Brightest Day #15 - Inching Back To Awesome

So here it is. The new issue of Brightest Day is out after Geoff Johns's long streak of awesome ended with the last issue. It's like having a favorite restaurant all your life and having a single meal where the cook spit on the steak and rubbed his balls in your potatoes. That bad taste is still in your mouth and there may even be a few ball hairs stuck between your teeth, but you still love the restaurant and the food so you go back to give it another shot. Geoff Johns is one of those rare comic writers who has earned a few mulligans. He's written so many awesome stories that we can't reasonably expect everyone to be mind-blowingly awesome. That would be like expecting your girlfriend to keep giving you the best blow job you've ever had night in and night out. Such expectations just aren't reasonable.

What made Brightest Day #14 such a disappointment was that it abandoned what made the book so awesome from the beginning. It took many different plots and balanced them in a way that fit into a larger story. Not every issue was going to cover every plot, but that was okay because the plots that were covered were awesome enough that it was hard to give three quarters of a shit. Brightest Day #14 basically linked up with none of the other plots. It focused entirely on Deadman's ongoing struggles with the White Lantern. That wouldn't be too bad if it hadn't all been a big tease. The biggest injection of awesome came from Batman and the promise that he may be the guardian of the White Lantern that Boston Brand had been searching for. That didn't seem to be the case. Boston gave the ring to Batman, the ring rejected him, and it went back to Boston. That's about it. Boston did get to make out with Dove and that's okay for a fucking Disney movie, but not Brightest Day. There wasn't even a hint as to what other stories would come with the next issue or how this was going to affect the other DC characters who were being affected by the White Lantern. There were a lot of reasons to pull chunks of hair out with a metal lathe and that issue earned the lowest score yet for the Brightest Day series.

Enter Brightest Day #15. This book is like the maid who has to clean up a hotel room after Motley Crue went on a crack binge and staged an orgy featuring no fewer than 20 groupies, 8 midget prostitutes, and 5 transsexual strippers. It does not make too smooth a transition and that may be for the better. Like America's history with African slaves and Justin Bieber's twitter feed, it's one of those things best left unmentioned in civil conversation. This issue focuses on a plot that culminated a few issues ago. J'onn J'ozz, the Martian Manhunter was channeling his inner Scooby Doo, uncovering a mystery involving the last green martian. This last martian was about as friendly as Dick Cheney on a hunting trip. She attacked and tried to screw over J'onn (and it might have been literal at some points, but it's hard to tell since I haven't watched much Martian porn lately). In some ways she succeeded (minus the money shot) and got J'onn to use his White Lantern powers that had flared up earlier to revitalize Mars. It all seemed so cheerful and happy, but then it was revealed that the last green martian tricked J'onn. He's essentially living in a fantasy world now on the scale of the Matrix, only in his reality Keeanu Reeve's bad acting isn't there to fuck it up.

If you hadn't kept up with the events that led up to this issue (or are too damn lazy to look up spoilers online), you wouldn't really know that the Martian Manhunter was in a dream world. Everything looks all cheery and happy. J'onn is on Mars, his people are alive and well, he's revered for having saved them all, and years of prosperity have since transpired. That should be a big enough hint, that this happens in the future. When his fellow Justice League members appear that include Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Green Lantern it they all look like they're spokesmen for one of those annoying Medicare commercials by the AARP. While I'm sure Geoff Johns is enjoying his royalty check on fine wine and the best GILFS a lobbying group can provide, J'onn and his buddies smile and hold hands at how happy life is. It almost makes you wonder why Disney didn't by DC instead of Marvel.

The good times continue, further reinforcing the notion that this can only be a dream. J'onn chats with his Justice League buddies, thanking them for dropping by. They take a moment to reflect on how peachy J'onn's life is on Mars. He's got his planet back, his people back, and he's literally the savior of an entire race. For those like Superman who don't have that luxury, they should be downright jealous. But J'onn still managed to show plenty of humility. Considering you can't get a politician to show humility these days, it's amazing a Martian does a better job. They also take a moment to remind each other that Father Time is starting to creep up on them like a pedophile at the little league world series. It leaves J'onn looking like he's ready to retire and do the Martian equivalent of sleeping until noon and falling asleep in front of the Golf Channel.

Beyond the Justice League, J'onn also has his family back. At this point even I have to admit this dream world is pushing the whole Disney style sap. He's hanging out with his wife, they're cuddling in a way comic couples aren't supposed to cuddle (according to Joe Quesada with regards to his stance on the Spider-Man/Mary Jane marriage). He's got all the Oreoes and love a guy could ever want. You know it can't last. It's gotta go wrong at some point.

