Forever Evil Blight

This collects Justice League Dark # 24-29, Constantine #9-12, Trinity of Sin: Pandora #6-9, and Trinity of Sin: The Phantom Stranger #14-17. All in some logical mixed order, to chronologically follow the story as it progresses.This collection follows one of the many stories that unfolded out of the Trinity War story line, that turned into the Forever Evil mega event. I won't say that it's absolutely necessary to know what happened during the Trinity War, as they fill you in on the basics for the story. With that said, it'll certainly help, and all Forever Evil is useful for is filling in the gaps about some things happening elsewhere like all the lost electricity and the blotting out of the sun. They do show it, but it's not necessary to understand or appreciate the story line here.What is happening is that Constantine is alone: He's back at the House of Mystery, and slowly it's coming back what just happened. His team is missing, though, and he can't find them. That scares him, which is saying something. Joined by Nightmare Nurse and Swamp thing, he starts looking...only to find that an evil presence has taken advantage of the chaos the world is in due to the Crime Syndicate. They don't show up in the story, but their presence clearly has an effect on the magical world, as other magicians in the DC world start disappearing. This evil presence is so strong that John Constantine has to rebuild Justice League Dark with whoever is remaining to find Justice League Dark.The new team here is mostly John Constantine, Nightmare Nurse, Swamp Thing, Pandora, and the Phantom Stranger. The Question is asked but bails, and there are actually additions and subtractions to this new team like there were to the old ones. Still, it's a great lineup, especially since these characters absolutely don't like each other. They're all playing along for the greater good...but everyone hates Constantine, distrusts the Trinity members (even themselves), and fears the Nurse to some degree. As they should, since there are betrayals all over the place. But that's what makes it fun. JC, Pandora, and the Stranger are really the POV characters (makes sense as they're the ones with their own titles) and each represents a different side to this story, which is rather intricately laid out.The art is mostly good, though there are a few issues where it drops in quality. Not completely, to the point where it makes the story unenjoyable, but it's noticeable and a bit annoying during some of the key scenes. I would tell you which issues, but they go unnumbered as well so I wouldn't be able to identify which issue it is. It's not a big deal, just a minor complaint, since I didn't know if I was reading a part of JLD or Constantine.Now, I suggest this over Volume 4 of the JLD trade. I seriously don't know why they made it, since the first two issues are for Trinity War and the rest are found in this collection with the rest of Forever Evil: Blight. Without one issue of what's in this collection, the rest doesn't make sense, so unless you only want Justice League Dark comics this is for you. If you own Vol. 3 and then have this, just buy Trinity War or find the trades for the missing two issues. They are part of a 6 issue story (crossing over with the other Justice Leagues) so keep that in mind.Overall, Blight is a great story with a lot of surprising turns and kept me guessing until the end. And ending so far out of field I didn't see coming but enjoyable nonetheless as it stays true to all of the characters.

First of all, disclaimer that these New-52 characters are quite different than the pre-52 ones, and the changes to those such as John Constantine, Zatanna, and Deadman might get to some readers, but if you accept the Justice League Dark as a team with new interpretations of these characters, you will enjoy this story. If you are not familiar with the characters previously, that's fine, too and ignore this disclaimer.Overall the story is certainly worthy of the scale of the Forever Evil event (definitely read that tradeback, too, it is superbly excellent), but everything here is the occult, dark, and supernatural. If you like that kind of stuff, the adventure(s) here with Constantine and a new team he sets up is excellent--the action and cliffhangers truly make you wanna keep flipping the page. Furthermore, the scale of the problems and impending doom throughout keeps escalating...certainly suspenseful. Some readers might find the concluding issue to be upsetting; some may love the conclusion, but without spoiling anything, I found the twist appropriate considering the nature of the Justice League Dark and I am now a fan who'll check out the future JLD tradebacks!Cons include a very wide breadth of artistic styles due to the many artists; sometimes this is a good thing. In this case, the huge variance from one issue to the next was a bit distracting for me, so heads-up if that bothers you, too!

