Forever Evil: Arkham War #3

Forever Evil: Arkham War #3

Writer: Peter J. Tomasi
Penciller: Scot Eaton
Inkers: Jaime Mendoza and Allen Martinez
Colorist: Andrew Dalhouse
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Cover Artist: Jason Fabok and Blond

Forever Evil: Arkham War #3 takes some strange turns as Batman’s villains struggle to one-up themselves in an all out free for all for Gotham City. Penguin, Scarecrow, Mr. Freeze, Mad Hatter, Croc, Clayface and Bane are all part of the madness. In this issue, Croc takes center stage as he dares to ascend to the top of the hierarchy. However Bane has other ideas.

I haven’t been a big fan of Bane in this series yet, but he finally manages to do something interesting in this issue. Shrugging off his army of uninteresting mercenaries, he decides to strike fear into Gotham’s villains by dressing up like Batman. Yep, Bane turns himself into Batman as he decides to take on Croc. They duke it out in Wayne Tower for a four page slug fest of grunts and growls. It’s not the best reading material, and the artwork doesn’t make the fight all that iconic or clear. Mostly it’s two overly muscular characters wrapped up in each other panel after panel with sound effects. It left something to be desired.

Another odd moment in this issue appeared early on as a bit of running gag. A villain would begin talking, would be cut off and attacked by another villain, and the scene would repeat. It was an odd way to kill the flow of the story. Rather than eliciting humor, it was kind of dumb and threw me out of the story as just a little too absurd. For some reason Peter J. Tomasi seems to be having trouble thoroughly capturing the characters and maintaining the feel of the story. In each issue, the events and dialog struggle. There are some good parts, but they’re mixed with bad parts. The overall effect is an average story with average characters. It’s alright, but nothing great.

The artwork doesn’t help the story as it’s kind of mediocre too. It’s not bad but it’s not anything stellar. There are some great moments that could have had really nice visuals, but the style of the artwork is a bit too stylized for my liking. It’s like an overly dramatic comic style. Muscles are overly accentuated, panels are congested and cluttered, and overall it’s forgettable. There are only a couple scenes that really stand out. One is Clayface on page seven. The other is the shot of Bat-Bane holding Croc over his head in the rain. The cover art, however, is pretty cool.

With this being issue #3 in this mini-series, Arkham War just isn’t taking off or solidifying itself as a worthwhile series. If you haven’t started reading it yet, there’s no reason to jump in at this point. I myself am losing interest and may not continue on much further than this. As is, I give Forever Evil: Arkham War #3 a three out of five metal bikinis.

Reviewed By: Skuldren for Roqoo Depot.