Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities BRIGHTEST DAY

The David Finch covers are truly a wonder to behold. I'm really impressed by them--his style with that much color really pops for me.

Brightest Day #2 worked for me; the pacing reminds me very much of 52 and that is something I hope continues throughout. If Geoff and Tomasi can make it feel like all storylines are moving forward while not bogging us down with unnecessary sequences, Brightest Day has the potential to be the best comic on the market.

I like that not all of the resurrected are important here. With Osiris, Captain Boomerang, Zoom and Hawk elsewhere, we're getting J'onn, the Hawks, Aquaman (with Mera), Firestorm and Deadman. With Flash, GL and the Atom appearing, this is the best JLA comic book on the market.

The least interesting story thus far to me is J'onn's but there is still time. I'm hoping they give him a solid storyline to remind us why he's so awesome.

He was in the book. For one page. And he's on the fricking cover.

Thumbs up from me after 0, 1 and 2.

I'm liking it as well...

It's not bad...but <span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">DC is really pushing it with killing children within their stories.</span></span>
Getting kinda tired of it. I wish there were more regular comics that I could just hand my daughter...not just the ones specifically aimed at her age group.

I'll try and do something about it.

In my comics, you could expect something like Batman just staring down a henchman, STARING at him, and the henchman just runs off screaming and jumps out a window.

yeah what was with the <span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">white martian scene </span></span>

egad. i'm 32 and that gave me nightmares.

otherwise this issue seemed a bit light, very easy to read through quickly.

I thought #2 and #3 were a bit weaker than #0 and #1. Not falling into 'bad' territory but not enough is happening and the ultra-violence is just ridiculous. Killing children and Hawkman gutting henchmen. I'd be embarrassed to hand this comic book to someone's kids which is too bad because it has so many classic DC superheroes.

The Anti-Monitor is one of the great big bads of all time in comic book history and one of my favorites because of just the sheer scope of him in Crisis. I've always kind of wanted a 2nd awesome Anti-Monitor story but have also always felt it could end up being kind of crappy. I don't want the character used unless its going to be really awesome. So I'm not sure what the AM's role here is going to be but if they do plan to use him, they need to make sure its freaking awesome. Because immediately everyone will compare it Crisis which I feel is a fair thing to do.

The only thing I liked about this issue was Jason's dad telling Ronnie to stay away from him.

dude. me too.

the scene with the anti-monitor was laugh out loud funny.

Ring: "fight"
Dead Man: "Do you want me to die?"

bwahahaha

but if they are gonna make the big bad the anti-monitor i kinda would've like to see the old historical team from the C.O.I.E. (cyborg, psimon, dawnstar, obsidian, firestorm, killer frost, etc. teh ones that helped with the tower business) I mean they brought people back to life anyways. might be a more interesting story. more holistic.

#3 was very much character interaction. The Anti-Monitor fight was the only real conflict, and not much of one. Everyone else was just talking- to each other or themselves. It's bound to be a slower issue.

And with 5 stories going, there's not going to be much time for even the talking to give us a lot.

I've read a lof complaints about this book on other boards but (other than the ultra-violence in #2) I'm really enjoying it.

I love the way the stories are being developed slowly. I'm usually much more engaged by the journey to the big fight/climax than by the big fight/climax itself (see Blackest Night and its exciting first few issues before it hit the dead wall that was that never-ending fight in Coast City) so the little hints about the developing mysteries are right up my alley.

This will probably change month to month but I think my favourite story at the moment is the Martian Manhunter one, with the least favourite being the Hawkman/Hawkgirl one. I'm not a fan of that dumb past lives retcon Geoff Johns gave them (especially that I now have to read every Silent Knight, Nighthawk and Cinammon appearance as a Hawks appearance) so the fact that this story seems to be treading that territory annoys me. We'll see. That portal at the end of #3 was kind of exciting.

The art is uniformly excellent though. Especially on the Firestorm part. This artist is a revelation to me. Who is it? Is it Adrian Syaf? Where can I see more of his stuff?

P.S. I am *still* bummed we didn't get more resurrections in Blackest Night than just these 12. It is my great hope that this book is leading to a mystery of who the Other Twelve are and we see 12 more characters who were also resurrected behind the scenes. That would be great IMO.

I wouldn't mind another 12 by BD's end (and then a firm 'this is it' when the mini ends). It should be 12 people DC has stupidly killed off in the last 10 years.

I also agree wholeheartdly on the Firestorm art which is by Scott Clark! Very good artwork, and he does two things I really like: really cool Atom shrinking/growing sequences and makes Firestorm look as cool as he should look everytime he appears on panel. Firestorm has one of the best comic book costume ever. I also like how the Firestorm scenes have a bunch of different characters who have a distinct look: Ronnie, Jason, Jason's Dad, Prof. Stein, the Atom--very pleasing to the eye. I'm hoping the end result is Ronnie, Jason and Prof. Stein are somehow all Firestorm. The Prof is absolutely needed to make the character work.

Adrian Syaf is doing the Deadman sequences which actually might be favorite stuff art-wise on the comic. The way he draws Deadman feels very different to me than before, and not just because he's alive now with no mask. There is a firmness in his stance. I like it.

The artwork on all five series is very good and there is a uniform feel to it all.

FYI, the other artists:

Ivan Reis doing Aquaman & Mera - I've liked Reis stuff quite a bit and think he draws the hottest Mera I've ever seen (and I've had a crush on Mera since I was a little kid, just like Tinya & Alanna).

