Review: Justice League: Generation Lost Vol. 2 hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

We now know that the first collection of Judd Winick's DC New 52 Catwoman series will arrive in May 2012, and I'm very curious to read the first arc in one book. We know from Winick's Green Arrow and especially from his Outsiders that Winick is not someone who writes without consciousness or thought, and I would like to see if I can find some semblance of that in Catwoman outside of mere pruriency (my outside guess right now is that Winick's Catwoman is a twisted exploration of cosplay culture -- just a guess).

I'm all the more interested in a comic where Winick seems from the outset to have failed because the second volume of Justice League: Generation Lost is in my estimation about as close to a perfect comic as we come. It's a thick DC Comics hardcover; the plot is exciting, moving, and unexpected; three different artists remain in relative lock-step; and there's depth here -- the heroes are neither so right nor the villain entirely so wrong. Hands down, Judd Winick and company have done a knock-out job here.

[Contains spoilers]

Generation Lost is good in a lot of places, but it's especially good in its last chapter. We have, in two parallel scenes, the long-awaited climaxes we never knew we were awaiting -- Booster Gold and the new Blue Beetle each avenging the death of Blue Beetle Ted Kord at the hands of Max Lord. Beetle Jaime Reyes saves the day by infiltrating the control system of Max's OMAC Prime robot and then shooting the robot in the head, a fitting call-back to Max's murder of Kord. Booster takes the fight to Max himself in a remarkably dialogue-heavy couple of pages (to Winick's credit). By now the reader understands that Max is not completely wrong in his "save humanity from the superheroes" philosophy, and Max and Booster are just similar enough in their egotism and have enough shared history that the pages just crackle, up to and through Max's defeat.

Winick's story is all over the place, but in an engaging way and with plenty of characterization. One moment Captain Atom's fighting Magog, the next he's in the future, then the team's fighting the Creature Commandos, then they're fighting Power Girl, then they're up on the Checkmate ship, then Batman's there, then they're hunting Wonder Woman, and so on, and so on. Generation Lost never gets boring, but neither does it feel like it's all action. Along the way the heroes debate whether Max deserves killing (a second time); we learn plenty about Max's early life and his motivations; there's a rather touching scene between Fire and Ice when Fire's been mortally wounded; Fire and Rocket Red's romance; and Booster Gold's burgeoning leadership. All of this, and the book is funny, too.

That the loosely-defined Justice League International characters are the "generation lost" never gets addressed specifically in the book, though Booster's leadership and the "attaboy" he gets from Batman in the end must certainly bring full circle what began over twenty years ago with the DC crossover Legends and the Justice League book that followed. Simple free association will always bring up the "bwa-ha-ha" comics in relation to Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, Fire, Ice, and others -- that is, these characters are all permanently marked as "jokes" -- but in their subsequent revisions since that time and finally in Generation Lost, they've finally emerged unarguably as heroes, said lost generation now found.

They were, for better or for worse, the first Justice League of the modern era of comics, the first ones into the breach, and in essence paid for it with lack of credit for the next two decades. That era of comics comes to a close now with Flashpoint, and just as Barry Allen opened and closed the Silver Age with his emergence and death as the Flash, I'd venture Booster Gold getting the nod from Batman closes the modern age, with Legends to Generation Lost coming full circle (if only they could have fought Brimstone! Or Despero!).

And despite that Generation Lost marks the pre-Flashpoint end for a number of these characters, I was pleasantly surprised to find DC even included six pages from the first issue of Keith Giffen/J. M. DeMatteis Justice League at the end of this book. It feels much too short, and the only connection between the characters in the excerpt and the Generation Lost team is Beetle Ted Kord and half a panel of Max Lord. I appreciated nonetheless, however, both DC Comics's sense of history and the continuing recognition that trade readers like previews, too. Only thing is, the book directs the reader to find more in the collected Justice League International volumes 1-6, furthering our suspicions that the series ends there and that volume 7 is not forthcoming.

As opposed to its companion series Brightest Day, where the last volume felt choppy and inconclusive, Justice League: Generation Lost takes its time, ties up most of its loose ends (the changes to Ice's origin still seem rather for naught), and offers an immensely satisfying story. Again, in contrast to Firestorm and others in Brightest Day, if these character have to head to (pre-Flashpoint) limbo, this was a high note to go out on. Writer Dan Jurgens's post-Flashpoint Justice League International series has big shoes to fill.

[Includes original and variant covers, excerpt from Justice League (1987). Printed on glossy paper]

Coming up later this week, we continue along the "Justice League International" path with a review of the entire original Dan Jurgens Booster Gold series with Showcase Presents Booster Gold, including some interesting insights into Booster's psyche. Don't miss it!

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Review: Brightest Day Vol. 3 hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

Readers of this series will likely feel let down by Brightest Day Volume 3. It is moving, the plot unfolds swiftly, and -- unusual for a weekly-type series -- adeptly drawn nearly the whole time. The final book, however, purposefully fails to give its gathered characters much closure, and the supposed trade-off for the reader -- the surprise re-emergence of two popular supernatural characters -- had been long since been spoiled at least for this reader from a number of corners. Brighest Day would otherwise simply be another serial run-up to another series to follow, but with the DC New 52 Relaunch essentially ending many old stories, instead Brightest Day emerges just incomplete.

[Contains major spoilers for the end of Brightest Day]

By the second chapter of Brightest Day Vol. 3, Deadman Boston Brand has already been usurped by the White Lantern and forced to seemingly kill his fellow heroes. Hawkman and Hawkgirl fall first, then Aquaman two issues later, the Martian Manhunter an issue after that, and Firestorm enters the mix right after. That is, in the concluding book, Brightest Day sets up its pins and knocks them down with alarming swiftness. If the earlier volumes seemed to plod along, to their detriment, but also give a good mix of stories to their benefit, the third volume's focus is more singular, and it's the most cohesive of all three books.

The Lantern states outright that its interest is not in the characters' conflicts -- the Aquawar, Firestorm vs. the villain Deathstorm, and so on -- but rather in the characters' emotional growth; as each character has an epiphany, the Lantern whisks them away. This unfolds in deus ex machinas, like the Lantern rescuing Firestorm Jason Rusch's father from the Deathstorm in the span of a word balloon, when Rusch and co-Firestorm Ronnie Raymond had spent the better part of a couple issues attempting the rescue themselves. The Lantern may not be invested in the story, per se, but the reader is, and these quick conclusions are disappointingly brusque.

