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