Then at last there's a glitch in the Matrix. While feeding his dog (which looks like a totally regular Earth dog and not some bizarre Martian dog mind you), the little mutt actually bites him. Now I don't know where the dog came from or if it was some gift from Superman or something, but it's the first time that J'onn's perfect little world starts to crack. You just know at some point he's going to get a jolt of reality on the scale of 10 billion hangovers.

It all starts going down hill, as if that dog bite was a voodoo curse. On the very next panel, Batman is shown to be dead. There's no big time fight. Somehow some way an unseen foe took out the Dark Knight when countless plots of exploding whoopee cushions form the Joker could not. It's pretty underhanded, but given this is undoubtedly a dream world it does feel a bit more salient. And in the same tradition of a Dan Brown novel and shitty Ron Howard movies, Batman tries to give J'onn a message before he dies. He never gets a chance to finish and lie naked on a pentagram. If only everyone were so lucky to die in such an elaborate way.

It doesn't stop with Batman either. Pretty much the entire Justice League starts falling like the unnamed guards in a James Bond movie. Wonder Woman, Aquaman, the Flash, and Green Lantern all die gruesome deaths. It's not Ultimatum style gruesome, but it's quite a shift from all the rainbows and unicorns from earlier. It's a jarring shift, but one that gives the book a unique feel. One minute you're reading such a happy story and the next there's a mass murderer on the loose. It's like Dexter meets the Disney Channel.

Only Superman remains and before he shows up in a twisted heap of Kryptonian gore, J'onn assembles the Martian Manhunters. The time for holding hands and singing Bryan Adams songs is over. J'onn wants to find this killer and give him the old alien rectal probing treatment, the drunken hillbilly version. They don't find the killer, but they do find Superman. He's trapped in a Martian prison with a Krytonite mask. It would be an unceremonious way to die. Even Lex Luthor would call such a method tacky as hell.

J'onn tries to save Superman by giving him a quick solar sauna (minus the happy ending). Along the way his daughter, Kym, shows some typical teenage whining that seems to cross species. J'onn is making such a big deal about helping his Earth friends that he seems to give less consideration to his Martian brethren. He's becoming Jake Sully in Avatar minus the five-legged horses. Like James Cameron and his producers, J'onn won't hear it. He manages to heal Superman and he's understandably pissed.

It's a given he only becomes more pissed when he demands to see the others only to find they've been butchered like extras on a Michael Bay set. They're basically left to bury their friends and find out who's behind this and how they hell they pulled off what generations of super-powered nutjobs couldn't. It rubs J'onn in all the wrong ways. He remembers how he had to bury every last member of his race before and the thought of doing it again is enough to make him want to cut off his hands and dive head first into a volcano.

It's this paralyzing fear that pushes J'onn over the edge. It's that trigger that turns that sweet, lovable child who likes to rip the wings off flies for fun into a deranged Jeffery Dahlmer level psychopath. Even Martians have their limit and J'onn reached his. So he does the only logical thing a madman would do in his position. He tries to kill Superman. I want to say it sounds contrived, but in a dream world where J'onn is slowly losing it this makes perfect sense. How's that for irony?

It's during this act of Joker style madness that J'onn gets his first dose of the red pill to take him out of the Matrix. Superman urges him to wake up. Doing so is like ripping off 10,000 band-aids while rubbing iodine into your eyes. He flies all over Mars to see everything going up in flames again. All those people he saved are becoming Resident Evil style zombies minus the retarded movements. He makes his way home to find his wife looking remarkably calm. J'onn then proceeds to give her the Ike Turner treatment, literally ripping away the deception from her flesh to reveal the truth that someone has been fucking with him in the worse possible way.

It's a violent dose of reality for the Martian Manhunter, but it leaves him looking more badass than he's ever looked. He finds himself back on Mars (now dead as George W. Bushes credibility), choking the sadistic bitch to death. Now normally I'm not at all for violence against women, including hot alien chicks. But when it comes to mind fucking a guy so he has to relive the death of his whole fucking planet again, that whole chivalry crap goes in the nearest trash compactor.