Writers Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi have explored life in all its contradictions in Brightest Day and we're meant to understand here that life is neither convenient nor fair -- as when Hawkman loses Hawkgirl and Dove loses Deadman, all for the purposes of the White Lantern -- but the reader might have cause to feel cheated. That the Deathstorm conflict and Martian Manhunter's fight with D'kay, among others, ultimately count for naught in the book's climax makes one wonder if Brightest Day couldn't have been shorter, or else what was the purpose of a number of storylines that simply fall by the wayside.

There are, of course, new DC Comics series now starring almost every character featured in Brightest Day. Whether Aquaman and Hawkman's stories follow directly from the events of Brightest Day remains to be seen, but we know that Firestorm's does not (explicitly, at least), and long-time Firestorm fans must be disappointed by the character's decades-long saga ending on a cliffhanger (or a strange Flashpoint reference, I'm not sure which). Brightest Day acts like it's another cog in the wheel; in the same way Blackest Night lead to Brightest Day and Sinestro Corps War lead to Blackest Night, so too does Brightest Day suggest more to come. Given that there's not more to come, at least for some iterations of these characters, I might have preferred more conclusion.

It's entirely possible I might be more over the moon about the end of Brightest Day if I hadn't already known about the appearances of Swamp Thing and John Constantine, or if I didn't know both characters now have DC Relaunch titles of their own. No doubt Swamp Thing's appearance in Brightest Day #23 was a breath-taking moment, and Constantine on the last page of the book equally shocking. Unfortunately, when you know what's coming, there's flash here but not much substance. The last page of Blackest Night featured the White Lantern, an ominous, mysterious image; a splash page of Constantine cursing is not really so exciting, when you're already over the excitement of Constantine's return, as Constantine actually doing something might be. (Jim Shooter's got it right that this is a tease, not a cliffhanger.)

Two related points: First, it would be a fallacy to say that all comics work the same in periodical and collected form; rather, some stories lend themselves to one and some to the other. The third volume of Brightest Day's single- or two-issue stories and its successive conclusions (of sorts) was probably much more satisfying in single issue form, where Aquaman's "Aquawar" unfolded over a month rather than sandwiched between the Hawkman and Manhunter wrap-ups. There's some business going around now about how spoilers enhance enjoyment of a story, but I'm skeptical of that -- I venture I'd be much more enthused about the end of Brightest Day if I hadn't known what was coming, and perhaps even didn't know that Swamp Thing and Constantine would each be appearing in loosely-related series following after. In this case, I think the Brightest Day series held more impact for the reader in original form than as a collection after the fact.

Second, despite knowing what was coming, I've been considering why Swamp Thing and John Constantine's appearances still caused me so such glee, when I've only had limited exposure to each. I'm a late-blooming fan of DC's supernatural characters -- Sandman, yes, but I wasn't much for Fate or Primal Force, not until Bill Willingham's Day of Vengeance and his Shadowpact series. Shadowpact, for the first time, made DC's magic fare accessible to me, perhaps largely because Willingham used Blue Devil and the lovable Detective Chimp and more traditional-type villains. Constantine and Swamp Thing, by inference only, seem more accessible supernatural characters of this type, grounded in Earthly horror and not Atlantean wizardry. That they are formerly of Vertigo also helps; Vertigo has a modernity that DC heroes have often lacked, and to bring that spirit into DC is something I soundly applaud. I can't attest to being a fan of these characters, but I'm glad they're here, story spoilers notwithstanding.

The third volume of Brightest Day is ultimately a sound read, and I did enjoy the characters' victories and feel sad at the tragedies within. It serves effectively as "Rebirth"-type story for the main characters, streamlining and defining especially Firestorm and Aquaman (the stand-out star of this series). These successes, however, only leaves the reader wanting more, and that's where the book fails. Brightest Day ends with the tag "The Beginning," when in fact this is really more of the end, and I'd have liked to see more acknowledgment of that in these pages.

[Contains original and variant covers, White Lantern sketchbook. Printed on glossy paper.]

More reviews, and another round of cancelled trades to talk about, coming up this week.

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Review: Green Lantern Corps: The Weaponer hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

Tony Bedard's Green Lantern Corps: The Weaponer is an improvement over his previous volume, in large part because of this story's more interesting villain. Weaponer is shockingly similar to Revolt of the Alpha-Lanterns in terms of overall plot, however, and suffers from some of that book's same difficulties regarding characterization and decompressed storytelling.

[Contains spoilers]

"A villain kidnaps a member of the Corps, and the other Green Lanterns must foment a revolution on an alien planet to free their comrade." This is the plot of both Revolt of the Alpha-Lanterns and Weaponer. Kidnapper? The Cyborg-Superman on one side, the Weaponer on the other. Kidnapped? John Stewart and Soranik Natu (one for the purpose of luring Ganthet, the other for luring Sinestro). In the former, the Green Lanterns inspire the robots of Grenda to rise up against the Cyborg; in the latter, the Lanterns lead the Qwardian Thunderers against Sinestro. Both stories are five issues long, with a similar structure -- the kidnap, the rescue, a third party intervenes, and then the denouement.

Weaponer was of great interest to me in large part because of the Qwardian Weaponer himself, who forged Sinestro's original yellow ring and has now kidnapped Sinestro's daughter Natu in revenge for Sinestro's perceived neglect of the Qwardians. Similar to the history of the mystery villain at the center of the upcoming War of the Green Lanterns (I won't spoil it; see Green Lantern: Brightest Day), continuity in regards to the Qwardians is a tad shaky in view of what still did/didn't happen in Crisis on Infinite Earths. How Qwardian history coincides with the Sinestro Corps War is a story that's been waiting to be told for a while now, and I was pleased to see Bedard tell it. No great surprises, but some welcome mentions of the Anti-Monitor and so on.

Unfortunately, a lot of that history comes in the form of the Weaponer simply telling it all to Natu in this book's second chapter. That second chapter is a notable indicator of the rest of the book -- it involves eight pages of Lantern Kyle Rayner and Sinestro fist-fighting in Greenwich Village, two of Kyle rounding up other Lanterns to rescue Natu, and sixteen of Natu speaking with the Weaponer. Ordinarily I'd praise a single issue that bucks the need for a hero/villain fight to make that single piece complete, except that fairly little occurs in the issue, and that's true going forward, too. The Lanterns fight the Qwardians; the Sinestro Corps shows up and also fights the Qwardians; then finally Sinestro arrives and fights the Weaponer not once, but two different times.

