Forever Evil: Arkham War #6 Review

Pity the Scarecrow.

Arkham War has ended. And the finale wasn’t all bad.

Yes, Tomasi’s handling of this mini-series was derailed long ago but thankfully, some changes helped smoothen the finale.

The artwork is the only good thing about this miniseries and it felt wasted here. As Batman once said, art without content is something he hates.

SPOILERS FOLLOW………………

While Cobb revives the Talons, Bane removes the Bat costume. As the Venomized Arkhamites attack, Bane comes out in classic regalia.

Thank God no more BatBane!

After a short fight which the Arkhamites naturally lose, Cobblepot takes charge of the crazies while Bane keeps back Scarecrow, making him a literal scarecrow for his city.

There’s a nice homage to the Dark Knight Rises at the end.

So, as you can see, not much happened here. The final plan by Scarecrow collapsed quickly and Bane won.

Irritatingly, there were two whole 2-page spreads of venomized Arkhamites attacking Bane’s troops. Most hideous was Professor Pyg, as he went ‘head cheese’.

The tossing away of the Bat suit was a relief though. It had made me cringe every-time I saw it and seeing Bane fighting as Bane was reassuring. If only this had happened sooner.

What didn’t need to happen was the Venom plot. Scarecrow came up with one lame plan after another and in the end, it wasn’t a surprise Bane won.

Cobblepot’s one of the few who come out of this good as he continues to manipulate events to his favor. I’m disappointed though that Oswald didn’t play a bigger part.

As for Gotham’s best, this was truly a chance missed. Getting Gordon, Montoya, Bullock and the rest in the spotlight would have been great. Instead we got meaningless fights.

Though Bane putting on the same coat as the one worn by the TDKR version was a good moment to end the series on.

SPOILERS END………………..

While the final issues did give us some good moments, most of it was ruined by what had come before. Tomasi’s handling of villains has been very good so I don’t know what went wrong here.

The artwork was well done though with little content, felt like I was looking at a sketchbook instead of reading a comic book.

The series has been a disappointment as a whole, and this was reflected in the finale.

So, I give it 6.0 out of 10.

+Bane is Bane again

+A good end moment

+Some good artwork

-Too much filler

-Final Battle was rushed

-Too many unnecessary 2-page spreads

-Too much negative baggage coming into this