Brightest Day volume 1


By Geoff Johns, Peter J. Tomasi, Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleason, Fernando Pasarin, Ardian Syaf, Scott Clark, Joe Prado & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3276-4

Following the intergalactic Zombie Apocalypse of The Blackest Night, Earth’s profound importance to the nature and make-up of Reality was finally revealed and a select number of deceased heroes and villains were resurrected by a strange white energy force.

As the world slowly recovered from a horrific undead invasion, these newly resurrected and unaccountably different beings began seeking their own places and purpose in the bright new tomorrow, unaware that incredible and subtle forces were still manipulating them like meat puppets.

Scripted by Geoff Johns and Peter J. Tomasi, this first compilation of the extended mega braided-crossover series Brightest Day collects issue #0-7 of the sequel event (spanning June to October 2010) and begins here with ‘Carpe Diem’ illustrated by Fernando Pasarin, John Dell, Cam Smith, Prentis Rollins, Dexter Vines & Art Thibert.

In the shining light of day, former disembodied spirit Boston Brand – nee Deadman – finds himself disconcertingly corporeal again, yet still utterly invisible to the teeming masses of humanity. He now wears a white-glowing power ring which advises him “live” and demonstrates the ex-ghost’s new gifts by resurrecting a dead bird. The voice then screams “help me” and Brand is teleported away…

Aquatic warrior-queen Mera is luxuriating in the return of her husband Arthur Curry but Aquaman broods, disturbed by the changes he perceives in himself, even as Boston reappears in the depths of super-penitentiary Iron Heights, where both the Reverse Flash and Captain Boomerang have been held since their unfathomable and unwelcome reanimations.

In Louisiana Carter and Shiera Hall discuss their present situation. The eternal lovers have been reincarnated hundreds of times since they were murdered in Ancient Egypt, but his time is somehow different. Meanwhile, at the top of the world a team of ruthless men are recovering the bones the Hawks inhabited in one of those previous existences… After a glowing Zamaron power-gem smashes through the ceiling to embed itself in Nth metal super-weapon the Claw of Horus, the mystically alerted Winged Wonders furiously set off after them…

In a hidden hideaway, with only Boston Brand imperceptibly watching, fully restored mental manipulator Maxwell Lord takes the biggest risk of his fresh new life, overloading his psychic power to make (almost) everybody on Earth forget he ever existed, whilst on the Red Planet revived Martian Manhunter J’onn J’onzz exerts all his mighty powers in an attempt to make the dead world bloom again. He is glad to see again Green Lanterns Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner and promises to visit Earth soon…

On far distant Oa, home of the Guardians of the Universe, Jennifer-Lynn Hayden discusses her former boyfriend with GL doctor Natu as the medic subjects her to numerous tests. Emerald revenant Jade knows that since she came back Green Lantern Kyle Rayner just doesn’t look at her the same way anymore…

In New York Ronnie Raymond feels unwelcome at the funeral of Jason Rusch‘s girlfriend Gehenna. When he was dead and dominating the energy-matrix composite dubbed Firestorm, Ron commanded their shared body to turn her to salt but the grieving Jason won’t listen and refuses to believe it was the Black Lantern Ring then animating him which gave the orders. When he again tries to apologise Jason hits him, triggering an unwanted fusion which traps them both in the form of the Nuclear Man…

Meanwhile in Kahndaq, reborn mystic superman Amon Tomaz is greeted as a god by the astounded peasantry. Their shining Osiris swears to them that he will usher in a golden age of prosperity and power whilst at the Arlington National Cemetery returned Avatar of War Hank “Hawk” Hall picks up just where he left off, brutally smashing bad guys whilst partner and Peace Avatar Dove – AKA Dawn Granger – tries to ameliorate the carnage he inflicts. Being dead has done nothing to improve his temperament…

All such things Deadman secretly observes as the power of the voice bounces him unseen around creation, but when it unceremoniously dumps him in the ravaged heart of what was once Star City the power urgently demands that Brand now help it and all of the “returned”. In a flare of white energy it then turns the devastated city centre into a miles wide star-shaped primeval forest…

And in Silver City, New Mexico, ordinary people – exploring a huge crater with an immovable white lantern at its bottom – look up to see intergalactic conqueror Sinestro flying towards them…

Scenes set, the drama truly begins with ‘Second Chances’ (art by Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleason, Ardian Syaf, Scott Clark, Joe Prado Vicente Cifuentes, Mark Irwin, Oclair Albert & David Beaty) as the renegade former Green Lantern is joined by Hal Jordan and Star Sapphire, but none of them can lift the tantalising white power lamp…

Assuming some kind of Sword in the Stone riff is in play, Jordan voices the question everybody is thinking… “Where’s King Arthur?”