We don't get to see all the horrible things J'onn does to this alien psycho-bitch and it's probably for the best. Anybody with a dirty enough mind can figure it out. Instead, this issue does what the last issue failed to do and actually touches on another plot in Brightest Day that has fallen to the wayside. This takes place at the Justice League of America's headquarters where Congo and Starman are enjoying a friendly game of chess. Before they can start playing the role of snooty British intellectuals, Firestorm shows up. Last we checked he was dealing with the return of the Black freakin' Lanterns and the prospect of causing another big bang. So he's clearly in need of some assistance and sets the story up for the next issue. And this time, it's done in a way that doesn't suck.

So Brightest Day #15 ends with a far different taste than it's predecessor. It's not the same feeling of imported Swiss chocolate that the other issues brought to the table, but it's still enough to get you drooling like Pavlov's dogs. It doesn't completely turn the tables though. Brightest Day #15 still made a few of the same mistakes the last issue made. It dedicated almost the entire issue to one storyline and didn't really tie it in or even hit at tying it in with other storylines. So it's not a complete departure from what didn't work. Geoff Johns is trying to roll that proverbial bolder back up the hill and crushes his back in the process.

Never-the-less, there is some quality awesome here. Unlike the Batman story in the last issue, this one doesn't end where it began. Even though much of it was spent in a dream world, J'onn woke up and confronted the enemy he had been chasing. He broke free of her control, which granted is progress. In addition the whole shift from such a happy beginning to such a gruesome end gave the story a unique feel. It went from one extreme to the other so fast and still made sense. That's not an easy thing to do. That's like trying to jerk off and take a piss at the same time. Only those truly skilled in the craft can pull it off.

Now I want to get back to giving Brightest Day comics perfect scores. It seemed a given for so long and I miss being able to sing the praises of a book that delivers everything it promises. However, I simply can't make that leap in the same way I can't wipe my memory clean of the previous issue. So for Brightest Day #15 I give it a final score of 3.5 out of 5. This issue is not entirely back to where Brightest Day was in terms of quality. It's definitely back on the right track though. Nuff said!

Brightest Day #5 - Concentrated Vitamin Awesome

I get that I've been ranting and bitching about the state of X-men for a while now and thankfully I've had an intervention with the voices in my head. They all sat me down, fed me some downers, and explained to me that it was bullshit to focus entirely on how utterly fucked the comics are with Second Coming and Hope Summers and that there was still plenty of awesome to be had. One of them being Brightest Day. Now granted it took a few more days of intense counseling, a few drinks, and maybe some roofies or two, but I did come around and allow myself to indulge in the awesome that has been so consistent and quality since the beginning (unlike some comics with X in the title). Brightest Day #5 is the latest in a series that has been percolating awesome at the same rate as a faulty BP oil rig. To my relief and to the relief of the voices, that awesome continues.

This book does a slight shift from the previous issues in that it's now focusing on fewer plots. This is good because it allows the story to progress for certain characters than would be possible if the book had to touch on anybody. Not only that, Geoff Johns gets a chance to write some kick-ass action scenes which have been lacking in past issues. It's just the right kick in the nuts readers need to be reminded that this series can spew awesome like a cumshot in a Jenna Jameson porno.

It starts off with the strange plot involving Mera and Arthur. Over the past few issues, he's been having a bit of an identity crises between his live and dead self. Mera seems to be having a similar problem with her growing necrophilia problem, but that doesn't stop them from being heroes. Their latest act is pulled right from Fox News without taking pussies like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity with them. They set out to stop a burning oil rig that's dumping oil into the oceans. Somewhere, a BP executive is sighing in annoyance at the loss of another PR hit while doing a line of cocaine off a strippers ass. Arthur even has time to go on a rant at how oil had corrupted the world. Now he just sounds like a hippie and makes BP seem like less an asshole and we can't have that.


But like all hippies, they eventually pick a fight. So when a hoard of Atlantean hitmen appear to take out Aquahippie, you don't feel too bad about it. On a burning oil rig in the middle of the ocean, it sets the stage for a pretty kickass fight. It's long overdue too because Arthur has been avoiding Atlantis since Brightest Day began. Any king ought to know that if you stay away from your throne for too long, someone is going to see that as an opportunity to fuck with your power. Damn hippies.


Of course, Geoff Johns doesn't throw an entire fight scene on the page at once. He's going to make the reader earn it by focusing on a plot less Die Hard and more The Sixth Sense. By that I mean we're getting back to the whole reanimating dead people plot because let's face it, just seeing them is boring as fuck. Boston Brand, formerly known as Deadman, is put in an awkward position with Hawk and Dove. Hawk wants him to tap this White Ring that he doesn't know the first thing about using to resurrect his brother. Granted, that's like asking someone to hot wire a nuclear bomb when they don't know an AAA battery from a vibrator, but Boston gives it a shot. However, the ring itself (remember, this thing isn't your grandma's jewelry) doesn't like where this is going.


