Comic Book Review: Brightest Day #8

Literary & Artistic Credits

Writers: Geoff Johns & Peter J. Tomasi

Pencillers: Patrick Gleeson, Ivan Reis & Ardian Syaf

Inkers: Vicente Cifuentes, Rebecca Buchman, Mark Irwin & Ivan Reis

Colorists: Aspen MLT’s Peter Steigerwald with John Starr

Letterer: Rob Clark Jr.

Cover Art: David Finch, Scott Williams & Steigerwald

My Awe-Inspiring Opinion

I’ve decided that this story is so compact that, no matter how it ends, I’m going to be so overwhelmed that I’ll never want to read it again.  There’s enough mystery and enough at stake to keep me interested, but I’ll never understand why Johns and Tomasi felt it so necessary to make Brightest Day so busy to begin with.  What a relief it was for me to find that the focus of this issue was more on Hawkworld that our two winged avengers have found themselves trapped on.  Martian Manhunter is given a spotlight, but truly, this issue gave us a chance to slow down, breathe, and take in one story without worrying about everything else going on.

Martian Manhunter sees a glimpse of what happened to M’Gann and who her attacker was.  But at the center of this whole fiasco is, of course, (We all saw it coming!) the forested Star City.  But nothing more is revealed other than the red eyed, bald-headed, poorly dressed alien flying downwards into the heart of the forest itself.

Hawkman goes on the search for Hawkgirl but runs into what seems like a religious calling in the eyes of the Hawkworld inhabitants.  But Hawkman need not worry about his beloved too much since she’s drop kicking everyone’s ass that gets in her way of escaping.  That is until her (gasp) mother shows up!  Despite a mere distraction on her part which caused her to not mind her surroundings, Hawkgirl just showed us that the “girl” portion of her name really doesn’t apply to her womanly personality.  If Hawkgirl ever gets her own series, sign me up as a regular subscriber!

I won’t go to heavily into the art as most of you who read my blog consistently already know what my thoughts are.  But I’ll give it to DC, this issue was tremendously smoother in the artist transition.  If my scanner didn’t FINALLY kill over, I would have scanned in Hawkgirl’s triumphant and exciting burst towards us, the readers.  The intensity in that scene, along with all of the other events happening on Hawkworld was spectacular.  If only Syaf could have stayed out of this issue, I would have given the art a 10!

My Majestically Climactic Conclusion

Brightest Day is slowly kicking off into a much more solid and comprehensive story, enough so to keep me reading it to the very end.  But to be honest, I don’t know how in the world the series is going to end without giving all of its readers an aneurism.  There’s way too much going on and I don’t think this series is going to be as successful as Johns and Tomasi hope it to be.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Writing: 8

Art: 8

Themes: 8

Comic Book Review: Brightest Day #7

Book Information

Written by Geoff Johns & Peter Tomasi
Penciled by Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleason, Ardian Syaf, Scott Clark, Joe Prado
Colors by Aspen MLT’s Peter Steigerwald with John Starr
Lettered by Rob Clark Jr.
Cover by David Finch, Scott Williams, & Steigerwald

My Awe-Inspiring Opinion
Alright, now we’re getting somewhere. Finally, things are starting to make sense, and just when I was ready to call it quits with this comic. Johns and Tomasi have definitely raised the bar this week with the promised and much anticipated revelation in this issue. While the bulk of the story is still a mystery, we’ve been given some angst to hold onto for two weeks to help boost our confidence that Brightest Day is actually going somewhere.

Each character gets their time in the spotlight, but none like Deadman. One of the questions at the forefront of my mind dealt with the King Arthur figure and who would actually be able to lift the white lantern from the ground. I don’t want to call it too soon however, it’s still fairly early in the story, but finally we can be certain of Deadman’s importance within Brightest Day.

