Review: Justice League Dark Vol. 4- The Rebirth of Evil

Quick Summary

Pros: There are some cool moments that show off some unique magic. The artwork looks beautiful.

Cons: The volume sets up a number of characters and events which never quite materialize. The conclusion is poor and actively undoes a lot of the work accomplished earlier in the book.

Overall: This collection provides pieces of a storyline that was not that good when viewed in its complete form. As such, it reads even worse when just viewed in segments. There was a lot of potential in this event but pointless setup and a disappointing conclusion prevent it from being anything more that a failed crossover. Only read this if you are willing to suffer through a lackluster story and a bad conclusion just to see a few cool moments.

Review Notes

The “Trinity War” storyline is an intense crossover between the Justice League, Justice League Dark, and Justice League of America comic series. Realistically, just reading the Justice League Dark issues will not give readers the information necessary to understand what is going on. Since this volume contains issues that are a part of the “Trinity War” crossover, we will be omitting those in our review.

Instead, we will be reviewing the entirety of the “Trinity War” storyline in our review of Trinity War (found here) instead of within this review. This review will cover the portions of Justice League Dark Vol. 4: Rebirth of Evil which are not part of the “Trinity War” storyline. Therefore, this review will only cover issues #24-29 of Justice League Dark.

In addition, issues #24-29 of Justice League Dark form part of the Forever Evil: Blight crossover event. We have reviewed this entire event here but will still be reviewing the individual Justice League Dark issues within this review.

Story

Right off the bat, it is important to note that Justice League Dark Vol. 4: Rebirth of Evil, by J.M. DeMatteis, does not read well on its own. It is part of the Forever Evil: Blight (Review) (Reading Order) crossover event, so large portions of the action are missed by not including the crossover issues. The Forever Evil: Blight (Review) storyline is still somewhat legible here though and thus I will still be reviewing it, though I do not recommend reading it like this.

That being said, I also would suggest not reading this event at all simply based on the overall poor quality of the read. In our review of the entire Forever Evil: Blight event (found here), I talked about how the event is a ton of negatives with very few positives. Though Rebirth of Evil contains many of these positives, it also has some of the largest negatives. A number of pointless moments and two incredibly disappointing endings solidify this as a lackluster reading experience.

(spoilers start here)

The main story in this event is split into two separate halves. The first follows the new Justice League Dark’s attempt to destroy Blight, a physical manifestation of the evil in humanity’s collective subconscious. The second follows the League as they infiltrate a Crime Syndicate compound in order to release imprisoned members of the Justice League Dark.

At first, both of these storylines seem interesting enough and have their fair share of moments that build excitement. The Nightmare Nurse creates her own corrupt version of Swamp Thing, Deadman takes over an evil version of Aquaman’s dead body, and Blight is reborn as the spirit of redemption. As each of these events unfold, I became more excited and was ready to see how these new developments would be used later in the story.

Unfortunately, this storyline excels in disappointment and managed to toss all of my excitement to the curb by simply not materializing anything that was promised. Swamp Thing barely plays a role in the entire volume, Deadman’s use of the Sea King’s body is only interesting for one brief moment, and the spirit of redemption doesn’t even end up doing anything here. By not capitalizing on all of this, the book retroactively kills my enthusiasm for the portions I previously enjoyed and guarantees that I will not be giving this book a second read.

In addition, the conclusions to both of the book’s storylines are so bad that they make the whole collection feel pointless. The first half ends in an unexpected deus ex machina and the second half actively undoes the majority of the book’s character development (see our review of Forever Evil: Blight right here for a more in depth look at these endings). By capping the book in this way, it not only provides a terrible end to the reading experience but also makes a lot of the earlier material feel pointless and unnecessary.

(spoilers end here)

Art

The biggest redeeming feature to this book is the artwork. Mikel Janín stood out as the best artist in the Forever Evil: Blight event and all of his work is collected here. All of Janín’s character designs and backgrounds look fantastic, he truly has a talent for drawing people and places in some of the most beautiful ways possible. In addition, his work on magical elements really shines here, and he is able to paint a picture that looks good no matter how bad the story is. The art is the best thing this book has going for it and is something everyone should be able to enjoy.

Continuity

The portions of Justice League Dark Vol. 4: Rebirth of Evil reviewed here continue the story from the Justice League Dark portions of Trinity War (Review) or Justice League Dark Vol. 3: The Death of Magic (Review). 

The portions of Justice League Dark Vol. 4: Rebirth of Evil reviewed here also crossover with three other comic collections. These include Phantom Stranger Vol. 3: The Crack in Creation (Review), Constantine Vol. 2: Blight, and Pandora Vol. 2: Choices (Review). For more information see our “Forever Evil: Blight Reading Order“.

The story here continues in Justice League Dark Vol. 5: Paradise Lost (Review).

This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:

• A number of references are made to the very end of Trinity War (Review) (Reading Order).
• Though this is a Forever Evil (Review) tie-in, it does not reference much about the event besides its beginning.
• Both Felix Faust and Nick Necro were last seen at the very end of Justice League Vol. 2: The Books of Magic (Review).
• Pandora references a few aspects of her life’s story, which are originally chronicled in Trinity of Sin: Pandora Vol. 1: The Curse (Review).
• A number of the Phantom Stranger’s recent adventures become important in this volume, especially those in Trinity of Sin- The Phantom Stranger Vol. 2: Breach of Faith (Review).
• Recent adventures in Constantine’s life, chronicled at the start of Constantine Vol. 2: Blight are mentioned here.