In all of this, there's no great revelations about the Qwardians, no twist as to the nature of the Weaponer and Sinestro's conflict. The story is a series of battles, cliffhangers (usually the arrival of a new combatant), and more battles, all leading to the end where, most surprisingly, there's no real fallout from the story. It's unclear to me whether the the other Lanterns realize that Sinestro is Natu's father, but no one remarks on it -- even as it's a big deal and one would think they'd wonder why the Weaponer kidnapping Natu would summon Sinestro. The Weaponer leaves with Sinestro and the Lanterns are immediately drawn into the War of the Green Lanterns conflict, making the Weaponer's threat seem like mainly just something to bide the time between Green Lantern crossover stories.

Indeed, while I have enjoyed this period between Blackest Night and War of the Green Lanterns in which Green Lantern, Corps, and Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors have all been interconnected, so little happened in either of the tertiary series that DC could have just published Green Lantern only, and simply had the events of Corps and Warriors as subplots. The Weaponer has an honorable dignity that I enjoy in a villain, but the Warriors antagonist Zardor was entirely forgettable, and I don't sense the conflict with either will actually tie in to War. Warriors was a considerably better book that Weaponer, but entirely this was another case of DC Comics publishing three different series when they could have told the same story with just one.

I do hope, however, that Bedard is able to show more of Sinestro and Kyle's conflict in the Corps chapters of War of the Green Lanterns. With all the difficulty DC is having lately in regards to their representation of women, Kyle and Sinestro's conflict is something of a guilty pleasure -- on one hand, they're disappointingly fighting over who gets to speak for Natu, when it'd be better if Natu weren't defined by the men around her; on the other hand, it's chillingly wonderful every time Sinestro calls Kyle "alley rat." For as much as Kyle has accomplished as a Green Lantern, Sinestro still sees him as the shiftless California artist we met him as way back when, and this makes their conflicts crackle -- I like this even more, perhaps, than watching Hal Jordan mourn his lost friend when Sinestro is around.

A word to the Brightest Day crossover aspect of Green Lantern Corps: The Weaponer -- if that's why you might pick up this book, I'd pass. Firestorm shows up in the last chapter, and it's fun to see him flit among the Green Lanterns and shoot some bolts at the Sinestro Corps. Ultimately, however, Firestorm's just passing through and leaves the Lanterns in the end, changing the story not a whit. It's another example of the same difficulty this book has overall; it's five chapters long and there's art on every page, but when I got to the end I didn't find I had much more than when I started.

[Contains original and variant covers (including by favored Corps artist Patrick Gleason); printed on glossy paper]

Later this week, a look at a trade that never was, with Collected Editions' Cancelled Trade Cavalcade. Don't miss it!

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Review: Brightest Day Vol. 2 hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

The second volume of Brightest Day contains three origin stories -- exercises in retroactive continuity, for the most part. In its details, this is a book mired deep in the continuity of the DC Comics Universe -- too deep, perhaps, deep enough to even set an educated fan like myself's head spinning. In its broad strokes, however, I continue to enjoy Brightest Day very much; there are fan-favorite characters here experiencing the kind of rebirth that writer Geoff Johns (with Peter Tomasi) is known for. And this second volume ends on a number of cliffhangers leading into the third book, making the wait for the final chapters all the harder.

Add to all this that Brightest Day -- though I've not heard anyone say so directly -- seems to me an intentional lead-in to a number of the new DC Reboot series, and that makes Brightest Day one of the most compelling titles I'm reading right now.

[Contains spoilers]

Two villains and a hero -- the Martian D'kay D'razz, Hawkworld's Queen Shrike, and the new Aqualad -- all receive origins in this volume, and all are relatively confusing. D'razz's involves an unlikely Martian-transport accident before Martian Manhunter's self-same accident, and then the writers tie D'razz's current mayhem to both Manhunter's death in Final Crisis and resurrection in Brightest Day, instead of just the latter event. Aqualad's "couple adopt an orphaned baby" beginnings is too much (though perhaps intentionally) like Superman's, and his ties to Aquaman's wife Mera's own "secret" past are too much tied in obscure Aquaman stories that haven't themselves been revisited in years while the character's been in limbo.

Worst, however, is Hawkgirl Shiera Hall's mother Queen Khera emerging as Brightest Day's limbo-Hawkworld's Queen Shrike. Hall herself hasn't appeared in a comic for ten years or longer, and Shrike isn't apparently Hall's mother proper, but rather the mother of Hall's ancestor-by-reincarnation, the Egyptian Princess Chay-Ara. How Hall immediately recognizes her, and the overcomplicated two-page spread that details a series of murders and suicides that lead to Shrike becoming a pharaoh and then queen of Hawkworld, become less important than the reader's basic understanding that this person is "good" and that person is "bad." I give Johns and Tomasi points for not glossing over the minutia Mera and Hall's individual origins just because we haven't seen them in a while -- at the same time, the book's momentum comes to halt with these double-page origins, filled with details that I can't imagine will factor all that heavily later.

This is the exception, however, because otherwise the various plotlines of Brightest Day move rather swiftly. Johns and Tomasi's Aquaman, with Ivan Reis's art, is as self-sure and commanding as he should be, and the writers even make his telepathic powers look cool as he touches his fingers to his forehead at the end of the book; I also root for this Aqualad mainly because of how much I like his counterpart in the Young Justice cartoon. The Hawkman/Hawkworld story, despite the complicated villain, is nicely violent (too violent, some might argue, but I've come to believe that Hawkman stories lend themselves to a certain amount of bloodshed). The Deadman/Dove thread gets some life (and some neat guest stars) once the curmudgeonly Hawk drops out of the picture; the Martian Manhunter delves too long into obvious fantasy sequences, but I find Manhunter's conflict with D'razz very compelling -- on one hand, she's the last female of his species, and on the other, she's a mass murderer.