The artist toggle didn’t work for me as much this time through; there was a lot more bumpy transitions from style to style that I wish would have felt more seamless. I just have a REALLY hard time going from this…

To this…

However, the artistry of each separate unit was executed quite well. Some parts of the toggling were actually very interesting, especially during the revelational two paged spread where each character is given a specific task to perform. And while the artistic finality of the two pager spread is quite ingenious, the whole idea that the white lantern entity is setting destiny in motion seems rather contrived to me. I felt the entity was very helpless against Nekron; being displayed as very innocent, ignorant, and like an infant unable to understand the world around him. (Or is it a her?) But this is part of the overarching mystery I suppose, I shouldn’t knock it quite yet.

Is it just me, or does Aquaman’s dilemma seem a bit TOO odd? First he can only control dead sea creatures, now he can bring them to life? I would really like to know where Johns and Tomasi are going with this. I understood the connection with death since he is, after all, a retired Black Lantern. But now, all of the sudden whatever he touches comes to life? Maybe this falls into place somewhere that I’m not seeing, but I would very much like this to resolve sooner rather than later.

My Awesomely Climactic Conclusion
Nicely done. I truly was ready to give up on this series. I was afraid the Morrison disease was spreading into Johns and Tomasi writing a story with a confusion lead up to a eventual poor ending. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Ratings
Writing: 8
Themes: 8
Art: 6
Overall: 7.33 out of 10

Comic Book Review: Brightest Day #6

Book Information
Written by Geoff Johns, Peter Tomasi
Art by Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleeson, Scott Clark, Joe Prado
Colored by Peter Steigerwald, John Starr
Inked By Vicente Cifuentes, David Beaty, Mark Irwin, Christian Alamy
Lettered by Rob Clark Jr.
Cover by David Finch, Scott Williams, Steigerwald

My Awe-Inspiring Opinion
We all know Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi are incredible writers, both collaborating their efforts on the two Green Lantern titles to make sure the Blackest Night event made sense. They’ve done such a great job you’d think that putting the two together on one title would be a match made in Heaven. But as Brightest Day has reached its sixth issue, three months in, I’m beginning to wonder if this writing team-up was a good idea to begin with.

The problem with Brightest Day first starts with its compact nature. Every two weeks we get no less than four storylines in each issue, all of which further the mystery in little increments. This issue is no exception. Hawk and Dove are still at the graveyard with Deadman, Firestorm is still trying to cope with everything post Blackest Night and deal with a pissed off boyfriend, Martian Manhunter discovers he can’t touch plant life without it withering up and dying, and Aquaman listens to Mera explain why she was supposed to kill him. The mysteries each character is dealing with have been the same with each issue and become quite cumbersome. I’m wondering if, like Blackest Night, having the main title along with BD tie-ins would have been a better route to go; with its compact nature, Brightest Day is becoming a lot more boring then exciting.

#6 isn’t without its good points though. Ronnie Raymond seems to be having issues with alcohol, which I don’t blame him. If I could remember being a risen corpse and killing the girlfriend of the person who shares the Firestorm Matrix with me, I’d probably take up some type of vice to keep from going insane too. But most intriguing is the phantom voice that seems to be lurking within the minds of Both Ronnie and Jason; it focuses in on Ronnie, scolding him for past actions and the content of his character, but Jason is very much aware of this voice as well. This is probably one of the more interesting things that have popped out in Brightest Day.

DC had enlisted a tag team of artists whose styles are quite similar, which keep the flow of the book surprisingly fluid and easy to look at. The two page flashback spread of Mera and Aquaman’s past together was incredibly beautiful. But I don’t think anything will beat the awesomely creepy cover by Finch, Williams, and Steigerwald.

My Profoundly Climactic Conclusion
Overall, this issue is quite bad with a few high points here and there. This story really needs to start making some sense or I’m going to blow up!

