Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Brightest Day #14

I know that when it comes to DC, I usually tend to skimp out. Actually, looking at it now, I'm a little short in anything that's not Spider-Man. But, well, DC Comics have just been too good lately. I mean, my Spider-Man reviews are based on the fact that they're tragically bad. DC Comics, on the other hand, have been too good. I wrote a review for a Blackest Night comic, but then I got too lazy and never scanned the pictures nor published it.

Considering I've never covered DC before, I have quite a bit of backstory to go through. In the recent past, a big crossover event called Blackest Night happened, which was pretty much the DC Universe warring against the personification of death, called Nekron. It was mainly a Green Lantern thing, and was on one level a commentary on the constant deaths and revivals of superheroes. It had lotsa different Lantern Corps, each corresponding to a different color on the spectrum of light, and a different emotion. Nekron was Black (The color. You know what I mean.), and brought tons of dead heroes back as zombies, and it was giant and cool.

In the end, they believed in Life or something, killed the Blackness with White (Yeah, that's literally how it happened.) and 12 dead people got brought back to life. These 12 are Aquaman, Captain Boomerang, Reverse Flash, Firestorm, Jade, Osiris (No idea who that is), Martian Manhunter, Hawk (Of Hawk & Dove), Maxwell Lord, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, and Boston Brand (Deadman). That launched a new ongoing series titled Brightest Day, the obvious counterpart of Blackest Night taking reference from the Green Lantern oath. There's a few comics underneath a Brightest Day banner, such as Flash, Green Lantern and Green Arrow. The main Brightest Day title follows the resurrected people, but mostly Deadman and his search for the "Chosen One" to bear the White Lantern Ring. Along with him, Dove has been helping. So far, he's had no success, but in the beginning of last issue, he saw a familiar symbol in the Gotham skies...

Oh, and Batman recently came back to life after being sent in JOURNEY THROUGH TIME by Darkseid in Final Crisis, which I didn't read. Nor did I read his JOURNEY THROUGH TIME. Point is, Batman's alive again. Which is awesome, because he's Batman. Which is lucky, because, of today's issue:

Comic Review: Brightest Day #14



The comic starts with Deadman and Dove rushing out to where the Bat-signal's been cast. After some acrobatics, he ends up just finding some usual Gotham thuggery.



He kicks the shit out of the parka-people, noticing how nice it is that he was brought back at the physical peak of his life. Six on one is even easy for him.



Luckily for Deadman, Batman swoops in and shatters Freeze's glass dome, and throws him in the van. Batman asks Boston what he's doing there, and explains he knows how Deadman returned to life. Deadman says he recently heard Batman was resurrected.



Dove shows up and Deadman explains the situation to Batman, telling him that Batman must be the chosen one, because he is the smartest person on earth. Hell, if I was in charge of the White Ring, Batman would definitely be target number one. I mean, he's freaking Batman! You don't wanna mess with Batman. So Deadman orders the ring onto Batsy.



Unfortunately, Batman is too important a character in his own right, and has a solo series as well as 12 other Bat-related series to man, so he can't be the Chosen One. The ring, through Batman, berates Boston for being so hasty and not really caring about the Chosen One. Then Boston is shot.



Boston then has a series of flashbacks, showing the different times he was a total dick. Like, with his grandfather, and then one of his girlfriends.



The last part shows his death again, he was a trapeze artist called, fittingly enough, Deadman, and I guess that's where he got his costume from. He was shot during his act, but after he was acting like a dick again. He admits he never cared about anyone when he was alive, but while he was dead, he literally walked in their shoes.



He's then brought back to life in a giant burst of light, and the ring flies back to his finger from Batman. The ring tells him to live his life the way he wishes to and the Chosen One will come to him. By the time Boston has the chance to look around, Batman's gone. And in the start of a new romantic subplot, this happens:



And that's the end. I really like the Brightest Day series so far, though since it's an ongoing it doesn't have the same impact as limited series as Blackest Night. And there's the fact that it's focusing on so many characters in one series, it tends to feel a bit disjointed when it may be two or three comics before you see the resolution to a cliffhanger. The writing and art are solid, but not exactly revolutionary. Another point I noticed: There are no ads within the main comic, only on the very first page, and at the end, which surprised me once I noticed it. Stuff like Spider-Man will have tons of ads all over the place, and I appreciate the fact that they kept the story uninterrupted. Another thing is, this comic is good for any beginners, not sure where to start. The characters are either easily recognizable or quickly introduced. At any rate, if you're interested in light in the DC Universe, I highly suggest picking some issues of this up. That's all for now, and this is the W Defender!

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