Brightest Day #7 ( DCU – Johns / Tomasi / Reis /Gleason )
“There can be only one who wields the White Lantern…but is it truly Deadman? And what will happen when he attempts to charge the white ring? Meanwhile, Ronnie Raymond risks everything for Firestorm, Martian Manhunter uncovers more clues about the bizarre string of murders stretching across the country, Aquaman searches for the key to the ocean’s survival and the Hawks come face-to-face with the evil that lurks within the strange land known only as Hawkworld!”
Seems like ages since I wrote a review, so let’s get to it!
This is the BRIGHTEST DAY issue were things start to come togeather. I’m sure some fanboys will gripe about the revelations being short, but with a cast this big it’s bound to happen. In a book that’s twenty-two pages long, there’s just not enough room for everyone to get their time in the sun. The coverage they do get give us information, and some foreshadowing, of things to come. In the closing pages of the book, the White Lantern spreads a vision across all the resurrected characters. Each character gets a unique vision giving them an assignments. Shown in one big slash page, each character gets a single panel, we some things to come.
Those panels are drawn by artists that are relevant to the titles the characters appear in: Francis Manapul offers an image of Captain Boomerang and another of Professor Zoom. Mark Bagley shows Jade’s future. Mike Mayhew shares his take on a possible scene for Osiris. Max Lord appears courtesy of Aaron Lopresti, and Hawk is delivered by Ivan Reis with Joe Prado. All awesome stuff. This combined with the White Lantern reaching out to all of the other heroes in their own installments make this the first absolute must-read issue of the series.
Johns has promised answers for a few issues now, the reasons of why the heroes/villians have returned. This issue makes good on that promise a bit, but doesn’t solve anything. Which I didn’t really want it to yet. Aquaman, Firestorm,Hawkman, and Hawkgirl, and Martian Manhunter, get some moments in the spotlight, but the biggest star of this issue is by far Boston Brand, who story I’m most interested in.
Additionally, the rays of the White Lantern have brought the new Aqualad (even if he doesn’t know it yet) and Miss Martian into the folds of this adventure. The cast may be growing, but you get the feeling that each character has an important roll to play.
The art on the book is what we’ve come to expect from this series: moments of brilliance balanced with moments of run of the mill quality. Steigerwald and Starr make this book glow with white light once the White Lantern is active. The revelation scene art ranges from deepest darkest shadows of the soul to the most brilliant hues of the blue ocean, and it looks good all the way through.
BRIGHTEST DAY has become the book that is at the top of my comic pile. Even if I don’t make it to the comic shop for a few weeks, which has been the story this summer, this is the book that I read first.
Grade: A