Ratings
Writing: 3
Themes: 4
Art: 8
Overall: 5 out of 10

Comic Book Review: Brightest Day #1

Book Information

Written by Geoff Johns & Peter Tomasi

Penciled by Ivan Reis, Ardian Syaf, Scott Clark, Joe Prado

Colored by Peter Steigerwald

Inked by Vicente Cifuentes, Mark Irwin, Oclair Albert, David Beaty

Cover by Ivan Reis

My All-Inspiring Opinion

If you were to try and decipher the differences between Blackest Night and Brightest Day, you might find the task a little more daunting than expected.  This first issue (well, 2^nd if you count issue #0) begins the latest chapter in the Green Lantern mythos.  Johns delves into the mystery involving the risen heroes and the mysterious white light that seems to be weighted down in its Lantern shape by some unknown force.  We also see the beginnings of conflicts that our featured heroes, Aquaman, Firestorm, the Hawks, and Martian Manhunter will face in the coming issues.  Each hero finds themselves faced with memories or events of a violent nature, riddled with violent stranglings…

Dead sea animals rising from the depths…

And cleavers slicing through men’s throats…

I would say that the title “Brightest Day” is quite deceiving in its uplifting and appealing connotation. 

In seeing the the 3^rd panel on the 5^th page of Hal Jordan attempting to lift the White Lantern from the ground, I was very close to tossing this book across the room.  But my frustrations were relinquished when Geoff Johns clearly wanted his audience to be aware of this aspect in the story’s plot development.  I was relieved that Johns wasn’t trying to hide the fact that this IS going to be the story of “The Sword in the Stone.”  This gives DC’s most popular writer the ability to shock and alarm his readers since he will most assuredly give Brightest Day an unexpected conclusion.  Will the “destined one” be a King Arthur type of figure, or a lowly man who has a deeper connection with life and death?

While Blackest Night had some of the most disturbing visuals I’ve ever seen in comics, Brightest Day gives us some fairly disturbing sequences of which play around with the mind much more.  Aquaman, despite having risen from the dead and being completely healthy with no Captain Hook arm, (Thank God!) he finds himself unable to call on the aid of living sea animals.  In addition, Firestorm, the Hawks, and Martian Manhunter are flooded with disturbing images and scenes that cause me to wonder just what emotional baggage do they unwillingly carry from the events of Blackest Night?  Just when you thought all your questions would be answered, Johns throws a monkey wrench into the story.

Aquaman and Mera seem to share a problem.  As stated, since being severed from the Black Ring’s power, Aquaman still finds himself connected with the dead, only able to contact a deceased, mauled Shark and giant squid.  Likewise, Mera still seems to have some connection with her brief, but intense relationship with the red ring of rage.  This theme of lingering connectivity with the emotional spectrum stuck out at me the most and I feel Johns could be going somewhere with this. 

As most of you who follow my blog, I’m sure you’ve already guessed my opinions on the artistic approach.  The entire team of artists on this book are great, but the toggling from artist to artist drives me nuts.  Ivan Reis does fantastic work, so why couldn’t DC just hire him to draw the whole friggin issue?!?!  He’s not doing anything right now!  I don’t get it!  I can’t justify ranking the art high when I become so distracted by the different art styles.  Although, Reis certainly gave us some amazing visuals…

My Profoundly Climactic Conclusion

Nothing more can be said except that this issue is great.  I don’t think it deserves any awards for greatest comic book ever, but it does start the mystery off well.

Ratings

Writing: 9

Themes: 9

Art: 6

Overall: 8 out of 10

Comic Book Review: Green Lantern Corps #47

Book Information

Written by Peter J. Tomasi

Art by Patrick Gleeson

Inked by Rebecca Buchman

Colored by Randy Mayor

Lettered by Steve Wands

My All-Inspiring Opinion

Blackest Night is over.  Everything is destroyed.  The Corps must now rebuild itself from the bottom up.  Gardner, Rayner and a handful of other Lanterns take a stand against the Guardians and their newly established Book of Oa laws.  Vath wakes up with a pair of foreign legs, and Kilowog makes a life altering decision that could have a huge effect on the future of the Corps.   Tomasi brings in all the stops as he bids farewell to a comic book series that has been defined by his unremarkable ability to tell engrossing and angst driven tales.

