Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen #4

This actually makes for a stronger cliffhanger to Death Metal than the somewhat abrupt final issue of Scott Snyders Justice League run. If youre not hyped for Death Metal after this one youre just never going to be ready for whats poised to be a crazy in a good way event for DC. Read Full Review

The last step on the road to Death Metal is here at last!Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen #4 ramps up the stakes in every conceivable way, hitting a home run on all fronts. DO NOT MISS THIS COMIC! Read Full Review

It's exactly how you do a self-contained mini-event comic that counts. Read Full Review

Steve Epting does amazing work with the art in this issue. Everything is big and beautifully detailed. The characters are well done and the action is great. There are moments where the Batman Who Laughs looks a little off, but the rest of the heroes and villains are done brilliantly. Read Full Review

All things considered, "Year of the Villain" sticks its landing"and it sticks it hard. Read Full Review

As always, superhero comics seemed to be perpetually trapped in Act 3. There's always another chapter in the story. Love it or hate it " that's exactly what Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen has been: another Act 3. Nevertheless, it's been a good one. Tynion has once again proved himself a capable writer when dealing with a large cast, and Epting's pencils were a perfect match for this bleak tale. Overall it's been a fun ride, and Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen #4 delivers. Read Full Review

If this is missing from your shelf, as you are collecting anything dealing with Dark Metal and The Batman Who Laughs, you will regret it. Read Full Review

When all is said and done,Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen #4serves as a lackluster finale to its tale. Read Full Review

It is all very bland served with a side of bland. This ended up being weak, when it could have been amazing. Read Full Review

Hell Arisen #4 features some great art from Steve Epting with fantastic colors by Nick Filardi. Unfortunately, James Tynion IV's script doesn't do enough outside of its action sequences to justify the lack of consequence the storyline ultimately entails. It's a common problem for most of DCs "event" style books and Hell Arisen #4 is no different. Taken on their own, there's a few good scenes in Tynion's script, but he is betrayed by the books' placement within the DC Universe as a whole. Tynion and Epting do what they can I suppose, but it's hard to get invested in a "world changing" book that can't afford to shake things up too much. Read Full Review

After a year of setup and so many books being hijacked, we get another non-ending.  In a couple of months, though, we can start all over again, aren't we lucky?  No...no, we are not! I just don't get it anymore. Read Full Review

M1sf1r3

Jun 10, 2020

Prelude: It's the final issue of Hell Arisen. Let's see how it goes. The Good: Apex Lex is finally over!!! That's cause for celebration in of itself. Actually acts as the lead-in to Death Metal that Justice League wasn't. I really liked the BWL vs Apex Lex fight. The Bad: Nothing. Conclusion: A great end to Hell Arisen. It sets the stage for Death Metal perfectly which is something that Justice League definitely didn't do.

Watchtower022

Mar 21, 2020

It’s good, however, no real conclusion here (again!). We have to wait months for the story to continue.

Azrael

Apr 12, 2020

I didn't dislike this issue but I did have a problem with how sudden Lex's plan was destroyed. Also how the villains don't finish the other off when they have the chance. But it does set up Death Metal quite well. Hopefully then this will wrap up the involvement of The Batman Who Laughs for the time being.

Another Nerd

Mar 18, 2020

Not a bad mini. It had some interesting moments. The fuss over the appearance of Punchline in issue 3 was way over hyped. Bring on Death Metal. 🤘🏻

egonnn244

Apr 05, 2020

"Even Batman can't win against the whole world" Hm... so it's another ending without an actual ending. This time I was half expecting it, so it softened the blow rather drastically. Still, it is a bit annoying that this story just can't seem to end. One has to wonder if there will be ending satisfactory enough to justify all this prolonged buildup.

EDiakota

Mar 21, 2020

" In the future god will bow to man. " - APEX LEX

Nihilist

Mar 18, 2020

That's not how you make events, DC. That's how you make gimmicks. Metal succeeded, because it had proper story outside the Dark Multiverse thing that alone wouldn't survive a month. No Justice failed, because it was the exact opposite. And everything indicates the entirety of Year of the Villain will be forgotten by the comic hitory, buried in between Metal and Death Metal, being merely a marketing gimmick, and a deeply flawed one at that. Where did the Infected story lead to? Ssupergirl, Gordon, Donna Troy, they all were turned into pointless mini bosses who were just all magically restored in a matter of maybe 2 panels. What a total waste of our time, and potential these characters may have got. So yeah, year of uneven and often strongly disappointing build-up went to waste, which some will probably take with relief. Then there's Batman Who Laughs' story, which has a point, goes somewhere, sets something up. and I'm glad it does - there's something to look for... BUT at the same time it means Hell Arisen was not only half baked, but also ended with a twist cliffhanger, which is another reason why I did not enjoy this crossover. It doesn't have plot or identity of its own. It was just a connective tissue between two bigger events. DC really needs to rethink their strategy, because deigning big universe shaking events that don't really have anything to tell, they just exist to be marketing gimmicks to sell more toys and bump comic sales in the (very) short run, clearly doesn't work. more

Silver Rocket

Mar 19, 2020

This event felt like it was written by an edgy teenager.

Spacey Medicine

May 05, 2020

Seriously, whatever.

Psycamorean

Mar 25, 2020

This really does suck. It's just all so pointless. And at $4.99 per issue, it's sufficiently wasted everyone's money.

ZorEl

Mar 19, 2020

A meh ending to a meh event. Why was Supergirl even in this event? She served no purpose in it, just as with all the other events she has been dragged into lately. If the writer can't write her, or doesn't want to, stop dragging her into the events. Half a year of her comics ruined for no reason at all.

RKS

Mar 24, 2020

Can this crap just end already? I'm so sick of the Metal story line, it sucked when it started and it's contaminated the whole DC universe. Change the channel already.

BlueAndEvil

Jul 13, 2020

Again, we see that status quo is king. Again we see a rushed ending to a story that was going really well. Again we see lazy DC editors not catching obvious lettering errors. Disappointing.