DC’s Year of the Villain is published by DC Comics. It is separated into three different stories, the first, Doom, is written by Scott Snyder with art by Jim Cheung, the second, Leviathan, is written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Alex Maleev, and the third, Justice, is written by James Tynion IV with art by Francis Manapul.
Like I said, this comic is separated into 3 different stories, the first and third ones are semi related but come from two different perspectives, while the middle story seems to be a unique event entirely. We can expect big things this summer from DC, especially if it’s a case of two unique events. Honestly, I’m a little concerned about how Event Leviathan, Year of the Villain, and City of Bane (coming in July with Batman #75) will all function together or apart or what exactly DC has planned. They all seem like they will be cool and interesting, but regardless, a lot is about to go down.
I really liked the way this comic was done. At first I thought it was kind of weird for Leviathan to be in the middle, but when I read it a second time, I liked the set up. Doom is nice because it gives us a quick preview of Lex Luthor’s big plan while establishing who some of our main villain players are going to be, but there’s a lot of faces, especially towards the end. Then we shift to Leviathan, which the majority of the time is spent with Batgirl, Green Arrow, and Merlyn. Only at the very end do we see the new threat, along with Bruce and Damian, it’s simple. Then with Justice, we are back with Lex’s plot but from the Justice League’s perspective, meaning again, lots of faces to take in. So it’s like, lots of stuff, a little stuff, lots more stuff. I prefer that to trying to have a whole ton of heroes and villains shoved at me all at once while trying to follow along two sides of a story.
The art was great and appropriate for all three narratives, but I have to say, I liked Alex Maleev’s the best. I’ll admit my bias towards dark and gritty over light and vibrant. Don’t get me wrong, Jim Cheung and Francis Manapul’s panels were stunning, I especially loved their takes on Cheetah, but Maleev’s section really won me over.
I’m really interested in these plans with Perpetua. She was first introduced to us in the Justice League comic series last year but she hasn’t been the big, bad, ultimate villain until now. What we know about her is that she was a Super Celestial, so she had a hand in creating Multiverses in the Omniverse, that she is the mother of the Over-Monitor, Anti-Monitor and the World Forger, that she’s bad news, and that she looks intense. I’m already pumped to see what she can do.
I think we’re off to a good start for these summer events and we have some great characters to look forward to, I just hope it doesn’t get too convoluted.
OVERALL SCORE: 9 / 10
Make sure you pick up DC’s Year of the Villain #1 from your local comic shop!
Happy reading!
