Review: Brightest Day #0
My comics shop dropped Brightest Day #0 into my bag purely on spec, as I had slogged my way through Blackest Night like a loyal DC reader. I confess, though, that when the last issue of Blackest Night was set before me by the cashier I said, aloud, "Well thank goodness that's over," and I didn't pick up Brightest Day with much more enthusiasm.
It took the comic exactly one page to confirm that it wasn't for me.
I should start by saying that I am one of the least likely fans of this comic in the entire comics-reading population. I don't really get into massive crossovers, I don't get into melodrama, I scoff at tales of death and resurrection in a narrative whose cast have all died umpteen thousand times and I think Blackest Night fell victim to its own hype and its own multi-title nature, presenting beautifully illustrated but ultimately overwrought action sequences that felt devoid of context and weighed down by artificial sentiment. So, my opinions should be taken with an even larger grain of salt than the average dude-on-the-Internet review. I am someone who opened the book already disliking it and that's something you need to take into account.
So, that said, what did I think? Honestly, I really did hate it from the very first page.
After all the pearl-clutching and mayhem of the previous series I was already well aware that DC could do despair. I was ready to see them show me hope and in anticipation of that I set myself up with as many positive factors influencing me to enjoy it as I possibly could: I went out on the porch with nothing but sunlight and blue skies (my boyfriend got me hooked on natural light as the best environment for reading comics), took a few moments to soak in the ambience, read an issue of The Tick to put me in a receptive mood and then I cracked open Brightest Day. What did I get? I got a baby bird having its skull caved in, larger than life, on page one. Nice way to harsh the mood, DC. Thanks.
Yes, one turns the page only to find the now-inaccurately-named Deadman setting the situation right again, but it felt like a pointlessly visceral hammering home of the theme. The old brought-a-bird-back-to-life thing is pretty played as a demonstration of restorative powers across various superhero stories - I even recall it showing up in The 4400 - and it's an unnecessary distraction from what is a much more compelling story: Deadman alive again, reflecting on what life meant for possibly the first time since he lost his first one. That's something I find engaging, an unusual circumstance that could really drive an interesting tale and build a sympathetic lead, but then the book presents us with scene after scene of that newly (and literally) invigorated narrator witnessing scene upon scene of Dark Shadows-quality theatrics - starring characters I either didn't know or actively despise (ugh, Aquaman and the Hawks?) - without being able to influence any of them. So, right out of the gate, we get the visceral death of an innocent, a potentially great main character robbed of agency and a parade of characters I dislike. No thanks.
I get that this is a setup issue. I get that it's Deadman being shown all the situations he will, in fact, be able to influence and fix. I know. It's basically the expository five minutes at the beginning of a potentially much deeper and more richly-told story and all it's there to do is to put a frame around the rest of the picture. I get that, too. I hated it, though, and if I were watching it on TV then I'd change the channel. That day I unsubscribed from the rest of the series.
My only regret is that this book is gorgeously illustrated. There are pages of this book where things glisten, where metal gleams in a way that I had not realized it was possible to do in pencil and ink and paint on a page. The bit where the Flash walks right through a wall gave me goosebumps. The illustration is really just fantastic and I cannot give the artists enough credit for that. I was floored by how good it looked.
But I still hated it.
Klarion
Posted to Review on 26 April 2010
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: Blackest Night, Brightest Day
You mean Brightest Day #0 right? Cause #1 comes out 5/5/10. I have to say for a #0 issue it did it's part to introduce the players of Brightest Day. Not too much else happened though.
One, zero, black, bright; it's all binary, right?
Er, thanks for the catch! I'm fixing it.
It's sort of funny, because after having read all of Blackest Night, and all of Siege, and just starting on Brightest Day... I feel the opposite you do.
To me, Norman Osborne shrieking. "No, you can't stop him! He's the ANGEL OF DEATH!" Rang in at a 12 on my melodrama scale. Robert asking those gathered around to "kill me, please, kill me." Had the baggage from every other time that cliche has bubbled up from a writer's consciousness as original.
Now, Blackest Night and Brightest Day certainly are theatrical affairs. How can people in spandex not talk about the end of all life in terms other than the gradiose? Unfortunately, no one said, "No, you can't stop Nekron! He's the Angel of Death!" Because I guess that would have been good, Marvel-style writing. ;-) ZING. ;-)
What I do like about Brightest Day, is how little it has focused on the Corps thus far. Instead, opting to show that there is something broken, something not quite right in all of this new found life.
It continues a thread through this without it feeling like Blackest Night had no clear end. I look forward to the not quite right future events.