As a whole this is a very okay book and you get a lot of story for your buck. You get a lot of issues for your money, which is always nice and you will spend a good amount time reading it. Unfortunately some of those times will feel like a chore and sometimes it will feel bogged down in details. But within this large stories is lot of potential side plot lines that can be very enjoyable.The main plot line of Blight is basically two stories within this trade paperback that are in the background of Forever Evil event. The entire arc is based on Constantine's love of Zatana and his attempt to find her. Both stories are stretched way throughout a number of the Justice League Dark book and character series. One story includes a lot of connections to Christianity and the teachings of the Bible and the other story is a grand adventure against Magic Collaborators of the Crime Syndicate and the secret socitey. There is some really good moments with each of the characters including Constantine, The Phantom Stranger, and Deadman, however I expected some of my favorite characters to make more of an appearance like Frankenstein and Zatana. Furthermore Swamp Thing is used in some really weird ways and essentially feels very disconnected from the ongoing Swamp Thing series which is the one character series that is not included as part of the Blight storyline.I feel that the Blight book could of been better if some of these issues had been edited down and if it had been split into books to make feel a lot less like a chore.

I've read this book a couple times now. The first time I read it I promptly did what DC comics wanted me to and grabbed every other book even remotely attached to this one. I don't normally do that but this story was too good not to have all the pieces. I'm a fan of the Hellblazer days (a 90's comic title that didn't suck for a change) and to have John have his own book that includes reboots of some of my favorite characters as some screwed up makeshift team of supernatural heroes that is acknowledged as its own "Justice League" (stick that in your batarang Dark Knight) is more than I could have asked for. The DC universe has always been ripe with supernatural potential but it never got the attention it deserved beyond Dr. Fate and Wonder Woman's snooze-worthy loosely based Greek crap. Blight is awesome and I highly recommend it.

Love it

This volume collects the full story of Forever Evil Blight and contains Justice League Dark 24-29, Constantine 9-12, Trintiy of Sin Pandora 6-9 and Trinity of Sin Phantom Stranger 14-17, even though there are four different titles involved luckly enough J.M DeMatteis and Ray Fawkes both write two of the titles each so there is a nice synergy in the storytelling, that apart from the odd case of seeing the effect before the cause, makes for a good continous story that apart from the odd lull really does a good job of showing off the magic side of the New 52.Following the end of Trinity War all off the Justice Leagues are missing, John Constantine somehow has escaped and now he must form a new Justice league Dark to find Zatanna and the others but first they must deal with a new threat in the form of 'Blight' a creature formed off the darkest thoughts of the human race, the new team consists of Nightmare Nurse, Swamp Thing, Pandora and Phantom Stranger, not a team to inspire confidence especially when led by Constantine.I won't go into two many story details but I will say the main strand of the story at least intially is about the darkness inside all off us and how to combat it and this does make for an interesting story especially considering how much dark some of the stories protaganists have on the inside, but it also is about love, redemption and forgiveness, there really is a good amount of character building included as well (apart from Swamp Thing who is a bit underused, but then he has his own seperate title, so that is understandable) with Constatine and Phantom Stranger especially really growing as characters throughout this whole story, really I could say more but I wan't to leave you to find out the rest yourselves.If you have been reading Justice league Dark and wondering whether to get this or Volume 4 of that title, get this, it has the whole story and is only missing the two Trinity War tie-in issues, which it is worth getting in the Complete Trinity War collection anyway, there may be a few issues with storylines from Phantom Stranger especially that if you haven't been reading that that may confuse slightly, but enough explination is giving to at least get the gist of what is going on, it is just a well told and entertaining magical story that has some wonderful face offs, lots of supernatural cameos and even a talking dog (trust me it's not stupid), even if you haven't been reading much of the dark side of the New 52 and want to get all the Forever Evil titles this stands well enough on it's own to be enjoyed, but it is best enjoyed with a knowledge of what has gone before in at least Justice League Dark.

great crossover storylines, be sure to read forever evil in order ;)

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