Joe Prado doing Hawkman & Hawkgirl

Pat Gleason doing Martian Manhunter

After #2 and the Martian mass murder stuff, I'm not I will continue reading this, despite the fact that I kind of like the episodic approach and I agree the art is quite good.

I grow increasingly troubled by Johns and Tomasi replacing superheroic and sci-fi elements with horror elements. It started to bother me in the Sinestro Corps War, but they managed to keep the horror aspect of the fear corps in line. Afterwards, the emphasis on horror led me to drop GLC, and I dropped the GL book with Blackest Night. At that point, you had a horrific Sinestro Corps, Orange Lanterns that dismember opponents and claim the victim's souls, Red Lanterns that vomit blood and act like zombies, and Black Lanterns that rip out hearts and ARE zombies.

My main complaint about all this, aside from the fact that I don't want to even leave it lying around the house where the 7-year old can read it, is that I believe it to be fundamentally incompatible with super-heroics when it goes beyond a certain point, which I think Johns and Tomasi have crossed. The horror genre is about suspense, surprise, irony, and human failings. People are too stupid and venal to save themselves from a grisly death. That just doesn't work with heroes, especially the science fictional Green Lanterns, who are supposed to be about will, intelligence and comaraderie transcending differences of species and world view.

^I agree with a lot of what you're saying DC. If the ultra-violence keeps up, I may drop this as well. It's not that I can't stomach blood or anything (far from it, I collect a lot of horror stuff). It's that I just feel like it doesn't work with DC superheroes and is a major flaw Geoff & pals need to overcome.

It's the most juvenile thing mainstream comics do these days and above all else, its entirely too distracting.

^ I agree with you both. I am (somewhat of) a Geoff Johns fan but dude is obsessed with putting am unhealthy level of gore in his books. Especially when he works with (the supremely overrated) Ethan van Sciver.

I first noticed it a few years ago in that Shark story in Green Lantern which featured the formerly-only-mind-devouring villain graphically chomping on a young man so that half of his arm and face were hanging out of the villain's mouth in a big splash shot on the final page! It was disgusting! Unfortunately the fan boys ate it up if the comments on ComicBloc at the time were anything to go by.

It's becoming a real turn-off to me though. If there's much more of it in Brightest Day I too will be dropping it.

Thanks for the artist breakdown by the way CK. So it's Scott Clark on the Firestorm portion. Funny - I've never even heard of that guy. Will definitely be seeking out other work he's done now. Totally agree with you on how awesome he makes Firestorm and the Atom look too.

The Deadman and Aquaman scenes are done by different artists? They look exactly the same to me. I thought they were all Reis. And though I of course know how Gleason is I totally thought I was looking at Doug Mahnke's work in Brightest Day. Two other artist's with very similar style IMO.

What a shame Joe Prado had to leave Adventure to do this book but good for him I suppose.

They still have me for now, but just barely. One more gratuitus slasher movie scene and I think I'm done. The rest of the issue was fine, good even, but the Marthian Manhunter scene goes over the top again with the graphic images.

Wow. A new Aqualad. And I... don't care.

http://www.titanstower.com/monitor/?p=1867#comments

I like the horror genre.

Enjoyed # 3.

I am liking the series, but getting only two or three pages per character/s leaves me feeling like I ate a rice cake for dinner.

I like horror as well, but not graphic images in a mainstream hero comic. I know it may seem odd, but I think there is a time aand place for that stuff. I loved Sandman and that had some really disturbing images in it...but it was aimed for adults.

I'm more alarmed by the fact that this new Aqualad is from 'one of the driest places on Earth' than by the fact that there is one, or by the fact that he's black.

I wonder if he'll have water control or something but won't be a swimmer...

... that'd be too much of a stereotype, wouldn't it?

Garth hasn't used the Aqualad name in over a decade, so his potential return really wouldn't have an impact on the new guy. The spectre of the Ryan Choi Atom does linger, however.

I think his introductory cover is great... it does quite a bit to win me over (funny how good art can do that), though the relative positions of Aqualad and Deadman sent my mind somewhere I don't think the artist intended, though you never know.

New guy looks a tad older than I'd think for a guy who'd call himself Aqualad.

I think there's a difference between horror and gore.

I like scary, thrilling, chilling, spilling, occasionally-gory-if-it-suits-the-story horror.

I don't like here's-a-family-being-graphically-beaten-to-death-and-then-flayed-in-as-explicitly-gory-a-way-as-possible-when-an-off-panel-death-would-have-been-just-as-sufficient in the middle of my otherwise fairly run-of-the-mill superhero story.

That said, Martian Manhunter did seem to recognise (or react to) the fact that the baddie was skinning the bodies, so there may be an important reason for that fact coming up which will make the horribleness of that event pertinent to the story at least.

Re: Aqualad. It's hard to get invested in any new characters at DC these days since they've all got 'Future Event Casualty' stamped on their foreheads from the get-go.

It's a bit weird that we're getting a new Aqualad though. Don't we already have a fairly new Aquagirl? (Not that I'm much of a fan of hers mind you so I have no problem with this guy taking her place if he turns out to be more likeable than she is.)

The one thing that annoys me about him is that he's American. God forbid DC introduce a major character who happens to be from one of the more than a hundred other countries in the world. Especially since I imagine 90% of his storylines are going to be set underwater so he really could have come from anywhere.

I also hope this new character doesn't mean Garth/Tempest will take longer to return. He's a great character who still has way too many good stories left in him.

Nice cover though (if you can look past the unfortunate positioning that Mystery Lad has noticed too...)

I recall DC tried doing that a few years ago with their Planet DC thing and most of the changes didn't stick.

Squire and Knight are a couple of cool foreign characters.