By: Geoff Johns and Peter J. Tomasi (writers), Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleason, Ardian Syaf, Scott Clark and Joe Prado (artists), Vicente Cifuentes, David Beaty and Mark Irwin (inkers)
Happy Memorial Day to all our American readers! Your brothers to the north are hard at work, but our LCSs are open!
The Story: Step right up! Boston Brand versus the Anti-Monitor! The mystery of Firestorm and Aquaman and the lingering effects of their black lanternhood! Martian Manhunter realizes who he’s up against! And Hawkman and Hawkgirl catch up with Hath-Set! Strap on your seatbelts!
What’s Good: The creative team has hit their stride and this event is moving! Johns and Tomasi have written a fast-paced, cohesive marathon of stories that are inching into focus in the big picture as the Brightest Day matures. Boston Brand, Hawkman/ Hawkgirl and the white lantern are anchoring this series with the sort of cosmic scale that it is rising to. And the strange, eerie, creepy troubles of Firestorm and Aquaman connect Brightest Day to unresolved threads of Blackest Night. But none of this is overt or in-your-face. Johns and Tomasi are skilled wirters who leave a lot for the reader to connect and a lot for the artists to tell.
And on that, the script really put the art team through its paces, challenging them to produce landscapes and environments as diverse as undersea, the planet Qward, and a mystical tunnel to Hawkworld (you have to see the double-splash-page at the end of the book!). They also challenge the art team to deliver emotion (check out Boston Brand’s expressions as he’s getting ready to give it to the Anti-Monitor, or the series of shifting emotions in the hospital with Ronnie, Professor Stein, Jason, and Jason’s dad (who appears to be Luke Cage – who’d have guessed?). Johns and Tomasi also drive the art team to nuance the Aquaman/Mera episode, to give it more depth and doubt than the writing could ever have done. Well, well done!
What’s Not So Good: Not a single complaint. The writing was disciplined and subtle, and the art effective and arresting.
Conclusion: Front to back, a solid issue with rising tension and first class art. Pick it up!
Grade: A
-DS Arsenault