Friday, May 27, 2011

My Problems With Brightest Day.

No matter what you do, unless you didn’t read it, you will be comparing the Brightest Day event in the DC comics Universe to Blackest Night, another event that happened just before…and that comparison will never be favorable for Brightest Day. Blackest Night, in my opinion, had some of the most compelling story telling to come out of the DCU in years. I can honestly say I got very sick of the multiple crisis that have been going on for the last few years & I just couldn’t care about 52 and all the whatever’s that surrounded that. Then there comes Blackest Night, characters back from the grave for a reason not just to inhabit the body of Jean Gray (sorry Marvel joke in a DCU rant), but actually having a reason to live again, some as Zombies that steal hearts…SWEEEEET!

But then, almost in an instant, to push aside all of this to the wayside in Brightest Day was almost a slight slap in the face. Now I’m not saying there wasn’t some wonderful gems here and there and some fun stuff going on in the DCU, I mean JLI Generation Lost was awesome, and I didn’t want it to end luckily we get an on going series out of this, but the rest of just kind of felt like a let down.

I’m telling you go back and reread Blackest Night and compare it to Brightest Day and see how very different they are in style, tone and pace and it just dose not compare. In Blackest Night I seriously anticipated each issue with fevered boyish glee . I found myself excited to see who lived and who died and who came back, I cared for characters I hadn’t felt anything for in years (cough cough Flash cough cough). I ended up though, not caring anymore for those same characters in Brightest Day, except for the redemption of Dead Man, Boston Brand. In Boston I found a well rounded character fulfilling a grand arch starting from his creation in 1967 and completely redeeming himself as a person on multiple levels and even finding love in the arms of Dove. In the end being put back right where he started from making his arch and redemption almost meaningless. Talk about a raw deal, I actually found myself getting really mad about that part., I mean here was this character who besides his appearance in Kingdom Come I really didn’t know too much about and in Blackest Night I started to wonder who this guy was and I did some research…turns out this guy was a real dick back in the day, much like a real person and then Brightest Day comes around and BAMM!!! See yeah later Boston Brand welcome back Dead Man…LAME!!!!

I kind of wax and wane on Green Arrow most of the time I could give a damn about him but in Brightest Day I didn’t care for Green Arrow at all. He seems compelling when surrounded by his “family”, Black Canary especially…to be honest I really didn’t care about anyone other then Dead Man, and maybe a little bit about Martian Manhunter, but then to suddenly introduce, seemingly out of nowhere, Swamp Thing? Really? Really? Why? I mean I get that Swamp Thing is connected to the Earth and supposedly the Earth is really important in the universe and all but isn’t the White Light of Life supposed to be important to all life in the universe and beyond, not just the Earth? It has to do with all of creation right? Which is a point I think was sorely missed here, and kind of glossed over in the Green Lantern titles (but there not done with that yet so maybe that’ll change).

I am looking forward to what’s on the horizon for the DCU and as I usually do I sort of teeter totter back & forth from Marvel to DC and in the last few years I’ve moved more and more into the DCU but with the end of Brightest Day, they have a lot to make up for if they want to keep me around. Who am I kidding I’m in for all of the Green Lantern titles, and JLI will be coming out soon…but John Constantine in the regular DCU? What is that all about?

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