Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The Ending Of Brightest Day Is In Sight......Thank The Lord!

I guess it's true, Blackest Night and Brightest Day really ARE as different as night and day. 

The current mini series of a brighter sensation has only eight issues left in it's run, but I find myself unable to NOT declare it one of the worse mini series within the last decade.  

Don't worry, I realize there have been some doozies out there such as Superman and Batman vs. Vampires and Werewolves, The Return of Bruce Wayne, and A Cry For Justice, but I can't see Brightest Day redeeming itself when the bulk of the series has been a confusing and utter disasterpiece.

Geoff Johns helmed the hit eight issue series, Blackest Night; DC's answer to Marvel Zombies.  In it, the dead super heroes of old and recent are risen as brain eating, heart gobbling, and mind manipulating zombies controlled by the black toned emotional spectrum harnessed within their power rings.  While much of the series used a typical Saturday morning kid's superhero show motif as its motivation, (AKA, Power Rangers and Captain Planet) Johns took Blackest Night to new depths and maturity and kept the series from falling flat on it's face.  The enjoyment of Blackest Night was amplified even more when DC announced the series' sequel, Brightest Day.

Three issues into Brightest Day, however and I was already tilting my head in bewilderment.  "What's going on?" I would ask myself, "Why am I so confused?"  I took my reaction to the first three as Johns way of building up the story; making me want to come back for more.  (That or I was just too stupid too get it.)  But now I've reached issue #18 and I still don't get what the point of Brightest Day is. I love Geoff Johns, don't get me wrong!  He's my favorite comic book writer right after Gail Simone, Alan Moore, and Neil Gaiman.  But something is certainly amiss with his current literary work within Brightest Day.

Maybe it's DC's fault.  Maybe Dan Didio and company are asking for too much and decided to overload a miniseries with so much content that the plot becomes too confusing too follow.  (Not surprising.)

Maybe it's the fans fault.  Maybe we have been asking for way too much, and Johns decided too finally deliver to his readers everything they've always asked for.  (if that's true, never listen to us again Geoff!)

Maybe it's the genre's fault.  Maybe comics, and the expectations that come with them, have reached a point of no return; sometimes an idea sounds good, but when applied to paper...it just doesn't work out the way you had hoped.  (Poor James Robinson, one day something will work out for you.)

Maybe it's Jim Lee's Fault..........................NAAAHHH!

The fact of the matter is that Brightest Day has really hit a low point and is beyond redemption.  I'll still pick up each issue till the end, but I'll do so with a bitter taste in my mouth.  Geoff Johns is great, probably one of the greatest things that's ever happened to comics, but every great writer has his or her flops right?

Now, let's see, what's coming to my local comic book shop tomorrow?  No Brightest Day...Nothing by Grant Morrison...Nothing by James Robinson....Sweet!  This week will be a good week for comics.

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