Still best, as was the case in Brightest Day volume one, is Johns and Tomasi's take on Firestorm. Again, as is Johns's wont, the writers offer a new take on the character's old paradigm -- now, Firestorm's two halves must remain in peaceful emotional sync or else destroy the universe-- a hard task under regular superheroic circumstances and even tougher when one side played a role in killing the other's girlfriend. Firestorm is an established hero, but this revised approach makes everything that was old now new (and young) again. It's hard not to see the similarities between where this is going for Firestorm and the descriptions of Gail Simone's new Firestorm series; we don't know if Firestorm is a relaunch a la Batman or a reboot a la Superman, but the former increasingly seems more likely the case, and that the events of Brightest Day will still have an impact going forward.

Indeed, given titles for Aquaman, Firestorm, Hawk and Dove, Deadman (in DC Universe Presents) Resurrection Man (who cameos here) and certain others -- and the similarities, at least, between Firestorm here and the upcoming Firestorm series -- Brightest Day seems more and more like a "backdoor pilot" for the DC Relaunch, and it's surprising more hasn't been made of that. Given that we wait-for-traders will be sobbing quietly at midnight on August 31, waiting for the DC Relaunch to visit us in collected form sometime in May 2012 (oh, the humanity!), you'd think DC would do well to point out that if fans want their first taste of the DC Relaunch, they might very well find it in Brightest Day.

Over the last four chapters of Brightest Day volume two, Johns and Tomasi leave every character with some kind of cliffhanger, and even despite knowing how some of volume three will shake out, the suspense is exciting. As a semimonthly series (which we'll lump in with DC's previous weeklies), I can't say Brightest Day is "better" than 52 solely because of 52's scope and ambition, but Brightest Day is a good story, and shows weeklies can work after the relative disappointments of Countdown to Final Crisis and Trinity. Being semimonthly perhaps helps Brightest Day substantially; the title is focused, action-packed, and rarely slow (Martian Manhunter dream sequences notwithstanding). I'll say again -- Brightest Day is one of the better titles I'm reading right now.

[Contains original and variant covers.]

Wednesday marks the end of the DC Universe as we know it ... be here for some universe-ending thoughts from Collected Editions.

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Review: Justice League: Generation Lost Vol. 1 hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

Each chapter of Justice League: Generation Lost opens with a stylized cover by Tony Harris or Cliff Chiang, creating a strange category of Justice League International deco art. Judd Winick's comeback story in these pages, therefore, emerges as a kind of fetishized version of Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis, and Kevin Maguire's Justice League; I'm not sure the good old days were ever quite as good as Generation Lost's fond remembrances make them out to be, but they sure seem good in retrospect.

Winick's Generation Lost itself is a fine book, really quite well done, though International purists might find a little to pick at. To be sure, Generation Lost is not Giffen and DeMatteis's Justice League, but rather Giffen and DeMatteis's Justice League filtered strongly by way of Winick, to good result.

[Contains spoilers]

The premise of Winick's Generation Lost is especially strong, and drives the book as a whole. The newly resurrected Maxwell Lord has erased himself from everyone's memory except a choice group of former Justice League Internationalers; those that remember Max are considered crazy. Generation Lost becomes a dizzying paranoid tale with plenty of twists and turns -- namely, whether the characters remembering Max is an accident, or part of plans within plans within plans.

The best part is, Max may not be the villain of the story. Resurrected as he was by Brightest Day's White Lantern, it may be Max's bad actions have good consequences. Winick reframes Maxwell Lord entirely in this manner; rather that the severe disconnect between the "friendly" Max of Giffen's Justice League and the Black King Max that killed Blue Beetle Ted Kord, Winick suggests that all along Max has been pursuing his "world-saving" agenda, sometimes on the side of the good but never, despite what those around him may think, entirely on the side of the bad. This adds to Generation Lost's thriller appeal, in that the reader can't complete trust nor distrust Max, and this redeems Max as a villain with some reader appeal.

With this and other tweaks, however, it's clear Winick is taking his cues from, but not necessarily being constrained by, Giffen's original source material. Most significant in this volume is how Winick drastically revises the character Ice's origin -- conflicting, even, with Justice League stories previous. Even before that revelation, however, Winick's Ice is still not Giffen's nor writer Dan Jurgens's; that Ice wouldn't have said "hell," at least, letting alone calling her friend Fire, "You're such a @#$%" (whatever that's supposed to be, given that I thought "bitch" was on DC Comics's approved bad words list).

Blue Beetle Jaime Reyes, too, is a far more reluctant hero and less admiring of Booster Gold than he has been also under Giffen and Jurgens's pens, all to fit the story Winick wants to tell (letting alone these characters have met Reyes before, even though they seem not to remember). I don't necessarily think Ice's new origin adds much to the character, but I'll reserve judgment pending a further explanation in Generation Lost volume two. I can't sweat new origins much given the DC Relaunch only a few months away, and because Generation Lost works so well despite these assorted nitpicks.

Generation Lost, volume one, collects the first twelve issues of this series, making this feel like an especially thick book as far as DC hardcovers go. Winick's story quickly distinguishes itself as more than just a Justice League-centered book like Giffen and DeMatteis's Formerly Known as the Justice League miniseries -- there are elements here of Brightest Day, Kingdom Come, and detailed Checkmate material with great art by that series's artist Joe Bennett. Add to that some unexpected jaunts to the future, and Generation Lost will remind the reader of DC's other weekly series 52 and Trinity -- real DC event comics, rather than just a Justice League reunion book.

If Generation Lost is more than Justice League, however, it's got that, too. The boisterous new Rocket Red is the ultimate International fanboy (think TV's Brave and the Bold's Aquaman with a wonderfully bad Russian accent), and he remembers the glory days of this Justice League that, among Kooey Kooey Kooey and fat jokes, maybe never quite actually existed. Kevin Maquire provides alternate covers to the book, but you have to squint to find Maguire's big-toothed faces among all the Hi-Fi gloss effects.

It's a thrill to have these characters back together, but the entire package suggests a time better, cooler, and more polished than it was, especially toward the end (they were defeated by Despero in L-Ron's body, people). To suggest that Justice League International holds up to modern standards of "cool," almost thirty years later, is to suggest leggings and shoulder pads were cool, too -- in retrospect, they were not. It is however, as they say, pretty to think so, and gives fans of International something to be proud of nowadays even if we all remembered International entirely differently during the Grant Morrison JLA era.

