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Forever Evil: Arkham War #6 - World War Gotham

3

Scarecrow's forces are on venom and ready to take back the city from Bane.

The Good

With team Arkham full of venom, you know there's about to be a big ol' brawl. Then again, that's pretty much what the majority of this limited series has been, so that shouldn't be much of a surprise, right?

First and foremost, this FOREVER EVIL tie-in continues to look praiseworthy. Artist Scot Eaton and colorist Andrew Dalhouse do excellent work with bulkier characters, and as expected, this issue is full of them. Bane looks particularly fantastic. The opening splash page of the villain patching himself up has some stunning lighting and the last one is a fine example of how New 52 Bane can pull off a Dark Knight Rises-esque costume (and pose!). I prefer the classic look, but under Eaton's pencil, it most definitely works. The duo also delivers two impressive double spread pages. What goes down isn't all that epic, but they most certainly make sure it all looks great.

Despite being the conclusion of this grand struggle to claim Gotham City, this issue is essentially a dose of popcorn fun and a love letter to Bane. This really shouldn't come as much of a surprise, but you'll have to forgive me for expecting a little more since this is the finale between Bane and Scarecrow's forces and it's been brewing for some time now (Tomasi's done some incredible work over in BATMAN & ROBIN, after all). If you've been enjoying the slugfests and witnessing Bane acting like a towering badass, then you'll be pleased to hear that's basically a vast majority of this issue. There's no surprises to be found here; just some big punches being thrown back and forth.

The Bad

After so much buildup and potential, this conclusion is literally as simple as it can get and doesn't even give any sort of firm conclusion with the Talons. It'll be an amusing ride for Bane fans, but there's literally zero payoff with Scarecrow. In fact, I imagine a Scarecrow fan or two will be sure to speak their mind in the comments. I mean, for all of the tactical characters involved, it literally wraps up with "let's beat him up!" Don't get me wrong, I obviously love a good fight, but this was basically one big pile on with a couple of impactful moves. There were plenty of possibilities with this roster and it feels like a missed opportunity. The fact the end result is given away in solicitations for an upcoming one-shot doesn't help matters, either. Lastly, I'm not the biggest fan of Bane's dialogue. Sure, he's an intellectual man, but Tomasi tends to make him ramble instead of being concise and intimidating.

The Vedict

Do you like seeing Bane punch things really, really hard? If so, you'll have an okay time with this chapter. However, if you were expecting a huge payoff with the war's ending, you're likely to be letdown because this literally boils down to a big (albeit good looking) match of rock 'em sock 'em robots. It's remarked that Bane's a great tactician, but let's be honest, this book exists just to see some fighting between Batman's villains and the plot itself feels secondary. If that's all you expect or want, then it'll be worth the $2.99. For everyone else, you're probably better off spending that money elsewhere.

18 Comments

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Saren

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I pretty much only get this book for the laughs now. People were wondering how Scarecrow's supposed to out-tactician Bane, but then Tomasi makes his own rules about what an expert tactician is like. Every chapter is basically Scarecrow going "Let's divert forces to the west to distract Bane, and then steal his most prized weapon while he's not looking! Extract some of his blood and I can make Venom from it, and then we'll overwhelm him together! This is a fully thought out plan!" and Bane's counter is always "I AM GOING TO PUNCH YOU REALLY HARD" and he always wins.

It's a shame; I thought Tomasi's conclusion to The Big Burn had some of the most powerful Two-Face moments in recent memory, but his Bane is pretty awful.

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patrat18

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This has to be the best fight in comics this week. Holy Sh!t!

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JTKirk101

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god.... I hate that bane coat at the end... I know ...I know.... the movie.... but ughh

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LordoftheNorth

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what a way to make your villains none threating they all were just manhandled by Bane like it was nothing i mean the talons in the last issue put up more of a fight so Bane coming out on top just fells shallow and unearned and to top it all off they make a TDR refernce at the end with Bane putting on that coat

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Rainja

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Issue was ok i guess, i also agree, that bane couldnt handle a bunch of talons but couldn easily defeat a gang of super powered villains, some of home should be wayyyyyy more powerful than himself.like Killer croc and Clay Face. Anyways, art and action makes its tolerable. I agree it could have beem done better but its cool.

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kidchipotle

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Edited By kidchipotle

This series had so much potential and I feel like it just didn't live up to what it could have been. The end was really open ended so I'm going to assume that the Forever Evil Fall Out one shot will be the true conclusion to this mini. I love Bane, he's one of my favorites, but Tomasi just didn't write a good Bane. And then his attire at the end.....what is this? Marvel?

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mak13131313

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This was a good issue. I loved the art and the fight was epic!

