DCU Comic Book Reviews

BRIGHTEST DAY #24

Brightest Day

early June 2011

Written by Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi

Art by Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Patrick Gleason, Ardian Syaf, Scott Clark, Norm Rapmund, Vicente Cifuentes, Oclair Albert, Tom Nguyen, Mick Gray, Mark Irwin, and David Beaty

Covers by David Finch and Ivan Reis

Synopsis

In the Star City Forest, Earth’s New Champion, Alec Holland has emerged.  Elsewhere, the elementals, Firestorm (fire), Aquaman (water), Hawkman (air), and Martian Manhunter (Earth) are fighting against the Dark Avatar.  The white entity tells Boston Brand that they need to make Alec Holland once more believe he is Swamp Thing.  Just then, the white entity tells Captain Boomerang to throw the boomerang at Dove.  He does so.  Boston Brand jumps in front of the boomerang, saving her, but killing himself.  The white entity then leaves Boston and jumps to Alec Holland, who then instantly becomes Swamp Thing.  Swamp Thing then attacks the Dark Avatar and kills it.  Meanwhile, Boston Brand is returned to Earth, once more as Deadman.  Swamp Thing then releases the elementals before restoring the Green to the entire planet.  Swamp Thing will protect the Green.  Then, the white entity disappears, its time is done.  Later, the four elementals return to their lives.  In Gotham, Swamp Thing attacks a group of businessmen responsible for a large scale oil spill.  That night, the attack is investigated by John Constantine.  

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

On the whole, I liked this issue.  I liked how it ended and I thought the choice to protect the Earth was probably the best one that could be made given the characters that DC has on hand (although Poison Ivy would’ve been a good choice and I am sure there are others).  I also loved the big splash pages of Swamp Thing emerging to declare Earth is his world and the splash page of Swampy and the Dark Avatar fighting each other.  I also thought the death of Boston and the resurrection of Deadman and Hawkman’s reaction to the loss of Shiera were powerful moments. 

Frankly, there should have been more of those types of moments.  There were a number of different characters occupying this book, but none (other than Deadman) really get a chance to really shine in this finale.  They were literally lost, disappearing down the proverbial gullet of Swamp Thing before reappearing in the finale pages for the epilogue slash prologue to the (presumably) ongoing series each will get in the wake of their rising profile.  It would’ve been nicer if they were able to get more time, perhaps to reflect on being given a second chance and what it means for them.  Or maybe I am asking too much out of a comic book that features a plant creature protecting Earth.     

The entire sequence with Captain Boomerang fell flat.  It is one thing for a writer to create a character to drive the plot; it is another thing for such a character to be blatantly obvious as Captain Boomerang was in throwing the boomerang at Dove.  I understand what the writers were going for and why they needed him, but ultimately the return of Captain Boomerang is a bust. 

As for the ending ending with John Constatine?  I find that I don’t really care.  I mean, I suppose it is cool that John is back in the DC (and spouting “bollocks”), but all that ending means is that it will lead to the traditional “Aftermath” stories that DC usually runs.  But I won’t get it.  I don’t mind the continuing stories of the other characters, but for Brightest Day?  Yeah, I mind that it continues.  Why it couldn’t end with Swamp Thing back to protect the Green, I don’t know.

The white entity told Hawk:  “Catch the boomerang.”  Obviously he failed.  So, I have to ask:  if he catches it, who then dies so that Alec Holland will live?  Reading the story, it seems like the white entity is expecting Boston to sacrifice himself to save Dove, which means the white entity expected Hawk to fail.  Does that make sense?

 

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Last updated: 08/06/11.