Justice League: Generation Lost is a pretty package, and a fine story to boot. In the first splash page depiction of the main characters, Rocket Red declares Fire, Ice, Booster, Beetle, Captain Atom and himself the new Justice League International, and there's a greater sense here than in previous International reunion books (two plus in Blue Beetle and Booster Gold) that the purpose here is team building and not just nostalgia, fancy trappings aside. It remains a thrill to have these characters back together, and even more so to have Judd Winick writing another team book after Outsiders. More's the pity that Winick won't keep with this title in the DC Relaunch, but I very much hope DC has something else from the writer on the way.

[Contains original and variant covers.]

Up next, we're continuing our look at the Brightest Day/Generation Lost with Booster Gold: Past Imperfect. See you then!

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Review: Green Lantern: Brightest Day hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

In between Blackest Night and the next Green Lantern event, War of the Green Lanterns, the reader might expect to find a bit of quiet, as was writer Geoff Johns's wont in his JSA series, among others. "The New Guardians" storyline collected in Green Lantern: Brightest Day is quieter in the sense that it's an Earth-bound tale and lacks the Corps-crowded panels of Blackest Night. Green Lantern: Brightest Day, however, offers no formal epilogue to Blackest Night, and rather takes its introspection on the run -- it's action-packed, perhaps overly so, and contains sweeping, mythos-altering revelations about the Green Lantern Corps just like Blackest Night did, without a resting point in sight.

[Contains spoilers]

Though the Green Lantern title doesn't rest after Blackest Night -- misses the chance for some lower-tempo issues, even -- Green Lantern: Brightest Day certainly offers a tonal shift. The first few chapters of this ten-issue collection are full of blithe superhero violence -- Lobo guest stars, and you can't get much more blithely violent than that.

In a kind of road trip to locate the missing Lantern entities, Green Lantern Hal Jordan and Star Sapphire Carol Ferris fight Sinestro, the three of them fight Lobo, Hal fights the Orange Lantern Larfleeze and villain Hector Hammond, Carol fights the rogue Star Sapphire entity the Predator, and so on. Artist Doug Mahnke's gritty work has always emphasized the weird, so it's not difficult for the reader to turn off their brain and watch the alien tentacles fly. In that way, while Green Lantern: Brightest Day lacks the one-off, "everyone relaxes and talks about the war" issue found post-Blackest Night in Green Lantern Corps, for instance, the first part of this book is at least slightly less cerebral, and the stakes less high, than Blackest Night before it.

I did like that Green Lantern: Brightest Day is more Earth-bound than this Green Lantern series' stories have been of late, though not perfectly so. The destruction and resurrection of Coast City have been such an integral part of the Green Lantern mythos of late that I'd like to see Hal Jordan actually exist there for a while, fly planes for the Air Force and stop a traditional super-villain -- you know, classic superhero stuff.

While Johns does let Hal interact with some civilians (including a charming scene involving a security guard and a lawn flamingo), one underlying idea that comes out of Green Lantern: Brightest Day is that the green ring may be at best causing Hal to isolate himself and at worst driving him mad. It is a testament to Geoff Johns's writing and creativity that, even as he's kept me compelled and wanted to follow Hal Jordan over sixty-plus issues, the one complaint I've had about Hal's lack of interaction with his supporting cast may turn out to be an intentional character element on Johns's part, foreshadowing a plotline to come.

The beginning of this trade will seem familiar to Green Lantern movie-goers. Johns, who consulted on the movie, obviously knew there'd be movie-directed attention on the first post-Blackest Night Green Lantern collection, and that this would be the series' newest trade around movie time. Carol has been an ongoing presence in the Green Lantern series, but for almost the first time since Green Lantern: Rebirth she gets one-on-one screen time with Hal Jordan here, in a bar scene and in dueling fighter jets reminiscent of the Green Lantern movie (not to mention movie villain Hector Hammond's sudden increased presence).

Hal and Carol's relationship is appropriately complicated, to a great extent because Hal doesn't know how to react to Carol's unconditional love that doesn't require anything back from him, giving him nothing to run away from. The reader intuits Hal's greatest objection to Carol becoming queen of the Star Sapphires is that it brings her most fully into the superheroic side of his world, when he spends most of the book trying to separate those aspects of his life and keep his friends out of danger -- in part out of guilt over his time as Parallax, and in part due to the corrupting influence of his ring. Though Hal and guest star Flash Barry Allen discuss the metaphorical aspects of their feelings far too much to be believable, one gets a fannish thrill here when Barry himself gets possessed by Parallax, and Barry's concern over Hal's behavior is what finally sheds light for the reader that something more is going on with Hal than just Hal's inherent bluster.

Johns, however, suddenly interrupts the main action of "New Guardians" for a single-issue solely devoted to the Red Lantern Atrocitus -- who interrupts a capitol execution and runs afoul of the Spectre -- and the story is suspenseful and gripping; Johns's short origin of the Red Lantern Dex-Starr at the end of the book is equally moving, and in only a couple of pages. (The Spectre story, on the heels of another in Blackest Night: Green Lantern, argues strongly for Mahnke getting to draw a Spectre series or special). Johns's stories do not quite convince me of the necessity of the upcoming DC Comics Relaunch Red Lanterns series, which seems mainly meant to take advantage of the name recognition of the new villains of the Green Lantern animated series -- but I will be curious to see if writer Peter Milligan brings the same kind of depth as found here, and what he does with the characters.

As recently as Blackest Night, Johns has been constantly revamping the Green Lantern mythos, often in the form of "revealing" lies that the Guardians of the Universe have told. Johns adds one more lie on top of the others here, that mainstay DC cosmic villain Krona was once an agent of the Guardians, and it seems a step too far if only because we haven't yet quite sorted out what's true or not about the Guardians' origins as presented in Blackest Night (also, I like Krona's larger look, seen as recently as Kurt Busiek's Trinity, over the shrunken form in which Johns and Mahnke present him). But I was quite caught off guard by an image in the great War of the Green Lanterns preview that DC includes at the end of this book of Krona and the Guardians in white cloaks with the Brightest Day White Lantern symbol on them. This book shares a scene with the first volume of Brightest Day, and Hal takes his mission to find the entities from the White Lantern, but I had not expected that the Guardians were in some way White Lanterns in their days before the Corps.

