted the power to kill the gods and with each one, took their power until he became the most powerful god in the universe. He seemingly has Superman captured on Apokalips.
Deadshot #1: The Suicide Squad is disbanded following the Forever Evil takeover and Deadshot is doing odd contracts taking out random villains who are not part of the plan. His origin is also revealed in that his entire family was gunned down in a random mob robbery and he devoted himself to taking down the men responsible and then taking out men like them. Amanda Waller calls him toward the end of the issue and convinces him to re-gather the Suicide Squad to help her take back Belle Reve and fight the villains, which he agrees to do when he gets a $12 million payday.
Joker #1: In a very bizarre story, Joker, most likely pre cutting off his face, has a new gang of criminals who accompany him to the Gotham Zoo, where they capture a baby gorilla that he raises like a son into a criminal. They attack a councilwoman who is trying to close down Gotham Zoo but their plan to mutate them goes awry and “Jackanapes” is seemingly killed when he and Joker plunge out of a blimp into a river. Of all the Forever Evil villain issues, this one seems like the most unrelated one so far, as there’s no mention of the villain takeover and it’s seemingly set before any of the Batman New 52 stories.
Grodd #1: I haven’t been reading Flash but apparently Gorilla Grodd was trapped inside the Speed Force and in his villain issue, finally escapes and arrives at a peace summit between gorillas and humans with enhanced powers. He quickly takes over and submits everyone to his will, turning Central City into Gorilla City and killing all who oppose him. He flies off for parts unknown at the end of the issue, he says out of boredom.
Iron Man #15: The final battle between Tony and the genocidial robot 451 takes place this issue as Tony manages to recover his liquid metal Iron Man suit and rigs a squad of other suits to fight with him. Tony has PEPPER (his Jarvis replacement AI), to target 451’s hacking unit and takes it out so that 451 can no longer take over PEPPER or Tony’s suit and then a Hulkbusteresque armor arrives to put 451 down for good. The massive Godkiller armor is still en route to Earth but Tony manages to convince 451 to abort his plan, although 451 believes he has to rectify his mistake by sending them all to another dimension so that no one can use his knowledge or the Godkiller.
The Star Wars #1: Based on George Lucas’ rough draft and Ralph McQuarrie’s concept art, Dark Horse brings us a Star Wars that might have been. The same basic setup is intact, the Jedi have been wiped out by the Sith and the Empire reigns but Luke Skywalker is a grizzled veteran Jedi, running the defenses of the Aquilae system, who are fighting against Imperial control. The Emperor appoints Governor Hoeedack and Darth Vader, much less disfigured than you would expect, to take control of the system. One of Luke’s old friends, Kane Starkiller, arrives with son Annikin after surviving an attack by a Sith assassin that killed his younger son. Kane begs Luke to train Annikin, as he is almost all robotic parts due to his battles against the Sith and feels he’s going to die soon. Also, Princess Leia is heading off to college?
Avengers AI #3: In a very Tronesque issue, Vision finds himself in the virtual world of the Diamond and becomes the leader of the assembled AI lifeforms there, due to his being the “Son of Pym”. The evil AI Dimitrios explains that they have to go to war with humanity in order to survive but Vision refuses to accept that. In the outside world, Hank Pym and the other robotic Avengers discover the location of The Diamond and head there to try and extract Vision and try and save the inhabitants from being wiped out by a SHIELD airstrike.
Daredevil: Dark Nights #4: After saving a little girl’s transplant heart during a blizzard, the Man Without Fear is no up against a miniature thief who runs off with murder evidence and throws Daredevil in the path of both Shocker and the Avengers battling a massive rock monster. It turns out the thief, named Buggit, is the cousin of the man accused of murdering a councilwoman and was setup by the mob.