In the past few months, this title has been quite focused on the one plot and not contaminated with a plethora of multi-purpose stories.  That has been my only major criticism about Tomasi’s work on the GL Corps as my brain always bounced around in the 22 paged comic from one plot to the next on a monthly basis.  This always took me for a loop and I was constantly going back rereading certain parts of each monthly installment due to my lost and confused state of mind.  With #47, Tomasi reverts back to that multi-plot style, but aligns each story as one cohesive unit.

This is an issue all about rebuilding relationships, renewing one’s faith, and making choices to help better your life as a whole.  Every character finds themselves in situations where they must come to terms with their inner demons, forcing them to make choices which they may or may not like.  Vath is hit hardest with this concept as he wakes up to a set of new legs which once belonged to his friend, Isamot.  After a brutal debate session between the two, they come to terms with each other and recognize that they can only work through everything that has happen to them as a team.  The sacrifice Isamot makes for Vath is a symbol of the reconstruction all the Lanterns must endure in order to survive the coming years.

Likewise, many of the title’s character are taking stances against the guardians that have not been taken before.  However, this wasn’t just some honorable attempt by Rayner and Gardner to give them license to date fellow coworkers; it was a lecture, teaching the Guardians that the Corps they have been in charge of for so long will be changing with or without Guardian approval.  Rayner’s bit of public oratory was a testament to the heart and soul of the galactic police force and that denying a Lantern the ability to love will ultimately ruin the Corps forever.  His inspiring speech branched out into the stubborn heart of Salaak, who gave the Guardians the ultimate third degree.  Nothing could have declared what the future of the Corps will be like more than that moment.  The Guardians are going to have to make a lot of changes, or they can kiss their jobs goodbye.

Pat Gleeson has a knack for instilling emotionally driven visuals, always keeping each character in line with their personalities and character traits.  Gardner always has that “tougher than shit” look while Rayner has that assertive yet humble demeanor, always hoping people will listen to reason.  The detail in this issue is amazingly well done and truly hit right on the mark.

My Profoundly Climactic Conclusion

This could not have been a better way of biding Tomasi farewell from the Green Lantern Corps title.  Much like when Geoff Johns left the Justice Society of America, and certainly what it will feel like when Gail Simone is finally done with Wonder Woman, we can only hope that the new writer can make the title just as exciting.

Ratings

Writing: 10

Themes: 10

Art: 10

Incentive Point: 3

Overall: 10 out of 10

Comic Book Review: Green Lantern Corps #46

Book Information

Written by Peter J. Tomasi

Art by Patrick Gleeson

Plot

All hell breaks loose in this final Blackest Night Chapter in the world of the Green Lantern Corps.  Will they succeed in subduing the Black Lanterns?  Will they be able to put an end to Nekron and destroy the very thing keeping his Power Battery running?  Brace yourselves for some major twists and turns!

My Thoughts

With this final Blackest Night tie-in for the Green Lantern Corps, Peter Tomasi holds nothing back by throwing everything but the kitchen sink out at his readers.  (but he does seemed to throw in a refrigerator…)  This installment is so chaotic, it’s almost unbearable…but not quite.  Combined with Guy Gardner being reunited with the zombie girlfriend and Vath’s legs being singed in half from the knee down, this book gives new meaning to the phrase “Death and Destruction.”

The story starts off with a pretty creative approach on Gardner’s part.  Each Corps form a large perimeter where they create a web construct to keep the Black Lanterns at bay while destroying them at the same time.  Gleeson and Buchman did a fantastic job with the view of this image

It was a valiant effort on the Lantern’s part, even if it failed to destroy the horde of Black Lanterns.  Along with that failure came the inevitable lover’s quarrel as both Gardner and Rayner are approached by their old zombie girlfriends.  These plot tactics on Tomasi’s part was a nice touch, but this whole “visitation from the past” deal has been played out just a tad too much.  Thank God it’s the last tie-in before Blackest Night comes to a close.  However, having Rayner’s girlfriend show up in the refrigerator that Major Force stored her broken and twisted body in was creatively dark, which is my favorite aspect of Tomasi’s writing.

