DC Comics’ just-concluded big crossover event, “Trinity War,” ended with a plot twist designed to launch its new big crossover event, “Forever Evil.” The plot twist was the opening of a portal to an alternate dimension, through which came the Crime Syndicate, an evil version of the Justice League (Ultraman instead of Superman, Owlman instead of Batman, and – as a certain comics fan pointed out in the late, lamented Amazing Heroes about thirty years ago, Superwoman, in many ways a more dynamic character than her counterpart, Wonder Woman). And the premise of “Forever Evil” is that the Crime Syndicate proves the key-weight that tips the scales of the DC universe in favor of the villains and allows them to take over.

When “Trinity War” ended, the Crime Syndicate was just stepping through their interdimensional portal. Facing them were the combined ranks of the Justice League and the Justice League of America. And when “Forever Evil” – written by Geoff Johns and drawn by David Finch – starts off, the leagues are nowhere to be seen, and the Crime Syndicate is declaring all Earth’s big-gun superheroes dead and gone.

They obviously haven’t been declaring it long, since they’re only just getting around to shutting down the major city power grids, and here in issue #1 Nightwing and Batgirl at first aren’t even aware the Justice League has had any kind of trouble. Nightwing – Batman’s former Robin Dick Grayson, that is – finds out the hard way when he’s beaten up by Owlman and strung up by Superwoman, and then the scene shifts to the assembled super-villains of the DC universe being given their marching orders by the Crime Syndicate.

Not quite all the super-villains, however. The issue’s cover, for instance, shows Green Lantern’s arch-enemy Sinestro, supernatural baddie The Black Hand, and flawed Superman-duplicate Bizarro, but they aren’t on hand in the first issue and seem – each for their separate reasons – just as unlikely to take orders from somebody named Ultraman as they were to take orders from somebody named Superman.

And that goes five times over for the most glaring absentee villain in Finch’s superb crowd-scene: Lex Luthor. Luthor has an up-close seat when Metropolis’ power shuts down, and he’s watching from hiding when Ultraman seeks out the world’s stores of kryptonite in order to powderize them and sniff them like cocaine. “This is a job for Superman,” he sarcastically mutters to himself, “so where the hell IS he?”

I have lots of very good memories of Marvel Comics’ “Dark Reign” story-arc from four years ago, when the bad guys of the Marvel Universe, led by insane-but-compelling Norman Osborn, found themselves temporarily in control of things. And I was a fan of Alex Ross’ 2005 limited series “Justice,” in which the DC super-villains, led by Lex Luthor, mount an almost-successful assault on Superman & Co. and are only foiled at the last minute.

I fully expect that ‘at the last minute’ stuff to happen in “Forever Evil” too. How can it not? Lex Luthor is smarter than any of DC’s heroes. The Parasite can sap their power. Sinestro has all the power of a rogue Green Lantern. The Joker is the company’s most dangerous person. Solomon Grundy, Black Adam, Bizarro, General Zod, Doomsday, Mongul, Darkseid – all can go toe-to-toe with Superman. And that’s without even considering the Crime Syndicate itself. In any DC comic book series in which the super-villains gain the upper hand, the heroes wouldn’t stand a chance; they’d lose, permanently. Johns is a clever writer, so he’ll probably take the concept as far as it can be taken; the fun of “Forever Evil” will be in seeing the precise way he pulls back from the precipice.

My money’s on Lex Luthor. And I’m certainly along for the ride.