Oh, come on!

Geoff Johns, you went to a lot of trouble resurrecting these characters for Brightest Day. At least leave some of them alive. Pretty please? This issue resolved last week's Aquaman cliffhanger so nicely, and then White Lantern Deadman goes and vaporizes him, just like Hawkman and Hawkgirl. Jesus. When will the killing end?

But it'd be wrong of us to just throw up our hands now. The climax of Brightest Day is within sight, and I think we're in for some of Johns's signature mind-fuckery at the last minute -- except, unlike the Sinestro-is-a-White-Lantern fakeout in Blackest Night, he now has more issues to twist the knife in us. I don't know where this is going, but I'm willing to bet the next issue ends with Martian Manhunter erased in a blast of white light. Life returned, my ass.

Stray observations:

-The payoff on the zombie-fish subplot is fantastic. Great two-page spread. (Am I crazy, or does that horde of fish include Zombie Topo?)
-How can Mera cry underwater? (Pretty impressive that she's crying at all, considering she was bleeding from her tear ducts a few pages earlier.)
-Speaking of tears, Aquaman's totally unfazed by having his hand cauterized with electricity, yet he sheds a single tear when he tells Mera he believes in her. What a guy.