Pick of the Week

July 21, 2010 – Brightest Day #6

What did the
iFanboy
community think?

882
Pulls
Avg Rating: 4.1
iFanboy Community Pick of the Week Percentage: 2.8%
 
Users who pulled this comic:
Written by GEOFF JOHNS & PETER J. TOMASI
Art by IVAN REIS, PATRICK GLEASON, ARDIAN SYAF, SCOTT CLARK & JOE PRADO
Cover by DAVID FINCH & SCOTT WILLIAMS
Variant cover by IVAN REIS

Size: 32 pages
Price: 2.99

Hello from sunny San Diego!

First, I’d like to apologize. Unlike last year, I am stone cold sober as I sit here typing this. Whether this leads to a more cohesive, but less entertaining Pick of the Week review, we’re about to find out. But I just wanted to let you know up front.

And now that that’s out of the way, on to business.

One of my favorite things about comics is the wide variety of stories and storytelling that the medium allows. There’s room for wild science fiction romps on the shelf next to small, slice of life stories. I can enjoy fast paced action filled smash-em-ups one minute and slow-paced character study mysteries the next.

Brightest Day is a slow-paced character study mystery book; it’s unlike anything else I’m reading right now; it’s excellent; and Brightest Day #6 is the best issue so far.

If you’re not familiar, Brightest Day is the story of the people who returned from the dead in Blackest Night: Aquaman, J’onn J’onzz the Martian Manhunter, Hawk, Firestorm, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Jade, and Deadman. Why they came back, what does it all mean, and were these resurrections necessarily a good thing are just some of the questions that drive Brightest Day.

(Maxwell Lord was also resurrected in Blackest Night, but his story is mostly taking place in Brightest Day‘s companion book, the excellent Justice League: Generation Lost. Same with Captain Boomerang and The Flash. Professor Zoom was dealt with in The Flash: Rebirth? I think? And I haven’t seen much of Osiris. I have not idea where his story is being told.)

I think my favorite things about Brightest Day are the structure and the pacing. I love that it comes out every two weeks and that in each issue we focus on one of the character’s stories in the “A” story and we check in with a bunch of the other characters in multiple “B” stories. In one issue, Aquaman will have the main story and then in the next, he’ll drop down to a “B” story and Deadman will bubble up to the “A” story. It’s a great way to keep the overall flow moving and get all of the characters into the spotlight, depending on who’s story is the most important that week. It works even better when storylines merge, as Deadman and Hawk did in the last issue. There’s a real sense of importance when that happens.

In this issue, J’onn J’onzz the Martian Manhunter has the main story as he investigates a series of murders whose patterns he finds familiar yet he cannot place. And while investigating these murders he also discovers that foliage — but luckily not people or animals — shrink away in his presence and die at his touch. Coming back from the dead would have its consequences (for now) it would seem. In the course of his investigation, J’onn goes to Oracle and then the Teen Titans for help. I’m a sucker for this kind of thing. I love it when characters who don’t normally interact outside of big crossover events get together. It’s nice to see new pairings and new dynamics (or revisited pairings or revisited dynamics), if only for a few pages and panels.

In the smaller “B” stories:

  • Deadman, along with Hawk and Dove, discover that while the White Lantern ring that Deadman now wields can’t resurrect Dove’s sister (the second Hawk, now dead) like it did a dead bird a few issues back, it can recommend what to have for dinner.
  • In a deft bit of Johnsian retconning, Mera reveals to Aquaman that she was originally sent to Atlantis to kill him on orders from her father, the King of Xebel, an underwater prison colony city that lost a civil war with Atlantis. She didn’t kill him, of course. His angry brooding and wavy blonde locks proved irresistible (the ladies love the bad brooding boy, even underwater). She fell in love with him and then they got married and had a kid and then Aquaman’s evil half brother slash archnemesis killed the baby and then Aquaman died I think twice and then he came back and here we are again.
  • And over in Pittsburgh, newly returned original Firestorm, Ronnie Raymond, is still finding it hard to work with the old second Firestorm, Jason Rusch, who has taken over for Professor Stein and resides in Ronnie Raymond’s head when in Firestorm guise. This is mostly because, while a Black Lantern, Ronnie killed Jason’s girlfriend and Jason is still kind of pissed about that. But it’s also because there may be another person in Ronnie’s head when they become Firestorm.

There’s just so much good stuff going on in the pages of Brightest Day. If ever there as a comic book chock full of story and great characters it’s this one.

A word about the art. Because this book comes out every other week, there isn’t just one artist that draws it. They have a gang of dudes with sharpened pencils at the ready. The artists are listed on the title page but they don’t tell you who does which chapters and I love that. It’s like, in addition to all this wonderful story, DC is also giving you a fun little game to play every two weeks. The artists on this issue are Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleason, Scott Clark, and Joe Prado. Ivan Reis (as expected) does absolutely stellar work on the Aquaman pages, Patrick Gleason (I’m pretty sure) is doing wonderful stuff with J’onn J’onzz, and Joe Prado (I think) does a good job of drawing in a similar style to Reis in the Deadman/Hawk story. But I wanted to highlight the artist on the Firestorm story, who I believe is Scott Clark. He does some absolutely gorgeous work in this issue, especially with Jason Rusch who Clark has renders with real vitality.