It's there and in the final pages of the main story that this book really distinguishes itself. It seemed to me Johns had made Hal too egotistical and focused too much on Hal's Corps life to the detriment of Green Lantern: Brightest Day, until all at once the story turns and the reader understands all of this is to demonstrate the psychological influence of Hal's ring. Larfleeze, the Star Sapphires, the Red Lanterns, and the Indigo Tribe are all have their minds controlled to a great extent by their rings, but we had believed the Green Lanterns at the center of the emotional spectrum were immune; now we understand the green rings have a corrupting influence also. This ignites this engaging but somewhat nondescript story; Green Lantern: Brightest Day was good, but it seems War of the Green Lanterns is going to be "can't miss."

[Contains full and variant covers, preview of the War of the Green Lanterns trade]

This is the fourth time recently that I've encountered one of these previews for a forthcoming trade at the end of one of DC's books -- Birds of Prey: Endrun, Justice League: Rise and Fall, and Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton Vol. 2. These are great, and I applaud DC for including them -- it's a recognition that trade-readers aren't "done in one," but rather that we follow the DC Universe in serial form, too, just not necessarily in periodicals, and that we want to be marketed to and teased about upcoming storylines just like "regular" fans. If you see more of these, let me know -- I'd love to think these are becoming standard in DC's books.

Next week, our review of Green Lantern Corps: Revolt of the Alpha Lanterns and Justice League: Generation Lost!

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Brightest Day trade paperback reading order

The following is a guide to the trade paperback reading order for the Brightest Day miniseries and its related crossover titles.

This list still in progress (last updated 3/9/11), but is initially based on DC Comics's checklist for reading Brightest Day in individual issues, translated to trade reading.

For the full Brightest Day experience, here's what we recommend:

April
Brightest Day #0	Brightest Day Vol. 1
Green Lantern #53	Green Lantern: Brightest Day
Green Lantern Corps #47	Blackest Night: Green Lantern Corps
Flash #1	Flash: The Dasterdly Death of the Rogues
Justice League of America #44	Justice League of America: The Dark Things
May
Brightest Day #1	Brightest Day Vol. 1
Brightest Day #2	Brightest Day Vol. 1
Justice League: Generation Lost #1	Justice League: Generation Lost Vol. 1
Justice League: Generation Lost #2	Justice League: Generation Lost Vol. 1
Green Lantern #54	Green Lantern: Brightest Day
Green Lantern Corps #48	Green Lantern Corps: Revolt of the Alpha Lanterns
Flash #2	Flash: The Dasterdly Death of the Rogues
Justice League of America #45	Justice League of America: The Dark Things
Titans: Villains for Hire Special #1	Titans: Villains for Hire
Birds of Prey #1	Birds of Prey: Endrun
June
Brightest Day #3	Brightest Day Vol. 1
Brightest Day #4	Brightest Day Vol. 1
Justice League: Generation Lost #3	Justice League: Generation Lost Vol. 1
Justice League: Generation Lost #4	Justice League: Generation Lost Vol. 1
Green Lantern #55	Green Lantern: Brightest Day
Green Lantern Corps #49	Green Lantern Corps: Revolt of the Alpha Lanterns
Flash #3	Flash: The Dasterdly Death of the Rogues
Justice League of America #46	Justice League of America: The Dark Things
Titans #24	Titans: Villains for Hire
Birds of Prey #2	Birds of Prey: Endrun
Green Arrow #1	Green Arrow: Into the Woods
July
Brightest Day #5	Brightest Day Vol. 1
Brightest Day #6	Brightest Day Vol. 1
Justice League: Generation Lost #5	Justice League: Generation Lost Vol. 1
Justice League: Generation Lost #6	Justice League: Generation Lost Vol. 1
Green Lantern #56	Green Lantern: Brightest Day
Green Lantern Corps #50	Green Lantern Corps: Revolt of the Alpha Lanterns
Flash #4	Flash: The Dasterdly Death of the Rogues
Justice Society of America #41	Justice League of America: The Dark Things
Justice League of America #47	Justice League of America: The Dark Things
Titans #25	Titans: Villains for Hire
Birds of Prey #3	Birds of Prey: Endrun
Green Arrow #2	Green Arrow: Into the Woods
Brightest Day: The Atom Special #1
August
Brightest Day #7	Brightest Day Vol. 1
Brightest Day #8	Brightest Day Vol. 2
Justice League: Generation Lost #7	Justice League: Generation Lost Vol. 1
Justice League: Generation Lost #8	Justice League: Generation Lost Vol. 1
Green Lantern #57	Green Lantern: Brightest Day
Green Lantern Corps #51	Green Lantern Corps: Revolt of the Alpha Lanterns
Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #1	Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors
Flash #5	Flash: The Dasterdly Death of the Rogues
Justice Society of America #42	Justice League of America: The Dark Things
Justice League of America #48	Justice League of America: The Dark Things
Titans #26	Titans: Villains for Hire
Birds of Prey #4	Birds of Prey: Endrun
Green Arrow #3	Green Arrow: Into the Woods
September
Brightest Day #9	Brightest Day Vol. 2
Brightest Day #10	Brightest Day Vol. 2
Justice League: Generation Lost #9	Justice League: Generation Lost Vol. 1
Justice League: Generation Lost #10	Justice League: Generation Lost Vol. 1
Green Lantern #58	Green Lantern: Brightest Day
Green Lantern Corps #52	Green Lantern Corps: Revolt of the Alpha Lanterns
Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #2	Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors
Flash #6	Flash: The Dasterdly Death of the Rogues
Justice Society of America #43
Titans #27	Titans: Villains for Hire
Birds of Prey #5	Birds of Prey: Endrun
Green Arrow #4	Green Arrow: Into the Woods

If you are not the kind who likes flipping back and forth between trades, we recommend starting with Brightest Day and Justice League: Generation Lost, and then picking up the related trades in the order listed. Unlike Blackest Night, the Brightest Day crossover issues don't necessarily follow one right after another, so you can allow yourself some leeway in how you proceed.

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DC Comics Presents: Brightest Day #1-3 comic book review (DC Comics)

Being a Collected Editions look at the three DC Comics Presents: Brightest Day issues, in conjunction with our review of the first Brightest Day hardcover.

