Written by Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi
Illustrated by Ivan Reis, Ardian Syaf, Scott Clark & Joe PradoHawkman and Hawkgirl pay a visit to the Star Sapphires, but with the Hawks’ connection to the cosmic corps, it looks like this meeting may end in bloodshed. And more even more blood may be drawn as Captain Boomerang hunts down Deadman and Dove!
This book has had some major ups and downs in its short existence, some more steep than others. However, with last issue’s heartwarming grandson/grandfather reconciliation, I feel this book is finally finding its footing…which is fitting, given that there’s only a few months left to wrap up the sprawling epic of the 12 heroes and villains returned to life by the white light. Clickity click for more thoughts.
No issue of Brighest Day so far could really be called “dense” or “thick” by any means, especially now that the book is down two pages of story. Which is to say that yes, the book read pretty quickly…though the quick pace did benefit the story in some odd ways. For instance, while the fight between the Hawks and Hawkgirl’s mother COULD have lasted three issues, her defeat was condensed down to just half of this one, with her defeat coming from a pretty obvious source if you’ve been paying attention. I have to say though, I can’t honestly remember what the Hawks mission was, so I’m not quite sure WHY their life was returned to them following the defeat and imprisonment of Hawkgirl’s mother, but so it goes.
Following this, we’re greeted with a panicked Deadman as the white ring on his finger powers up mysteriously. After finally reaching 100%, we witness the first…morally dubious act committed by the white light as it attempts to force the newly restored Hawkman and Hawkgirl apart and then seemingly burning them to ash in the white light when they refuse. While there is almost definitely more to this than meets the eye (especially with the heavily rumored James Robinson Hawkman series on the way), this was definitely the first “huh…REALLY??” moment to arise from the series in quite some time.
Admittedly, while the entire book has been relatively inconsistent, the art has been especially so. With each issue sporting no less than three illustrators, if not more (four on this issue), it makes it really hard to maintain a consistent look and feel within each issue. As such, the work kind of seems disjointed as all four artists have very distinct styles…some much more polished than the others. Which is to say that Ivan Reis’ work sticks out like a sore (awesome) thumb in this issue, making everything else fall really really short.
Overall, this is a very imperfect series that is hovering in the 50/50 range in terms of ups vs. downs. Will the ending deliver on its promise of reitegrating these characters into the DCU in a meaningful way? Or will it flop like so many other well intentioned but poorly implemented maxi-series, despite the pedigree of the ones working on it (even at this point I can say Johns and Tomasi are capable of MUCH more than they’ve delivered)? We’ll just have to wait and find out.
Final Verdict: 8.0 – Buy