I loved DC’s weekly series 52. It was one of the best things that DC has done in a long time and I didn’t think we’d ever see it’s like again. But now with Brightest Day, DC might just have put the (bi)weekly series back on track.

Conor Kilpatrick
I gotta get to the con floor or Josh and Ron will kill me.
conor@ifanboy.com

Comments

  1. Actually just finished reading this, and I agree. Nothing else I read this week was as enjoyable as this, though I still have to read Scott Pilgrim.

    You’re right that the shifting of character focus each issue really works. It keeps things moving while still making the stories feel fresh and engaging. I wasn’t sure I’d like this when it was announced, but I think I’m enjoying it more than I did 52 at this point.

  2. This was one of the better issues in this run so far. Notably, it lacked much of the Hawk people plot. The reason I wouldn’t pick this book, however, is that even in a better than average issue it was still uneven is pace as well as tone. Manhunter’s segment was interesting as well as Firestorm. The brief snippet for Aquaman’s plot was unsatisfying and unnecessary. The segment with Hawk and Dove was inane with Hawk just screaming idiotically and incoherently in light of the obvious.

  3. Ivan Reis- Deadman and Aquaman.

    Scott Clark-Firestorm

    Patrick Gleason-Martian Manhunter

    Adrian Syaf-Hawkman

    Joe Prado-Inker

  4. Edit:

    Adrian Syaf-Hawks

    Joe Prado-Inker?

  5. Eh. The review doesn’t seem to change what I disliked of the series.

    Still reading through my books (have Zatanna and Thunderbolts to go) but it’s going to be tough to beat TWD. A game changer, certainly.

  6. Haven’t picked up my books yet but just want to point out Osiris and his story of resurection is taking place in Titans.

  7. Too bad Conor isn’t reading The Walking Dead.

    Still don’t begrudge the pick. Brightest Day just hasn’t been my thing.

  8. Nothing like a meaningless shock death to get a book going.

  9. I feel that this has been one of the better issues of the series. I feel that the way they have it set up though is whats killing the book for me.  I get that they have to tell the story of like 10 different characters and Johns and Tomasi are the people to do that, I just dont think its 52 quality.  I hope that since this has been the best issue by far it keeps a steady pace.

     

    My pic was: DCU Legacies. Great story, Lein Wein is the man, thats what you get from the man behind Swamp thing!!

  10. I think I’m alone in my opinions of this issue.  I’ve enjoyed the series so far, but I didn’t really find too much exciting about it.  I’m still sticking with the series because I think the pay off will be worth it, but I’ve felt that other issues in the series have been stronger.  I’m glad you liked it though.

  11. I like that J’onn J’onzz is actually getting an opportunity to be a detective.  I like how they are using him and am looking forward to seeing where his story goes.  This was a very solid issue.  I’ve enjoyed the series, so far.

  12. Great Pick Conor and great issue!

  13. Wow Geoff Johns really seems to be remaking the DC universe now more than ever. I think that his big plan is to replace the Big Three of the DCU. Like for as far back as I could remember The Big Three Superheroes of the DC Universe were Superman, Batman & Wonder Woman. But now Green Lantern has stepped up to the plate, Flash is well on his way & I am pretty sure we can expect an Aquaman Rebirth to happen some time in the near future so he is probably going to move on up to. So here is my theory that within the next few years whether that will be 2, 3 or 10 years we are going to see a shift in popularity in the DCU & a new Big Three which could be Green Lantern, Flash & Aquaman. Let’s Hope that’s what happens b/c these characters are really due for the attention that Batman & Superman get.

  14. Have to agree with Coner, this finally feels like the title is hitting it’s stride — and the artwork throughout is just fantastic.

    @stuclach: I thought the same thing when reading this issue . . . finally J’onn J’onzz is playing the detective again.  For the longest time, it seemed like only flashback stories like The New Frontier depicted J’onn as a detective and not a super group baby-sitter. 

  15. @Spider Titan – That would be interesting, but I don’t think Batman can be dethroned. His brand is just too popular. But Superman and Wonderwoman can be replaced. Non-comic fans think of Wonderwoman as a bad TV show and Superman as a goody too shows with boring stories (not true of course, but they think  that).

  16. the firestorm stuff is hilarious. at first i thought that other voice was the white lantern and i laughed out loud when i thought it used the word "dude". 

     either way, this is kind of warming up to me. Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, and Deadman stuff is all good. other stuff is meh

  17. My POW is Walking Dead #75.

    Matthew

     

  18. After finishing my books my Pick was DV8. Continues to be wonderfully drawn and glumlu interesting.

  19. My POW as well, probably because there was no Hawk malarkey. I’m glad to see this is really picking up, can’t wait for the next issue.

  20. The OSIRIS story is in TITANS.

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