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TDK_1997

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This book was such a huge disappointment.Tomasi made a really disappointing book with a lot of characters that are great and have a huge potential but instead of dealing with them and having some characterization he decided to go with stupid tactics and in the end just punch my way through them for Bane.This was no conclusion whatsoever and I thought he would be making a really nice story after his great so far Batman and Robin run.

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entropy_aegis

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@tdk_1997 said:

This book was such a huge disappointment.Tomasi made a really disappointing book with a lot of characters that are great and have a huge potential but instead of dealing with them and having some characterization he decided to go with stupid tactics and in the end just punch my way through them for Bane.This was no conclusion whatsoever and I thought he would be making a really nice story after his great so far Batman and Robin run.

Really? I thought it was actually as good as one could have realistically hoped,there was never really any battle or fight everyone knew Bane was gonna win right from the get go,Scarecrow was an awful choice. Other Batman stories similar to Arkham War have been pretty terrible or bad(War Games,Battle for the Cowl) so overall Arkham War was decent as a popcorn flick type comic.

Gets a 5.5-6/10 from me,hopefully though the conclusion will be better.

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entropy_aegis

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@rainja said:

Issue was ok i guess, i also agree, that bane couldnt handle a bunch of talons but couldn easily defeat a gang of super powered villains, some of home should be wayyyyyy more powerful than himself.like Killer croc and Clay Face. Anyways, art and action makes its tolerable. I agree it could have beem done better but its cool.

Talons are superior to the Arkhamites,Clayface and Ivy were the only ones out of Bane's league and I dont think it's coincidence that we didn't see Bane beating either of them.

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TDK_1997

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@tdk_1997 said:

This book was such a huge disappointment.Tomasi made a really disappointing book with a lot of characters that are great and have a huge potential but instead of dealing with them and having some characterization he decided to go with stupid tactics and in the end just punch my way through them for Bane.This was no conclusion whatsoever and I thought he would be making a really nice story after his great so far Batman and Robin run.

Really? I thought it was actually as good as one could have realistically hoped,there was never really any battle or fight everyone knew Bane was gonna win right from the get go,Scarecrow was an awful choice. Other Batman stories similar to Arkham War have been pretty terrible or bad(War Games,Battle for the Cowl) so overall Arkham War was decent as a popcorn flick type comic.

Gets a 5.5-6/10 from me,hopefully though the conclusion will be better.

It was just that - a popcorn flick type comic but nothing more than that.I expected something more from it.I knew all along that Bane is going to win and that it's going to be just one big battle between the two so called "teams" but I wanted something more,some small backstory or characterization at least for Bane.

But it was still better than Battle for the Cowl while not better than War Games.War Games at least a little better than Battle for the Cowl and Arkham War.

For me so far the series and this issue gets somewhere around 4-5/10.

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consafo80

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Maybe its cause Rogues Rebellion and ARGUS have been so good buy this FE mini series has been quite disappointing. Kinda fun though at least.

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Guerraa

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Another terrible review for a comic that has just been awesome. You don't get that Scarecrow tried all the tactics unsuccessfully? Heck, even this "let's beat him up" (as you call it) was actually a tactic and strategy because they were using Bane's venom. My only complaint about this series is that 6 issues wasn't enough for the multitude of villains in Gotham. Tomasi still wrote an awesome 5-star series considering he only had 6 issues to get it done.

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Onemoreposter

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Overall, I've enjoyed the script and pace of this series. I particularly liked the characterizations of Bane and Penguin.

I had no problem with the final scene where Bane takes on all the Arkham big bads on venom. He is a superior combatant to all of them and with the exception of Croc, is stronger than each of them individually on Venom.

How many times have we seen Batman take down a group of assailants with comparable strength? Bane's combat prowess isn't far away from Batman's. It makes sense that his durability and skill would allow him to last until their venom wore off. However, I'd go as far as to say I wouldn't have had a problem if Bane simply BEAT them all while they were on the venom.

Another good series from Tomasi. I enjoyed it much more than I'm enjoying the actual Forever Evil series.

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k4tzm4n

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k4tzm4n  Moderator
@guerraa said:

Another terrible review for a comic that has just been awesome. You don't get that Scarecrow tried all the tactics unsuccessfully? Heck, even this "let's beat him up" (as you call it) was actually a tactic and strategy because they were using Bane's venom. My only complaint about this series is that 6 issues wasn't enough for the multitude of villains in Gotham. Tomasi still wrote an awesome 5-star series considering he only had 6 issues to get it done.

Another terrible comment for a comic that has just been alright.

Do you see how abrasive and pointless it is to start a conversation like that? Anyway, I'm obviously aware of what Scarecrow's final plan was -- I'd have to literally not read the issue to not grasp it -- but just because it is a plan hardly means I think it's a good one. There's a significant difference and that's clearly implied in the review. If you love it, cool, you have every right to, but speaking like that to those who don't is hardly a good way to get your point across.