But to hell with some moody ring! Let's go back to the action, damn it! We've got a battle between the King of Atlantis and some renegade shmucks looking to piss on his side of the pool. Let's enjoy it while we can! It certainly makes for an exciting moment. Aquaman is outnumbered and outgunned on a platform that's already on fire. He still holds his own and the readers are still treated so some more kickass explosions. Then Mera steps in and shows that she's not just some redheaded eye-candy and pulls a nasty little trick with sharks to beat them back and give her and Arthur time to slip away. It all seems so complete, but then Siren (the bitch leading this attack) throws an ominous hint that indicates something else is at work.


Not content for just one helping of action, we revisit the unfolding shit storm that Hawkman and Hawkgirl have found themselves in. After walking through a portal made of the bones of their dead reincarnations (no really, that's not a witty joke), they find themselves on a planet that looks like a cross between Pandora from Avatar and Mars from Total Recall (minus the chick with the three breasts). But they don't just get right to the action. They do take a moment to remember they're still somewhat human despite having wings and shit. Hawkgirl is understandably nauseous after walking through a gateway that made her feel the deaths of all her past selves. You would think that would entitle her to at least a good round of dry heaves.


Sadly, there is no puking to be had. They don't get the chance. Just when it looks like Hawkman and Hawkgirl are sharing another moment, they get attacked by an army of these human/animal half-breeds. Now that would sound strange, but considering how they got to this place it's about as surprising as rain in Seattle. But that doesn't stop it from being awesome as hell. Finally, the Hawks have to set aside their love story and kick a little ass. It may seem like shameless pandering to the tween crowd, but who gives a shit? It's still awesome.


The fight gets bloody and ugly faster than a birthday party with Michael Vick. It's definitely more graphic than the fight with Arthur and the Atlanteans. This one has snarling, angry beasts against two people who have taken more than their share of shit. Add to that, they discover that there are still some elements of the Black Lanterns inside them. So even if they survive, death is going to keep following them. How's that for stacking the deck against them? The battle is pretty intense, but something has to give and that something is Hawkgirl. She gets plucked right from the fight and carried off. What happens to Hawkman you ask? Well he gets slammed into the side of a mountain and that understandably puts a damper in his rescue efforts. But come on! This is his girlfriend from like a hundred lifetimes! A simple mountain should not get in his way.


So with all this bloodshed and violence, the story is left looking for something more subtle. That unfolds in the form of a somewhat predictable result to Boston Brand's attempt to use the White Lantern ring. For any number of reasons, the ring doesn't like being used to bring back someone's dead brother. So the guy stays dead. It's done a shit ton of resurrecting recently so why ask more? But that isn't the only reason. It turns out Boston got a glimpse of the man on the other side. He didn't want to be brought back. So between Boston, the ring, and the dead guy he's outvoted.

Hawk is understandably pissed, but Boston isn't about to stop. He sets his sights on another corpse, this one being Dove's sister. The ring still doesn't like it, but will that be enough? Johns isn't going to answer that question. That's meant to grab the reader by the nuts (or clit if you're a girl) and drag them along for the next issue.


Now this would have been an awesome place to end the book. You've got a setup for yet another resurrection and plenty of fodder from the other plots to make this story as solid as we would expect a Geoff Johns comic could be. But much like every woman that ever boned Larry King, John's isn't satisfied. He has to throw in one last twist.

It comes in the form of a revelation from Mera. She and Arthur have gotten away from the attack, but Arthur is understandably confused. He has no idea who these pricks were or why they attacked him. But Mera seemed to know as was indicated by that little hint dropped by Siren before they left. And Arthur knows she knows. He slept with this girl in the first issue. The man should have some insight. The truth does come out, but it's seriously fucked up. Mera basically admits she's pulling a Julia Roberts to his Gerard Butler. She wasn't originally sent to get his rock off. She was sent to kill him. You couldn't kill the moment faster without PMS and diarrhea.


So that's it. That's what Brightest Day #5 leaves us with. Three focused stories and each are awesome enough to stand on their own as a comic, but put together and you've got a trifecta of awesome that makes for a compelling plot with the perfect blend of action, drama, and startling revelations. It's the kind of high stakes awesome that has been par for the course with Brightest Day. Geoff Johns continues to astonish, proving time and again that he can deliver the goods. There's a lot less setup and a lot more execution in this issue, giving it a very vital feel in the sense that this could mark a turning point in the series.

