REVIEW: Brightest Day #1

DC Comics‘ Brightest Day #2 hits stores today, ptb and I have taken some time over the past two weeks to share our thoughts on issue #1.

KevinMLD: So what did you think of Brightest Day #1?

I enjoyed it more than I expected to. The Aquaman stuff is a great twist. Clearly the resurrection of these characters isn’t as simple as it originally appeared. I like that he’s off fighting Somali pirates, though that risks becoming too topical down the line… But that he now controls dead sea life is a really interesting change. I wonder if it’s just freshly dead creatures or if he’ll be calling on like dinosaurs at some point.

I’m not sold on Deadman’s role yet and, as I’ve said before, his story is what I’m most interested in.

ptb: This was a major improvement over #0 for me. The appearance of Green Lantern, Star Sapphire and Sinestro at the opening really helped since I wasn’t sure the resurrected characters were going to hold my attention. Although I agree completely that the twists surrounding their returns are intriguing.

Savage undead giant squids are a good way to keep Aquaman interesting (the two page spread as it rose up to attack the pirates was amazing) and the reveal with the guy gutting fish (and people) was a real surprise.

I like that Deadman is central to the story since he’s a character I’d like to know more about.

I’m not into this new Firestorm at all, but Martian Manhunter and the Hawks’ stories have caught my interest even though I know nothing about Manhunter’s flashback or who Hath-Set is.

The connection between the White Power Battery and Excalibur could be cool or completely awful.

KevinMLD: The weird thing about the Martian Manhunter flashback is why hasn’t he tried to bring Mars back to life in the past? Is he demonstrating some new abilities tied to his resurrection like Aquaman? Also, what about the other Martians we’ve seen like the white Martians from JLA (unless they’ve all been killed at some point and I missed it) or the Teen Titans’ Miss Martian? He isn’t the only living Martian as far as I know.

I’m not sure about who Hath-Set is. I recognize the name but can’t remember if he’s tied to the Hawks or Black Adam.

I’m hoping the sword in the stone thing remains just an a metaphor. If it doesn’t they’ll probably go the obvious route and make Aquaman the White Lantern. His name is Arthur and they’ve gone with the once and future king motif for him in the past.

My prediction for who the White Lantern will be is either Aliveman or Dove of Hawk and Dove… Though I guess it’s probably more likely it will be someone entirely new.

I guess we’ll see sooner than later.

Also read our thoughts on:
Brightest Day #2

More on the series can be found at our Brightest Day hub.