The Forevers #1 Review

The Forevers #1
Publisher: Black Mask Studios
Writer: Curt Pires
Artist: Eric Pfeiffer
Letterer: Colin Bell

Review by Anelise Farris

Zachariah Cole, Jamie Ashby, Kate Sage, Bronson Pierce, Carl Doherty, Daisy Cates, and Alice Eden are seven friends bound together by a black magic pact they made ten years ago. The pact brought them instant fame: launching them into a world of wealth, success, and adoration. Yet, black magic always requires a price: through an unfortunate accident the group realizes that when one member in the group dies, their power is dispersed among the rest in the group. Nothing can pit this group of friends against each other faster than the possibility of more power; now it’s up to the remaining six to figure out who among them is the killer before it is too late.

This is a good storyline, and I don’t say that lightly. The Forevers #1 is a gorgeous, glamorous sci-fi horror comic that will make you wonder where this genre has been your whole life. While the basic plot is intriguing enough, the writing is strong and—like all great sci-fi—is infused with philosophical inquiry, such as, what are the consequences of fame? In exploring this question, The Forevers #1 addresses anxiety, boredom, addiction, depression, lust, fear, and self-harm—to name a few. Another one of the central questions at the heart of this comic is what happens when you become more of a product than a person. How does one maintain their humanity and self-worth in the face of stardom?

Like the writing, the art is intense; it is thick, heavy, and cloying—giving the reader no choice but to be fully immersed in this dark (both literally and figuratively) story. While there are bits of brightness in a neon wonderland kind of way, these only manage to heighten the eeriness of the comic. Similarly, the art falls both into surrealism and realism in a way that is totally dizzying (and I mean this in the best way possible).

Verdict: Buy it! A great storyline, terrific art, and stylish sci-fi horror: The Forevers #1 is a comic to savor slowly and revisit often. With plenty of unanswered questions (like the possibility of a god-game situation here?!) raised in issue #1, The Forevers #2 can’t come out fast enough. Check out the fantastic comic book trailer for The Forevers, here!