After that good chunk of storyline, we then revert to the question everyone has been wondering about…how does the Anti-Monitor play into Blackest Night?  I was damn happy with the answer!  It’s a fitting plot device, since Nekron is a maniacal and twisted evil villain, to imprison the Anti-Monitor in the Black Lantern power battery as an energy cell.  Gleeson made me pee myself with the explosively destructive art showing the Anti-Monitor struggling to free himself.  Now while the Corps attempts to free the Anti-Monitor from his battery prison to take the charge away, the battery continually forces the giant energy being back into its shell.  With this dangerous endeavor on the Corps’ part, Vath looses his legs and the Anti-Monitor is successfully pulled back into the power battery. 

This only touches on the chaos and destructive nature of this book.  I can’t really describe my joy in how well Tomasi and Gleeson worked on this book.  The Black Lanterns are still winning, and despite the persistent effort by each Corps, the good guys are loosing badly.  The chapter of a story where everything goes to hell in a hand basket is always the best chapter of a story.

Overall

One of the best for the month this far; A great installment for Blackest Night and worthy of noting down as one of the best Blackest Night tie-ins for the Green Lantern world.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10 stars

Next Issue Coming April 28, 2010

A BRIGHTEST DAY tie-in! As BRIGHTEST DAY begins, Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner, along with the rest of the Green Lantern Corps, attempt to pick up the pieces from the horrific events of BLACKEST NIGHT and take a long hard look at how the Corps is run now that major revelations have come to light. Who survived (and what the Alpha Lanterns have in store for them) is only one of the many new questions that the Green Lanterns will have to answer on the difficult and dangerous road ahead.

Comic Book Review: Green Lantern Corps #45

Book Information

Written by Peter J. Tomasi

Art by Patrick Gleeson and Randy Mayor

Plot

The pivotal turning point in the War of Light is at it’s highest as the battle to protect the Oa power Battery comes to an end.  Now all the Corps faces is a very angry Red Lantern Guy Gardner. 

My Thoughts

Peter J. Tomasi has always been up and down with me as far as his writing is concerned.  These past few months for the GL Corps however have been extraordinary.  With the literally ground breaking ending to last month’s issue, I was worried that Tomasi might not be able to keep up that pace.  But as I’m noticing more often than not (especially recently) my prediction proves faulty.

The story brings us into the path of a conflicted Guy Gardner who, in addition to fighting his fellow corpsmen, seems to be in a battle with his rage.  It’s as if two people are contained within the same body, which makes for an interesting read.  It’s obvious that Guy recognizes his friends and wishes them no harm, while still being compelled by the red ring to kill them all with no real grasp on why.  This situation makes me wonder a few things about how a ring chooses a candidate.  We’ve seen twice already that not every individual chosen to wear a ring is in complete compliance with the emotion tagged along with the ring.  In Blackest Night: Wonder Woman, Diana’s inner monologue showed she was fighting against the power of the black ring.  Likewise, Guy Gardner seemingly had no desire to show this amount of rage, especially against his friends.  So the question in my mind is, how much of a ring’s power controls the actions of the one wearing it vs. how much of an individuals choices are their own?

Gleeson, while not my favorite, is an impressive artist.  But what’s most impressive is the color schemes done by Randy Mayor.  With Guy’s rage fighting against his will, and the brilliant and appropriate usage of light, I sat there in awe of the clever way mayor used the green and red constructs.  I know it’s not the most difficult thing in the world to place certain constructs with the appropriate light, but it was still fun to see the plan made by Gleeson and Mayor.  Ice as a green construct and Guy’s father as a red was pretty climatic way of ending Guy’s Red Lantern faze.  This issue is also quite chaotic in its storyline, and the layout fits that chaotic feeling very well.

Even though Tomasi will never be one of my favorite writers, I will miss his unique and chaotic storytelling on this title.  It’s never been slow or half-assed with Tomasi.  It’s always some over the top, Charlton Heston end of the world type of story.  Despite the fact that Tomasi isn’t consistent enough for me to ever consider as one of comics best writers, he definitely took full advantage of this book, giving it everything he had.  Tomasi will be missed by me.

