DC Comics’ Brightest Day #8 landed in stores last week and the initial reaction: “nothing special.” Still some things happened centering mainly on Hawkman and Hawkgirl with some Martian stuff thrown in.

PTB: I like the inks and colors on the cover. It’s a different style from the previous issues (and David Finch‘s usual stuff), but it works. Hawkgirl was indeed unleashed in the issue.

KevinMLD: The cover is fine, but I thought you might be interested in the variants DC has been running for Brightest Day lately.

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Last August, Marvel celebrated its 70th Anniversary by combining their publication history as Timely, Atlas and Marvel Comics which dates back to 1939. As part of the celebration, the publisher returned to a fondly remembered variant cover gimmick they used during their 25th Anniversary (almost 25 years ago): every book with a matching cover featuring a character from the title framed by a collection of their fellow Marvel creations. While I have my own feelings on how these new variations on the theme match up, I have to admit I really like the idea. With 2010 being a celebration of the Women of Marvel, the frame covers have returned this month.

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Last week we ran a preview of the fall movie RED starring Bruce Willis. If you had actually read that primer, you may have wondered, “Why are you writing a primer for a movie that doesn’t come out for over two months?” Well as it turns out, the real question is “Why is Summit screening the film two months early?” Because on Friday I got to be part of “one of the first audiences in the country” to see RED.

The movie stars Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, and Helen Mirren as retired government assassins. The chick from Weeds plays a potential love interest for Willis and the dude from Nip/Tuck plays the Vice President of the United States.

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The Expendables is exactly what you would imagine it to be if you were to really take a minute to think about it and let those initial nice feelings rooted in nostalgia pass. It’s a 80’s action movie revival written and directed by Sylvester Stallone and starring Stallone, Dolph Lundgren and Mickey Rourke. The movie is overloaded with ultraviolence and shaky camera shots because that’s what Stallone thinks is relevant in 2010. That’s not to say it’s not a fun movie. It is. It has a few fun action scenes and its share of laughs. It’s just not the magic action movie that the Internet hype wants you to believe it is.

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Everyone gets a mystery this issue as things really start to happen in Brightest Day #7. All of the White Lantern’s resurrected characters from Blackest Night make an appearance and some of their individual stories start to connect. At the same time, many new stories are seeded throughout along with a series of Fall TV ads.

PTB: This issue is basically that teaser image we discussed last time expanded to 22 pages. I’m not sure if I like it.

KevinMLD: I thinks it’s about time something happened in this title. This could have been issue 1 or at least issue 3. It didn’t need six issues of set up.

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