Now are there some shortcomings? They are few and far between. The battle with the Hawks didn't offer much explanation for who these creatures were that attacked them. It wasn't even clear how they showed up. Did they teleport or something or fly in? There's also the matter of Boston saying he met Hawk's brother on the other side of the pearly gates, but that wasn't shown. It could have made for a nice scene, but it feels kind of bland when he just says he didn't want to be brought back. It feels like a missed opportunity.

Never-the-less, Geoff Johns makes the most of every other opportunity and the end result is a brilliant flash of blinding awesome. Brightest Day #5 gets a perfect 5 out of 5 and I can get along with the voices a little better. Between so much bullshit in the X-men comics, it's refreshing to know that DC is still growing steadily in terms of quality. So even if Second Coming turns to complete shit (which looks to be the case), I have awesome stories like Brightest Day to pick up the slack. Thanks DC! Thanks for not teasing excessively and blowing smoke in my face! Brightest Day kicks ass. Nuff said.

Brightest Day #3 Review - Back to Basic Awesome

It goes without saying that Brightest Day has a pretty high bar to jump. As the spiritual successor to the supremely awesome Blackest Night event, it has a lot to live up to. Like any cocky protagonist to every sports movie ever made, the series gets humbled at some point. Maybe the cheerleader girlfriend dumps him or he finds out he has herpes, but the game keeps on going. The last issue, Brightest Day #2, was a bump in the road for the story thus far. It was the first time Geoff Johns and his Brightest Day saga failed to deliver on the expected level of awesome, which admittedly is pretty high. It was disappointing, but where Brightest Day #2 left readers a bit jaded Brightest Day #3 straps a wad of C4 caliber awesome to their brains and detonates it without a moment's hesitation.

The story picks up right where the last issue left of. Boston Brand, who was once known as Dead Man only he's not so dead anymore, is standing face to face with the Anti-Monitor in the Anti-Matter universe. That's the equivalent of facing King Kong naked with your arms and legs cut off. To this point the white lantern ring hasn't shown much firepower. It definitely shows a little here and not in a typical way to say the very least.


As kick-ass as every lantern power in the spectrum is, this little display really set itself apart. When it comes to sheer force, you can't get much better than an onslaught from a white outline of the mightiest heroes on Earth. Even for the Anti-Monitor, it's a lot to handle and a damn fine display. Now with this power one might expect Boston Brand to kick the Anti-monitors ass like the 2008 Detroit Lions. But the ring is still not cooperating. It literally has a mind of it's own and isn't exactly dancing to Brand's tune. As a result, he gets a little 'remember me' shot from the Anti-Monitor. It looks like he may take on the mantel of Dead Man yet, but the white ring isn't making it easy for him. It's like Yoda in Empire Strikes Back having Luke fight Darth Vadar during his training. Only this involves someone who is pants-shittingly more powerful than some guy with a breathing problem.

While Brand is left hanging, another plot is unfolding with Firestorm. Ronald, who came back from the dead during Blackest Night, is at odds with Jason. Since he's the other half of the Firestorm matrix that's a pretty big problem. I know Firestorm is used to having an identity crisis, but this brings out a worst-case-scenario kind of moment. The two people who together make an ass-kickingly awesome superhero hate each other at the moment and one of them wants to leave it all behind. What's a guy who just came back from the dead to do?


This is where the whole adjusting-after-having-been-dead plot comes back into the fold. Ronald is like a lot of the other DC heroes who came back in Blackest Night in that he's not sure what to do with himself. Seriously, how do you adjust from coming back from the dead? In comics it's pretty normal. People coming back from the dead is about as common as seeing some wannabe douche-bag make an ass of himself during an American Idol audition. Here, Geoff Johns adds some depth to the experience. He really shows how Ronald is struggling with this and it's a refreshing bit of characterization that often as underplayed as Amy Winehous'es gynecologist.


Only Ronald isn't the only one getting used to not being a corpse. In the previous issue Aquaman was going through his own problems. It turns out death hasn't quite left him yet. He may be alive, but now he can summon dead aquatic life. Now given the recent gulf oil spill, that seems like a good thing. After all, there are probably more dead animals in the ocean than there are live ones in this day and age. But it's still pretty disturbing, at least for Author. For the readers, the visuals are like orgasms for the eyes. It makes Aquaman more interesting than he has been since the Reagan administration.


