Brightest Day #1

Woohoo!



So. You know back when they first started talking about how the Brightest Day would follow the Blackest Night, and a great many of us (myself included) thought that perhaps they'd bring back ALL the nice dead people, and life would be all roses and rainbows? Well. THAT'S not happening. But still, good things are nevertheless afoot.

We open with those poor cops in that rural backwater still trying to figure out how to get that fershlugginer White Lantern out of the big hole in the middle of their nice road. Unfortunately, the Lantern seems pretty much glued to the ground, because they can't lift it. Then, who should their wondering eyes appear, but three Lanterns; Love, Will and Fear.

The cops panic at the sight of Sinestro, which is rather insular of them, and he doesn't take it particularly well, as he tries to crush them with a yellow construct of a police car...which Hal promptly crushes in a green vise. But it turns out that Sinestro is just in a teasing mood apparently, since he just shrugs it off. He also says that he can't lift the Lantern either, and that perhaps ol' Hal would like a shot. Would he? Would he ever! Hal LIVES for stuff like this, which is why he's portrayed giving himself a hernia on the front cover. But, alas for willpower, because he can't lift it either. Carol makes a remark about it being a sword in a stone and then has to explain the allusion to Sinestro.

Meanwhile, Deadman, the onely one of the resurrected who still has a ring, is getting a bit cranky, and really who can blame him? He may not be dead anymore, but he's still invisible and the Ring keeps yanking him around...literally. At the moment he's on some pirate ship, which has just kidnapped a bunch of kids, and the captain has bad bad things planned for some of the them. Deadman tries to intervene but to his fury, is unable to help, when fortunately, Aquaman and Mera jump out of the water, and start beating the crap out of assorted pirates. Woohoo!



Arthur even does that mind-whammy thingie that he used to do on the old Superfriends show (which I loved, by the way) to summon some finny friends. What actually shows up isn't particularly finny...but it sure is frightening. A squid from the ocean depths makes short work of the pirates. A DEAD squid. Then a DEAD shark shows up and eats a guy. Poor Aquaman is gobsmacked, and Mera isn't far behind. So, in an odd twist of fate, he can still summon sea creatures...but only DEAD ones!

And in a coda to this part of the story, some nice people in a seafood store are listening to a newscast on the television and commenting about how nice it is that Aquaman is back...when the guy behind the counter goes bonkers and slices them all into sushi.

We drop in for a little visit with Ronnie and Jason,who are still bickering about who is going to be running Firestorm. They try to seperate, but it doesn't go well, and then, they apparently get bad news from Professor Stein and Ray Palmer.

Meanwhile back on Mars, J'onn J'onnz is doing a bit of terraforming, and having himself a fine old time. I assume that he's been eating all of Guy's Chocos. Suddenly, he has a vision, and half of his body reverts to being a Black Lantern. He flashes back to when he was pulled to earth, but sees himself killing Professor Erdel, which certainly didn't happen, and he sees a woman there, who wasn't there...so he feels compelled to go in search of her. This probably won't end well.

Aaaand, the Hawks are flapping around looking for whatever it is that the Love crystal on Hawkman's glove is pulling them towards. A bunch of ne'erdowells are lurking below with a large package, when the Hawks drop in for a visit, and the fight is on! Carter and Shayera open the bag and discover their original bodies, much to their mutual bemusement. Then one of the remaining baddies pops a grenade, and gets away with their booty. Oh, and blows up plane to boot. Somehow or another Hath Set ends up with the bodies, and I don't imagine that he has anything particularly pleasant planned.

And finally, FINALLY, we see the little seafood place burning brightly next to the sea, as the guy from behind the counter, turns and walks into the water. And guess who HE turns out to be! Aquaman is going to be simply thrilled...not.

The art is quite nice, with Ivan Reis, Pat Gleason, Ardian Syaf, Scott Clark and Joe Prado on the pencils, and Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi doing the story, so it's all still in the best of hands. We aren't resolving anything, just laying new groundwork for new stories, but we are going to be able to read about it all in only two weeks instead of four...so I'm happy as can be.