Forever Evil
Jesse Schedeen of IGN gave the first issue an 8.0 out of 10, saying "Regardless of your thoughts on "Trinity War", "Forever Evil" #1 is a solid start to DC's first real event comic of the New 52. It sees [Geoff] Johns diving headlong into a realm that he's succeeded in so often in the past." Schedeen wished that the Crime Syndicate had been featured more "to establish what makes this new take on the Crime Syndicate unique and why they're a greater threat now than they were the many times the Justice League clashed with them in decades past." Newsarama's Richard Gray was more critical, giving the issue a 7 out of 10. Gray felt that Johns trod a very thin line of overloading the story with too many villains and felt it was "immediately evident that reading this book in isolation of what has come before is almost impossible." He concluded that this event "has a familiar feeling to it, and it’s almost like starting over after coming so close to something that felt like a conclusion to two years worth of questions." Meagan Demore of Comic Book Resources gave the issue 3.5 stars out of 5, saying, "In its chilling first issue, "Forever Evil" delivers a solid story rife with Geoff Johns' effective character use and David Finch's stunning artwork. Although the book suffers from confusing timelines and episodic material, its debut shows promise through some exceptionally notable moments and strong visual command. "Forever Evil" #1 paves the way for an interesting new epoch at DC Comics with a concept that will hopefully be just as effective in the tie-ins as it was here."
Epic Comics
Although Epic was meant to be mainly a creator-owned line, "Elektra: Assassin" became only the first title featuring Marvel characters published by the imprint. Others included "Meltdown", a painted mini-series featuring Havok and Wolverine from the "X-Men"; "Iron Man: Crash"; a resurrected "Tomb of Dracula"; and the miniseries "Silver Surfer: Parable", dealing with messianic themes, written by Stan Lee with art by French comics storyteller Mœbius). Marvel then commissioned writer and Marvel editor Archie Goodwin to create original characters for a Mature Readers superhero line for Epic Comics. This took the form of The Shadowline Saga, a storyline spanning four different titles in 1987.