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