It's a spooky moment that makes even a fish man piss himself. But he doesn't freak out as most anyone in his position would. Mera reaches out to him and it makes for a nice moment between the two. Given that neither of them has had time for romance that doesn't boarder on necrophilia in a long time, it's a nice little reminder that these two are still very close and it's one of those warm and fuzzy moments that brings out a readers inner Lady Gaga. While Mera clearly loves the guy, it's also pretty clear that she's just as spooked. She just got her man back and now he's summoning dead fish. There isn't much relationship advice you can do with that.


The whole death theme continues into the next plot, which seems to be the key theme of this issue. The forces of death are following these heroes and by and large it's screwing with them. They beat the grim reaper and now the grim reaper is looking for ways to fuck with them. J'onn J'ozz is next in line for such a fucking when he is left to uncover the grizzly events that occurred in the previous issue. A whole family is dead and the only survivor is a dog. Once again showing his resourcefulness, J'onn reads the dog's mind to see what happened. Even through the eyes of a creature whose favorite activity involves licking himself, it's a pretty gruesome scene. At least it provides him with his next clue. It would be so engaging if only there was some explanation as to what that clue was. All J'onn does is read the dog's mind and fly off with him, dropping his typical hint in the process. That's all well and good but it moves his mystery forward about as quickly as turtle's boner.


J'onn isn't the only one whose time gets shortened way too much. The White Lantern makes another appearance. Apparently, it still hasn't moved from where it ended up at the end of Blackest Night. Nobody, not even the various lantern corps, have any idea on how to move it. That doesn't stop some locals from trying to fuck with it. Naturally, the White Lantern doesn't like that and throws a hissy fit. It's an okay spectacle, but nothing too mind blowing. At the very least, Johns shows that this mysterious manifestation of DC awesome is still in play. It would just be nice if he did something with it.


These two scenes highlight the weakest points of the issue. They touch on events from the previous issue, but don't do much with them. It's like they're just slapped together so Johns can say "See! I haven't forgotten! Now don't quit your bitching!" He's big on the little things, but there is such a thing as being too little to care. The scenes from the previous plots could have easily been made longer while omitting these two. They have their place, but they seem so painfully contrived in the sense they act like filler.

Thankfully, this is the only part where this lull sets in. The next scene doesn't just pick up on a moment from the previous issue. It moves it forward and does something awesome with it that blows the mind and possibly other parts of the body that may not be appropriate to mention. It involves Hawkgirl and Hawkman, who have been tracking down Hath-Set. The guy developed a sudden intrigue for the bones of their reincarnated forms and assembled himself a pretty messed up collection. Since we're talking reincarnation here, the Hawks are pretty intent on showing the man a Thanagarian ass-kicking.


What happens next is so unexpected that Nostradamas himself would be at a loss for words. In a moment awesome enough to be marketed as a cure for depression, Hath-Set shows why he's been gathering their bones. It's not just for kicks or even to sell them on Ebay. He wants to use them to create a gateway to another world. That's not a typo fleshed out while high. The guy actually used dead bones to make a gateway. Even in the lore of comics where a walnut can be turned into a diamond, that's a new one for most fans and pretty damn awesome to boot.


It's the perfect way to end the issue. It leaves readers needing to know what happens the same way Jack Baur needs to know where the next terrorist strike is going to happen. Only it's not done in a way that would require torture on par with cutting open the stomach and retrieving a computer chip (see the 24 finale). It definitely makes for a kick-ass ride for a kick-ass comic. It brings home an issue that by most standards measures up to the insanely high bar established by Blackest Night. If it were in an Olympic event, it would get a silver metal.

Now I say silver metal and not gold for reasons I've already stated. As awesome as the ending was, there were some slow points that just weren't all that interesting and probably could have been cut. In many ways that's the biggest problem with this issue. Many of the scenes just end too quickly. It feels like the comic is shorter than it should be. Granted, there's a nice preview of Green Arrow at the end, but it feels like that comes at the expense of an already strong story. Geoff Johns is one of the best at laying out a story. All he requires is time and space on a certain number of pages to tell that story. It almost seems like he tried to condense everything or got cut off. It doesn't hurt the awesome factor too much, but it leaves readers agonizing at just how awesome it almost was.

Taking this narrow shortcoming into account, this Brightest Day #3 gets a 4 out of 5. It isn't so much that the book is flawed. It's more so that it seems incomplete. It's still a must-have and definitely keeps Brightest Day moving along with the momentum of a bull high on crystal meth. It's DC at it's finest and still deserves to be uttered in the same breath as Blackest Night. Nuff said.