Brightest Day #24

What I liked

· Brightest Day: This series will be under-rated due to the many complaints fans will give, most of which you’ll find in the section entitled “What I didn’t like”. But, I want to emphasise, this series brought us, in my opinion three great arcs. Firstly: Hawkman/girl finally having lifted the curse became mortal and put an end to a deadly conspiracy that had been haunting them for thousands of years. Secondly: Aquaman’s story revealed secrets about Mera’s past and, to be fair, was the best part of Brightest Day. We had a good balance of action and realistic character interaction. Thirdly: We have Martian Manhunter who decided to choose Earth over Mars. In terms of character development, this story is huge. All of these arcs, I fear, are going to be lost in the fanboy criticisms and bloody mindedness of internet culture which forbids people to read comics if they’re half bad... guess what if they’re half bad it must mean they’re half good too!

· No Tie-Ins needed: This is a series you can get the three trades of and be satisfied. Most of the tie-ins don’t matter, and if you were still eager for some Brightest Day stuff, I’d have to recommend Generation Lost (Which in my opinion was better than Brightest Day) and Green Arrow which although not very good, has the most relevance to the main Brightest Day story.

· The subplots: At the end of the issue some of the subplots restart again, with some new threads forming for these characters. It seems my dream of seeing these characters back in their own issues again might be coming true. However, this new 52 initiative at DC might change all that.

· All the characters in the same place: Okay, this isn’t the end of Heroes Season One, but it’s cool that all these heroes are on the same page now, all involved in the same fight.

What I didn’t like

· Brightest Day: Okay, let’s start the dislikes with this because now I can talk in much more detail than I could for the previous issue. So yes, the Green absorbed the black energy at the end of Blackest Night; imprinting Nekron onto the Green and creating a Nekron version of Swamp Thing. To fight this, Deadman needed to bring Alec Holland back to life so he could become Swamp Thing again (or Swamp Thing could become him again?) and with the help of the four elements (Aquaman, Hawkgirl/man, Firestorm and Martian Manhunter) purify the Earth and save the day. That was the story of Brightest Day, in a nutshell, and when said like that, it doesn’t sound too bad. Once you’ve accepted the shortcomings of the series, it isn’t that bad either. However these shortcomings still exist: the pacing of the Swamp Thing stuff was way off, there was a level of mystery which did nothing but hinder plot progression and reader-understanding and the tie-ins were mostly irrelevant.

· The Final Fight: It’s just a little short and rushed. But then again, what isn’t in this issue. It is extended a little in Green Arrow, but the main fight should be taking place in this issue!

· Minor technicality: If Swamp Thing is meant to be a plant that thinks it’s Alec Holland, and thus has come to look like him. Why does Nekron’s manifestation of the green look like Swamp Thing and not Nekron. There is probably a reason for this.

· Swamp Thing: I don’t like the fact that this series about characters like Aquaman and Firestorm, which people buy into for these characters actually ends up being about a totally different character. What’s more, Swamp Thing is a Vertigo character, so it’s totally understandable if someone reading Brightest Day doesn’t know anything about him.

· “Catch the Boomerang”: This was the mission that interested me the most. Captain Boomerang had to throw a boomerang at Dove, Hawk had to catch it. The way it ends is bizarre. Captain Boomerang throws the Boomerang at Dove, Hawk goes to catch it, it rips through his hand and ends up hitting Deadman, killing him again and releasing the White energy. Then the White Lantern has a go at Hawk and says he was the only one to not fulfil his mission. All the missions had some kind of purpose, except for the one about catching the Boomerang, why not have Captain Boomerangs mission as “Throw the Boomerang at Deadman”. Besides, Captain Boomerang is a Rogue, and they don’t kill women or children...

· Deadman is dead: I know it’s restoring the Status Quo and I know he wouldn’t be much use alive but I did see it coming. I guess I just liked him as Boston Brand.