Does this issue pack enough punch to connect with the growing threat now engulfing this shared universe?  Read on to find out.

The official description from DC:

A “Forever Evil” tie-in! THE JUSTICE LEAGUE IS DEAD! But who’s at the top of the food chain now? And what does BLACK ADAM have to say about it?

There’s evil everywhere, and our heroes, the ones we’ve relied on to protect us from our darker demons have vanished from the Earth.  The world over is told they’re dead.  Now we find their opposites, birthed from a ruined planet and bent on the conquest of ours.  With that in mind the creative team jumps right into these murky waters, and they embrace the climate with a tale focusing strongly Kal-Il.

We see a different version of a character we all know, and Geoff Johns does enough to instill the inherent odyssey of Superman with the brutality of Ultraman.  I can’t praise it enough, but the script absolutely sells this complicated vision that sees an icon realized as a villain.  Perhaps the most compelling aspect of the narrative at play is the corny underbelly that’s uplifted and kept at bay by a scribe that understands what makes the New 52 and what came before it both exceptional and functional.  In short: this was a sterling representation of what this landscape offers to anyone who’s willing to delve into it, and you couldn’t ask for a better guide.

Ivan Reis delivers a beautiful array of panels that perfectly fits within the confines of this text.  He complements each scenario with a refined touch that brings both originality and substance to an affair that sees suffering.  We have a bunch of familiar side characters that are dragged into the cross-hairs, and, just before the issue draws to a close the talent realizes the beginnings of something that’s sure to set the whole of the odyssey on fire come Forever Evil #3.

Justice League #24 is a great addition that impresses me from the first panel to the final page.  If you’re buying the event you need this.  Highly recommended.

4.5/5