Forever Evil #6 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

I decided to get "Forever Evil" because the resolution of the "Trinity War" was so unexpectedly awesome that I was reminded how good Johns is when he's on fire.  This issue?  This issue was exactly what I hoped that we'd get when I decided to take that leap of faith.

Johns brings all the growing threats to a head here.  Batman, Lex, and their unlikely allies finally find Dick Grayson in the Watchtower, but it all goes wrong fairly quickly:  Dick is held hostage in a "Murder Machine," a device meant to imprison Doomsday that can only be disarmed if his heart stops; the Crime Syndicate is alerted to the team's presence and returns to defend their HQ; and Captain Cold unleashes the Outsider, a.k.a. a crazed Alexander Luthor.  If the "heroes" thought that they had it bad at the start of the issue, it's worse at the end.

But, Johns manages to cram even more threats into this issue.  The Syndicate is initially distracted from the team's incursion into the Watchtower because of their concern that the creature that destroyed their world has found them.  (I'm increasingly thinking that the "creature" is the mad Superboy.)  Moreover, Alexander Luthor appears not only to be the Earth-3 Shazam (particularly since the title of this issue is "The Power of Mazahs!"), but also able to drain his victim's power (and life energy).  I don't know much about the Multiverse, so I'm only aware that Alexander Luthor is a guy who thinks that he's a hero, but probably isn't.  I'm also not sure if he's previously been portrayed as the Earth-3 Shazam!, but Johns makes it clear that both the Syndicate and Batman and Lex's team will have to find a way to face him.  It seems difficult to believe that Johns is going to wrap up these two threats next issue, implying that we're going to get another event following this one, like "Forever Evil" did "Trinity War."  The way that "Forever Evil" has gone, though, I'm totally fine with that.

Moreover, this issue isn't just driven by surprise plot twists.  It has some really spectacular moments.  Readers of the various Bat-family titles will understand Bruce's near-hysteria over Dick's condition, confessing that he only pushed him and the other "family" members from him to protect them (in the wake of "Death of the Family").  Dick re-assures him, telling Bruce that he has never abandoned him, but that he needs to leave before the bomb explodes.  But, Lex takes matters in his own hands, killing Dick.  It's clear that Lex only meant to kill him temporarily, reviving him once they freed him from the machine, but Bruce is so crazed that he can't see that, attacking Luthor and wasting valuable time.  (I wouldn't be surprised, though, if we learn that Bruce and Dick had some sotto voce conversation and decided to let everyone think Dick died, given the public revelation of his identity.  He'll be resurrected as someone else, with a new identity, after the series.  After all, how often is Bruce really that hysterical?)  But, Captain Cold steals the show, freezing Johnny Quick's leg and then destroying it.  I can't explain how awesome that moment was.  Johns builds to it perfectly, making it clear that Quick's arrogance was blinding him to the threat that Cold was.  Cold acknowledges that, telling Quick that he and Flash had mutual respect, "the difference between you and him.  Besides having two legs."

Finally, Johns also gets in some digs at the heroes, reminding us, in a way, why we're all here.  Lex isn't necessarily wrong when he tells Batman that the superheroes failed, metaphorically and literally, to stop themselves, since they brought on the "metahuman violence [and] extraterrestrial or interdimensional incursion[s]" that they now can't stop.  Bruce is rattled by the accusation, in part because it has the ring of truth to it.  I don't necessarily buy it, but Johns sets up this moment as a reminder of how spectacularly the Justice League has failed to protect Earth against the Crime Syndicate.

Again, it's hard to see how Johns is going to wrap up all these plot twists in just one issue.  I'm thinking that the Crime Syndicate is going to wind up staying on Earth for a while, particularly since they have no home to which they can return.  We also have some unanswered questions, like why the Syndicate would've brought Luthor with them in the first place, rather than just letting him die in the destruction of Earth-3.  Johns clearly has a plan, though, and I can't wait to see what it is.

***** (five of five stars)