Overall

A great book!  A lot of action and emotional drama from one of comic’s moodiest characters. 

Rating: 8.5 out of 10 stars

Next Issue Coming March 10, 2010

Blackest Night comes to its epic and stunning conclusion in this over-sized issue as the Green Lantern Corps descends on Earth to make their final stand against Nekron and the Black Lanterns!

Comic Book Review: Green Lantern Corps #44

Book Information

Written by Peter J. Tomasi

Art by Patrick Gleeson & Rebecca Buchman

Plot

Black Lanterns relentlessly attack the GL power battery, and the Corps is helpless against them.  The only thing keeping the Zombies at bay is the newly inducted Red Lantern, Guy Gardner.  While The Green Lanterns pray that Guy’s continuing rampage against the Black Lantern Corps will be successful, Mogo comes on board with and delivers coup de grace on the Zombies that, quite frankly, leaves them a little hot under the gills.

My Thoughts

The Green Lantern Corps has never impressed to the point where find myself awestruck and flabbergasted.  That state of being frozen with surprise usually is saved for stories written by Gail Simon, Neil Gaiman, or Alan Moore.  However, Tomasi proved to the world that he has just as much talent in his writing skills that the other heavy hitting writers have.

The plot itself goes beyond my expectations, utilizing the element of surprise to its fullest degree.  I’ve never seen a point in Mogo’s character, why induct a planet into the corps when all it’s able to do is idle in space and make other Lanterns feel good about themselves?  It never occurred to me that Mogo could actually become a valuable asset to the corps.  With the ability to draw in any organic life form is one thing, but to push the Black Lanterns into Mogo’s hot, molten core was a stroke of genius.  With this tactic, the Green Lanterns don’t have to worry about destroying them since they will constantly be melting and burning forever.  That is the type of ending that vivaciously engages your excitement and keeps your interests alive.  Two thumbs up for Tomasi for his intelligence and originality.

Guy Gardner as a Red Lantern is a lot more exciting than I initially thought.  Never in my wildest dreams did I think he had it in him, even with HIS temper, to take on an entire race of creatures single handedly without a scratch.  But what caught my attention the most was the love he portrayed for his friend and alley, Kyle Rayner.  As Kyle approached through the horde of Zombies, Guy’s rage tone down almost completely with the relief that Rayner wasn’t dead.  But as suddenly as that happened, Guy reverted back to his angry state of mind and began attacking Rayner as if her were his arch nemesis.  It didn’t matter that Rayner was still alive, it didn’t matter that he risked his life forcing himself through the clutter of Black Lanterns to see Guy, all that matter with Gardner was the rage within him.  Guy even stated he enjoys the Rage, as if it were clearer and more enjoyable than anything else he’s ever experienced.  This shows me that deep down inside, Guy Gardner really has nothing in his heart except rage.  Hopefully his girl, Ice, will be coming into the picture soon to help calm him down and find peace yet again.

Patrick Gleeson is an interesting artist.  He has a way of making his strange artistic style connect with me in many ways.  I’m very picky when it comes to art.  Give me clean lines, realistic expressions, interesting usage of colors and lighting and you have me hooked; Gleeson hardly has any of that in my mind.  Yet for reasons I can’t explain, I love his art work.  Maybe it’s the flashy attitude he puts into every page, maybe it’s the detailed work he puts in the background, or maybe his style is just different enough to me that I find it incredible to look at that makes me enjoy anything he does.  Whatever the case, Gleeson creates art that is undeniably top quality and I couldn’t ask him for better.

Overall

Fantastic issue!  I’m torn between this and the current issue of Batman that Tony Daniels delivered this month for the best of January.  One thing is for sure, this issue will be the best or second best comic of the month.  But with the Black Lantern crisis averted, how will the GL Corps deal with red ring bearing maniac Guy Gardner?

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars

Next Issue Coming February 17^th, 2010

The battle for the Green Lantern Battery on Oa comes to a bloody end as the new fron in the War of Light emergis!