Let me start off by saying that I’ve always thought Green Lantern was a terrible character. When I was a kid I totally would have taken Aquaman and his ability to talk to his fish friends over Green Lantern’s stupid magic ring and glowing fists. It’s terrible, and Hal Jordan’s lack of a personality never helped things. So if you were to tell me there would come a day that I’d be reading three monthly Green Lantern titles and really enjoying them, I’d have thought you were crazy. It’s a HUGE tribute to Geoff Johns’ writing ability that Green Lantern was ever even an exciting title; let alone soaring at the heights it hit during the Sinestro Corps War and the lead up to Blackest Night. Blackest Night didn’t really work for me overall. The Black Lanterns were mostly annoying rather than horrifying. The tie-ins all told the exact same story, but the series still had some really nice moments such as Lex Luthor becoming an Orange Lantern, the Scarecrow joining the Sinestro Corps, and Sinestro himself being the first to wield the white ring. Which leads us to today and the question we are now faced with: What is the current state of the Green Lanterns?

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We’re at the halfway point in Brightest Day, and it seems like a good time to address some aspects of where the story stands. With 13 issues out, I think it’s fair to start asking some questions about how this series has progressed, where it’s going and whether it’s worth sticking around for.

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Welcome back again for our semi-bi-weekly discussion of DC Comics‘ Brightest Day series. Issue 11 focuses on Aquaman and Firestorm with a few pages dedicated to the Martian Manhunter. We also manage to bring DC’s Earth One graphic novel series, a Doctor Who episode from 1975 and Death herself into the mix.

Spoilers will follow…

PTB: I guess the cover lets us know that the Black Lantern Firestorm isn’t unique to the story. While we’re talking about him, what do you think of his new name “Deathstorm”?

KevinMLD: I’m not a fan yet. It just reminds me of this terrible Dick Grayson-from-the-future storyline that ran in Titans in the ’90s. I don’t know what all the details ended up being, but basically this guy who claimed to be the future Nightwing was evil and called himself Deathwing. It was horrendous. Here’s a picture of his extreme costume courtesy of the seriously amazing TitansTower.com website. If you’re at all curious about the Titans, you can spend hours there.

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We’ve had a week to digest the happenings of Brightest Day #6 since it shipped last Wednesday and there’s plenty to say. Our discussion covers green Martians, white Martians, Miss Martians and manhunting Martians along with more on Firestorm, Deadman, and Aquaman.

PTB and I also take moment to touch on the Brightest Day teaser image DC was showing off at this year’s San Diego Comic Con and how much these images usually amount to in the end.

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Death in comics has become an annoyance. Both for the characters and the readers. There used to be this unwritten rule that death in comics was permanent in only three cases: Jason Todd (Robin II), Captain America’s sidekick Bucky, and Barry Allen (the Flash II). These were characters that were dead 20 years ago and that everyone generally agreed would stay dead indefinitely.

DC and Marvel have brought them all back to life in recent years. The end result being when a major character is killed at the end of one of the big two companies’ major events, readers at this point just shrug. Death has no weight in comics today. I’m not sure why we even bother pretending otherwise.

Which brings us to last week’s launch of the Flash #1, which was the debut of recently-back-from-the-dead Barry Allen’s new ongoing series. Barry has been back for awhile now having starred in two mini-series and playing a prominent role in the Blackest Night mega-event. Here’s a secret I’ve learned about him over the last year: he has NO character. He’s a bland guy who used to wear a bow-tie and was always late for everything. That’s it.

The recent Flash: Rebirth miniseries, which was plagued by delays, did nothing to establish his character, nor did the Blackest Night tie-in Flash mini-series. Writer Geoff Johns has done nothing to show us why Barry is so great that DC NEEDED to resurrect him. He had a great death and it should have been left alone.

On top of all of that, I should disclose that I harbor some resentment against this series based on the fact that it stole the creative team behind Adventure Comics after only six issues; a book that was really establishing itself as one of DC’s stronger offerings.

You may ask why I even bothered reading a book that I’m so clearly biased against…? Well DC promised me a little plastic toy Flash ring if I did.

And guess what! My store didn’t even have any. Jerks.

What’s that you ask? No, I’m not six years old.

So what did I think about Flash #1?

It kind of rocked. This book was pitched as superheroes meets CSI. It’s an interesting concept that is barely touched on in issue 1, but you can see the groundwork being laid out.

The real hero behind this book though is artist Francis Manapul. The sequence featuring Barry disassembling a car at super speed to keep it from killing some construction workers and a child is STUNNING. There’s also a page featuring the Rogues that looks like something out of a recent issue of J.H. Williams’ Detective Comics. Really strong stuff.

And the twist at the end, is a nice change of pace from the typical comic book death.

Unfortunately Barry Allen still has no personality, but I’ll give Johns a few more months to try to find it.