BRIGHTEST DAY #24 REVIEW
Geoff Johns and Pete Tomasi do well to wrap up what's been a brilliant tale by Johns since he took over Green Lantern and embedded his signature right down to the Blackest Night. He utilized the best writers at DC to pave the path for the Brightest Day title, as well as books under the banner by different creative teams. Now with Nekron's stain on Earth revealed to be the Swamp Thing abberation, it's up to the yin to this yang, in the newly revealed Protector of Earth in ALEC HOLLAND, to save the day. It was a bold and unsuspecting move to anoint this character with this big a responsibility as it was misdirection and a left-field decision that saw Johns and co. surprise us all. With the resurrected characters at the end of Blackest Night all playing key roles assigned by the mysterious White Lantern battery, it all came to a head here...as Holland had to go up against Nekron's new avatar in his former link, Swamp Thing. The Elemental heroes from issue 23 rear their heads here to empower Holland into a nature of heroism, to protect and rejuvenate the green of the Earth. It's not the finale I expected to this tale as I expected it to be a more Green Lantern/Hal Jordan oriented but we see the shift to the lesser known characters of DCU, such as Digger Harkness. It is no popularity contest when we see the threads left hanging with Boston Brand, Dove, Hank Hall...and Hawkman. It's anguish in the highest content, and levels of rage also.
The Firestorm arc seemingly hits an all new high here and it doesn't bode well. There's the polar resolution to the Aquaman arc that offers new insight into Johns/Reis' new Aquaman title with seeds of deception laid. Jonn Jonn'z also finds resolution a bit as we see Johns hit us up with one more once of surprise in a stunning final page depicting a certain chain smoker that we all know too well, even if we never read his stories. This eco-binge was not the satisfying wrap up to me, but as with Blackest Night, Brightest Day no doubt segues and flows into more bigger stories and mysteries. It's a prologue for something new and leaves many threads and plots hanging to be wrapped up. Syaf, Reis, Prado and Clark do justice on the art as usual, and they've been consistently good all year round...and kudos to the Gary Frank/Rod Reis cover...It all hints at bigger plots in 2011, starting with Flashpoint. One day ends and another begins...DCU caps off a banner title, with little to no big names, which is odd but no shocker considering it's Johns and his love for lesser known characters, that mesh into these issues. With Alec Holland appearing to be quite different in personality now, and much more vigilant, it seems that a certain detective, and I'm not referring to Batman, will have a grand reintegration into DCU...If Johns and his crew can pull this off, then I'll be in awe. Now, I await the announcement of the plethora of titles and tie-ins as we end the Brightest Day...
My rating of this issue =
7/10...
And overall, this 24 issue title = A (great job Johns and team!)