DC Comics Presents: Brightest Day #1
Contains: Hawkman #27, 34 and 36, and stories from Solo #8, DCU Holiday Special 2009 and Strange Adventures #205
Context: The Hawmkman issues take place between Hawkman: Wings of Fury and Hawkman: Rise of the Golden Eagle.

Of the three, perhaps I best enjoyed this first volume, which focuses on Brightest Day characters Hawkman and Deadman. This is aside from what's a somewhat strange order in which the stories are presented -- the Deadman Solo story first, three Hawkman issues (one of which guest-stars Deadman), then the holiday story, and only at the end Deadman's origin; in terms of indoctrinating a new reader, one might think leading with Deadman's origin would be preferable.

This aside, Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, with art assists from Ryan Sook and Joe Bennett in different issues, write what I think were great and under-acknowleged Hawkman issues; Rise of the Golden Eagle was great stuff. Their Hawkgirl is young, tough, and still finding her way, and their Hawkman is brooding and violent and much what one wants from a Hawkman.

The stories don't make a lot of sense collected here, as they include allusions to villains and cut-scenes that are never resolved, but if you read the aforementioned Golden Eagle some of this will be familiar and even fill in a plot hole or two.

DC Comics Presents: Brightest Day #2
Contains: Martian Manhunter #11 and #24; Firestorm #11-13.
Context: The Firestorm (Jason Rusch) issues take place before the Firestorm: The Nuclear Man: Reborn collection.

The three Firestorm issues here by Dan Jolley, one with Dale Eaglesham on art and two with Jamal Igle on art, are obviously appropriate, as they team Jason Rusch with original Firestorm Ronnie Raymond; the only drawback is that they start in media res and we never quite know how Jason encountered Ronnie in the first place.

The other surprise is how serious and together Ronnie is here, and how well he and Jason get along; this is not the tempestuous relationship we find in Brightest Day. Indeed reading Brightest Day I was sooner under the impression that Jason and Ronnie had never met. I'd be happy to see Brightest Day acknowledge this previous adventure, because it's such a far cry from what we see right now, and because this version of Ronnie is so different (more heroic, even?) than the Brightest Day version.

In terms of the Martian Manhunter, certainly the issues collected here demonstrate writer John Ostrander's strong creative range. One issue takes place in the far future (after JLA: One Million, surprisingly enough) and the other is set between the pages of Justice League International. The latter is funny, the former great science-fiction. Neither offers any good sense of Martian Manhunter's ongoing adventures in his previous monthly series, and that's a shame -- nor do they deal with the Manhunter's Martian heritage as Brightest Day does -- but in contrast to the Hawkman and Firestorm issues, there's nothing you need to know to enjoy this section.

DC Comics Presents: Brightest Day #3
Contains: Teen Titans #27-28; Legends of the DC Universe #26-27.
Context: Between Teen Titans: The Future is Now and Teen Titans: Life and Death.

This third DC Comics Presents volume was my least favorite. Not only is it shorter than the others in containing only four issues, but the two two-issue stories only reinforce the book's brevity.

The stories here are rough. It's hard to sneeze at work by Steve Englehart of Batman: Strange Apparitions fame, but his Legends of the Dark Knight Aquaman story turns on Aquaman not knowing who the Joker is, and the people of Atlantis making the Joker their king. It's so far-fetched, even for comics, and the Atlantians are so one-sidely atonal as to make the story a little boring. Artist Trevor Von Eeden's work here is fine for the most part if a little dated, but toward the end of the story it loses a lot of detail, and the fight scenes get hard to follow.

As a Hawk and Dove fan, I've wanted to read these Teen Titans issues for a while, despite that they're widely despised by fans. Writer Gail Simone does a good job presenting Robin Tim Drake's pain over the death of his father, but Rob Liefield's art is terribly distorted; at one point Wonder Girl seems to be flying while bent nearly in half, solely for the art to accentuate her breasts. It's a shame, because the art distortion ruins any fun nostalgia that would have come from Liefield drawing Hawk and Dove again (after originally drawing the modern version); Simone's story is passable, but doesn't distinguish itself above the Geoff Johns Titans issues and such.

So there you have it. There are long-uncollected issues in DC Comics Presents: Brightest Day like Teen Titans that I'm glad to see, but that fail to impress; there's better ones like the Hawkman issues that read well but don't serve much purpose. In all, the DC Comics Presents: Brightest Day were a fun next read after the Brightest Day hardcover itself, and it was interesting to see Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, and the rest "out in the wild" of the DC Universe, though I'm not sure any one of the books on its own would be worth the $8.00 price tag.

Again, we'll be looking at additional DC Comics Presents books in the coming weeks and months. Coming tomorrow, the Collected Editions review of Teen Titans: Ravager: Fresh Hell. See you then!

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Review: Brightest Day Vol. 1 hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

After the twin disappointments that were DC Comics last two weekly series, Countdown to Final Crisis and Trinity, I felt considerably wary about DC's newest every-other-week foray, Brightest Day. I am pleased to report, however, that the combination of two of DC's premiere writers -- Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi -- and a story tied but not-too-tied to the ongoing DC Universe, are exactly the recipe for a winning miniseries, one that I'd be willing to say evokes -- and even in some areas surpasses -- that gold ring of all weekly series, 52.

[Contains spoilers]

The first chapter of Brightest Day volume 1 name-checks all twelve characters resurrected at the end of Blackest Night, but mainly focuses on the Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Firestorm, Hawkman and Hawkgirl, and Hawk and Dove, whose plot intersects by the end with that of the book's narrator, Deadman. Already in the first book, Brightest Day overcomes a number of the shortcomings of previous weekly series: all of the stories appear to move forward each issue, such that no character seems forgotten; and there is enough forward action -- Hawk and Dove meeting Deadman, Deadman encountering the Anti-Monitor, for gosh sakes! -- to make this series more than just a extended trailer for DC's other monthly titles.

I read some criticism online when Brightest Day began about excessive violence in the title. Personally, after the horror-fest that was Blackest Night, I found the first volume of Brightest Day rather tame. Yes, a White Martian kills an entire family, including the kids, and yes, Black Manta stabs to death all the customers at a fish counter, but I maintain none of it was as gory as when a Black Lantern tortured Firestorm's girlfriend to death. Maybe sliding scales of violence are a bad thing, but one person's opinion is that Brightest Day's violence didn't strike me as being greater than your average issue of Batman.

