By: Geoff Johns and Peter J. Tomasi (writers), Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Oclair Albert, Rob Hunter (artists), Peter Steigerwald (colorist)
The Story: On one front, Boston Brand, all duded up as Deadman, deals with the white ring that has just greased Hawkman and Hawkgirl. One another front, Aquaman and Aqualad race against time to contain the attack by Siren’s forces. And Black Manta doesn’t exactly give them a hand once the battle is joined…
What’s Good: Cover to cover, the art team delivers a beautiful book. I have been loving the artwork on the Deadman and Aquaman plotlines, and having an issue stuffed to the gills with only them is awesome. The draftsmanship is among the cleanest and the best in the business, whether action scenes or close ups. The expressions especially carry a lot of the emotional power of the story. Deadman, hunched over the ashes of the Hawks, in body language and in expression, is haunting. Then, when a bit of a draft carries some of the ashes away…superb. Same thing goes for Aquaman. He’s tortured on the inside and bottling stuff up. The conversation (thank you Johns and Tomasi) with Aqualad reveals it, but the close facial expressions, the direction he’s looking and the tight body language tell the tension that’s eating at him. Action-wise, the dynamism in Deadman’s quiet conflict with the ring and in the all-out brawl on the beaches propels the reader along.
On writing chores, plot specifically, Johns and Tomasi have us right in the sweet spot on the entire series. This feels like the second half of Return of the Jedi where about half a dozen things are going on, any one of which could scuttle the efforts of all our heroes. At the same time, the emotion packed into each of the scenes is really unusual for an action book, not because the emotion shouldn’t be there, but because so few writers can make us care while the action is flying past. This is not the first time that Johns and Tomasi have been tone-perfect on the feel they’re pulling out of the readers.
What’s Not So Good: My quibbles are so minor that they’re not worth bringing up.
Conclusion: Where was this quality and cohesiveness of storyline three months ago? Brightest Day is officially awesome, but I know it lost a lot of readers at the saggy midpoint of the series. Pick this one up. It’s good.
Grade: A
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Conclusion