Sea King Arthur Curry is half a word away, routing a band of pirates/human traffickers. However his righteous fury gives way to shock and horror when he telepathically summons the aquatic creatures he controls. The only thing which answers is a colossal, half devoured squid. Somehow his power now only affects and compels dead sea life…

At the same time on the Massachusetts coast, a restaurateur stops gutting fish and begins knifing people after seeing a broadcast on Aquaman’s return. Black Manta retired when his greatest foe died but now he has to go and kill him again…

At Pittsburgh University, inside the head of Firestorm, Ronnie and Jason are psychically tearing each other apart, whilst on Mars an agonising suppressed memory resurfaces, driving J’onn J’onzz to Earth to confirm the shocking recollection. In the Peruvian Andes Hawkman and Hawkwoman smash into the mercenaries stealing the bones of their former incarnations and get a chilling inkling of the ancient enemy who has been acting against them…

‘Nuclear Options’ (with additional inks by Tom Nguyen & Rebecca Buchman) opens to find the two component parts of Firestorm still railing against each other but unable to escape the body they spitefully share. Relief only comes after size-changing physicist Ray “The Atom” Palmer invades their conjoined nuclear form and forcibly disrupts the atomic matrix. But before the two separate into their human forms Ronnie detects another presence in the mental mix…

In New York a happy housewife, after years in hiding, learns of Martian Manhunter’s resurrection and slaughters hubby and the kids before resuming her ghastly true shape, whilst in the Andes Carter and Shiera learn that sorcerer Hath-Set – the third side of an ever-reincarnating Eternal Triangle – has been collecting the bones of each and every doom-drenched conjunction, and vow that this time they will end their curse by killing him before he can kill them…

In Colorado J’onn J’onzz visits the dementia-ridden daughter of the scientist who first transported him to Earth and learns the truth of his origins and of the beast Saul Erdel tragically teleported to earth before the Manhunter arrived from Mars…

Still being unwillingly shuttled around the globe, Boston Brand now finds himself transported to the antimatter universe to confront an appalling horror…

Discovering the white ring’s unsuspected offensive capabilities, Brand narrowly escapes an attack by the terrifying Anti-Monitor in ‘Revelations’ (inks by Vicente Cifuentes, Beaty & Irwin) before falling back into our cosmos, whilst in a hospital bed Ronnie Raymond realises the vile mentality of the Black Lantern Firestorm is still with him and hundreds of miles away J’onn J’onzz examines a New York atrocity and realises the beast Erdel summoned him to Earth to destroy now knows he’s coming…

As the White Lantern begins to pulse in Silver City, in Peru the Hawks find the extra-dimensional portal Hath-Set has built from millennia of their bleached bones and follow their nemesis into a bizarre new universe…

‘Thresholds’ then sees them stumble into a fantastic war between incredible beast species on a ferocious and fantastic Hawkworld where Hath-Set is making his final play for ultimate power, whilst back home Boston Brand’s life changes forever after he materialises in Dawn Granger’s bedroom. Both Dove and her maniacally over-protective “big brother” Hawk can see and – quite painfully – touch him…

In Silver City the situation is escalating as an entire lake mysteriously vanishes, whilst in the Bermuda Triangle, a phalanx of eerily familiar aquatic warriors begin to slaughter humans and in Pittsburgh Ron Raymond experiences a ghostly visitation…

‘Under Pressure’ opens with Aquaman and Mera investigating the bloodbath in Bermuda whilst in Georgetown Hawk has dragged Deadman to the grave of Don Hall, determined that his brother will also be revived by Brand’s touch.

As the Sea monarchs work they are attacked by the band of sea soldiers led by Mera’s twin Siren, even as on Hawkworld a furious attack by beastmen separates Carter and Shiera. In a Georgetown cemetery a White Voice admonishes Deadman and refuses to return the at-peace Don Hall. His subsequent attempt to bring back Dawn’s murdered sister is even more of a terrifying travesty…

In Bermuda, having narrowly escaped utter destruction, Mera is compelled to explain to her husband her true origins and the lie they have been living all their married lives…

The Martian Manhunter’s investigations bring him to a shocking conclusion in ‘Dead Zone’ (art from Reis, Clark, Prado, Cifuentes, Beaty, Irwin & extra inks by Christian Alamy) as he realises his mere presence is toxic to terrestrial flora, but whilst Hawk and Dove take the shellshocked Brand for his first meal in decades, in Pittsburgh a construction disaster compels Jason Rusch to summon the Firestorm Matrix, only to find his despised partner has been drowning his sorrows and the resultant merger has left the Nuclear Man dangerously intoxicated. As they struggle to save lives Jason too discovers a third – malevolent – personality in their mind-mix…

After consulting with the Justice League J’onn J’onzz determines to seek out fellow Martian survivor M’gann M’orzz but on arrival at her place of hermitage finds his brutally merciless foe has already found her…

This initial offering concludes with ‘The Secret of Life as Boston, Hawk and Dove are peremptorily teleported to Silver City where the former Deadman lifts the White Lantern and a wave of blinding energy blazes out, transforming all the other returnees and imparting unto all of them – in highly ambiguous terms – the specific reasons for each revivification…

To Be Continued…

Also included is a monumental gallery of 28 covers-&-variants from the series and numerous tie-in titles by David Finch, Scott Williams, Peter Steigerwald, Reis, Chuck Pires, Nei Ruffino, Dave McCaig, Ryan Sook, Pasarin, Joel Gomez, Randy Mayor and Carrie Strachan, with input by Jim Lee.

Complex, convoluted and compelling, this is epic and impressive fare for fans but probably impenetrable to casual readers, but I suspect even the most devout DC disciple will be best served by rereading the assorted volumes of Blackest Night before attempting this wonderful example of tight continuity, cosmic Costumed Drama.
© 2010 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.