Speaking of Firestorm, I found the Jason Rusch/Ronnie Raymond plotline the most compelling of this book, perhaps because it's the most new to me (both Hawman and Hawgirl, and Hawk and Dove, picking up mostly where they left off). My experience with Ronnie Raymond is admittedly limited to Super Friends, to start, and then in Extreme Justice, neither being perhaps the most faithful incarnation of the character. In Extreme Justice, Dan Vado portrayed Ronnie as an alcoholic; given Firestorm's sunny presentation in Super Friends, I thought this was Vado taking some licenses (unnecessary, perhaps) with Ronnie's character.

Johns and Tomasi, however, preserve Ronnie's hard-partying, bad-boy image, something I still find implausable but at least consistent with what came before. The idea of two personalities merged in the Firestorm matrix hating one another the way Jason hates Ronnie is an interesting one; I imagine Jason won't ultimately hate Ronnie for too long, but for now it's a Firestorm dynamic I haven't seen before. I liked the relevation that Ronnie remembers killing Jason's girlfriend Gehenna despite claiming otherwise, and I'm curious to see how that story unfolds.

As is often their wont, Johns and Tomasi engage in a bit of retroactive continuity in these pages. I don't mind so much the revelation that Professor Erdel, who brought the Martian Manhunter to Earth, had a daughter present who will affect the Manhunter in some way (though I'm confused whether the merged green Martian and the White Martian are one and the same or not), but I was disappointed by Aquaman's wife Mera's claims that all we've known about her so far is a lie. Maybe the former is easier to take because it's just a tweak to the Manhunter's origins, which has withstood tweaks before; but I'm not familiar enough with Mera's origins to know what's right and wrong any more, when it seems like the majority of what came before is now invalid. Too confusing for my tastes.

There's a scene in the beginning of Brightest Day volume 1 where Green Lantern Hal Jordan, Sinestro, and Star Sapphire Carol Ferris drop by; the Flash Barry Allen cameos a few times, and Martian Manhunter teams with Oracle, Superboy, and Miss Martian, among others. All of these appearances give a life to this series, the kind 52 had also, except Brightest Day has the added benefit of taking place in the present. This is standard superhero fare, to be sure, and does not distinguish itself with 52's sense of real time or Final Crisis's smarts, but one feels in reading it that this is where the DC Universe lives.

Even after Brightest Day ends, it would be easy to convince me that DC needs this kind of anthology book, where anyone could show up and anything could happen, and you really get a sense of the "universe" in the DCU. I was pleasantly surprised by this book, and I'm in for the next volume.

[Contains full covers, copious variant covers from this and other series, including those that connect to a larger Brightest Day image]

We're going to continue to examine some elements of Brightest Day next week, along with new reviews ... be there!

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Review: Green Lantern: In Brightest Day trade paperback (DC Comics)

DC Comics may promote Green Lantern: In Brightest Day (not to be confused with the limited series by the same name) as a kind of "greatest hits" volume as chosen by Geoff Johns in advance of Blackest Night, but here's what it really is: origin stories, if you like that kind of thing. You'll find here the first appearances of Guy Gardner, Sinestro, Krona, Laira, and Mogo, and also significant origin-type stories for John Stewart and Stel. Much like Tales of the Green Lantern Corps, if one thing you're digging about the current Green Lantern series is all the history, here's a whole lot of history for you.

[Contains spoilers]

Geoff Johns introduces each issue or section in this book with a text page similar to those in the 52 collections, and Johns' choices are as revealing about the ongoing Green Lantern story as they are about the writer himself. I tend to be less worried about the final fates of Alan Scott, Guy Gardner, John Stewart, and Kyle Rayner after Blackest Night when Johns includes a story about each of them; one aspect of Johns' Green Lantern run that I've always liked is the deference he pays to Kyle Rayner, discussed here, as the character who preserved Green Lantern's popularity in Hal Jordan's absence.

The reader also learns that Johns' first Green Lantern issue was #188, a notable issue for John Stewart and the first appearance of Mogo; we can intuit how this sets the tone for Johns' Green Lantern run as something collaborative rather than singular -- not just about Hal Jordan, but about the wide mythology of the Green Lanterns, any of whom might be able to lead their own books.

More interesting, however, are the less relevant stories that Johns chooses. Johns name-checks a couple less-well-known Green Lantern contributors, including writer Todd Klein and longtime DC editor Joey Cavalieri. Klein's "Apprentice" and Cavalieri's "Progress" follow a similar short story pattern of build-up and twist, and are good examples not only of how the Green Lantern mythos can be applied to any of a number of different canvasses, but also of the comic book short story genre in general -- Cavalieri's story, in particular, uses strong familiar images to tell a story that's otherwise mostly silent.

I also enjoyed Johns' explanation of Elliot S. Maggin's "Must There Be a Superman?" as an example of a shift in writers' thinking about Superman. Johns cites the story as some of his own inspiration for the character of Lex Luthor, positing Superman not as a benefactor but as a threat to the otherwise normal development of humanity on their own.

The real meat of In Brightest Day, however, is the origins. Guy Gardner's first appearance is fascinating, inasmuch because of how different that Guy is from the later Justice League International incarnation, especially, and also for the revelation that if Guy had become Green Lantern before Hal, Guy would have died and given his ring to Hal anyway. Sinestro's first appearance is equally revealing, in that his relationship with Hal Jordan is far less intimate than how it would be changed later (for the better, I think). And while it's not Katma Tui's origin here, I delighted to her good-natured rivalry with Hal since I hadn't previously experienced the character "live."

As a continuity note, it's worth reading this book in conjunction with the first volume of Tales of the Green Lantern Corps. In Brightest Day's Alan Scott/Hal Jordan team-up story leads right in to the first part of Tales; the aftermath of a character's death in Tales is revealed In Brightest Day. Also, Arisia makes a cute cameo in In Brightest Day after Tales; it's a brief scene, but gives more insight into this character's early days.

I love DC Comics history (as evinced by the DC Trade Paperback Timeline) and especially when old stories are directly relevant to the events of the day. The hand-picked stories here (like 52: The Companion and Justice League Hereby Elects) have that great blend of old and new; especially if you're wary of delving into the Golden or Silver Age because of the difference in story structure or quality, In Brightest Day is a good starting book.

[Contains introduction pages]

Thanks for reading!

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